Adoptive parents and preadolescent children experience unique relational challenges post-adoption. As a developmentally responsive and attachment sensitive approach, child-parent relationship therapy (CPRT) is an established evidence-based mental health intervention for adoptive families. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of adoptive parents of preadolescents which prompted self-referral to CPRT. Participants were 18 adoptive parents of preadolescents who self-referred for CPRT post-adoption. We identified four main themes which characterized parents’ experiences which prompted seeking treatment during preadolescence: adoption experiences, relationship components, parenting considerations, and child factors. This study helps inform mental health professionals working with adoptive families seeking play therapy services. Limitations and opportunities for future research are presented within the context of these findings.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Special Topics

Students achievement is positively correlated with teacher encouragement. This article focuses on the use of Adlerian group play therapy principles and techniques to foster teacher resiliency and reduce burnout. A review of the factors impacting teacher burnout, a description of the practice of Adlerian group play therapy, and the benefits of play techniques with adults will be provided. A case applying Adlerian group play therapy principles and techniques with teachers for the purpose of combatting teacher burnout and fostering resilience will be presented and discussed, including considerations for implementation within a school setting.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Skills and Methods
• Special Topics

Anxiety is a prevalent form of child psychopathology and has been predicted by maternal anxiety and mother-child attachment. Given that attachment processes are intertwined with emotion regulation, attachment-based therapies that foster regulatory skills may be effective in treating anxiety. The attachment-based therapeutic approach, Theraplay therefore demonstrates promise for family anxiety treatment. The purpose of this study was to examine Theraplay as a treatment for maternal anxiety and child anxiety in families where both mothers and children (ages 4-7) had clinically significant anxiety. Six mothers and six children (n=12) with anxiety participated in treatment. Data were collected across three repeated baseline measurements, 12 Theraplay sessions, and a follow-up. Results indicated that all mother-child dyads’ anxiety scores decreased and were lower at the follow-up than at the baseline. In addition to reductions in anxiety, families demonstrated trends in increased closeness and decreased conflict post-treatment as measured by the Child-Parent Relationship Scale(CPRS; Pianta & Steinberg, 1992). Results demonstrate that Theraplay has a strong potential to be an effective anxiety treatment for both maternal and child anxiety.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Skill and Methods
• Special Topics

Theraplay is an attachment enhancing, play-based intervention. We used a phenomenological study to explore the experiences of middle school students ( N = 21) participating in Theraplay groups, and found five overarching themes: (a) alternative to the lunchroom, (b) relationships and making connections, (c) perspective taking and challenging perspectives, (d) feelings about the group, and (e) recommendations for future groups. We discuss the clinical implications and recommendations for future research.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Skills and Methods

This article reports the findings of a survey that investigated attitudes towards povertyamong play therapists (N = 390) and its relation to demographic information.Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) were used to measure the relationshipbetween play therapists’ demographics and their attitudes towards poverty, specificallytheir structural, individual deficit, and stigma scores. Results indicated that both regionand age resulted in differing views on poverty. Participants living in the Northeast heldstronger structural views of poverty than participants in the South. Similarly,participants in the 50-59 and 60 plus age groups disagreed to strongly disagree with apersonal explanation toward poverty than participants in the 30-39 age group. Theimportance of play therapists’ examining their attitudes toward poverty and the directimpact on their work is discussed. Finally, implications of the results, including overallfindings, are explained.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Special Topics

We conducted single-case research with two participants to explore child-centered play therapy’s (CCPT) influence on children who had four or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and provided analysis of data collected from the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire on a weekly basis and the Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Young Children at pre and post test. Both participants demonstrated significant improvement in total difficulties and prosocial behaviors, revealing potential therapeutic benefits for utilizing CCPT with children who have four or more ACEs. Encompassed in discussion of study results are implications for practice, suggestions for future research, and limitations.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Skills and Methods
• Special Topics

