The purpose of the present study was to explore the effect of both short-and long term ChildCentered Play Therapy on teacher-student relationship stress. Teachers identified 58 students exhibiting emotional and behavioral difficulties who were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. Students in the short-term intensive play therapy group participated in 16 sessions of play therapy over 8 weeks, and students in the long-term play therapy group participated in 16 sessions over 16 weeks. Results indicated that both intervention groups demonstrated significant improvement in teacher-student relationship stress from pre-to posttest. Post hoc analyses indicated that the short-term intensive intervention demonstrated statistical significance and larger effect sizes in overall total stress, teacher characteristics, and student characteristics. C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.