Journal Abstracts

Explores the self-perceived multicultural competencies and adequacy of multicultural training of Registered Play Therapists across the United States belonging to the Association for Play Therapy who completed the Multicultural Counseling Competence and Training Survey. Results indicate that play therapists perceive themselves as competent on multicultural counseling competence but perceived their multicultural training as less than adequate.

Kelli Bell Ritter & Catherine Y. Chang

Ascertains effects of individual client-centered play therapy on sexually abused children's mood, self-concept, and social competence. Findings indicate mixed support for the efficacy of play therapy. Although there was initial support for improvement in the children?s perceptions of competency, other group comparison results indicated no statistical significance and, utilizing the Reliable Change Index formula, eight children clinically improved, four deteriorated, four improved with follow-up deterioration, and eight cases indicated no significant change. Additional qualitative severity comparisons, research limitations, and a discussion of the impact on current practice follow.

Terri Scott, Marina Starling, Gary Burlingame, Corinna Porter, John Paul Lilly

Examines and compares three play therapy theories with regard to the role of play in the therapy process, the role of the therapist, and the goals of using play materials in therapy. The author's personal experience and subsequent choice of theory are also briefly noted.

Charlotte McCalla

Examines the impact of child-centered kinder training on both at-risk children and their teachers using Landreth?s 10-week filial training model. The findings indicate that changes occurred in both the children and the teachers and utilizes the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (Internalizing Problems, Behavioral Symptoms Index, and Adaptive Skills). Suggests that child-centered kinder training is an effective strategy for both at-risk pre-school children and their teachers.

Phyllis Post, Angela Sheely, Melissa Mcallister, Barbara Hess & Claudia Flowers

Examines an African American parent?s perceptions of the process and impact of filial therapy. Results include adequate treatment acceptability with regard to the structure of filial therapy training; however, the parent evidenced difficulty fully accepting the content of the filial therapy training. Positive changes in the parent, child, and parent-child relationship were reported by the parent and observed by the researcher as a result of participation in filial therapy.

Caroline Solis, Joel Meyers & Kristen Varjas

Play therapists working with young children utilize a variety of developmentally appropriate methods in order to help children cope with unpredictable events. Although widely researched but lacking in generalized findings, one approach commonly used by therapists is doll play. A case study was conducted using five sessions of adaptive doll play with a five-year-old child experiencing separation anxiety. Clinging behaviors, crying, and requests by the child to call home to the parent while at school were all reported reduced after five weeks. The therapeutic script used in the study and clinical observations are outlined, as well as guidelines for practitioners to consider when conducting doll play sessions with young children in therapy. Implications for further research are also discussed.

Suzan Danger

Autistic children who are brought for psychological treatment are usually experiencing social and emotional difficulties common to autism. In addition, their parents may be in need of support. An integrative approach to treatment that utilizes the rapport building component of nondirective play therapy with directive techniques is presented. This approach targets maladaptive behavior and parent education. This case study describes a brief course of therapy in which an 11-year-old autistic female client experienced increases in social behavior and compliance at home and displayed a less irritable mood. The course of her therapy and specific interventions are examined.

Maureen Kenny & Charles Winick

Children of battered women represent a special subgroup of often underserved traumatized clients. Relatively little can be found in the literature regarding treatment of these children. Client-centered play therapy sessions were carried out with 24 children of battered women. Process and content of play therapy sessions are reported using literature regarding the characteristics of post-traumatic-stress disorder as a framework. A case study is included.

Sandra Frick-Helms

Determines the effectiveness of child-centered group play therapy as an intervention for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children with speech difficulties. Child-centered group play therapy demonstrated a large practical significance in helping children improve both their expressive and receptive language skills but a mixed effect upon children's anxiety.

