Play Therapist

Play therapists use the medium of play — the child's natural language — to help children aged approximately 3–12 understand and process difficult experiences: trauma, abuse, bereavement, parental separation, anxiety, attachment difficulties, and emotional and behavioural problems. Therapeutic play models include person-centred play therapy, Adlerian play therapy, cognitive-behavioural play therapy, and filial therapy (working with parents to deliver therapeutic play in the home). You provide a non-directive, child-led therapeutic space in which the child can express what they cannot yet put into words, and you use trained observation and clinical reflection to understand what the child is communicating through play.

Play therapists work in NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), local authority children's services, schools and PRUs, voluntary sector children's charities, residential children's homes, and private practice. You carry a caseload of children, conduct initial clinical assessments, formulate therapeutic goals, deliver individual and sometimes group play therapy, supervise your own practice with a qualified clinical supervisor, and write reports for referrers and multi-agency meetings. Advanced practitioners and those on the Arts Therapies in Children route (ATC) may hold HCPC registration as an Arts Therapist; most play therapists hold BAPT accreditation rather than statutory registration. Senior play therapists supervise trainee practitioners and may develop and lead play therapy services within organisations.

Child mental health need has grown substantially, with NHS CAMHS waiting lists running to months or years in most areas. Play therapy provides an evidence-based, age-appropriate intervention for young children who cannot engage with adult talking therapies. Local authority and voluntary sector investment in children's therapeutic services — driven by adverse childhood experience (ACE) awareness, trauma-informed practice agendas, and early intervention policy — sustains demand outside NHS structures.

BATP accreditation creates a professional quality standard, and the specialised training required — clinical supervision, child development theory, therapeutic models, safeguarding — protects the role from being diluted by lower-qualified workers. The independent practice model means many experienced play therapists can build sustainable private caseloads alongside employed or sessional work. Demand from schools, fostering and adoption services, and children's charities creates a diverse employment base.

Morning: three individual play therapy sessions in a primary school — a six-year-old who has experienced domestic violence (sand tray work), a nine-year-old with complex trauma following family breakdown (person-centred non-directive play), and an eight-year-old with severe anxiety (CBT-informed play approaches). Document session notes and clinical observations. Afternoon: CAMHS clinic — initial assessment of a referred seven-year-old with selective mutism, gathering developmental history from the parent and conducting an observation-based assessment with the child. Attend monthly clinical supervision with an accredited supervisor. Review and update a child protection-related case report.