A 12 Hour Workshop

February 3, 4, 10, & 11, 2025

10:00 AM - 1:00 PM EST

$199.99

This Certificate eligible workshop will require the securing of the training manual which can be obtained at the links listed below.  If you want the physical copy in time for the workshop start, the deadline for the purchasing deadline is January 15, 2025.  The digital copy can be secured at anytime.

Completion of this workshop is a prerequisite for application to NIRE’s Certification Program in Child-Centered Play Therapy For information, please click HERE.

If you have any difficulty registering, please contact us here.

Mental health and educational professionals who work with children can significantly benefit from training in play therapy. The most basic skills in play therapy; child-centric communication, reflective listening, and limit setting can improve rapport and subsequently relationships with children (professional AND personal).

In this workshop participants will learn basic play therapy skills to engage children (from infancy through the elementary grades) in play therapy from a phenomenological and humanistic perspective. Developmental and cultural issues relevant to this population will be addressed and practical and dynamic interventions will be demonstrated.

Agenda:

Introduction of presenter, topic

Lecture (with examples)

What is Play Therapy?

History/Theory of Play Therapy approaches

Small Group Activities & Debrief

Conceptualizing the child's perspective

Challenging common views adults hold of children that get in the way of therapeutic connections

Working Lunch Break with Independent Activity

Assessing your connections to children in therapy: what has worked and how do you know?

Authentic learning activity & debrief

Setting the stage for viewing childhood through a cultural lens.

Lecture:

Culture of Childhood

How viewing childhood as a culture makes us more thoughtful practitioners.

Video review & small group discussion for authentic learning experiences

Assessing how viewing childhood as a culture impacts our way of understanding children's communication.

Lecture with activities, examples

Child-centered play therapy

Axline's 8 basic principles

The child-centered philosophy

Applied learning

Practicing the 8 basic principles and basic skills

Checkout activity

Assessment of participant learning through day 1

Q & A

Lecture & authentic learning activities:Limit setting

The how and why of setting limits

Structuring limit setting through a developmental lens

How to individualize limit setting

review of example session and debrief

Assess for fidelity to the child-centered model

Discussion of what worked and did not work in the session

Working Lunch Break with Independent activity

Practice of play therapy skills- applied learning

Reflective listening with Children

Tracking responses

Lecture & embedded small group activity:

Challenges to the CCPT approach

How your clinical knowledge informs and hinders your practice.

Play behavior that frequently challenges the play therapist and how to deal with that.

Applied learning activities

Application of limiting setting skills

Contextual caveats to limits

Lecture; Play therapy skills review

Assessing skill level of participants

Filling in gaps in foundation of child-centered play therapy

Q&A

Checkout activity

About The Presenter:

Dr. Mullen is a professor at SUNY Oswego in the Counseling & Psychological Services Department, where she has been a counselor educator for nearly 30 years. She is the Director of Integrative Counseling Services, an international speaker, author, credentialed play therapist and play therapy supervisor. Dr. Mullen provides training, consultation, and supervision to professional helpers all over the world.

She has authored books on play therapy, counseling children and adolescents, grief counseling and parenting, including: CHILD-CENTERED PLAY THERAPY WORKBOOK, Counseling Children And Adolescents Through Grief And Loss, and Supervision Can Be Playful: Techniques for Child and Play Therapist Supervisors