This is the latest edition of Garry Landreth's comprehensive text on creating therapeutic relationships with children through play. This book details Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), an evidence-based model, which stresses the importance of understanding the child's world. Professors who have taught a course based on the previous editions will be pleased to find the core message intact but updated with a comprehensive review of rigorous contemporary research demonstrating the strong evidence base for CCPT across cultural groups and presenting issues. Expanded to cover additional topics of interest, this new edition includes a model of the change process in CCPT and 13 new Rules of Thumb that help clarify the CCPT relationship, and discusses deeper issues in CCPT, such as recognizing emotional blocks in play therapy, being culturally responsive, discovering meaning when there seems to be no meaning, and more. This new edition offers essential help to play therapists who respond to sensitive issues at every stage of the therapeutic process.