Counseling and play therapy
Counseling gives children, teens, adults, and caregivers a supported place to understand feelings, relationships, stress, identity, and difficult experiences. Play therapy uses play as a developmentally appropriate way to communicate and heal.
The short version
Play therapy is a treatment approach—not a stand-alone license. First check the clinician’s mental-health license, then ask about child, neurodivergence, and play-specific training.
What counseling may help with
- Anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and major life changes
- Emotional regulation, self-understanding, and coping
- Family relationships, attachment, and parent-child connection
- School stress, bullying, friendship, identity, and self-advocacy
- Caregiver burnout, sibling needs, and adjustment to diagnosis
- Distress related to disability, masking, exclusion, or unmet support needs
- Behavior that may be communicating fear, overwhelm, pain, or a missing skill
What it may look like
Depending on age and goals, sessions may use conversation, toys, art, movement, stories, games, sensory supports, parent coaching, family sessions, or practicing skills in everyday situations. Play is not a break from therapy; for many children, it is how therapy happens.
Ask whether parents participate, how privacy works for teens, how the clinician adapts communication, and whether the child can decline an activity or request a break.
Good-fit signs
- The child does not have to mask, perform eye contact, or appear calm to be considered successful.
- The clinician builds trust before demanding disclosure or difficult work.
- Goals address distress and quality of life rather than harmless autistic traits.
- Parents receive useful support without taking away an older child’s appropriate privacy.
- Communication, sensory, medical, and environmental factors are considered.
- The therapist welcomes questions and is honest when another clinician is needed.
Education and basic credentials
The letters matter because they identify the clinician’s base profession and legal scope. Tennessee mental-health professionals may include psychologists, licensed professional counselors with a mental health service provider designation, clinical social workers, and marriage and family therapists. Training, supervision, and diagnosis authority differ by license.
Some clinicians are still working toward full independent licensure under an approved supervisor. That can be entirely appropriate, but families should be told the clinician’s status and who supervises the work.
Verify the current license through the Tennessee Department of Health rather than relying only on a website biography.
Play therapy
- RPT: Registered Play Therapist is an advanced credential from the Association for Play Therapy built on graduate mental-health education, licensure, play-therapy coursework, supervised experience, and direct clinical hours.
- RPT-S: Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor includes qualifications to supervise play-therapy work.
- SB-RPT: School Based-Registered Play Therapist is designed for qualified school-based professionals.
Neurodiversity-affirming and relationship-based approaches
- AutPlay Therapy: A play-therapy framework designed for neurodivergent children and families. Ask whether the provider holds the AutPlay credential, what their base license is, and how they protect autonomy and communication.
- DIRFloortime: Mental-health and developmental professionals may pursue progressive ICDL training in a child-led, relationship-based framework. DIR 101 is introductory, not full provider qualification.
- “Neurodiversity-affirming” is not a regulated credential. Ask what it changes in goals, language, consent, caregiver coaching, and the clinician’s response to stimming or masking.
Evidence-based treatment models
- PCIT: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy has a formal training and consultation pathway for eligible mental-health providers. It is interactive and includes live caregiver coaching.
- TF-CBT: Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has an official national certification process beyond a single introductory course.
- EMDR: EMDR basic training and EMDRIA Certification are different. Certification is an advanced credential for independently licensed mental-health clinicians.
No modality is best for every person. Relevant experience, safety, trust, cultural humility, and the ability to adapt may matter more than a long list of initials.
License: The state’s legal permission to practice a profession. Verify that it is current.
National professional credential: A credential such as CCC-SLP, OTR, or BCBA showing that national education, examination, and other requirements were met. State licensure may still be required.
Advanced specialty credential: Usually requires experience, additional study, and an assessment of specialty knowledge or skill. Examples include BCP, PCS, BCS-CL, BCS-S, RPT, and ATP.
Method-specific certification: Shows that the clinician completed one organization’s competency process for one approach, such as LAMP Certified, PROMPT Certified, Certified PCIT Therapist, or Certified CO-OP Therapist.
Course or certificate of completion: Shows that someone completed training. It can be valuable, but it is not the same as a license, board specialty, or demonstrated certification. Ask what level they completed, whether their skills were observed, and how often they use the approach.
Assistant or technician credential: SLPAs, COTAs/OTAs, PTAs, BCaBAs, RBTs, interns, and temporary licensees may provide excellent care, but their supervision and decision-making responsibilities differ. The family should know who evaluates, writes the plan, changes goals, and supervises treatment.
The useful question is not “How many certificates do you have?” It is “How does your training help you understand and support my child?”
In Tennessee, an appropriately trained LPC/MHSP may diagnose and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Other licensed mental-health professions have their own statutory scopes. Diagnosis should always stay within the individual clinician’s education and competence.
Not every child therapist evaluates autism or ADHD, even if the license may permit diagnosis. A psychologist with health service provider status may offer comprehensive psychological testing when trained in the relevant measures. Dyslexia and other learning concerns may call for educational, psychological, and speech-language assessment rather than one brief mental-health visit.
Counselors do not prescribe medication. An RPT, AutPlay, EMDR, PCIT, or other treatment credential does not by itself grant diagnosis authority or replace a state mental-health license.
Questions to ask a counselor or play therapist
- What is your current license, and are you independently licensed or supervised?
- Do you regularly work with this age and this specific concern?
- What does “neurodiversity-affirming” change about your actual treatment?
- How are children, teens, and caregivers involved in choosing goals?
- How do you distinguish distress from disability traits, communication differences, or sensory needs?
- What stays private, and what will you share with caregivers?
- If you use a named model, what level of training or certification have you completed?
- When would you refer for psychological, medical, speech-language, OT, or school evaluation?
Scope and licensing rules can change. These guides were researched for Tennessee in September 2026; always verify a provider’s current license and ask whether they regularly treat your child’s specific need.
- Tennessee Board for Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marital and Family Therapists, and Licensed Clinical Pastoral Therapists: https://www.tn.gov/health/licensure/pct.html
- Tennessee mental-health licensure fact sheet: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/documents/Proposed_Fact_Sheet_on_Types_of_Licensure.pdf
- Tennessee Board of Examiners in Psychology: https://www.tn.gov/health/licensure/psy.html
- Tennessee Board of Social Worker Licensure: https://www.tn.gov/health/licensure/sw.html
- Association for Play Therapy credential standards: https://www.a4pt.org/general/custom.asp?page=CredentialsInfo
- AutPlay Therapy for professionals: https://autplaytherapy.com/about-autplay-therapy/for-professionals/
- ICDL DIRFloortime levels: https://www.icdl.com/courses/education
- PCIT provider training: https://www.pcit.org/become-a-pcit-provider
- TF-CBT national certification: https://tfcbt.org/
- EMDRIA certification: https://www.emdria.org/emdr-training/emdr-certification-2/