The Center for Studies of Play Therapy (CSPT) is housed in the Department of Counselor Education at New Jersey City University. We are proud to announce that CSPT is the very first Center of Play Therapy Education in the state of New Jersey approved by the Association for Play Therapy (APT). CSPT is passionate about promoting play therapy by providing professionals and students with training opportunities and by reaching out to communities to offer play therapy services. In addition, we are in support of licensed mental health professionals to obtain a certification of Registered Play Therapist (RPT) issued by APT.

For more details about play therapy, please visit the Association for Play Therapy website.

NJCU Counseling Program currently offers three graduate level play therapy courses: 

• COUN 642 Play Therapy (offered Summer I; COUN 601, COUN 605, COUN 607, COUN 608 are prerequisites)

This course provides an overview of the history, theory, and applications of play therapy. Play materials and tools are introduced and integrated into ethical and culturally-sensitive counseling practice. A video-recorded experiential component working with children focuses on understanding the therapeutic process and developing basic play therapy skills.

• COUN 644  Parent-Child Play Therapy  (offered Spring semester; COUN 642 is a prerequisite)

This course provides a comprehensive study of filial therapy. Students develop advanced child-centered play therapy skills and learn how to work with a child’s system to facilitate relational and systemic change by conducting Child Parent Relationship Therapy with parents under supervision of the instructor. Ethical, cultural, and clinical issues in parent-child play therapy are examined.

• COUN 613 

As one of the requirements to be certified as a Registered Play Therapist, APT requires 150 clock hours of play therapy specific coursework or training. (For more detailed information on becoming RPT, please visit the APT website for the RPT & RPT-S credentials.) The aforementioned graduate-level play therapy courses at NJCU will be most likely counted toward the coursework requirements. Those two courses are aligned with the contents that APT requires. However, APT alone holds the right to accept or deny any continuing education training at its discretion. 

• Play Therapy Internship (for clinicians currently seeking RPT)

You must be employed or willing to find a site which allows you to professionally practice play therapy techniques with children or adolescents in order to be in this internship class. Hours for this internship class can be counted toward the 50 hours of concurrent play therapy specific supervision which is one of the requirements for becoming RPT.