Сòòò½ÊÓƵ

Full Course Description

Attachment-Based Play Therapy for Trauma: Treatment Strategies for Abuse, Neglect, & Grief in Kids and Families

Did you know you can treat childhood trauma with play therapy?

It’s true, and the transformative approach is called Attachment-Centered Play Therapy (ACPT).

ACPT offers a holistic, systemic framework for working with children and families, shifting the focus from individual behavioral or emotional issues to treating the entire family as the client.

In this training you’ll delve into the world of attachment theory, gaining a fresh perspective on how children and families form healthy or maladaptive bonds.

Overcome the profound impact of trauma, abuse, neglect, and grief on attachment within the family system, while discovering strategies to effectively engage even the most challenging parents in the play therapy process.

Uncover the art of repairing, rebuilding, and fostering safety within the parent-child relationship using the dynamic tools of Attachment-Centered Play Therapy.

PLUS, immerse yourself in hands-on experiential activities, sand tray interventions, and expressive arts, acquiring a creative toolbox filled with innovative play therapy techniques.

By the end, you'll not only have a clear understanding of how attachment styles shape relationships but also feel empowered to apply these insights in your practice, creating more meaningful and impactful therapeutic experiences for children and families alike.

Learn how to seamlessly integrate ACPT into your practice today!

Program Information

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychiatrists
  • Psychologists
  • Case Managers
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Psych Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

Advancing Family Treatment with Play Therapy

  • Attachment patterns throughout the lifespan and the impact on parent-child relationship
  • 4 Key Concepts of developing secure attachment
  • Blending Attachment theory with play therapy

Inviting the parents to play: Engagement strategies to strengthen parent-child relationship

  • Roadblocks and triggers
  • Shame and vulnerability - Shame Shields Expressive Arts intervention
  • Role play
  • Sand tray genograms and play based treatment planning
  • Directive and Nondirective interventions
  • Maximizing the parent-child relationship

Attachment Centered Play Therapy Strategies

  • Challenging emotional and behavioral disorders
  • Defiance, aggression, oppositional behaviors
  • Prescriptive play therapy interventions
  • Calm Down Jars intervention
  • Guided imagery
  • Promote co-regulation strategies

Attachment Centered Play Therapy Strategies to Treat Relational Trauma

  • Relationship cycle
  • Role plays
  • Two hands intervention
  • Empowerment Collage
  • Why play therapy? What is it, and how is it different when using with families?
    • Evidence supporting the benefits of play and creativity with this population
    • Therapeutic powers of play
      • Neurobiology of play & impact on trauma and attachment
    •  Avoiding pitfalls when working with parents and children
      • The frustration factor ~ use of cognitive skills and language
      • Understanding the difference between resistance, opposition, and shut-down
      • Play-based assessments and icebreakers to increase engagement
    • Limitations & Potential Risks

Objectives

  1. Identify how attachment theory applies to play therapy and to view family systems through the lens of attachment.
  2. Conceptualize attachment patterns that impact parent-child relationships.
  3. Conceptualize generational attachment patterns and how these manifests in family-based play therapy.
  4. Analyze attachment theory as it applies to play therapy to provide integrated therapeutic treatment.
  5. Evaluate the four key concepts of attachment theory and how these concepts apply to attachment centered play therapy.
  6. Analyze various family systems through the lens of attachment theory to strengthen clinical assessment skills.

Copyright : 03/11/2024

Play Therapy for Young Children

Brain development is the most rapid in the first three years of life, and play therapy is integral in promoting healthy child development and sustaining the parent/child attachment.

This recording is filled with appropriate, fun, play-based interventions to rewire the brain and create a sense of trust and safety in the infant and young child’s world. Through play, children learn how to interact with the world around them, communicate and negotiate with others, discover emotions and empathy, ignite their imagination and creativity, boost resilience and self-esteem, and much, much more!

This recording will give you a clear understanding of attachment theory and child development, help you decipher the differences between developmental age and chronological age and most importantly, understand kids and the way they play.

Play therapy theories and techniques will include: Client-centered play therapy – Cognitive-behavioral play therapy – Developmental play therapy – Family play therapy - Theraplay®.