Suzan Danger & Garry Landreth

Authors conducted a follow-up study to Post, McAllister, Sheely, Hess, & Flowers (2004) to determine whether a group of teachers who previously had been taught play therapy training skills maintained the skills and empathic responding in individual play sessions and in the classroom one academic year after the original training. The participating teachers were matched with a control group of untrained teachers. Results showed differences between the trained and untrained teachers on the use of play therapy skills and empathetic responses in individual play sessions. There were no differences found between the trained and untrained teachers on the use of play therapy skills and empathic responses in the classroom setting. In addition, the participating teachers reported the usefulness of the training in focus group dialogues, citing that the new skills improved their classroom behaviors, changed their perspective on the value of including children?s opinions, and increased their confidence as teachers.

Barbara Hess, Phyllis Post & Claudia Flowers

As part of the creative modalities, play therapy offers a therapeutic mode for diagnosis, assessment, and treatment interventions. The purpose of this paper is to critically review three play therapy interventions: The Developmental Play Assessment, the Marschak Interaction Method, and the Family Systems Test. A brief introduction to each assessment will be presented. Additionally, validity and reliability data will be addressed. The overall evaluation will include the assessments desirable as well as undesirable features, which is of critical importance to play therapists and those therapists using play as a method of diagnosis and assessment.

Stephanie Brooke

Discussion of the inherent value of youngsters' play highlights significant factors to consider when interacting with children in a variety of contexts. Appropriate play activities can provide optimal opportunities for healthy cognitive and socioemotional development. Presentation of several case examples illustrates the importance of integrating play in child development programs.

Barbara Kaufman

Examines the process of change in filial therapy, a type of play therapy, which engages parents as therapeutic agents in working with troubled children. Outcome studies have supported the efficacy of this approach in building parent-child relationships, reducing parenting stress, and reducing child behavior problems. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the process in order to understand how these changes occur. The researchers compare the viewpoints of the therapist, the parents, and an independent observer, noting the points in therapy which are deemed facilitative or inhibitive of change.

Jon Winek, Laura Johnson, Jeff Krepps, Jennifer Lambert-Shute, Liza Shaw, Kelly Wiley

Suggests techniques to develop and enhance the functioning of defense mechanisms in children who lack adequate defenses against anxiety and who do not display imaginative play. Selecting play materials, modeling imaginative and defensive play, encouraging and reinforcing the child's play and defensive use of play, verbalizing alternative defenses, developing mechanisms of restraint, and acknowledging progress are illustrated through brief clinical vignettes.

John Mordock

Examines the responses of 240 members of the Association of Play Therapy to a questionnaire identifying ethical practices in play therapy treatment. The following areas were explored: nature of treatment, confidentiality, informed consent, treatment adequacy, referral, and training. Results indicate most play therapists are consistent in both their ethical beliefs and reported therapy practices.

Yo Jackson, Richard Puddy & Tammy Lazicki-Puddy

Addresses the developmental needs of preadolescents, the challenges that parents often experience, and developmental modifications in filial therapy needed for its use with preadolescents. Preadolescence is a time in a child?s life that is wrought with turmoil.

Jill Packman, Misty Solt

Determines the effectiveness of a 10-week filial therapy training model as a method of intervention for non-offending parents and their children who have experienced sexual abuse. Filial therapy is a didactic/dynamic approach used by play therapists to train parents to be therapeutic agents with their children. Analyses of covariance revealed that the non-offending parents in the experimental group significantly increased their level of empathy in their interactions with their children, significantly increased their attitude of acceptance toward their children, and significantly reduced their level of stress. Measures of the children?s behavior, anxiety, emotional adjustment, and self-concept indicated positive trends. This study supports filial therapy as an effective intervention for non-offending parents and their children who have experienced sexual abuse.

Mary Costas & Garry Landreth

Determines the effectiveness of a 10-week filial therapy training model as a method of intervention for parents of chronically ill children. Results of the analysis of covariance revealed that parents in the experimental group significantly increased their attitude of acceptance toward their children and significantly reduced their level of stress as compared to parents in the control group. Children in the experimental group scored significantly lower than did children in the control group on total behavioral problems and anxiety and depression. This study supports filial therapy as an effective intervention for parents of chronically ill children.

