Covering the process of therapy from beginning to end, this engaging text helps students and practitioners use play confidently and effectively with children, adolescents, and adults struggling with emotional or behavioral problems or life challenges.

With an accessible theory-to-practice focus, the book explains the basics of different play therapy approaches and invites readers to reflect on and develop their own clinical style. It is filled with rich case material and specific examples of play techniques and strategies.

The expert authors provide steps for building strong relationships with clients; exploring their clinical issues and underlying dynamics; developing and working toward clear treatment goals; and collaborating with parents and teachers.

A chapter on common challenges offers insightful guidance for navigating difficult situations in the playroom.

Internal Family Systems Therapy with Children details the application of IFS in child psychotherapy. The weaving together of theory, step-by-step instruction, and case material gives child therapists a clear roadmap for understanding and utilizing the healing power of this modality.

In addition, any IFS therapist will deepen their understanding of the theory and practice of Internal Family Systems by reading how it is practiced with children. This book also covers the use of IFS in parent guidance, an important aspect of any therapeutic work with families or adult individuals with children.

The poignant and humorous vignettes of children’s therapy along with their IFS artwork make it an enjoyable and informative read.

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, such as 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.

One Child is a beautiful and deeply moving tale that recounts educational psychologist Torey Hayden's battle to unlock the emotions of a troubled and sexually abused child. With the help of Hayden, this child was finally able to overcome her dark past and realize her full potential.

Six-year-old Sheila was abandoned by her mother on a highway when she was just four years old. A survivor of horrific abuse, she never spoke, never cried, and was placed in a class for severely retarded children after committing an atrocious act of violence against another child.

Everyone thought Sheila was beyond salvation—except her teacher, Torey Hayden. With patience, skill, and abiding love, Torey fought long and hard to release a haunted little girl from her secret nightmare and nurture the spark of genius she recognized trapped within Sheila's silence.

This is the remarkable story of their journey together—an odyssey of hope, courage, and inspiring devotion that opened the heart and mind of one lost child to a new world of discovery and joy.