Do you know how to play anymore? The delightful pages of Play Therapy are a practical strategy for reclaiming the gift of joy which is your birthright. Discovering the wonder of your inner child is not only good therapy but a response to the ancient wisdom call to "become as a little child."<br/><br/>FOREWORD<br/>We live in a serious world. For too many of us, work is competitively cut-throat, social expectations are high, parenting is a burden, and marriage is a project. Religion is solemn and our "recreation" is largely of the spectator variety. If this isn't enough, we project our success-driven and labor-based ethic onto children, pressuring them—albeit inadvertently—to learn, achieve, and succeed almost from infancy. Is it any wonder that we become bored, tired, and frustrated by life and our children become candidates for depression at an early age? Why do we live this way? Is it perhaps because we've forgotten the importance of play?<br/><br/>We stake too much of our personal value and dignity on what we do and accomplish. We overorganize and overanalyze our lives. In the process we forget that life is a gift as well as a task. If we are to enjoy this gift and truly live our lives, we'd best learn to play authentically once again. Play Therapy is designed as your first playmate on the way to reawakening your inner child. Use the thirty-five delightful rules and illustrations in these pages as reminders and encouragement to rediscover your playful self. You will find that play, indeed, is the therapy for every stress and challenge; even better, it is the best preventive medicine.