Kristi Tew, Garry Landreth, Kimberly Joiner & Misty Solt

Examines the effectiveness of filial therapy with teachers of deaf and hard of hearing preschool children and the effectiveness of filial therapy as a method of intervention for deaf and hard of hearing preschool students. Analysis of Covariance revealed that the teachers in the experimental group significantly improved their ability to communicate acceptance and empathy, as well as develop non-directive involvement with their students. Students whose teachers were in the experimental group exhibited significantly fewer overall behavior problems, including withdrawn and internalizing behaviors. Both quantitative and qualitative results indicated that preschool teachers of deaf and hard of hearing children may become effective therapeutic agents by learning and applying the basic skills of filial therapy training with their students.

David Michael Smith, Garry Landreth

Describes the historical use and interpretation of art in child therapy. As a case study, it examines the use of the self-portrait technique in the process of healing . The case study, including self-portraits and accompanying narratives, demonstrates that positive change in self-concept occurs over time within a therapeutic, client-centered environment.

Susan Cockle

Presents a rationale and understanding of the function of play therapy in the school environment. Although there are many benefits to providing play therapy in the school, there are also many challenges. The authors offer details of a yearlong pilot play therapy program in an elementary school. The advantages of delivering play therapy directly to students, filial therapy to parents and teachers, and education to teachers are discussed. In addition, the challenges of such a program are enumerated along with suggestions for avoiding possible pitfalls.

Dee Ray, Joel Muro, Brandy Schumann

The rationale for utilizing filial therapy as a treatment intervention with child witnesses of domestic violence while residing with their mothers in a shelter facility is explored and the effectiveness of an intensive 12-session filial therapy parent training group, conducted within 2-3 weeks, is described. Results of analysis of covariance revealed that child witnesses in the experimental group significantly reduced behavior problems prevalent in child witnesses and significantly increased their self-concept as compared to child witnesses in the non-treatment comparison group. In addition, t-test results showed that mothers who facilitated treatment of the experimental group scored significantly higher after training on both their attitudes of acceptance and their empathic behavior. Comparative analysis revealed that intensive filial therapy as facilitated by the children?s mothers was as effective in reducing behavior problems as was intensive individual play therapy and intensive sibling group play therapy as facilitated by professionally trained therapists.

Nancy Smith, Garry Landreth

First, describes the effectiveness of intensive sibling group play therapy with child witnesses of domestic violence in improving self-concept, reducing internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, and reducing overall behavior problems, and, second, compares the effectiveness of intensive sibling group play therapy and intensive individual play therapy on the dimensions identified above. Results reveal children in the experimental group exhibited a significant reduction in total behavior problems, externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, aggression, anxiety, and depression, and a significant improvement in self-esteem.

Ashley Tyndall-Lind, Garry Landreth & Maria Giordano

Examines the effects of Kinder Training on selected kindergarten and first grade students? behavior, social skills, and early literacy skills, as well as its effects on teacher behavior in the classroom. The results suggest that Kinder Training is an effective intervention for struggling students and a successful proactive approach for teacher skill development.

Kay Draper, JoAnna White, Tam O?Shaughnessy, Mary Flynt, Nancy Jones

Evaluates the effect of play therapy training on graduate students' limit-setting choices in play therapy and compared their reported choice of limits with the reported choice of limits of experienced play therapists. The results indicated a significant difference between pre-training and post-training limit-setting choices of graduate students, with more limits being chosen after training. The limits selected by students after play therapy training were similar to those chosen by experienced therapists in past studies. After training, students selected limits most frequently in the areas of physical aggression against the therapist, physical aggression against equipment, and on behaviors which endangered the child's health and safety. After training, students chose the fewest limits in the area of socially unacceptable behavior, particularly in the expression of obscenity in the playroom.

Garry Landreth & Catherine Wright

In this pilot study, concept mapping, a methodological approach combining qualitative and quantitative analytic strategies, was used to identify the therapist qualities, competencies, and skills necessary for effective play therapy outcomes as perceived by a sub-sample of 28 experienced play therapists who are members of the Association for Play Therapy (APT). The clusters associated with the therapeutic relationship and facilitative skills (e.g., empathy, warmth, and genuineness) were rated as the most essential skills to possess and also as the most difficult to develop. In contrast, the clusters associated with play therapy interventions and theories were rated as the least important skills to possess but as the easiest to acquire. The findings are discussed, with implications for therapeutic practice, research, and policy.

