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Do you know the way to make children get better when they are distracted, depressed, or suffering from violence? Children, especially those who are having some problems, need counseling through play or actions rather than words. The job that has emerged to do these kinds of things is play therapist. A play therapist counsels with play especially for children in a child counseling center.

Play therapists, which are receiving a lot of attention these days, evaluate, diagnose, and treat the causes of psychological maladjustment or developmental problems of children through the medium of play. For example, there is sandbox therapy, which is a method of expressing inner anger and depression by making work in the sandbox and healing by contacting one's mind. Generally, you need to major in psychology at university. The average annual salary of a play therapist is about 29.25 million won, and the job satisfaction level is high at about 70 percent.

So, how can you become a play therapist? To become a therapist working in a professional center, you basically need a master's degree or higher. To those who have not yet entered a university, first, you should enter a university in the counseling department. After you graduate from university, you must go to a graduate school and major in child psychotherapy. In order to maintain a stable job even after graduating from a graduate school, you need to obtain another license as a psychologist. This is because a play therapist must have knowledge about basic psychological counseling, not only about the play. However, there are not so many universities with counseling departments. Some universities with the best counseling departments are Korea University, Sogang University, and Samyuk University. This is also a factor that makes it more difficult to become a therapist. Not only the academic background but also the temperament as a counselor is important. Since it is a therapy for children, therapists must have a love for children, responsibility, and respect for others.

Then, what about the prospects of a play therapist? A play therapist's outlook is very good. The reason is that as the number of family members is decreasing and the number of children having difficulty in communication is increasing, parents are most likely looking for play therapy a lot. In addition, as mentioned before, child abuse and violence still occur frequently, so child psychological counseling using play is essential for modern children. Not only violence but also children's smartphone addiction is one of the big play therapy topics. Some parents take their children to a child center to solve this addiction. Play therapy, which occupies a large part of children's counseling, is getting better and better. The importance of play therapy is expected to expand further, and the scope of child counseling is also expected to expand.