This study was concerned with determining the effectiveness of play therapy as measured by behavioral changes in interpersonal relationships, mature behavior patterns, and more adequate use of intellectual capacities. Client-centered play therapy appears to have grown out of the concept that it is the relationship between the therapist and the child that brings about change and growth. Rather than diagnostic or as preliminary to therapy, the relationship itself is seen as therapy. Problems are seen not in terms of their historical past, but rather as they exist in the immediate present and in terms of the child's own means of expression. The relationship offers to the child the opportunity to experience growth under the most favorable conditions. Like its adult counterpart, client-centered counseling, client-centered play therapy is based upon the hypotheses that the individual has within himself the capacity for growth and self-direction, and that these growth impulses are released within the therapeutic relationship established between the therapist and the child. This study was conducted to investigate changes in behavior which occur as a result of play therapy and to determine that such changes do not occur in the absence of play therapy. It was a direct outgrowth of an ongoing program developed at the Pupil Appraisal Center of North Texas.

The problem of this study was a descriptive analysis of the process of client-centered play therapy. The purposes of this study were (l) to investigate and describe the patterns of play activities, nonverbal expressions, and verbal comments during the process of client-centered play therapy; (2) to determine whether phases of emotional and/or social development do exist during the process of client-centered play therapy; and, (3) to describe any identified phases of emotional and/or social development that exist during the process of client-centered play therapy.