Filial Family Therapy (FFT), also known as Child Relationship Enhancement^® Family Therapy, represents an extension of the principles of the Child-Centered Play Therapy Model to the entire family unit. FFT is designed for instances where children between ages 2 and 12 present with problems where inclusion of their parent(s) would be advantageous. Essentially, parents are systematically trained to conduct therapeutic play sessions with their children and receive on-going supervision and support from the FFT-trained professional to reach four goals:

1. to reduce child symptoms
2. to enhance the parent-child relationship
3. to improve child competence and self-esteem
4. to improve parenting skills.

Supported by a wealth of research, FFT has been empirically demonstrated to be a highly effective approach and has demonstrated the attainment of goals for both children and parents across a wide variety of problems from parent-child relationship enhancement in divorce situations to parental abuse of children. Short (10 week) and longer formats with individual parents and their child(ren), or couples and groups of unrelated parents can be used.