Through videos, case studies and hands-on directive play-based activities, you’ll increase your confidence to work with this young population and gain strategies for:

  • Sensory Processing Challenges
  • Aggressive Behaviors
  • Anxiety/OCD/Perfectionism
  • Trauma/Grief
  • Co-regulation
  • Sleep Issues
  • Enuresis
  • and more!

Children are sensory learners and play is a full sensory experience where children become engaged and make sense of the world around them.

Play will inspire and give you the tools to promote healthy development and attachment!

Program Information

Outline

Introduction: Ice breaker activity

Building Healthy Relationships: Attachment Theories

  • Video on neuroscience of attachment and the brain
  • Mary Ainsworth: 4 types of attachment styles
  • Bolby Attachment Theory
  • Video of Still Face experiment
  • Group activity
Infant & Child Development Theory
  • Maternal mental health
  • Freud, Erikson, Piaget and Mahler
  • Video: marshmallow test with children ages 3-5
Why Play?
  • Evidence supporting benefit of play
  • Therapeutic powers of play
  • Group activity
Play Therapy
  • Getting started
  • Therapeutic benefit
  • Limitations & potential risks
  • Assessment and treatment
    • What is the need behind the behavior?
    • What does the behavior tell us?
    • What are the skills behind the behavior?
Engaging Children in Play
  • Neurobiology of play
  • Repair of developmental trauma
  • Tools for self-regulation
  • What is needed for a play therapy room: the basics
  • From intake to termination
  • An ongoing process
Creative Play Therapy Interventions for:
  • Sensory
  • Aggression
  • Anxiety
  • Sensory Processing D/O
  • Enuresis
  • Trauma/Grief
  • Nightmare/Sleep Disorders
  • Hyperactivity
  • Divorce
Play Therapy and Techniques
  • Non-directive play
    • Client-centered play therapy
    • Sandtray
    • Art & music
    • Dolls and dollhouse
    • Case study and video
Developmental Play Therapy Ethical Issues of Therapeutic Touch
  • Intro to Dr. Courtney’s FirstPlay® Kinesthethic Storytelling Infant Massage®
  • FirstPlay® - Demonstration with baby dolls
  • Becky Baily: Baby doll groups and “I love you rituals”
  • Developmentally-appropriate songs and games
Directive Techniques
  • Fun with Feathers
  • Puppet play
  • 6 Senses Safe Place
  • Superpowers
  • Fun with Food
  • Bubble Tennis
  • Pooh/Inside-Out Feelings
  • Favorite books and interventions
  • Casey’s Greatness Wings
  • Greatness Sticks®
  • Sandtray Interventions
  • Mindful Freeze Dance
  • Wiggle out the sillies
  • Sandtray play therapy

Case Studies will be shared throughout the workshop when introducing interventions to participants, so you will get real life examples of the therapeutic value of my most beloved play therapy interventions I use with young children.

Group Activity: creative reflection exercise

Final Community Activity

Target Audience

  • Play Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Educators
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Occupational Therapy Assistants
  • Speech-Language Pathologists

Copyright : 02/20/2019

Play Therapy for Tweens and Teens: Strategies to Build Rapport, Invite Emotional Expression, and Navigate Unique Developmental Challenges

It’s never been harder to connect with your teen clients…

…and for many therapists like you, traditional therapy approaches fall short.

Now is the time to master teen-centric Play Therapy tools and strategies that help build rapport, deepen trust, unlock the teen psyche and create breakthroughs that change the course of teens’ lives FOREVER!

Join Sophia Ansari, LPCC, RPT™ for an innovative course that redefines play therapy giving you the power to ignite transformation in even your most distant teens. Gain powerful play therapy techniques customized for teens, like…

  • Promote non-verbal self-expression with Sand Tray therapy 
  • Meet client specific needs and preferences with modifiable tabletop games
  • Build safety, self-worth & more with the best roleplaying exercises
  • Be intentional with video game choices that meet therapy goals
  • Integrate music, Legos®, “Oddly Satisfying Videos”, and pop culture 


AND, create individualized self-care recipes and SO MUCH MORE!  PLUS, you get access to printable worksheets, handouts, and slides.
Ignite lasting transformation in your teen clients starting today, REGISTER NOW!

