This book explores an extensive range of questions and challenges within the training, theory, and practice of play therapy, with the aim of providing a stimulating and thought-provoking debate around many of the issues and dilemmas therapists experience. Drawing upon the author’s own experience as both a therapist and trainer/educator/supervisor, the volume grapples with questions of power, privilege, self-care, and mental health. It additionally addresses the wider challenges and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and international conflict upon practice and personhood. Questions around training are explored as well as specific practice challenges relating to managing limits and boundaries within play therapy and working with adopted children. Throughout the book, the author will reflect upon aspects of personal and clinical experience, sharing something of his own developmental narrative through training, teaching, and practice. Reflections on Play Therapy will serve as a core text for trainee play therapists and also a valuable resource for any experienced clinicians working therapeutically with children, young people, and families.

Offers play therapists practical ways of handling a pervasive issue with intense and aggressive play by their clients. With an understanding of aggressive play based on brain function and neuroscience, this book provides therapists with a framework to work authentically with aggressive play, while making it an integrative and therapeutic experience for the child. Through the lens of neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology, therapists are taught how to integrate the intensity experienced by both the child and the therapist during aggressive play in a way that leads towards greater healing and integration. The book explains the neurological processes that lead kids to dysregulation and provides therapists with tools to help their clients facilitate deep emotional healing, without causing their own nervous system to shut down. Topics covered include: embracing aggression; understanding the nervous system; understanding regulation; developing yourself as an external regulator; authentic expression; setting boundaries; working with emotional flooding; supporting parents during aggressive play.

An integrative approach to play therapy blending various therapeutic treatment models and techniques Reflecting the transition in the field of play therapy from a “one size fits all” approach to a more eclectic framework that integrates more than one perspective, Integrative Play Therapy explores methods for blending the best theories and treatment techniques to resolve the most common psychological disorders of childhood. Edited by internationally renowned leaders in the field, this book is the first of its kind to look at the use of a multi-theoretical framework as a foundation for practice. With discussion of integrative play treatment of children presenting a wide variety of problems and disorders—including aggression issues, the effects of trauma, ADHD, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, social skills deficits, medical issues such as HIV/AIDS, and more—the book provides guidance on: Play and group therapy approaches Child-directed play therapy with behavior management training for parents Therapist-led and child-led play therapies Cognitive-behavioral therapy with therapeutic storytelling and play therapy Family therapy and play therapy Bibliotherapy within play therapy An essential resource for all mental health professionals looking to incorporate play therapy into treatment, Integrative Play Therapy reveals unique flexibility in integrating theory and techniques, allowing practitioners to offer their clients the best treatment for specific presenting problems.

This DVD is a perfect complement to Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship, giving students, instructors, supervisors and practitioners visual reinforcement of the materials presented in the text. It shows a complete unrehearsed play therapy session, featuring Gary Landreth as he works with a young girl in a fully equipped play therapy room-- Container.

"Play Therapy in Action is a wonderful resource for the person new to play therapy or for a person wishing to review. It contains a wealth of information in presenting succinct perspectives on various theories of play therapy. These theories then transfer from the abstract into the functional realm of practice so that the reader can move from the cognitive understanding to the experimental. Practitioners will recognize some of their own experiences in the cases presented and be exposed to nee possibilities for treatment. It is rare to find a single volume where such an abundance of information is presented so concisely." –Carol C. Norton and Byron E. NortonA Jason Aronson Book

The purpose of this text is to present a resource to students and practitioners of play therapy that addresses topics beyond the training level. It provides advanced knowledge on the three main areas of play, child development, and play therapy and integrates them to help the play therapist gain a holistic understanding of how play therapy works.