You work with children and teens, and want to develop your expertise.  Possibly, you have heard of other therapists using play in their sessions and you are curious and want to know more.  It is not uncommon to hear about therapists introducing toys and games in their sessions without fully understanding how to apply proper play therapy techniques and have deeper understanding of how to work with children and teens in therapy.  This may look like the therapist bringing toys or games into their sessions, but still asking questions and conducting “talk therapy” to address the problematic behaviors or intense emotions that a child or teen is experiencing. Research has shown us that talking is not the most effective way to communicate with children. The human brain does not fully develop until the mid twenties and language development in children lags behind cognitive development. According to Landreth and Bratton (1999) “Efforts to communicate with children on an exclusive verbal level assume the presence of a well-developed facility for expression through speech and thus confine children to a medium that is often awkward and unnecessarily restrictive. Play is to the child what verbalization is to the adult. It is a medium for expressing feelings, exploring relationships, describing experiences, disclosing wishes, and self-fulfillment.” 

The Association for Play Therapy is an organization that has developed a strategic process where therapists receive the trainings they need, the experience utilizing what they have learned from those trainings and expert supervision that lead to certification and the credential of Registered Play Therapist™.