A Time for Play: Frequently Asked Questions

The short answer is comprehensiveness. Most CE options give you a slice of the field. A Time for Play walks participants through the nine foundational theories of play therapy, starting with Child Centered Play Therapy and working all the way to Theraplay, alongside practical topics like documentation, ethical practice, child psychopharmacology, and case conceptualization from different theoretical lenses.

That range matters because play therapy with a 2-year-old looks different from play therapy with a 16-year-old or a 46-year-old. Clinicians who understand multiple theoretical approaches can actually tailor their work to the client in front of them instead of running one approach for every age.

A season pass guarantees your registration for all 20 In-Person Contact trainings scheduled from August through May, plus optional homework assignments worth an additional 30 hours of non-contact CE credit.

150 hours is the minimum continuing education requirement to apply for the Registered Play Therapist credential, so a full season pass can get you there on its own.

A season pass runs $3,600 for the full 150 hours.

A full season pass is $3,600 and covers all 150 hours you need for the CE requirement. If you'd rather build your own schedule, individual live trainings (in-person or virtual) run $200 for 6 hours. Self-paced, pre-recorded courses range from $100 to $200 depending on length.

The season pass works out to just under $24 per CE hour, which comes in below the $200-for-6-hours rate ($33/hour) you'd pay buying live trainings one at a time. If you know you want the full 150 hours, the season pass is the better value. If you only need a handful of specific topics, paying per training keeps your upfront cost lower.

No. A Time for Play is recognized as an Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Association for Play Therapy (APT). Our training counts toward the hours you need. But APT is the credentialing body. They're the ones who review applications and issue the Registered Play Therapist (RPT), School-Based Registered Play Therapist, and Registered Play Therapist Supervisor (RPT-S) credentials, each trademarked under APT.

APT sets the actual requirements. In summary, you need:

• A master's degree in a mental health profession

• Independent licensure to practice mental health (LCSW, LPC, LMFT, or similar)

• 150 hours minimum of play therapy continuing education

• 350 hours of play therapy experience with clients

• 35 hours of play therapy supervision under a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor

All of it needs to be completed within a two- to ten year window and in an integrated process over three phases before you may apply to APT for the credential.

No. Our trainings satisfy the 150-hour continuing education requirement. The 350 hours of play therapy experience comes from your own clinical work with clients, and the 35 hours of supervision must happen separately under a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor whom you contract with on your own.

Item descriptionThink of it the way you'd think about a general medicine doctor versus a pediatrician. Both are licensed physicians, the same way any of us as mental health professionals are licensed to see clients of any age. But a pediatrician has additional training that signals real expertise with kids specifically. The RPT credential does the same thing for therapists: it tells clients, referral sources, and other professionals that you have the training and expertise to work with children and adolescents in a developmentally appropriate way, not just the license to do so.

We built a play therapy tracking hours log in Excel that tracks your CE hours, practice hours, and supervision hours in one place. It's available for download on our site for FREE under the resources section.

Yes. Every training in the series is designed to stand alone, so you can register for just the ones that fit your schedule or interests. A season pass simply guarantees you a seat in all 20 and unlocks the extra 30 hours of homework credit.

All registration, for individual trainings and season passes alike, runs through our course platform at a-time-for-play.ce-go.com. You can browse everything currently open by format, live in-person, live virtual, or self-paced, filter by category, and register directly there.

Not necessarily. In-person trainings are held in Houston at United Way Houston, but we also offer live virtual trainings and self-paced, pre-recorded courses for clinicians anywhere. A Time for Play also contracts with organizations to travel and to bring trainings on-site at your location. If you're outside our normal travel range, reach out, and we'll figure out a virtual option.

Yes, we now offer THREE annual scholarships. See below:

• BIPOC scholarship: A Time for Play recognizes the historic barriers and inequities that inhibit diversity within the Play Therapy profession. The primary aim of this scholarship is to support access to Play Therapy by training a clinician from a diverse background. The hope is that as therapists from different communities learn Play Therapy, they can share these clinical resources and be a bridge to extend the value of Play Therapy to new communities.

• Provisionally Licensed Scholarship: A Time for Play recognizes the prohibitive costs that clinicians face when trying to afford Play Therapy training while early in their careers. The primary aim of this scholarship is to expedite the career path of future Play Therapists to obtain the credential. The hope is that this scholarship enables a provisionally licensed professional to practice Play Therapy early in their career and obtain their Registered Play Therapist credential simultaneously while achieving their full clinical licensure status.

• Fort Bend County Scholarship: The primary aim of this scholarship is to improve capacity and accessibility to pediatric mental health services in Fort Bend County. Scholarship applicants should describe how they will use this scholarship opportunity to provide Play Therapy services to clients and families in need in Fort Bend County.

Applications open every May and scholarship recipients are selected in June to join the upcoming season in August.

Yes. If you work at or run a 501(c)(3), you can sponsor an employee's season pass and receive a 10% discount. There's no cap on how many employees a nonprofit can sponsor. Reach out to us directly so we can handle the paperwork for the discount.

Yes. We've traveled to other agencies to deliver in-person trainings, and we offer virtual options for organizations outside our travel range. We're also always open to developing new trainings based on what agencies actually need, so if there's a topic you want covered, let us know.

The nine foundational theories covered, from Adlerian play therapy through Theraplay, span early childhood through adolescence. Steven works with play therapy clients from age 2 into adulthood! The point of covering multiple theories is so clinicians can adjust their approach by developmental stage rather than using one method across every age group.

Yes. A Time for Play is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to promote access to effective mental health services within the community, primarily by educating mental health professionals on the theories, benefits, techniques, and skills of play therapy and ethical clinical practice.

A new season opens every fall and runs through about May or June of the following year.