Child-Parent Relationship Therapy
STRENGTH AND SELF-ESTEEM BUILDING FOR EMOTIONAL WELLBEING
You might experience some of your child’s behavior patterns as disruptive, but to your child, the behavior is often an attempt to communicate a need they have that has yet to be met. By using skills to validate your child’s feelings and show you understand, you can create new ways of communicating together that result in fewer meltdowns and more harmony in your relationship.
By focusing on the needs of your child rather than just the challenges of behaviors and dynamics, Child-Parent Relationship Therapy, or CPRT, can be one way to use therapeutic support to deepen your family relationships and build existing strengths into even stronger new ones.
When you focus on what is going well in your relationship with your child, you get to focus on what you are capable of, allow them to show you what they are capable of, and collaborate on your strengths together to build a bond you’re proud of.
What is Child-Parent Relationship Therapy?
Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) is an evidenced-based therapy program focused on the premise that a secure caregiver-child relationship is the curative factor for children’s well-being. You have the potential to have huge emotional significance for your child, and you can use that opportunity to positively influence your child’s development through your own learning. Receiving your own guided support and therapeutic skills can offer a foundation for your own understanding of how you show up to your relationship with your child, how you interact with each other, and what you want your child to learn from you.
Originally developed by doctors Garry Landreth and Sue Bratton at the Center for Play Therapy, CPRT mentors caregivers during weekly play sessions with their child where they can receive feedback on their skills from a certified CPRT facilitator. Therapy sessions are structured to teach parents and caregivers skills during focused play time to build their child’s self-esteem, strengthen the quality of the child-caregiver relationship, and address family dynamics. In these sessions, therapists observe, assess, and teach parents and caregivers Person-Centered Play Therapy principles and techniques to create a non-judgmental, understanding, and accepting environment where trust, experimentation, and change is possible for everyone involved.
Play is inclusive for children and allows for a broader range of expression than can be communicated in words, and sometimes we just need new ways to translate what’s what’s being said. Broadening your own toolkit for relating with your child can teach them skills to build unconditional positive regard for themselves as worthy, capable, responsible, loving, and lovable. This regard is excellent on its own, but it also gives your child a foundation that lets them communicate what they need in ways that are much clearer, easier to interpret, and easier for you to respond to. By being heard, your child gets to feel like they have their own agency and lets them have a well-balanced sense of control, and when that happens, you don’t have to try to establish external controls to limit undesirable behaviors. That means fewer tantrums and fewer tears from either of you.
The skills you learn strengthen your shared relationship, but in the process, what you learn can help address the dynamics that cause snags and strife in your relationship at the same time. By teaching you how to support your child’s needs, CPRT focuses on treating the root cause of miscommunication and misbehaviors so less of them happen in the first place and are easier to address when they do.
What CPRT Can Do
The primary outcome of Child-Parent Relationship Therapy is to provide strong foundations for relationships that are based on trust, respect, and mutual acceptance. Those foundations include a deep sense of security in your bond that allows you to foster greater intimacy with one another and create positive opportunities for independent growth. CPRT allows you to acknowledge the importance of your family relationships through your actions, and reduce the potential for and severity of stress and conflicts by clarifying miscommunications early.
CPRT seeks to support parents and caregivers like you to learn how to:
Become more receptive to your child’s feelings and develop more realistic expectations for their development and behavior
More skillfully communicate your understanding and acceptance of your child to them, as well as communicate your own experiences and needs
Understand how to respond to your child’s emotional needs with greater effectiveness and ease
Implement more effective discipline strategies, limit inappropriate behavior, and regain control without using aversive discipline strategies
Shift your family’s interactional system to one that is more positive, functional, and proactive
Through your own growth together in CPRT, your child will be empowered to:
Better understand and be able to communicate their feelings and needs more effectively
Accept themselves more completely by feeling secure in their own independence and your shared attachment bond
Gain mastery, solve problems, and learn to be responsible for their own actions
Change maladaptive behaviors to more proactive ones because there’s less need to act out to get their needs met
Become more interpersonally competent and gain a greater sense of empathy and awareness
Research-Based Treatment
CPRT is a well-researched parenting model with numerous studies investigating its effectiveness. Overall research indicates that CPRT is effective in reducing children's behavior problems and decreasing parental stress (Bratton et al., 2010).
CPRT demonstrates moderate to large treatment effects on:
Decreasing parental and caregiving stress (Landreth & Bratton, 2006)
Reducing children’s behavior problems, including aggression (Landreth & Bratton, 2006; Bratton, Landreth, & Lin, 2010)
Decreasing children’s depression and anxiety (Landreth & Bratton, 2006)
Enhancing parental and caregiving empathy (Landreth & Bratton, 2006)
Improving overall family satisfaction and communication (Cornett & Bratton, 2014)
CPRT can help with relationship problems within a family, depressive symptoms, oppositional behavior, family reunification, single caregiving, attachment disruptions, foster care and adoption, and adjustment during & after divorce.
Visit the Center for Play Therapy or read our blog for more information about CPRT.
Services
We know that all behavior is communication and all behavior makes sense in context, so getting an inside look into how family members influence each other in Child-Parent Relationship Therapy can provide insight that an individual play therapy session might not achieve.
Ensemble Therapy provides one-on-one structured play therapy sessions for Child-Parent Relationship Therapy, as well as 10-week facilitated groups. (Looking for a group? Learn more here.)
