Peggy L. Ceballos

Integration of Structured Expressive Activities Within a Humanistic Group Play Therapy Format for Preadolescents

The integration of expressive activities in play groups with preadolescents encourages them to reach more deeply into their own resources, enabling them to handle future challenges more effectively. Developmental and therapeutic rationale, along with research support, is given for the integration of creative activities into a humanistic play group format for this population. Developmentally responsive activities that foster self-expression and interaction are described in detail to allow practitioners to incorporate them into their own work with this population.

Collaborating With Parents to Establish Behavioral Goals in Child-Centered Play Therapy

The purpose of this article is to provide specific guidelines for child-centered play therapists to set behavioral outcome goals to effectively work with families and to meet the demands for accountability in the managed care environment. The child-centered play therapy orientation is the most widely practiced approach among play therapists who identify a specific theoretical orientation. While information about setting broad objectives is addressed using this approach to therapy, explicit guidelines for setting behavioral goals, while maintaining the integrity of the child-centered theoretical orientation, are needed. The guidelines are presented in three phases of parent consultation: (a) the initial engagement with parents, (b) the ongoing parent consultations, and (c) the termination phase. In keeping with the child-centered approach, the authors propose to work with parents from a person-centered orientation and seek to appreciate how cultural influences relate to parents’ concerns and goals for their children. A case example is provided to demonstrate how child-centered play therapists can accomplish the aforementioned goals.

Empowering Head Start African American and Latino Families: Promoting Strengths-Based Parenting Characteristics Through Child Parent Relationship Training—An Evidence-Based Group Parenting Program

With the tendency of low-income African American and Latino children identified at-risk for school readiness and school success compared to their early-childhood counterparts, Head Start personnel are challenged to examine the role of family strengths in the promotion of academic success for these populations. This article provides a rationale for the use of an empirically supported, strengths-based parenting program, Child Parent Relationship Training (CPRT), when working with low-income Head Start African American and Latino families. An examination of the shared objectives of CPRT and key domains within the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework (2003) are also highlighted.

Self-Acceptance, Parental Self-Efficacy, and Impression Management in Lesbian and Gay Parents

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore the hypothesis that lower levels of self-acceptance in lesbian and gay parents would account for a significant amount of variability in parental satisfaction and parental efficacy over and above that accounted for by demographics and impression management. A hierarchal regression (N = 324) indicated that negative identity was negatively correlated with parental satisfaction (β = –.34) and on parental efficacy (β = –.20). Results, limitations of the study, and clinical implications are discussed.

The Impact of Supervised Filial Therapy Training on Attitude, Knowledge, and Skills

Research in filial therapy has provided strong support for its efficacy in improving parent–child relationships. While studies have extensively examined the impact of filial therapy training on parent and child participants, to date, no study has examined the training experiences of filial therapists. Using a mixed methodological approach, we examined the impact of supervised filial therapy training on graduate counseling students’ play therapy attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Twenty-three students voluntarily participated in the study. We conducted paired-sample t-tests to evaluate the impact of a filial therapy course on students’ scores on the Play Therapy Attitude–Knowledge–Skills Survey. From pretest to posttest, there were statistically significant improvements and a large effect size on students’ scores in the knowledge and skills subscales. To gain a deeper understanding of participants’ experiences and explore their perceptions of the supervised filial training, we also utilized individual interviews. Participants discussed their reactions to leading a filial therapy group and participating in supervision. They also described the impact of the training on their beliefs about parents, children, and the dynamics of parent–child relationships. We discuss limitations and implications of the study.

Addressing the Needs of Low-Income School-Age Children: A Teaching Model

With a disproportionate number of children living in poverty in the United States, counseling preparation programs have the responsibility to enhance social justice and multicultural competencies for counseling trainees. The authors delineate a teaching model for an advanced school counseling course to enhance counseling trainees’ commitment to social justice and leadership skills when working at low-income schools. Course assignments, videos, experiential activities, as well as students’ reported perceptions of their participation will be explored.