This article describes a large (n=1166) and comprehensive survey undertaken regarding important practices, issues, and perceptions of play therapy for children. Data were collected from four different sources with representation from the range of professionals practicing play therapy. Survey items dealt with demographic, professional/practice, and clinical issues. The results described here center on issues related to professional/practice issues within the field.

This article reviews the empirical research on process and outcome in play therapy. Attempts to measure the play therapy process and more specific process findings are considered. Outcome research is examined within particular clinical populations or problems. Play therapy with cognitive/ behavioral components is noted as a promising direction from the work so far conducted.

The present article examines play therapy research since Phillips's (1985) review. Play therapy's evidence base remains largely inadequate using specific scientific/ methodological criteria. The most compelling evidence for play therapy's effectiveness is found for children facing medical procedures, although alternative explanations of the same data cannot be disconfirmed. The present conclusions are considered relative to findings from recent meta-analyses of play therapy research. Suggestions are made for improving play therapy research as well as broad questions to guide such research.

This article describes the results from a large (n=1166) and comprehensive survey undertaken regarding important practices, issues, and perceptions of play therapy (PT) for children. Data were collected from four different sources with representation from the range of professionals practicing PT. The results described here center on clinical questions: the age distribution of children typically seen in PT, youngest/oldest children treated in PT, the distribution of boys and girls in PT, criteria used for selecting PT for children, disorders amendable to PT, therapists' estimates ofPT effectiveness, and factors that most determine success in PT.Is play therapy (PT) suitable for boys and girls of all ages? Are there upper or lower age limits that ought to guide play therapists' (PTs) treatment decisions? What other criteria do PTs use in determining whether a child should receive PT? Are there disorders for which PT is most effective? How effective is PT? What are the factors that most determine success in PT? These are some of the clinical issues that exist in the PT field and which are addressed in the present research based on Roger D. Phillips, Ph.D. directs research at Pinebrook Services for Children and Youth (Whitehall, PA), and is Psychology Resident at the Center for Integrative Psychotherapy (Allentown, PA).

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