About Us

In 2024, a group of Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) advocates got together to form Child Centered Play Therapy International. We wanted to build a community that provides spaces and resources for play therapists grounded in the CCPT way of working. We need spaces (virtual, in-person, and social media) where we can learn, support, and collaborate with one another as new and seasoned CCPT therapists. And we want to make sure that CCPT therapists are provided with accurate and practical information to stay theoretically grounded and effective in their work. We seek to build a community of trust and relationship among CCPT therapists and will work diligently toward this goal.

Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is a counseling approach in which the relationship between therapist and child is the foundation for therapeutic change. CCPT is grounded in the principles of person-centered theory emphasizing the child’s inherent capacity for healing and growth and developmental understanding that play is the child’s natural medium of expression. In CCPT, the therapist utilizes a well-defined set of skills in a consistent, predictable manner, which creates a context that promotes children’s self-expression and self-direction; so that the therapist in CCPT is active, disciplined, and predictable (Cochran et al., 2023). Through the relational process of CCPT and facilitative conditions provided by the therapist, the child leads the content of the therapy to gain greater levels of self-acceptance, decision-making, and coping skills.  

This definition derives from the blended works of Axline (1947), Cochran et al. (2023), Landreth (2024), and Ray (2011).