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of unique developmental needs of adolescents including adolescent brain development and its implications on behaviors.
  2. Integrate the core principles and benefits of play therapy in the context of working with teenagers.
  3. Support parents and caregivers with tools and skills to help them enhance their relationship with their teens.
  4. Employ ethical guidelines and considerations specific to working with minors in a therapeutic setting (confidentiality, boundaries, and informed consent when engaging in play therapy with teenagers).
  5. Apply a range of creative techniques using LEGO®, sand tray, video games, expressive arts, music, pop culture, and more that facilitate self-expression, emotional exploration, and communication for teens.
  6. Determine how to adapt play therapy techniques to address common teen issues such as anxiety, depression, self-esteem, peer relationships, and family dynamics.

Outline

Ignite Transformation in Teens Through Play Therapy 

  • Get hesitant and resistant clients on board
  • Effectively use self-disclosure to build rapport
  • Keys to relating to teens
  • Confidentiality – the central ingredient to strong rapport
  • Play therapy strategies to light up the brain at the first session
  • Develop trust and attunement that doesn’t fade
  • Put teens at ease with a self-affirming office space
  • Discover “Greek Therapy” and how to use it
  • Be intention with play therapy interventions 
  • Have the right games, materials, and play items for teens

Must-Know Interventions for Suicidality & Teen Crises

 

  • Know assessments and scales for suicidality 
  • Sensitively assess for non-suicidal self-injury & active suicidality 
  • Help teens transition back to school after crisis
  • Dan Siegel’s “name it to tame it” to help teens overcome suicidal thoughts
  • DBT tips for emotion regulation and coping with distress
  • Play Therapy inspired poetry exercises for self-expression
  • Know cultural suicide crises and population-specific concerns
  • Ethical considerations and confidentiality 

Play Therapy Redefined: A Teen-Centric Approach

  • Identifying “regressive play” and how it shows unmet needs
  • Create collaborative rules for games 
  • Master non-directive approaches and being patient
  • Know when to bring in the family
  • Must-have games and materials for the playroom
  • Integrate the most important psychology theories into play – CBT, Gestalt, Psychodynamic, Narrative, Jungian & MORE
  • Create memes for kids to be expressive

Unlock the Teenage Psyche

 

  • How adolescent brain development works & why it matters
  • Develop sensitivities to neurodivergence 
  • Know the role peer influence on the teen brain
  • Unique sensitivity of the teen brain and drives behavior
  • The ins-and-outs of what teens need for sleep
  • The truth about social media and the brain development

How to Support Parents & Caregivers

 

 

  • Gives parents the skills to know “when to be concerned”
  • Get teens talking with their parents
  • Direct teens toward healthy distractions at home
  • Help parents set limits with social media
  • How to talk WITHOUT lecturing or advice giving
  • Know how teens use technology for connection
  • Identify drivers behind teens’ addictive impulses and behaviors

Create Breakthroughs with Teens 

  • Sand Tray therapy to promote non-verbal self-expression
  • Modify tabletop games to client specific needs and preferences
  • Master roleplaying in therapy games to help teens build new skills
  • How to make video games therapeutic & game recommendations
  • Navigate when teens lean toward “dark themes” and violence in play
  • Incorporate music, Legos®, “Oddly Satisfying Videos”, and pop culture
  • Create individualized self-care recipes
  • Specific play ideas for expression anger

Empowerment Approaches to Guide Tomorrow's Leaders

  • Cultivate self-compassion in distressed teens through writing
  • Increase personal strengths with positive psychology 
  • How to emphasize strengths in any play therapy exercise 
  • Create psychology flexibility with ACT
  • Replace avoidance with resilience

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychiatrists
  • Psychologists
  • Play Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Psych Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals
  • Educators
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Occupational Therapy Assistants
  • Speech-Language Pathologists
  • Any professionals working with children

Copyright : 07/28/2023

Play Therapy

Discover why play therapy works and how to use it to treat childhood mental health challenges such as:

ADHD — Anxiety — Autism — Disruptive Behavior Disorders — Depression — OCD — PTSD — Trauma — Self-Esteem — Social Skills

Play Therapy is filled with dozens of powerful play techniques adapted for use in individual, family, and group therapy, for schools, and at home.

Inside you’ll find:

  • Hands on Activities
  • Printable Worksheets
  • Expressive and Creative Arts
  • Dynamic Therapeutic Games
  • Puppet Play
  • Guided Imagery
  • Parent-Child Interventions
  • Tips for Parents & Teachers