They vary in theoretical direction from psychoanalytical play therapy that applies Freudian approach, to cognitive behavioral play therapy, that applies a cognitive behavioral approach. In order to deal with the trauma of younger children the child centered play therapy approach is normally adopted.

             Louis Guerney expressed five basic tenets to child centered play therapy. Firstly, the child determines the substance of the play therapy and the therapist permits the child to follow their own path to healing and does not influence the therapy in any manner. Secondly, the child centered play therapy is not problem oriented but alternatively it is effective since by its very nature this approach is capable of being applied with children suffering from multiple traumas without concentrating on the symptoms and behaviors. Thirdly, the words, symbols and other expressions which are being adopted in play by the child are not readily interpreted by the therapist alternatively, the therapist acts towards the objective of providing a safe environment for the child to be able to expose their personal world at their own rate of expression. (Play Therapy for Children: Play Therapy as Treatment of Choice for Traumatized Children).

             Fourthly, the child centered play therapy also relies on the full appropriation of the system and does not move from its path; it is not a set of techniques or principles that are applied at the therapist discretion. The fifth tenet requires that the therapist must have faith in the fact that the child is one who can best direct their healing and the therapist is required to entail full therapeutic safeguard to the child. The child centered play therapy places the child at the center of the therapeutic process. The efficacy of this approach stems from the fact that the approach is based solely upon the way the child feels about his/her self, permitting the concentration to be made on the view point of the child and the views of the life events are driven by the perspective of child.