Play Therapy Conference Program

KEYNOTE: Working with Aggression and Intensity in Play Therapy

Although aggression and death play are a common part of the play therapy process, many therapists don’t have a clear understanding of what to do and how to facilitate the intensity when it enters the playroom during play. The result can lead to inadvertently promoting aggression and increasing lower brain disorganization. It can also lead to the therapist feeling beat up, exhausted and hyper-aroused themselves, which can over time significantly impact their longevity in the field, as well as their ability to stay attuned and present to a child in the playroom.

This keynote presentation is designed to help play therapists understand aggression and death play from a neuro-biological perspective and a Synergetic Play Therapy lens. With the help of neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology, therapists will learn how to effectively work with this type of play in a way that supports nervous system regulation, repatterning of the child’s autonomic activation patterns and decreases compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify at least 2 strategies for working with aggression in the playroom without experiencing your own nervous system shut down leading to vicarious trauma
• Explain the link between a child’s dysregulated states of their nervous system and their aggressive and traumatic play
• Demonstrate at least 2 strategies for setting boundaries without shaming or shutting down a child’s play
• Examine the Synergetic Play Therapy concept of “The Set Up” in the playroom as a way to understand what the child is trying to communicate
• Demonstrate at least 2 strategies for setting boundaries without shaming or shutting down a child’s play

More Than Fun & Games: Beginning Play Therapy

This introductory training is designed to help mental health professionals build a solid foundation in play therapy. Grounded in the definitions, principles, and standards set by the Association for Play Therapy (APT), the program introduces participants to what play therapy is, why it works, and how it supports the therapeutic process.

We’ll explore the history and theoretical foundations of play therapy, along with key concepts such as the therapeutic powers of play and the unique role of the therapist. This training is primarily educational and meant to offer a clear, approachable introduction rather than advanced clinical skill-building. No previous play therapy training is required—this program is ideal for those who are curious, new to play therapy, or looking to strengthen their foundational understanding.

Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to:

• Define play therapy according to Association for Play Therapy standards and summarize its purpose and relevance in children’s mental health treatment.
• Describe the history, theoretical foundations, and core principles of play therapy, including the therapeutic powers of play and their role in facilitating clinical change.
• Explain how play therapy supports emotional expression, self-regulation, and healing in children across mental health treatment settings.
• Recognize basic play therapy approaches, techniques, and materials commonly used in beginning play therapy practice and determine appropriate next steps for continued training or referral.

Ethical Considerations When Doing Play Therapy With Minors In a High Conflict Divorce

Working with kids when the parents are divorced or divorcing can be intimidating; especially if the co-parenting relationship is high conflict. Learn how to identify a high-conflict divorce, understand the ethical implications, manage your ethical and legal liability, all while providing excellent therapeutic care through play therapy. In this engaging, collaborative workshop, we’ll be giving participants all the tools they need to identify legal resources, create policies and procedures, implement best practice, and know where to find other resources so play therapists can feel confident with the intensity that sometimes comes with divorced parents.

This course does not cover considerations for those who are wanting to work with custody evaluations or reunification cases. Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced-Ethical and legal issues come up for all clinicians, regardless of experience level. This workshop is intended to provide information for all experience levels to assess how they currently manage their ethical risk in regards to providing play therapy for kids whose parents are divorcing or are divorced. This workshop helps participants demonstrate relationship and rapport building skills through the setting of boundaries. They will learn to assess various aspects of the child’s system and the impact it has on the play therapy process. This workshop helps participants evaluate and adjust play therapy practices to meet state and discipline ethical guidelines and codes. It also helps play therapists identify their professional scope of competence in play therapy and how to integrate play therapy specific consultation.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify different types of divorce that you may see as a play therapist
• Develop resources and strategies to mitigate ethical and legal risks that impact your play therapy practice
• Demonstrate knowledge of scope of practice as it relates to being a play therapist that works with minors involved in divorce
• Identify ethical and legal considerations as it relates to play therapy

Play Therapy with Selective Mutism

This training equips clinicians with effective play therapy skills and interventions for supporting children with selective mutism. Through a blend of practical strategies and expressive techniques, participants will learn to create a therapeutic space where silence feels safe, play becomes language, and trust can take root. Grounded in theory and research, the workshop emphasizes how play therapy reduces anxiety, strengthens relational safety, and gently invites verbal expression. Clinicians will leave with concrete tools and renewed confidence in helping children move from quiet withdrawal toward connection, communication, and emotional growth.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to identify play therapy-based assessment skills to accurately assess for SM (including identifying common misdiagnoses, common comorbid disorders, and issues related to language and communication diversity), inform treatment, and tailor treatment.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify the 4 stages of the avoidance cycle and ways to utilize the powers of play to address each.
• Participants will be able to identify the 3 predictive factors of successful SM treatment and will identify how to utilize play therapy skills to develop therapeutic relationships and to enhance their technique.
• Participants will be able to identify the four stages of the communication bridge and at least one play therapy intervention for each stage.