Blace Nalavany, Tomi Gomory, Scott Ryan & Jeffrey Lacasse

Through free and creative exploration of music and music activities, emotionally conflicted and confused children can be encouraged to express their emotions. The purpose of this article is to briefly review nondirective play therapy and music play therapy and to describe how these could be combined in actual practice. The two case examples further illustrate and encourage other play therapists to incorporate music and music activities into the playroom.

Karla Carmichael & Debra Hairston Atchinson

Explains pair counseling as a structured form of dyadic play therapy in which two children?s play interactions are guided developmentally by the counselor toward greater social maturity. Results demonstrated that reductions in problem behaviors following pair counseling were greatest for behaviorally disordered children and that the effects of pair counseling on reductions in delinquent behaviors were partially mediated by changes in interpersonal understanding. The results suggest pair counseling is a particularly appropriate play therapy modality for aggressive, delinquent, and externalizing children.

Michael Karcher & Shenita Lewis

Due to problems in communicating with psychologists, counselors, and other daily helpers, adults with developmental disabilities may experience a lifetime of daily routines that involve few if any opportunities for emotional expression, validation, and growth. This paper presents two case studies that utilize an adapted form of Child-Centered Play Therapy in working with adults with developmental disabilities. Person-Centered Play Therapy is used to help two adults with developmental disabilities overcome behavioral and emotional difficulties. Results indicate positive growth and changes in self-expression, self-direction, self-efficacy, and emotional well-being. Changes are indicated both within sessions, and outside of sessions in a residential day treatment program. Possibilities for future work with this population are discussed.

Stephen Demanchick, Nancy Cochran, Jeff Cochran

Describes the results from a large (n=1166) and comprehensive survey undertaken regarding important practices, issues, and perceptions of play therapy (PT) for children. Data were collected from four different sources with representation from the range of professionals practicing PT. The results described here center on clinical questions: the age distribution of children typically seen in PT, youngest/oldest children treated in PT, the distribution of boys and girls in PT, criteria used for selecting PT for children, disorders amendable to PT, therapists' estimates of PT effectiveness, and factors that most determine success in PT.

Roger Phillips & Garry Landreth

Stimulates further discussion of the use of videotaped play therapy sessions in courtroom situations. Includes case study of original court transcripts of the therapist?s testimony and a transcript of the videotaped play therapy session. The impact of the child?s experience is revealed to the jury without subjecting him to the trauma of facing his perpetrator(s) and a courtroom of adults. Suggests how play therapists can use their work with children in legal settings, which allows the testimony of the child?s experience of trauma through play therapy themes.

Marilyn Snow, Heather Helm & Erin Martin

Identifies play therapy behaviors of sexually abused children. To obtain the largest number of viable responses, the members of the Association for Play Therapy received the survey containing 140 play therapy behaviors. Statistical analysis identified highly interrelated play therapy behaviors of sexually abused girls and boys from three to 10 years of age. Also identified were differences between gender and age groups. Suggested use of the play therapy behaviors include assessments to detect sexual abuse and recommendations for child placement and/or court testimony.

Linda Homeyer & Garry Landreth

Throughout the ages, children have been exposed to violent events such as wars, abuse, domestic violence, and community turmoil, yet for many years children?s reactions to traumatic events were ignored or minimized. Youth violence was largely confined to the inner city and received scant attention from the public-at-large. The research of Terr clearly demonstrated that children have powerful and long-lasting reactions to trauma. More recently, the increasing incidents of violence by children in previously quiet rural communities and schools have focused mainstream attention on the problem.

Rise VanFleet, J.P. Lilly & Heidi Kaduson

Recent empirical research has supported a view of perfectionism as potentially adaptive as well as maladaptive. As a result, it is important to accurately assess the form of perfectionism before designing a treatment plan. Cognitive/Adlerian approaches to play therapy offer unique opportunities for assessing and treating maladaptive perfectionism in children.

