Hello everyone. Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and the weeks leading up to it. Now that we've reached the end of the month, I wanted to share some of the play therapy info I've culled from the world wide web lately. Of course, all of these articles and resources can be found at myplaytherapypage.com, and a complete list of November's play therapy news can be found in the news section.  


-Liana Lowenstein's website is a great resource for any child therapist. Here are a couple of Sandplay articles posted to her site in the past month:

The Power of Worlds in the Playroom by Theresa Fraser
Jungian Sandplay Therapy by Barbara A. Turner, PhD, CST-T, RPT-S


-I guess it was only a matter of time before a social network was created for mental health professionals? The Online Therapy Institute Social Network offers forums, blogging, event info and the like. Is anyone a member?


-The UNICEF site has a couple of moving articles about how play therapy is being used to bring relief to children across the globe:

UNICEF psycho-social teams bring relief to Palestinian children in East Jerusalem
Healing deep emotional wounds with play therapy


-Looking for Play Therapy certification in Canada? Here's some info on the programs offered by the Canadian Association for Child and Play Therapy.


-And, last but not least, this might be my best find of the month. It offers 15 different techniques, some of which will be familiar to a seasoned play therapist, but there were a few that were new to me and quite interesting.

Fifteen Effective Play Therapy Techniques


-And the results are in...or the nominations, at least. The Toy Industry Association has announced the nominees for the Toy of the Year Awards.


-The Irish Times recently published the below article about the use of puppets in play therapy.

Therapy on a puppet string by Ruth O'Connor


-Studies have suggested that early play therapy intervention can be very effective in quelling the various developmental difficulties in children with Autism. Here's a very interesting article from the New York Times about these studies and their findings:

At the Age of Peekaboo, in Therapy to Fight Autism by April Dembosky


-Lastly, I thought I'd list a few of the conferences and workshops coming up in the next two months. For info on more 2011 events, check out our resource page.

Play Therapy Training with Dr. Julie Robinson and Dr. Jill Packman (12/3 & 12/10/2010)
The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Normal Development: The Use of Play Therapy to Promote and Enhance Growth and Resiliency (12/11/2010)
Family Play Therapy (12/11/2010)
Opening Up to the Possibilities in Play and Sand Tray Therapy: An Experiential Workshop (1/14/2011)
Introduction to Sandplay Therapy with Children (2/5/2011)
Using Sandtrays in Art Therapy (2/12 & 2/26/2011)