The Therapeutic Powers of Play

Book excerpt: A practical look at how play therapy can promote mental health wellness in children and adolescents Revised and expanded, The Therapeutic Powers of Play, Second Edition explores the powerful effects that play therapy has on different areas within a child or adolescent's life: communication, emotion regulation, relationship enhancement, and personal strengths. Editors Charles Schaefer and Athena Drewes—renowned experts in the field of play therapy—discuss the different interventions and components of treatment that can move clients to change. Leading play therapists contributed to this volume, supplying a wide repertoire of practical techniques and applications in each chapter for use in clinical practice, including: Direct teaching Indirect teaching Self-expression Relationship enhancement Attachment formation Catharsis Stress inoculation Creative problem solving Self-esteem Filled with clinical case vignettes from various theoretical viewpoints, the second edition is an invaluable resource for play and child therapists of all levels of experience and theoretical orientations.