Jeffrey Ashby, Terry Kottman, James Martin

Preparing articles for publication in the International Journal of Play Therapy and other scholarly journals requires strict compliance with the journal?s formatting requirements, an organized and accurate presentation of timely, meaningful content, and careful, high quality writing. Improving articles in these areas will increase their potential for publication and for impacting readers.

Peter Kranz, Richard Steele, Nick Lund, Matthew Meyers

Reviews a limited universe of academic syllabi from graduate ?Introduction to Play Therapy? courses, in order to determine the essential and agreed-upon elements of this course. Graduate level instructors of courses with this, or similar titles provided access to their syllabi, which revealed common components among the required text, course objectives, learning methods, and assignment sections. A model syllabus incorporating these common elements was constructed. Suggestions were offered for teaching this course, and recommendations for a larger scale effort, based on the strengths and limitations of the current one.

Leslie Jones & Lawrence Rubin

Translates child-centered theory into a practical understanding of the dynamics associated with the re-victimization patterns of children from violent families as they relate to a play therapy treatment regimen. Implications for play therapists are discussed with respect to setting professional boundaries, counselor self-evaluation, and clinician self-care.

Ashley Tyndall-Lind

Notes that Hispanic children are the fastest growing segment of the population and that numerous factors place them at-risk for school success. Examines the effects of Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) compared to a curriculum-based small group intervention with 29 Hispanic children referred for school counseling due to behavior problems. Children were assigned to treatment groups by random drawing within grade levels. Statistical analysis revealed that, according to parent report, children receiving CCPT showed statistically significant decreases in externalizing behavior problems, compared to the curriculum-based treatment group. Effect size calculations revealed that CCPT demonstrated a large treatment effect on externalizing behavior problems and a moderate treatment effect on internalizing behavior problems. Cultural considerations and recommendations for practice and future research are discussed.

Yvonne Garza & Sue Bratton

Maintaining neutrality while preserving an empathic, observ­ing, clarifying, confronting and interpretive stance that enables ongoing self expression, is critical for child therapists. Doing so in the face of aggressive, domineering and occasionally even explosive behavior is a far more difficult and demanding therapeutic task. This paper is an attempt to clarify the problem with a case illustration.

Anne Smith & Jack Herman

Investigates the effectiveness of short-term child-centered group play therapy in elementary school settings with Chinese children in Taiwan who experienced an earthquake in 1999. Children in the experimental group scored significantly lower on anxiety level and suicide risk after play therapy than did children in the control group. The effects of the treatment support previous studies of play therapy with American children. These findings reveal the possibility of disaster intervention services adopting Western helping techniques with school children of non-Western cultures.

Yih-Jiun Shen

The reporting and interpretation of effect sizes in addition to statistical significance tests is becoming increasingly recognized as good research practice, as evidenced by the editorial policies of at least 23 journals that now require effect sizes. Statistical significance tests are limited in the information they provide readers about results, and effect sizes can be useful when evaluating result importance. The current article (a) summarizes statistical versus practical significance, (b) briefly discusses various effect size options, (c) presents a review of research articles published in the International Journal of Play Therapy (1993-2003) regarding use of effect sizes and statistical significance tests, and (d) provides recommendations for improved research practice in the journal and elsewhere.

Stephen Armstrong & Robin Henson

Examines research articles published in the International Journal of Play Therapy (IJPT) to investigate the use of selected statistical practices in quantitative inferential studies and determine whether or not researchers (a) verified methodological assumptions of statistical analyses, (b) reported confidence intervals, (c) discussed the risk of experiment-wise Type I error, (d) preferred univariate analyses to multivariate analyses, (e) used univariate analyses as post hoc methods to detect multivariate effects, and (e) screened data and reported findings with graphical displays. Suggests recommendations for improved statistical practice.

