The Play Therapy Primer - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

KEVIN J. O CONNOR, PhD, RPT-S, is Professor and Director of the Ecosystemic Clinical Child Psychology Program at the California School of Professional Psychology. He is the cofounder of the Association for Play Therapy and currently serves on its Board. He maintains a private practice treating children and their families and is the author of several widely used texts on play therapy in general and Ecosytemic Play Therapy in particular.

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The clinically indispensable guide to using play in therapy, revised and updated.
Featuring new approaches developed since the publication of the successful first edition, The Play Therapy Primer, Second Edition offers health care professionals and students a balance of fundamentals, theory, and practical techniques for using play in therapy. Providing an ecosystemic perspective, the book defines distinctive approaches to the practice of play therapy that readers can integrate into a personalized and internally consistent theory and practice of their own. This timely resource also includes increased coverage of developmental issues and a new chapter discussing diversity issues with case examples.

Presenting stimulating and useful information for therapists at all levels of training, The Play Therapy Primer covers:

• A history of play therapy
• The major theories of play therapy in use today
• Ecosystemic Play Therapy theory and practice
• A conceptual framework for the practice of individual play therapy
• The course of individual play therapy
• Structured group play therapy
• Session-by-session treatment plans

Aus dem Klappentext

Play is the most popular therapy approach for helping children work through emotionally distressing experiences or overcome behavioral and developmental problems. As children?young ones especially?are unable to think through and discuss their problems cogently, play therapists seek to maximize a child?s ability to engage in behavior that is fun, person-oriented, non-instrumental, and characterized by a natural flow. Working within a given theoretical model, they use the therapeutic powers of play to help a child move systematically toward mental health.

Offering a variety of tested theories and techniques and including new approaches to play therapy since the first edition, The Play Therapy Primer, Second Edition provides health care professionals with a thorough introduction to using play in therapy. This revised volume features increased coverage of developmental issues and includes a new chapter on diversity issues as well as one that presents comprehensive case examples, including session-by-session treatment plans.

This edition provides a broad context for understanding and practicing play therapy. The introductory chapters present a history of the evolution of play therapy, establish a common vocabulary, and delineate the functions of play behavior in human life. The most widely used models of play therapy?psychoanalytic, humanistic, and behavioral?are reviewed, as well as several other theoretical models of psychotherapy used to develop the integrated model known as Ecosystemic Play Therapy. In addition, material is presented on the importance of cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills in the effective practice of play therapy in the twenty-first century.

The Play Therapy Primer offers a conceptual framework for the practice of individual play therapy. Ecosystemic Play Therapy?a model inclusive enough to serve both new and experienced therapists?is examined, along with the basic assumptions underlying the model. There is an extensive review of child development, plus discussion about the types of child clients best suited to play therapy, the training and role of the therapist, and the nature of the play therapy process

This book charts the complete course of individual play therapy, from assessment, case formulation, and treatment planning to construction of play therapy sessions, developmental and phase-specific modifications, and collateral work. The practice of Ecosystemic Play Therapy is described in detail, extensively illustrated with case material. Also covered is the practice of structured group play therapy consistent with ecosystemic theory.

Pragmatic and motivating, The Play Therapy Primer, Second Edition is an indispensable reference for psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, social workers, and other mental health specialists at all levels of training and experience.