Fifteen Effective Play Therapy Techniques

A plethora of innovative play therapy techniques have been developed in recent years to implement the therapeutic powers of play. The purpose of this article is to concisely describe 15 techniques that are effective, enjoyable, inexpensive, and easy to implement. Included in the description of each technique are the therapeutic rationale, materials needed, step-by-step implementation guide, and applications. The techniques selected are appropriate for 4–12-year-old children and cover an extensive array of play approaches (e.g., art, fantasy, sensorimotor, and game play). The chosen techniques address several pertinent presenting problems such as anxiety, depression, impulsivity, distractibility, and noncompliance. For over 60 years, play therapy has been a well-established and popular mode of child treatment in clinical practice. One reason play therapy has proven to be a particularly useful approach with children is that they have not yet developed the abstract reasoning abilities and verbal skills needed to adequately articulate their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. For children, toys are their words, and play is their conversation. Play therapy can be defined as an interpersonal process wherei