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 culturally inclusive therapeutic approach in which the relationship between therapist and child is the foundation for the healing process. CCPT is grounded in person-centered theory, which emphasizes the child’s inherent capacity for growth and change, and in developmental theory, which recognizes play as the child’s natural medium of expression. In CCPT, the therapist utilizes a well-defined set of skills and conveys attitudes in a warm, consistent, and authentic manner. In doing so, the therapist is active, disciplined, intentional, and predictable while creating a context that promotes children’s self-expression, self-exploration, and self-direction. Through the relational process of CCPT, facilitative conditions, and empathic limit-setting provided by the therapist, the child leads the content of the therapy to gain greater self-acceptance, self-regulation, decision-making, and coping skills.

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