Theraplay: Helping Parents and Children Build Better Relationships Through Attachment-Based Play

Using Play to Develop Trust and Joy in Parent-Child Relationships

Theraplay, modeled on the natural, playful patterns of healthy interaction between parent and child, helps troubled families develop the responsiveness and structure vital to a child?s development. Theraplay shows parents how to use play to communicate love and authority and to engage their children in interactions that develop competence, self-esteem?and trust.

Booth?s revised edition brilliantly integrates Jernberg?s innovative approach with recent research on attachment and the effect of stress and trauma on child development. In a clear, forceful style and illustrated by vivid therapeutic vignettes, Theraplay demonstrates how this creative and joyful treatment can help even the most challenging children and their families.

"This well-organized, detailed book . . . will delight both neophyte and experienced professional. . . . Theraplay has the capacity to transform [an] insecure parent-child relationship . . . to one of mutual pleasure and trust."--Miriam Elson, author, Self Psychology in Clinical Social Work

"This is a much-needed resource, and I highly recommend it."?Charles E. Schaefer, professor of psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University

"Theraplay should be mandatory for every child placed in foster care or an adoptive home."?Kevin O?Connor, author, The Play Therapy Primer

"Booth has made explicit the reality of ?attachment-based play? that is Theraplay. She has gone further than the first edition in integrating parents into the treatment. . . . By giving parents the skills to take the interventions home, she enables Theraplay to be a much more effective brief therapy method." --Daniel A. Hughes, author, Facilitating Developmental Attachment

"Helping to create, restructure, or restore a child-parent relationship is an awesome task and a sacred trust. The Theraplay method provides a structure for working with both children and their caregivers to develop robust, wholesome relationships."?Beverly James, author, Treating Traumatized Children and Handbook for Treatment of Attachment-Trauma Problems.

New edition of a discussion of the lively, engaging, playful treatment method that produces remarkable changes in the lives of children and their families in a short time. The methods addresses four major problems--inadequate structure in daily experience; too little personal engagement; insufficient empathic, nurturing touch; and failure to provide the right kinds of challenge. It also presents strategies for treatment and specific applications of the method. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Using Play to Develop Trust and Joy in Parent-Child Relationships

Theraplay, modeled on the natural, playful patterns of healthy interaction between parent and child, helps troubled families develop the responsiveness and structure vital to a childs development. Theraplay shows parents how to use play to communicate love and authority and to engage their children in interactions that develop competence, self-esteemand trust.

Booths revised edition brilliantly integrates Jernbergs innovative approach with recent research on attachment and the effect of stress and trauma on child development. In a clear, forceful style and illustrated by vivid therapeutic vignettes, Theraplay demonstrates how this creative and joyful treatment can help even the most challenging children and their families.

"This well-organized, detailed book . . . will delight both neophyte and experienced professional. . . . Theraplay has the capacity to transform [an] insecure parent-child relationship . . . to one of mutual pleasure and trust."--Miriam Elson, author, Self Psychology in Clinical Social Work

"This is a much-needed resource, and I highly recommend it."Charles E. Schaefer, professor of psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University

"Theraplay should be mandatory for every child placed in foster care or an adoptive home."Kevin OConnor, author, The Play Therapy Primer

"Booth has made explicit the reality of attachment-based play that is Theraplay. She has gone further than the first edition in integrating parents into the treatment. . . . By giving parents the skills to take the interventions home, she enables Theraplay to be a much more effective brief therapy method." --Daniel A. Hughes, author, Facilitating Developmental Attachment

"Helping to create, restructure, or restore a child-parent relationship is an awesome task and a sacred trust. The Theraplay method provides a structure for working with both children and their caregivers to develop robust, wholesome relationships."Beverly James, author, Treating Traumatized Children and Handbook for Treatment of Attachment-Trauma Problems.

"Helping to create, restructure, or restore a child-parent relationship is an awesome task and a sacred trust. The Theraplay method provides a structure for working with both children and their caregivers to develop robust.

ANN M. JERNBERG (1927 - 1993) was the founder of The Theraplay Institute. PHYLLIS B. BOOTH is the director of training at The Theraplay Institute.

1. Theraplay: History and Method.

2. Theraplay Sessions and Instructions for the Therapist.

3. Individual Theraplay for Children.

4. Group Theraplay for Children.

5. Family Theraplay.

6. Special Settings for Treatment.

7. Underactive and Overactive Children.

8. Handicapped Children.

9. Autistic Children.

10. Adolescents.

11. Adults.

12. Selecting and Training Theraplay Therapists.

13. Future Directions.