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Join an interdisciplinary group of professionals and gain the skills to engage a diverse range of children in play-based creative and expressive arts that support their developmental and mental health. This advanced certificate is culturally competent and imagination based. You will learn how to support families and understand cultural and social contexts. Fieldwork in school or community settings will enhance your ability to create environments that facilitate healthy growth, recognize and respond to trauma using play therapy, and engage children and families in play-based interventions.
This advanced certificate program is tailored to the needs of community providers in schools, community-based organizations and agencies, mental health centers, and hospitals. It can enhance your credentials for a career in school psychology, counseling, nursing, social work, and many other professions. The certificate may be applied toward earning the Registered Play Therapist (RPT) and Registered Play Supervisor (RPT-S) credentials conferred by the Association for Play Therapy.
The program information listed here reflects the approved curriculum for the 2024–25 academic year per the Brooklyn College Bulletin. Bulletins from past academic years can be found here.
The program in Play Therapy provides a culturally competent, imagination-based, creative approach to supporting children’s development and learning through environmental design, arts and play-based interventions.
Play therapy is an applied approach that draws on the connection between emotional, creative and cognitive growth in childhood. It is applicable to a variety of environments with diverse children who present with typical development or with developmental, learning, linguistic, or behavioral concerns. It is the intervention of choice for children and their families who have experienced life disruptions including divorce, loss, dislocation and migration, illness, or trauma, including abuse, neglect, violence, war and natural disasters.
The program provides graduate-level training for clinicians and graduate students in creative arts therapy, mental health counseling, school counseling, psychology, school psychology, social work, marriage and family therapy, psychoanalysis, medicine/physician assistant, nursing or other appropriate professions.
Mental health clinicians who complete the Play Therapy, Advanced Certificate may apply for the RPT Registered Play Therapist (RPT) and Supervisor (RPT-S) credentials conferred by the Association for Play Therapy (APT).
Brooklyn College’s Play Therapy Project, of which the Play Therapy Advanced Certificate is a key component, has been designated by APT as both an approved center of play therapy education and an approved provider of play therapy continuing education.
Candidates should hold a graduate degree in a related counseling profession or be an advanced graduate student enrolled in a program that leads to certification or licensure in a counseling, applied psychology, mental health or health related profession. General matriculation and admission requirements of graduate studies are in the section “Admission” of the Graduate Bulletin.
The Advanced Certificate in Play Therapy presents a sequence of four courses for a total of 12 credits, structured sequentially to provide background in play therapy and to develop students’ proficiency in the practice and supervision of play therapy with diverse populations. The applied emphasis of the program will strengthen students’ clinical skills with children and families and enhance their professional opportunities in a variety of settings.
Twelve credits of coursework completed with a grade point average of B or better are required for the advanced certificate.
Students must complete all of the following courses:
SPCL 7948: Play Therapy Applications for Special Populations
SPCL 7949: Advanced Seminar in Play Therapy Practice and Supervision
SPCL 7950: Introduction to Play Therapy
SPCL 7951: Multicultural and Social Justice Advocacy in Play Therapy
Refer to the instructions at Graduate Admissions.
1101 James Hall E: Abdelaziz.elmadani@brooklyn.cuny.edu P: 718.951.5876
Or contact:
222 West Quad Center 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210 E: grads@brooklyn.cuny.edu P: 718.951.4536
Mondays–Fridays, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
To make an appointment with a graduate admissions counselor, visit:
BC Admissions Appointment Tool
Brooklyn College is an integral part of the cultural and artistic energy of New York City. Our faculty members in the School Psychology, Counseling & Leadership Department offer incomparable expertise and tremendous talent, and each brings a unique perspective to their teaching and mentoring in and out of the classroom.
Students complete supervised clinical work as part of their courses. The clinical experiences are designed to hone the requisite skills and knowledge for them to work as play therapists. Our graduates are hired by school districts, hospitals, clinics, early childhood centers, and universities locally and nationwide.
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