Play therapy and family therapy are both well-established therapeutic paradigms. Often, however, play therapists have minimal contact with the nuclear family of which their child patient is a member. Similarly, family therapists frequently view young children as disruptive and exclude them from family sessions.

By combining both play and family treatment modalities as this unique book, Family Play Therapy, suggests, therapists can include all family members in a therapeutic process that is more meaningful and therefore more successful.

Family Play Therapy encourages the blending of play therapy and family therapy by discussing and demonstrating various techniques and diverse theoretical approaches that will enable readers to broaden their repertoire when working with families and their young children. Each author describes his or her own creative avenue of expression such as puppetry, psychodrama, and sandplay, which facilitate the family's communication, helping members to find new ways to hear each other.

Family therapy and play therapy need not be mutually exclusive. The two approaches actually can enhance and enrich each other. While each therapist ultimately will use his or her own balance in the critical combining of both methods, Family Play Therapy offers various possibilities and as such, enables therapists to help their family patients readily engage in treatment and experience therapy as an enjoyable, inclusive, transforming time together.