Stephen Armstrong & Robin Henson

Presents a model to be used for structured play therapy. Structured play therapy is a form of play therapy that is directive and uses planned, structured activities in almost every session. This model was developed to provide a framework for appropriate timing and sequence of structured activities. This article describes structured play therapy and how it differs from nondirective play, presents a structured play therapy model, presents specific guidelines for choosing appropriate structured activities and exercises, and presents a case study demonstrating application of the model.

Karyn Dayle Jones, Montserrat Casado, E. H. Mike Robinson III

Our practice of play therapy has employed a model which we call "The Color-Emotive Brain." This model is described, followed by summaries of two case studies in which the model was employed. Early studies using the Color-Emotive Brain model (with a total of 25 children) have found it to be useful in play therapy with populations ranging from the severely behaviorally disturbed to the very moderately impaired, and with inpatient and outpatient populations, from ages three through ten. The model is effective in (a) allowing children to visualize their level of emotional disclosure, (b) aiding in moving from one level of emotional disclosure to a deeper level, and (c) providing children with increased motivation for treatment, for example, to reach successive goals.

Sheldon Berger & Jonna Tyler

Reports results of a meta-analysis of 94 research studies focusing on the efficacy of play therapy, filial therapy, and combined play therapy and filial therapy. Results suggest a large positive effect on treatment outcomes with children across modality, age, gender, clinical vs. non-clinical populations, setting, and theoretical schools of thought.

Dee Ray, Sue Bratton, Tammy Rhine & Leslie Jones

Notes that homeless children are a growing population and examines if child-centered group play therapy significantly increases self-esteem and significantly decreases depression and anxiety of 42 homeless children. Statistical analysis reveals children receiving child-centered play therapy significantly improve in self-esteem, anxiety, and depression demonstrating a moderate to large effect size. Includes a discussion of these results, research limitations, and future research directions are provided.

Jennifer Baggerly

Identifies variables that influence intervention in child abuse and neglect and proposes a constructive approach that can help these children and their families change; presents the basic assumptions and the rationale for considering the potential power of this approach; and describes a program of intervention incorporated by a child protective unit of a county agency.

Barry Ginsberg

Ball play is one of the earliest and most enduring forms of play, making it a useful tool with which to engage children in the psychotherapy process. Structured ball play can be used as a directive play therapy technique to facilitate talk therapy with children. A game of catch in the therapy session can be used, as an example, to describe four stages of the ball play therapy process: (a) rapport building, (b) creating a therapeutic context, (c) pacing and punctuating the dialogue, and (d) anchoring a solution. The author integrates ball play with talk therapy to demonstrate, using case examples, how the ball play technique is an effective intervention in psychotherapy with children.

Dave Hudak

Describes appropriate play therapy techniques for use with adolescents in a high school setting and provides specific case examples of the use of a variety of creative, expressive play therapy techniques that can help emotional development. The brief review of the literature on using play therapy techniques with children and adolescents included in the article provides support for the appropriateness of using creative techniques with adolescents and provides evidence of the need for current information on this topic.

Dorothy Tysse Breen, Susan Dahlgren Daigneault

When play therapy is recommended, parents often have questions or doubts about it. Parental resistance to play therapy has the potential to interfere with therapeutic progress. Furthermore, because of the parents? central role in the lives of children, failure to engage them as partners in the change process can result in less than optimum outcomes. This article reflects upon the nature and sources of parent resistance to play therapy, questions the concept of resistance as it is often understood, and suggests ways the play therapist can prevent or overcome it.

Rise VanFleet

A female client uses image play and dream work during a follow-up individual session where she takes responsibility for the harshness of her verbal communication style with her husband and the destructive belief system that guides her marital interactions. By sharing the client?s exploratory and self-reflective play process, the therapist demonstrates how the play stimulates the client?s innate capacity to examine her destructive approach to marital relationship, allows her to uncover her actual (new) needs in the relationship, facilitates her capacity to claim anger, judgment, and her ?monstrous cobra self?, and supports her in finding more helpful interactive patterns. As she faces herself in the mirror of her play, she not only finds her shadow (problem), but activates her own inner wisdom and knowing, which offers her viable solutions.

