Play Therapy: A Comprehensive Guide

Children suffer. They all face daily challenges to their emotional maturity and self-esteem. Many are exposed to crime and danger, and either feel fear or immunize themselves by splitting off from their feelings. Others have to cope with family discord, fragmentation, or mobility, or with issues related to illness or inadequate parenting.

Play Therapy offers children an opportunity to find a haven from their woes while discovering ways to understand their lives and survive the pressures they experience. In this outstanding compendium, enriched by the author's perspective of years of dedicated work in the field, Dr. Dessie Oliver James reviews the literature on theoretical, technical, and practical considerations in the play therapy arena. Her book will advance the learning curve of the professional at every level of development.

O'Dessie Oliver James has devoted her professional life to the assistance of children. She has taught graduate courses in child counseling and play therapy at Wichita State University and has been a Clinical Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Kansas School of Medicine—Wichita. She currently maintains a professional affiliation with Santa Rosa Children's Hospital in San Antonio.