Virginia Axline - Career

Career

Virginia M. Axline, a clinical psychologist who specialized in working with children with severe emotional disturbances, is viewed as the founder of Play Therapy. She is the author of the acclaimed and widely-accepted textbook, Play Therapy: The Inner Dynamics of Childhood. In 1964, she published Dibs: In Search of Self, which follows the path of one young patient, Dibs, throughout his journey with Play Therapy having Virginia Axline as his therapist. The book has become the underpinning for many young people who have gone one to become child psychologists themselves. The book is a nearly verbatim transcript of the weekly sessions that follow this five year old severely emotionally disturbed child and his emergence to health and functioning through Dr. Axline's Play Therapy technique summarized above. Dr. Axline studied at Ohio State University and Columbia University. She has taught at New York University's School of Medicine and School of Education. For seven years, she was on the faculty of Columbia University Teachers College and, prior to that, spent three years as a research associate and faculty member at the University of Chicago. When Dibs: In Search of Self was published in 1964, she was in private practice in Columbus, Ohio where she continued to communicate her professional wisdom and skill through lecturing, consulting, and writing. She was also a faculty member at Ohio State University. Her works, particularly Dibs: In Search of Self are as relevant and influential to the world of child psychology today, in 2012, as they were when first published in 1964.