Research study shows lasting value in play

October 17, 2018
Categories: Research Tags: Academic Affairs, Cato College of Education, Graduate School, Research

Krystal Turner, a graduate assistant in the Graduate School, recently participated in the annual conference of the Association of Play Therapy (APT) in Phoenix where she helped promote graduate education at UNC Charlotte and presented the research project “Child/Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) for Adoptive Families: Parents’ Lived Experiences.”

Turner, who is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, joined a research team led by Assistant Professor Kristie Opiola, Department of Counseling in the Cato College of Education. Graduate students Lauren Chase, Jenna Taylor and Rebecca Blanchard also are research team members. The Graduate School and the Department of Counseling jointly sponsored the team’s participation in the conference.

The research team’s presentation concludes there is a substantial benefit to adoptive parents who participate in Child/Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT), a play therapy-based treatment program for young children. In the study, parents using CPRT reported feeling a stronger bond with their children and were better able to understand how they perceived themselves in their world.

“The APT conference brings together play therapist theorists, practitioners and aspiring therapists to partake in workshops to help strengthen their education and remain up to date on changing practices,” Turner said. “In addition to our poster, we also ran a booth to promote the UNC Charlotte Graduate School as well as the UNC Charlotte Multicultural Play Therapy Center.”

APT launched in 1982 to provide mental health professionals a forum to share information on therapeutic play to communicate with and treat primarily children. The annual conference draws almost 1,000 participants, including graduate students, counselors, psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals.

Photo: UNC Charlotte counseling research members who participated in the APT conference, left to right, Lauren Chase, Kristie Opiola, Krystal Turner, Jenna Taylor and Rebecca Blanchard.