Play therapy

Play therapy
Children playing during a session with a psychologist
ICD-9-CM	93.81, 94.36
MeSH	D010989
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Play therapy refers to a range of methods of capitalising on children's natural urge to explore and harnessing it to meet and respond to the developmental and later also their mental health needs. It is also used for forensic or psychological assessment purposes where the individual is too young or too traumatised to give a verbal account of adverse, abusive or potentially criminal circumstances in their life.

Play therapy is extensively acknowledged by specialists as an effective intervention in complementing children's personal and inter-personal development. Play and play therapy are generally employed with children aged six months through late adolescence and young adulthood. They provide a contained way for them to express their experiences and feelings through an imaginative self-expressive process in the context of a trusted relationship with the care giver or therapist.^[1] As children's and young people's experiences and knowledge are typically communicated through play, it is an essential vehicle for personality and social development.

In recent years, play therapists in the western hemisphere, as a body of health professionals, are usually members or affiliates of professional training institutions and tend to be subject to codes of ethical practice.^[2]