Kristin K. Meany-Walen, PhD, LMHC, RPT-S, is Mental Health Coordinator, Waterloo Community School District, Iowa and adjunct faculty at University of Northern Iowa. Prior to her current positions, she was faculty at University of North Texas. Dr. Meany-Walen practices, conducts research, publishes, and presents on topics of play therapy, school-based counseling, working with families, wellness, and supervision. Her specialty area is Adlerian play therapy; she co-authored, with Dr. Terry Kottman, Partners in Play: An Adlerian Approach to Play Therapy and Doing Play Therapy: From Building the Relationship to Facilitating Change.
Her most notable contribution to counseling, play therapy, and Adlerian play therapy was leading the first Adlerian play therapy research study. The research design and results of that study were instrumental in Adlerian play therapy being recognized as and evidenced-based treatment by SAMHSA.