Child-Centered Play Therapy

Young boy in an orange shirt playing with a sandbox on a white table in a cozy room, surrounded by toys and shelves.

Children's play kitchen set with pink cabinets, toy stove, sink, and hanging utensils.

Person painting with colorful paints on a table, surrounded by paint bottles, brushes, and a canvas. They are wearing a plaid shirt.

“Toys are children's words and play is their language” — Gary L. Landreth

Dr. Dee Ray provides an introduction to Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) for parents.

Dr. Dee Ray provides an introduction to Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) for children.

Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is a developmentally responsive, play-based mental health intervention for young children ages 3 to 10 who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioral and relational disorders. CCPT utilizes play, the natural language of children, and therapeutic relationship to provide a safe, consistent therapeutic environment in which a child can experience full acceptance, empathy, and understanding from the counselor and process inner experiences and feelings through play and symbols. In CCPT, a child’s experience within the counseling relationship is the factor that is most healing and meaningful in creating lasting, positive change. Based on person-centered principles, the overarching goal of CCPT is to unleash the child’s potential to move toward integration and self-enhancing ways of being. Child outcomes following CCPT include decreased symptomatic behaviors and improvement in overall functioning.