Registered Play Therapists' Experiences Working with Spanish-Speaking Children and Parents

The Hispanic population is continually growing in the United States (U.S. Census, 2020). Yet, even with this growth, Latino children and adults are minimally represented in receiving mental health counseling (CDC, 2020). To holistically understand the Hispanic population and culture, it is important to recognize the predominant language of this group, which is often Spanish. Currently, the Spanish language is the number one non-English language used in the United States (Dietrich & Hernandez, 2022). However, even with these statistics, research on counseling for Spanish speakers is lacking. Even more so, research on play therapy with Spanish-speaking children is rare. A potential problem arises from the absence of research regarding the connection between Registered Play Therapists (RPTs) and Spanish-speaking clients. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe registered play therapists’ cultural relational experiences when working with Spanish-speaking children and their parents. A new addition to the registered play therapist (RPT) standards was recently implemented by the Association for Play Therapy (APT) in 2023 to require hours of diverse education and training for play therapy on cultural and social diversity topics (Association for Play Therapy [APT], 2023). This study aims to understand what practices are beneficial for RPTs working with this population in hopes of adding to counselor educators’ play therapy education and supervision. The research questions guiding this study are (1) What are the cultural relational experiences of registered play therapists when working with Spanish-speaking children in play therapy sessions? And (2) What are the cultural relational experiences of registered play therapists when working alongside Spanish-speaking parents to guide treatment? A phenomenological approach will be used to encapsulate the experiences of registered play therapists working with Spanish-speaking child clients and their parents. Individuals will be selected to participate in the study if they are registered play therapists, licensed professional counselors in Texas, utilize child-centered play therapy, and work with Spanish-speaking clients and their parents. The researcher hopes the results will help current and future play therapists or any mental health professionals working with Spanish-speaking children and parents better understand this experience.