The history of play as a means of therapy, of access to the child's thinking, and as a mode of expression for the child is reviewed. Two problems are cited: the child's disrupting the play because of an excess of painful affects provoked by the therapeutic intervention (Erikson's play disruption) and lack of direct therapeutic effect on the child's family milieu. This is dealt with via "child centered family therapy." Here the knowledge gained from individual play therapy with the child is fed back to the entire family in meetings with agendas the child has given prior agreement to. The theoretical model for this is the "self-selfobject." Here the therapist's empathic understanding of all family members allows him or her to clarify for the entire family (a) the meaning of the child's behavior to the parents and (b) the