Introducing a new practice tool!
The Integrative Holistic Play Therapy model – in diagram form.
A diagram to support you in your work.
To map and track your practice, to open discussions and support reflection.
Navigating integrative play therapy practice with intent.
- The Integrative Holistic Model of Play Therapy practice was created by Monika Jephcott in 2002. The model remains our members mode of practice, and the taught curriculum for trainees.
- The model’s strong efficacy over time has most recently been discussed in a paper published in June 2025 (link to Int. Journal article: O’Neill & Lambert).
- We now have a diagram for use as a practitioner mapping tool; summarising this model of creative therapy with children. (link to Research Note, O’Neill 2025).
Drop a pin in it.
Use the diagram to:
- Depict the balance of skills and understanding necessary for best practice
- Present the approach clearly to other professionals
- Provide a base to refer to when teaching the model to trainees
- Usefully link the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of the work
- Support practitioner clinical decision making
- Assist in clinician reflection on practice habits and tendencies, by tracking patterns of movement between components of the model
- Precipitate well-rounded discussions in Clinical Supervision
- Identify potential further training needs
- Identify possible support needs
Zoom in and out. Use the diagram to move between detail and the big picture, to gain perspective and insight about your work.
Play Therapy is dynamic and multidimensional work. It moves through physical and psychological space; linking the past, present and future, the conscious with the unconscious and the verbal with the nonverbal. All this movement is housed within our model and can be traced to its component parts. You can use the diagram to do this.
In Play Therapy sessions the psychotherapeutic rapport is forged through creative, embodied and spontaneous expression, as the relationship between practitioner and client unfolds, shifts and changes over time. It is necessary for the Play Therapist to be agile, fluid and fluent in their attunement to the client which demands conscious and intentional tracking of movement between aspects of theory. You can use the diagram to do this.
Integrative Holistic Play Therapists gauge change through multiple lenses; responding nimbly, sensitively and with clear clinical rationale to their client in the present moment. Practitioners consider their clients overlapping physiological, relational and developmental histories and experiences. You can use the diagram to do this.
Integrative Holistic Play Therapists adopt a client-centred stance, grounded in the belief that the client is the expert in their own process and growth. Honouring the client’s autonomy, the therapist intentionally creates a facilitative, therapeutic space that nurtures the client’s agency, capacity for choice, and authentic connection with self and others. This stance is sustained through reflective practice, ongoing skill development, a grounding in theory, and awareness of the therapist’s use of self within the relationship. You can use the diagram to do this.
