What Does It Mean to be a Registered Play Therapist?

The Registered Play Therapist credential is awarded by the Association for Play Therapy to those licensed mental health professionals with specialized training and experience in play therapy.  In short, these are the requirements:

License - Current and active individual state license to independently provide clinical mental health services

Educational Degrees - Master’s or higher mental health degree with demonstrated coursework in child development, theories of personality, principles of psychotherapy, and child & adolescent psychopathology, and ethics

Clinical Experience - General clinical experience required by state licensure roughly equivalent to 2 years and 2,000 hours of general mental health clinical experience

Play Therapy Training - 150 hours of play therapy specific instruction from institutions of higher education or APT-approved providers

Supervised Play Therapy Experience & Supervision - 500 hours of supervised play therapy specific experience plus 50 hours of concurrent play therapy specific supervision

A Registered Play Therapist must also receive 18 hours of play therapy specific instruction from institutions of higher education every 36 months. 

I did it!