WHAT IS COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL PLAY THERAPY (CBPT)?
CBPT integrates cognitive and behavioral interventions into a play therapy paradigm. Playful activity, as well as non-verbal forms of verbal communication, are used to promote the development of problem solving skills.
Therefore, the CBPT proposes a conceptual framework based on the principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy, and making them appropriate to the child’s developmental level.
The design of specific play therapy interventions for young children facilitates their direct involvement in therapy. By providing these types of developmental interventions, the psychotherapist helps children benefit from a type of psychotherapy that may otherwise be inaccessible to them.
Through CBPT, it is possible to learn more adaptive coping skills and offer structured and goal-oriented activities. It also provides a space where the child can bring out a spontaneous contribution in the session and successfully express their experiences.
ENHANCE YOUR CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY SKILLS
Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy is a therapeutic intervention that adapts CBT techniques in a play setting with children who take an active role in the process of change and problem mastery.
It is based on cognitive and behavioral theories of emotional development and psychopathology and defines an integrated psychotherapy model that incorporates empirically supported techniques with the use of play therapy (Knell, 1993; Geraci, 2022).
ARTICLES
Treatment of childhood phobias with CBPT
Although fear is part of every child's development, if excessive and persistent it can turn into a specific phobia towards a certain object/situation.
With CBPT the child learns coping skills to deal with feared stimuli and manage the feelings associated with fear through the use of play.
How to fight the child’s anxiety with CBPT
Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in children and adolescent. Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy allows the child to learn specific skills through play that allow him to acquire control and mastery over his negative emotions.
Sexual abuse and the use of play in psychotherapy
Sexual abuse has major traumatic impact and long-term consequences on the child that can persist into adulthood. Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT) offers children a conceptual framework that gives them the opportunity to reveal what has happened and indirectly express their emotions, thoughts and beliefs.
Parental divorce and CBPT
Parental divorce is considered a highly stressful experience that often accelerates manifestation of a complex range of symptoms in children. CBPT allows children who are facing a divorce during their development to acquire specific skills that will determine their ability to cope with the event.
Selective Mutism and CBPT
Children with Selective Mutism have control over their silence. To change, therefore, they must take control of their speech. Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT) is effective because it allows children to be part of the change, to experience a sense of mastery and control over speaking, and to learn more adaptive responses to situations that cause silence.
Encopresis and CBPT
Knell and Moore presented the case of a five-year-old child with primary nonretentive encopresis and a language disorder. The treatment included a structured, focused, cognitive-behavioral play therapy program in combination with a behavioral management program implemented by the parents.
Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Play intervention (CBPI) on children’s hope and school adaptation
Children with difficult school adjustment are at risk of developing future problematic behaviors. Therefore, it is crucial to increase their coping skills and positive school adjustment in the early school years.