Counseling Children Through the World of Play

Children in today's world sometimes undergo traumatic experiences, such as abuse, divorce of parents, loss of a loved one, school problems. Even trained counselors struggle to find ways to help children process their hurts. This book offers a soundly integrated approach that helps counselors enter the child's world--the world of play--to help them heal. Through play-therapy relationships, counselors, social workers, and other children's workers can help children say with toys what they have difficulty saying with words. Toys become the play therapist's tools to help unlock the healing process for the wounded child.

Daniel S. Sweeney, Ph.D., L.P.C., M.F.C.C., R.P.T.-S, former assistant director of the Center for Play Therapy at the University of North Texas, is now an assistant professor of counseling at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Sweeney has extensive experience working with children and families in his private practice as well as in the settings of therapeutic foster care, community mental health, and pastoral counseling. Sweeney has presented workshops on play therapy, filial therapy, and sandplay at numerous state and national conferences. He has written several articles about play-therapy issues and is the coathor (with Dr. Garry L. Landreth) of Play Therapy Interventions with Children's Problems. Daniel and his wife, Marla, have four children and live in Newberg, Oregon.