200509 18-1 Why Being & Doing That Way? -Exploring Play Therapists’ Attitude Toward Therapy

SHU-CHEN KAO
National Changhua University of Education

Play therapists need special training to successfully working with children’s psychotherapy needs. Play therapy knowledge, skill, and attitude are three important dimensions for therapists to acquire, and the importance of play therapists’ attitude can’t be overemphasized. This article approaches the question of content of attitude that advanced play therapists holds for their play therapy profession. A preliminary study was done to confirm researcher’s sumption: play therapy attitude is more complex and takes longer time to acquire. A qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with seven advanced play therapists to learn about their experiences as play therapists. It was concluded that play therapists’ attitude consists of four major themes: view of children, building a therapeutic relationship, therapy beliefs, and professional commitment. It assumes that a play therapist will be getting broader view of children; knowing better what s/he believes about the play therapy process; actively compromising among self, child, and important adults in the child’s live; and is willing to commit to the play therapy profession. Based on the findings, some discussions were offered and suggestions were made for beginning play therapy trainees, play therapy trainers, and future researchers.

Keywords
Play therapist, play therapy attitude, attitude content

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