In our individualized sessions, you will learn Person-Centered Play Therapy principles and skills including reflective listening, therapeutic limit setting, and self-esteem building to enhance a secure attachment with your child and help you attune to and respond to their underlying needs.
CPRT is designed for parents and caregivers of children who are around 3-10 years of age. Sessions are 90 minutes and can take place remotely or in-office.
How does the process work?
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How does the process work? ♡
Step 1: FREE 15-MINUTE PHONE CALL (OPTIONAL)
This optional first step is for you if you feel like you need more information before you move forward with the process. We’ll have a free, 15-minute phone consultation with you to discuss your general questions and concerns. This is not a time where we will assess your child’s specific needs, but rather to help you decide if this is the right therapeutic modality for your family at this time.
Step 2: INTAKE AND OBSERVATION
We will go over detailed background information about your child and family, discuss potential aims of support, review practice policies, and set goals for your family’s therapeutic work. You’ll be asked about your child’s background, challenges, functional skills, and have the opportunity to ask questions, as well as complete assessments.
Step 3: THERAPEUTIC SESSIONS
Therapy sessions take place weekly in a format of didactic instruction, demonstration play sessions, required at-home play sessions, and supervision in a supportive atmosphere. During the initial three sessions, you will learn the fundamental skills of Child-Centered Play Therapy and prepare for your upcoming play sessions with your child. In the following weeks, you will build on your knowledge of these skills and practice them with your child during sessions and in between sessions at home. Along the way, your therapist will provide guidance and feedback to process your experience and ensure that you and your child have a supportive foundation to work from.
Step 4: ASSESS TREATMENT OUTCOMES
CPRT generally takes place over 10 weekly sessions, when you and your therapist will reflect on the growth and development over the time you have spent together. At this point, you might continue with additional parent coaching sessions, complete further CPRT sessions over an extended timeline with greater breaks between sessions (every other week or monthly), or consider the process complete in order to continue your growth on your own.
Our Approach
All of our therapy at Ensemble is based on empowered learning for you and your child, embedded in trauma-informed, human-first perspective. This is especially true in Child-Parent Relationship Therapy, and even though your therapist is teaching skills, they seek to understand where you’re coming from first and explain second. The tools we offer are to enhance what you already have in order for you to feel confident in how you relate and respond. We also treat your child like they are their own person who can do the same (because they are!)
Our approach is grounded in a research-based understanding of child development, psychology, education, kinesiology, and biology and research-backed intervention strategies, but we never approach your family like you’re part of a data set. Our therapists hold you and your child as the experts of your experience, and we come to every session to be present with the unique family dynamics you’re living through right now.
At Ensemble Therapy, CPRT offers a supportive environment to move the focus back to your child rather than just the problems you’re facing, while still acknowledging those challenges exist and finding ways to counter them. We’re able to help you be here in the present rather than the past without forgetting what has happened, and help you feel proud about the choices you make now to support your future together.
READY TO FIND OUT IF CPRT
IS RIGHT FOR YOUR FAMILY?
Learn about our therapists and choose your best fit.
Meet Our Therapists
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Meet Our Therapists ♡
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Rachel Esparza is a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate supervised by Jaclyn N. Sepp, MA, LPC-S, RPT-S™, NCC, RYT® 200 and Sheila Wessels, MEd, LPC-S, RPT-S™. Rachel is also working towards her Registered Play Therapist™ (RPT™) credential. At Texas State University, Rachel earned her Master’s degree in Professional Counseling (CACREP Accredited Program) and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She has experience working with children, adolescents, young adults, and families in community counseling settings.
Rate & Location
Rate: Parent Coaching $170
Location: Berkman & Spicewood Springs
Currently under the clinical supervision of Jaclyn N. Sepp, MA, LPC-S, RPT-S™, NCC, RYT® 200 and Sheila Wessels, MEd, LPC-S, RPT-S™
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Sheila Wessels is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor (LPC-S) and Registered Play Therapist Supervisor™ (RPT-S™). She received her Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling from Texas State University (CACREP Accredited Program) as well as her Bachelor’s Degree in Education. She has had many years of experience with children of all ages and backgrounds. Prior to becoming a therapist, Sheila worked for 15 years in public education, 12 years as a Professional School Counselor and 3 years as an Elementary School Teacher. Sheila was a Gifted and Talented Campus Coordinator, a Social and Emotional Facilitator, and a Campus Testing Coordinator for her campus. In addition, she was a lead elementary counselor for the Austin Independent School District where she mentored new counselors to the district and supported vertical team counselors through professional development and crisis.
Rate & Location
Family Session, CPRT $265
Location: Spicewood Springs
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Suzanne is a warrior for children’s mental health. She believes that every child has the superpower to heal from trauma, and the resilience to develop the necessary social and regulatory skills to become their true, authentic and best selves. Suzanne believes in working closely with caregivers and school staff in order to best support children.
She has worked as a School Counselor in elementary schools for almost 20 years, and prior to that worked as a Special Education Teacher. Suzanne has worked closely with children who have learning differences, dyslexia and autism. She has also facilitated support groups for neurotypical children who have a sibling with special needs.
Rate & Location
Rate: Parent Coaching $245
Location: Berkman & Spicewood Springs