Child-parent relationship therapy

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Garry Landreth, Sue Bratton

What it is

CPRT is a time-limited, group-based form of filial therapy. A play therapist trained in child-centred play therapy (CCPT) teaches parents or carers the core attitudes and skills of CCPT. Each parent then holds a weekly 30-minute, child-led "special playtime" with one child at home. The parent…

Format

• Format. The group has 5 to 8 parents, with grandparents and other carers welcome. It meets for 10 weekly sessions of about 2 hours, in a room big enough for about 10 people. Settings include community agencies, clinics, hospitals and schools, including day care and day treatment. CEBC gives the…
• Two phases. Sessions 1 to 3 are an instruction-and-preparation phase. The group builds safety and acceptance, and the therapist teaches CCPT attitudes and skills through teaching, demonstration and role-play. Sessions 4 to 10 are a supervised-practice phase. Parents hold weekly home play sessions,…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• CPRT is a time-limited, group-based form of filial therapy. A play therapist trained in child-centred play therapy (CCPT) teaches parents or carers the core attitudes and skills of CCPT. Each parent then holds a weekly 30-minute, child-led "special playtime" with one child at home. The parent video-records it and brings it back to the group for supervision. The book's central premise is that a parent can act as the…
• Who may deliver the full protocol. UNT CPT certifies three levels. Level 1 (Associate/Parent Educator) may use the didactic content but may not run the full protocol, and a licence is not required. Level 2 (Certified CPRT Practitioner) may run the 10-session protocol. It requires a current independent mental-health licence (counselling, MFT, psychiatry, psychology or social work), prior CCPT certification, CPRT 101…
• Expected competence. CEBC lists the provider as a licensed mental-health professional, or co-leaders, with extensive CCPT training plus CPRT training and supervision. Do not run the full protocol without CCPT competence and supervised CPRT groups. The model depends on the leader being able to demonstrate CCPT live and to supervise parents' videos skilfully.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Version followed: the 10-session CPRT protocol for parents of children aged roughly 1 to 10 years, as set out in Landreth & Bratton, Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT): An Evidence-Based 10-Session Filial Therapy Model (2nd ed., Routledge, 2019) and its companion CPRT Treatment Manual…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Homework becoming another source of parental guilt. Keep it brief.
• Over-using limits outside play. Remind parents that empathy comes first.
• Parents slipping back into "good job". Use this as a lead-in to session 8.
• Parents treating the attitudes as more phrases to say. Stress the intention behind them.
• Parents being embarrassed in role-play. Lead the first round yourself, playing a demanding "child".

Problems the guide addresses

• Children: consent, assent and safeguarding (applies throughout)
• Family violence screening and ongoing monitoring
• Parent does not hold the home play sessions
• Parent ashamed of, or refusing to show, a recording
• Parent's own emotional needs dominating
• Parent keeps questioning, teaching or directing in sessions
• Child escalates or keeps testing limits
• Child refuses playtime, finds it babyish, or wants screens
• Cultural fit and parenting values
• Parent in crisis, or with severe mental illness or substance misuse

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.