Gisela Schubach De Domenico

Summarizes results of a comprehensive literature review of 82 play therapy research studies from 1942 to the present with an emphasis on the effectiveness of play therapy with specific presenting issues and populations.

Sue Bratton & Dee Ray

Some therapists hold that the Bobo and other aggressive toys should be excluded from the playroom as they elicit acting-out behavior that is transferred to the world outside the playroom. However, many therapists view the inclusion of these items as imperative elements that facilitate positive growth and maturation in the child. Interviews with authorities in the field of play therapy support the position that the inclusion of the Bobo is not only useful but a therapeutic necessity.

Kay Trotter, Deborah Eshelman, Garry Landreth

Explores the use of guided imagery as a tool to facilitate the expression of children?s grief using open-ended, age specific, grief groups. Concludes that the Rosebush technique can be an aid in understanding the grief process of the child.

Hilda Glazer

Investigates the possibility that gender and trauma history influence the play themes of children in therapy using the Benedict Play Theme Analysis System (BPTAS) and studying 44 children participating in therapy through Head Start. Results indicate that gender and trauma histories, as well as a possible interaction of the two influences, impact the frequency and types of themes that children play in therapy. Implications for play therapists are also discussed.

John R. Holmberg, Helen Benedict, Linda Hynan

Examines if the length of semester impacts play therapy training for master's level graduate students using a 3-week mini-session, a regular 5-week summer session, a regular 15-week semester, and the Play Therapy Attitude-Knowledge-Skill Survey (PTAKSS) that measures three aspects of child-centered play therapy training. Results of the analysis of covariance indicated no significant difference in any aspect of the child-centered play therapy training between semester length.

Linda Homeyer, Amanda Rae

By understanding and utilizing the television series, The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, therapists create powerful and meaningful therapeutic metaphors for child-clients. Includes case study.

Avi Rose

Strategies are offered for inclusion of a play therapy course or program in a graduate curriculum.

Peter Kranz, Nick Lund, Terry Kottman

Examines the difference in family relations, as measured by BEaver's self-report family inventory, between families participating in specified group family play and those not participating.

Shari Duff

Assesses how children with cancer use the Color-Your-Life (CYL) technique and to compare the results to O'Connor's (1983) clinical impressions of this technique.

Susan Boley, Cynthia Peterson, Lisa Miller, Sue Ammen

Reports the perceptions that married couples had of the effects of a 10-week Filial Therapy experience on the parent-child and couple relationship.

Rosemarie Bavin-Hoffman, Glenn Jennings, Garry Landreth

Describes a psychotherapy group designed for sets of cumulatively traumatized siblings from unrelated families who face losing a parent to AIDS.

Kerry Leavitt, Julie Morrison, Sarah Gardner, Mary Gallagher

Examines the use of symbol and metaphor to bring about emotional, intra-psychic self-healing in a six-year-old victim of sexual abuse.

Susan Cockle, John Allan

Researchers standardize administration and quantify drawings using the Color-Your-Life technique (CYL) teaching children color-affect pairs (e.g. RED-anger) and instructing them to fill a blank piece of paper with the colors that represent the feelings of their life.

Sue Ammen, Jodi Semrad , Stanley Soria, Elizabeth Limberg, Cynthia Peterson, Martha Moore, Kelly O'neill, Sharon Picard, Susan Boley

The use of the Color-Your-Life (CYL) technique was examined with pediatric cancer patients, siblings of pediatric patients and a control group of children, all 7 to 13 years of age.

Susan Boley, Sue Ammen, Kevin O'Connor, Lisa Miller

Reviews available literature regarding the use of board games in psychotherapy with children.

Abigail Matorin, John McNamara

Rutter's resiliency model explores helping children who are at risk and their families when they are faced with multiple life transitions.

John Seymour, Phyllis Erdman

Virginia Axline's book, Play Therapy (1947), serves as a model in instructional techniques for many students wishing to learn basic skills utilizing play therapy as an assessment and treatment tool and lists eight basic principles of non-directive play therapy.

Peter Kranz, Nick Lund