Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT)

Child-Centered Play Session
This author’s (hereafter known as therapist) goals for the session was to create a safe place for An to experience herself and be accepted, without the constraints of therapeutic direction. This therapist chose to utilize Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) for a multitude of reasons. Among the most important is this therapist’s intuition that what An needed, was to be given the freedom to experience herself as strong and competent. In CCPT,“The play therapist’s objective is to relate to the child in ways that will release the child’s inner-directional, constructive, forward-moving, creative, self-healing power” (Landreth, 2011, pp. 54-55). CCPT proposes that the child has all the internal tools they need to be successful,

During the session, An tried new skills and was actively engaged in therapy. Instead of sitting down with her to play cards and talk, An’s CCPT “play will reveal: what the child has experienced, the child’s feelings or reactions, what the child needs in his/her life, the child’s self-concept” (McAdams-Hamilton, personal communication, April16, 2016). Continuing CCPT could help An integrate her experiences, assist her to gain mastery over her internal narrative, and reduce her

53). In An’s case, cultural implications could easily be overlooked because she is from the dominant culture. Neglecting to examine An’s exposure to her father’s chronic illness and her grandmother’s mental illness could result in the creation of goals that could ineffectively address An’s situation. In addition, the family’s lower-middleclass socio-economic status is important. Although the family is from the dominant culture, they live in an area mostly populated with wealthy, well educated people. An’s father’s illness often prevents him from working, leaving the burden of supporting the family on her mother. Her mother is also the main caregiver for An’s father and grandmother; putting further strain upon the mother’s ability to maintain steady work hours and be present for An. Additionally, An’s educational delay requires educational assistance that could socially separate her from her peers, creating a greater dependence upon adults. Factoring in these elements would help a therapist from any theoretical orientation develop culturally appropriate goals with An and her