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How we think about children shapes everything about how we relate to them — in the playroom, in the clinic, and at home. Child-centred play therapy begins not with techniques, but with a set of beliefs about who children are and what they are capable of. Landreth outlines ten tenets that together form the framework from which the therapist approaches every child. Children are not miniature adults. The therapist does not respond to them as if they were. Children are people. Th

From Nondirective Therapy to Child-Centred Play Therapy: A Clinical Overview For clinicians working with children, understanding the theoretical roots of child-centred play therapy (CCPT) is more than historical background — it shapes how we understand the therapeutic relationship, the role of the therapist, and why we do what we do in the playroom. The influence of Carl Rogers The foundations of CCPT trace back to the relational therapy movement and, critically, to Carl Roge

When a child picks up a toy figure and makes it speak, or turns a cardboard box into a spaceship, they are doing far more than pretending. They are thinking. They are processing. They are making sense of their world. Symbolic play — the ability to use one object or action to represent something else — is one of the most significant capacities a child develops. As Jean Piaget observed, it serves as a bridge between concrete experience and abstract thought. A child cannot yet r

At the heart of play therapy is not a technique or a set of activities — it is a relationship. As Garry Landreth describes in The Art of the Relationship, the process of play therapy rests on the connection formed between the therapist and the child. It is not something that is achieved or accomplished in a single session. Rather, it unfolds through shared interactions, facilitated by genuine caring and total acceptance, in which the child is given permission to expand their

Play is a child’s natural language. When children are emotionally well-adjusted, they play freely and spontaneously — exploring their surroundings with curiosity, moving through activities with ease. When something is troubling them, they bring it out concretely through play: working through frustration, expressing sadness, and navigating problems with a sense of focus and direction. Even when big emotions arise, an adjusted child can express them without becoming destructive