A Child's First Book About Play Therapy

Note to Parents and Guardians :
This book is intended for young children, ages 4 to 7 or so, for whom psychotherapy is being considered. You can read it to your child, or a child who reads can read it with your help.

There are often many questions about psychological treatment of a young child: What is play therapy? What happens in a session? How does it work? Why do children see a therapist?

This book talks about the following issues that your child's therapist will have explained to you before treatment begins, or may explain to you as treatment progresses :
- things a child does that indicate a possible problem (what therapists call "presenting problems")
- how a child enters treatment (referral);
- confidentiality;
- the therapist's office and equipment;
- the activity of play therapy (what actually happens);
- how a child improves over time;
- how treatment will end (a particularly anxious period for children in treatment) and how a child's anxlety will sometimes cause him or her to temporarily return to problem behavior at that time (temporary regression)