PLAY THERAPY INSTRUCTION: A MODEL BASED ON OBJECTIVES DEVELOPED BY THE DELPHI TECHNIQUE

The purpose of this study was to determine the core skills/methods and practicum experiences play therapy experts and professors believe to be essential in the education of the beginning play therapist in the specific areas of theory, history, terms, organizations, authors who have contributed to the field, methods, skills, training in special populations, practicum experience, and advanced skills. Using the Delphi technique, two questionnaires were used to obtain opinions from play therapy experts and play therapy instructors. The first scale was sent to twelve play therapy experts to obtain their opinions on the core curriculum and experiences necessary for training a play therapist in an introductory play therapy class, practicum experience, and advanced play therapy training. Frequencies and means were obtained and used to delete and add items for the revised scale. The revised scale was sent to 180 play therapy professors. Fifty play therapy professors returned the instrument. The professor's ratings were used to develop curriculum content for training play therapists.