How to Become a Play Therapist

If you have a desire to work with wounded children, teens, adults, couples and families and are considering expanding your counseling practice to include play therapy, you may be wondering how to become a play therapist. Mary Ruth Cross at The Academy for Play Therapy Training, offers courses and workshops specifically designed for counselors and therapists to either begin or continue their journey to becoming a Registered Play Therapist. We offer workshops that invite you into the experience of play therapy so that you grow and deepen your understanding of your clients and yourself as a play therapist.

Requirements for how to become a Registered Play Therapist

Mary Ruth Cross and the Association for Play Therapy offers credentials in play therapy based in part on receiving 150 continuing education credentials in play therapy specific programs. However, there are certain other requirements that must be met before the Registered Play Therapist designation is given. These include:

Holding a current, active, and unconditional individual state license to independently provide clinical mental health services in one of the following general practice disciplines: counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychiatry, psychology, or social work.
Required to hold a master’s or higher clinical mental health degree in one of the following disciplines: counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychiatry, psychology, or social work.
Demonstrated coursework in: child development; theories of personality; principles of psychotherapy; child & adolescent psychopathology; and ethics.
Required to include documentation of a minimum of 350 direct client contact hours, under the supervision of a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor (RPT-S).
Required to include documentation of a minimum of 35 hours of play therapy supervision and five (5) session observations during the accumulation of the supervised play therapy experience.

At The Academy for Play Therapy Training, our play therapy training workshops and annual retreat are lead by Mary Ruth Cross, approved by the Association for Play Therapy. While learning how to become a Registered Play Therapist may sound overwhelming, we try to make it as innovative and exciting as possible by offering a wide range of engaging and experiential workshops facilitated by instructor Mary Ruth Cross, Registered Play Therapist-Supervisors through the Association for Play Therapy.

Play Therapy Certification Near Me

If you are a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, or Licensed Educational Psychologist near San Francisco, then you are in luck. The Academy for Play Therapy Training is located in the San Francisco Bay area and all workshops are held at Treehouse Family Counseling Services 8 Crow Canyon Court, Suite 205, San Ramon, CA 94583.

We also offer an intensive multiple day retreat once a year where clinicians can explore the world of play therapy away from the distractions of everyday life and earn continuing education credentials as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. This exciting and interactive retreat is a three day play therapy experience for clinicians at every level. Spark It Up! Play Therapy Retreat is about growing your understanding of play therapy through experiential application of play and specialized training to better understand yourself as a play therapist and as a provider of the art of play therapy. Our retreat will be held at the beautiful San Damiano Retreat Center in the beautiful hills of Northern California.

At this retreat you will personally discover how to:

Find your own inner “Play-er”
Dig deeper to understand yourself and others
Connect to a variety of play
Express yourself through play and expressive arts
Use play and expressive therapy interventions
Learn how to improve your energy for developing a playful counseling practice and utilize evidence based interventions that you can apply to your own practice
Enhance your understanding of brain functions and play while you explore playful ways of connecting
Gain feelings of thriving, support and connection

If you are a mental health professional looking to expand your practice to include play therapy and are wondering how to become a Registered Play Therapist, we hope that you will consider the training workshops or yearly retreat offered by Mary Ruth Cross at The Academy of Play Therapy Training. Mary Ruth Cross is approved by the Association for Play Therapy as a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor. For more information or to inquire about our workshops, please send us an email at maryruth@tcservices.org or lesliebakermft@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.