Children in the United States are experiencing a mental health crisis (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2013; U.S. Public Health Service, 2000). One component of the array of treatment approaches for child mental health issues is residential treatment in which children receive therapeutic services in a residential setting. Children in residential treatment have experienced a variety of issues including disruptions in attachment (Walter, 2007). However, relationships are important to the success of treatment (e.g., Ayotte, Lanctôt, & Tourigny, 2016; Gallagher & Green, 2012). One promising approach to address this relational need is child-parent relationship therapy (CPRT; Landreth & Bratton, 2019). To investigate the effects of CPRT with residential care workers (RCWs), this study used a mixed-methods approach including a single-case experimental design and a qualitative case. More specifically, the study investigated effects of CPRT on RCWs’ (a) perceptions of children’s behaviors, (b) relationships with the children of focus, and (c) ability to demonstrate empathy in individual play sessions. The percentage of nonoverlapping data (Scruggs, Mastropieri, & Casto, 1987) was calculated and indicated that the treatment was very effective in helping participants increase the demonstration of empathy in play sessions. Qualitative descriptions of the relationship between the RCWs and their children of focus (COFs) were positive, but the quantitative data did not consistently align with the qualitative data across all participants. Two participants described ongoing experiences of behavioral challenges with their COF and one did not, which was supported by the quantitative data related to COFs’ behavioral problems.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Skills and Methods
• Special Topics

There is a significant need to provide intervention services not only to students who exhibit sustained disruptive behaviors in the classroom, failing grades, and/or significant attendance issues but also to address the emotional needs of diverse elementary students who are “at risk” prior to exhibiting such issues so they may be successful in the academic environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the academic skills of second-grade students who received child-centered play therapy (CCPT) services using the Primary Project (formerly the Primary Mental Health Project) protocol. Sixty-eight students from 1 elementary school in second grade were assessed in the areas of task orientation, behavior control, assertiveness, and peer social skills. Of those who were tested, 36 students were deemed at risk using the established qualifying criteria and received CCPT services, and 32 students did not qualify for services. Findings revealed a significant increase in 3 academic subject areas: reading, mathematics, and language usage, with qualifying students experiencing marginally greater improvements during the academic year in mathematics and language usage when compared to their peers who did not qualify for services. Results of this study highlight the importance of providing preventive services that support overall mental health and wellness to at-risk children.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Skills and Methods
• Special Topics
  

There is a need for empirically informed play therapy approaches for children with oppositional and disruptive behaviors. Regulation-focused psychotherapy for children (RFP-C) is a manualized intervention rooted in the longstanding tradition of nondirective, psychodynamic play therapy. It builds on this history by emphasizing concepts drawn from the psychodynamic construct of defense mechanisms and contemporary research on emotion regulation. By using systematic interventions that target children’s defense mechanisms against unpleasant feeling states, RFP-C promotes the development of improved implicit emotion regulation capacities and increases children’s ability to tolerate painful emotions that were previously masked by the disruptive behaviors. An overview of this play therapy approach, along with several clinical illustrations drawn from a recent pilot study and ongoing randomized controlled trial of RFP-C as a treatment for oppositional defiant disorder, is provided in order to demonstrate some of the principles of defense interpretation, parent work, and addressing the meaning of disruptive behaviors.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Skills and Methods
• Special Topics
  

Therapeutic limit-setting is a complex yet critical skill for child-centered play therapists. Limit-setting models and professional discussions exist in the literature, and each is grounded in person-centered and child-centered theory. However, the existing literature does not explicitly tie all of Rogers’s (1957) 6 conditions to the concept of limit-setting. The attitudinal conditions limit-setting model (ACLM) builds on existing literature by providing a 3-part model to help play therapists make limit-setting decisions based on the attitudinal conditions of congruence, empathy, and unconditional positive regard. The model is designed to support critical reflection and intentionality in the limit-setting process and to facilitate provision of the attitudinal conditions within critical relational moments in play therapy. A case example is provided to illustrate the ACLM in practice.

Play Therapy Primary Areas:

• Seminal / Historically Significant Theories
• Skills and Methods