The Play Therapy Program at Wichita State University is accredited by the North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS) and the Association for Play Therapy (APT),
a national association for accrediting play therapists and university training. The
WSU College of Education Play Therapy Center is the only approved center of play therapy
education in the Kansas Regents system of six public universities and one of only
13 centers in the United States.
Approved status was confirmed in September or 2009 by the APT, a national association that approves play therapy trainers, registers play therapists, and approves university training programs in play therapy. To attain the approved status a university must confer master's or higher degrees accepted by the state in which the program resides for licensure or certification of mental health practitioners and offer this training to all university departments conferring mental health degrees. They must also offer at least 18 graduate semester credit hours per three-year renewal cycle (at least two 3 credit hour classes per year and must be offered by or approved by a registered play therapist (RPT) or Supervisor (RPT-S) who is preferably a faculty member.
Approved Centers of Play Therapy Education are designed to generate more play therapy research, peer-reviewed publications, instruction, supervisor training, supervised clinical experiences, and faculty members with play therapy expertise and PRT-S credentials at universities.
The Wichita State University College of Education Play Therapy Center teaches four different play therapy courses and one play therapy practicum each year (15 credit hours per year per year or 675 academic hours per year). The play therapy teaching staff consists of two licensed clinicians with over 60 years of combined clinical experience with children's services. One of which is an RPT-S, and both are endorsed by the Kansas Association for Infant Mental Health at level III and Level IV. Wichita State has offered play therapy training since 1996. WSU was the first university in Kansas to offer play therapy training and had the first Registered Play Therapy Supervisor in the state.
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» Meet the Play Therapy Center faculty