How CBPT guides play toward therapeutic goals · CBPT Research Center
THE METHOD
Directive Play Therapy
In Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy the clinician actively guides the play — structured and goal-oriented, while the child stays an active participant.
In CBPT the clinician guides the play toward defined goals, while the child stays active.
Directive vs non-directive
Play therapies span a spectrum. In non-directive approaches the child leads; in directive approaches the clinician structures the session toward defined goals. CBPT is directive: it brings the rigor of cognitive-behavioral therapy into play, with the therapist designing the intervention.
Crucially, the child is never passive: within a guided structure, the child becomes an active agent of change.
In a CBPT session
- Orientation, assessment and middle stages
- Structured and unstructured play, used purposefully
- Empirically supported behavioral and cognitive techniques
In CBPT the child is no longer a passive subject, but the active author of their own improvement.
— Maria A. Geraci, CBPT faculty
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