Our mission is to ensure that professionals, parents, and others concerned with the mental health and welfare of children are able to access credible, peer-reviewed, research findings related to the effectiveness of play therapy. Furthermore, we seek to summarize and disseminate play therapy research for the purpose of improving clinical practice based on empirical findings.
This database aims to include all available play therapy intervention outcome research from 1995 to the present published or translated into English. Intervention must meet the definition of play therapy and outcomes must demonstrate credible quantitative methods and analyses for inclusion in the database.
This database aims to include all available play therapy intervention outcome research from 1995 to the present published or translated into English. Intervention must meet the definition of play therapy and outcomes must demonstrate credible quantitative methods and analyses for inclusion in the database.
Research Spotlight
Child Teacher Relationship Training Research
Dr. Terri Gonzales-Ball
Every month the Center for Play Therapy publishes short informational videos or recent and exciting research in play therapy explained by the researchers themselves. Check out who’s talking this month!
Play therapy is the systematic application of a theoretical model to establish an interpersonal process wherein trained play therapists help children express and explore their emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and experiences using play. Play therapy is grounded in the principle that play is the child’s innate form of expression and thereby, play therapists design the therapeutic environment using intentionally selected materials for the purposes of facilitating optimal growth and development of children.
This definition was adapted from the Association for Play Therapy (a4pt.org) and from Garry Landreth (2024).
University of North Texas
