The present status of research on nondirective play therapy.

Interpersonal assessment of play therapy outcome.

“…Three reviews have summarized research in play therapy (Dorfman, 1951;Lebo, 1953;and Levitt, 1957). Levitt used Eysenck's method of deriving a base point of improvement without therapy and then comparing reported changes brought about by therapy.…”

Psychotherapy and the placebo effect.

“…This poses a knotty problem for proponents of various specific forms of psychotherapy who are convinced that their successes result from their particular theory or technique and wish to convince others of this. As a result, problems of research design in psychotherapy have been receiving more and more critical attention in recent years, especially with reference to controls (6,11,20,23,24,25,27,31,34,35,38,39).…”

Is Individual Child Play Therapy Effective?

“…There are many different forms of play therapy. Play therapies are often categorized as either nondirective (Lebo, 1953) or directive (Leggett & Boswell, 2017) in approach, though some models employ both nondirective and direct components (Efron, 1981; Kenney-Noziska, Schaefer, & Homeyer, 2012). There are many named models of play therapy, including child-centered play therapy (CCPT), Theraplay, cognitive behavioral play therapy, sandtray, and others.…”