Child-Centered Play Therapy: A Practical Guide to Developing Therapeutic Relationships with Children

"The authors . . . make child-centered play therapy readily understandable to those who wish to take advantage of its long history of helping children overcome problems and grow emotionally to a level of maturity difficult to achieve by any other approach."
—From the Foreword, by Louise F. Guerney, PhD, RPT-S

A comprehensive resource that thoroughly teaches the theory, methods, and practice of child-centered play therapy

Child-Centered Play Therapy: A Practical Guide to Developing Therapeutic Relationships with Children offers how-to direction and practical advice for conducting child-centered play therapy. Filled with case studies, learning activities, and classroom exercises, this book presents extensive coverage of play therapy applications such as setting goals and treatment planning, as well as recommendations for family and systemic services that can be provided along with play therapy.

This rich resource provides:

• A thorough introduction to the theory and guiding principles underlying child-centered play therapy

• Skill guidance including structuring sessions, tracking, empathy, responding to children's questions, and role-play

• Effective ways of determining what limits to set in the playroom and how to set them in a therapeutically effective manner

• Clear methods for monitoring children's progress through stages as well as external measures of progress

• Practical guidance in adjunct therapist tasks such as playroom set-up, documentation, ending therapy, and working with parents, teachers, and principals

Endorsed by Louise Guerney—a founding child-centered play therapy figure who developed the skills-based methods covered in this book—Child-Centered Play Therapy comprehensively and realistically introduces practitioners to the child-centered approach to play therapy and addresses how to incorporate the approach into schools, agencies, or private practice.

NANCY H. COCHRAN, MA, CAS, LMHC, has over twenty years of experience serving children, youth, and families in school and agency settings as a child-centered play therapist and school psychologist. She is certified as a Child-Centered Play Therapy Supervisor by the National Institute for Relationship Enhancement and teaches child-centered play therapy at the University of Tennessee.

WILLIAM J. NORDLING, PhD, LP, RPT-S, is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Arlington, Virginia, where he teaches and supervises child-centered play therapy. He was the 2010 President of the Association for Play Therapy.

JEFF L. COCHRAN, PhD, NCC, LMHC, is an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee where he teaches, researches, and supervises child-centered play therapy, and serves as Coordinator of the Mental Health Counseling Program.