Play First: Experiencing the Transformative Power of Play from the Inside Out

Before we can guide others through play, we have to remember what it feels like to be inside it. This experiential workshop is designed to help clinicians rediscover play not as a technique, but as a powerful human experience. Rather than focusing on learning specific interventions, participants will actively engage in a variety of play experiences that invite curiosity, creativity, emotional expression, and connection. Through hands-on activities, participants will notice how play naturally opens space for feelings, lowers defenses, and allows meaning to emerge without pressure. As they move through these experiences, clinicians will begin to recognize how play supports healing across ages, from children to adolescents to adults.

Reflection and discussion will help bridge personal experience to clinical understanding, allowing participants to make sense of what they felt, what shifted, and why it matters in therapy. This process deepens trust in play as a meaningful pathway for connection and change. Participants will leave with a felt sense of play’s impact, along with a clearer understanding of how creating space for play in therapy can invite growth, insight, and relationship.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe at least three personal experiences during play that illustrate how play facilitates emotional expression, connection, or insight.
• Identify at least three ways play impacts clients across developmental stages (children, adolescents, and adults) based on experiential participation.
• Explain how personal engagement in play can inform clinical understanding and therapeutic presence in sessions.

Healing Waves: Using Play therapy with Grief

This interactive workshop explores how play therapy serves as a developmentally responsive approach for supporting grieving children and adolescents. Participants will examine the neurobiological and relational impacts of grief and loss, including death, separation, and ambiguous loss, and how these experiences manifest symbolically within the play therapy process. Emphasis is placed on recognizing developmentally typical and concerning grief reactions as they emerge through play themes, affect regulation challenges, and relational patterns.

Attendees will learn play therapy interventions that support emotional expression, meaning-making, and integration following loss, with attention to how grief may coexist with trauma responses. The workshop integrates experiential activities, case examples, and group discussion to illustrate how play therapy promotes regulation, attachment repair, and resilience in grieving children. Strategies for engaging caregivers as active participants in the play therapy process will be highlighted, including psychoeducation, relational play interventions, and guidance for supporting grief outside the playroom. This training is grounded in contemporary grief research, therapeutic powers of play, and culturally responsive play therapy practices. Participants will leave with practical tools to identify grief-related themes in play therapy, apply grief-informed interventions across developmental stages, and support children and caregivers in honoring loss while fostering continued connection and growth.

Grief is a common yet frequently misunderstood clinical concern in play therapy practice. Play therapists require specialized skills to accurately assess grief responses and implement developmentally appropriate, relational interventions. This workshop strengthens clinical play therapy skills by deepening participants’ ability to recognize grief themes in play, apply evidence-informed play therapy interventions, and support caregiver–child relationships during the grieving process.

Learning Objectives:

• Assess grief responses in children by identifying developmentally typical and clinically concerning grief indicators through observation of play themes, affect regulation, and relational patterns within the play therapy process.
• Describe five common grief reactions in children across developmental stages as observed in play therapy.
• Identify three play therapy interventions that support emotional expression in grieving children.
• Explain the neurobiological impact of grief on children and how play therapy supports regulation and integration.
• Demonstrate two play therapy techniques that enhance caregiver–child communication and relational safety.

Working with Aggression and Intensity in Play Therapy Part 2

This 2 hour workshop is designed to help therapists learn what it really means to become a child’s external regulator for trauma integration. Participants will be guided through experiential role plays and activities designed to help them explore their own experience with aggression while learning how to regulate and co-regulate with a child when aggression and intensity arises in the playroom. Come take what you learned in the keynote presentation and put it into practice further helping you embody the teaching.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify strategies for maintaining regulation in the midst of intense play, aggression and death in the playroom
• Describe how a therapist’s “window of tolerance” can impact the child’s healing process
• Describe the importance of becoming the child's external regulator for trauma integration
• Explain what it takes to become the “external regulator” in the playroom to support nervous system integration
• Practice facilitating aggressive play in the play therapy process without increasing or promoting aggression