About Play Therapy Archive

This week I’m living through a dream come to reality.  I’ve wanted for a long time to provide play therapy trainings as an approved provider through the Association for Play Therapy.  Last spring I launched the Michigan Play Therapy Training Academy

ARGGHH!  So, you’re a therapist that just got assigned your first case with a child.  You’ve learned about play therapy and plan on continuing to get training to become a Registered Play Therapist … but you have NO IDEA on where

  Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is all about trust in the child to discover, learn, and grow on their own.  It is essential to this mode of treatment to focus on the CHILD … not the problem.  But in today’s

Maybe you’re a parent thinking about giving play therapy a try with your child … or maybe you’re a therapist questioning how “just playing” with a child could possible help.  Here are some great reminders about what children learn in play

The key to play therapy is not the toys or therapeutic techniques.  It is the relationship.  Play therapy works because of the RELATIONSHIP that the therapist forms with the child.  A relationship like no other; a therapist is not the parent,

This week is Play Therapy Awareness Week (February 3rd-7th).  I’d love for you to spread the word about Play Therapy.  Here are some ways you can do so … Check out the Association for Play Therapy’s website and learn more about

What’s your view of children?  Precious?  Obnoxious? A mystery? Incomplete? Frustrating? Incapable? Our personal views about children are bound to vary throughout our own life … and, at times, even throughout the day (or hour!).  But it is important from time

As I was reviewing the required text, Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship (3rd Ed)“, by Garry Landreth, for the Psychotherapy with Children course I am teaching this trimester, I was reminded of the basic differences between the play of adjusted

If you enjoyed these photos, PLEASE check out my video with more photos and quotes on the Importance and Power of Play! And here are some wonderful resources on the Importance and Power of Play … podcast on Raising Playful Tots on

This image summarizes 2 pages of Chazan’s book on play therapy where she outlines the principles of play.  I wanted to share it with you because it encompasses many reasons why play is SO important for children. In case you’d like

Play therapy?  Many people ask how can “just” playing help?  What makes PLAY therapeutic? Well, over the next few days I will post on different dimensions of what exactly play is, why it’s important, and how it is used therapeutically by

In preparing for the start of the Psychotherapy with Children course that I’m teaching at the Michigan School of Professional Psychology, I decided to make a visual of Garry Landreth’s Principles for Relationships with Children.   While creating the image in PicMonkey