Name: Playful Pathways: Integrating Attachment-Centered Play Therapy with Tweens and Teens (and their pare
Start: 2024-09-05T09:00:00-04:00
End: 2024-09-06T16:30:00-04:00
Location: Elizabethtown Tourism

Playful Pathways: Integrating Attachment-Centered Play Therapy with Tweens and Teens (and their pare

Day 1: Attachment Centered Play Therapy (ACPT) is an integrative, prescriptive play therapy model that blends the original and current theories of attachment with the power of play therapy to create a holistic, systemic approach to working with children and families. This approach allows the clinician to view the child within the framework of their family system, treating the family as if they were “the client” instead of focusing on the individual child and presenting behavioral or emotional issues. Through the lens of attachment theory, participants will gain a new understanding of how children and families interact and bond to one another in healthy vs maladaptive ways. We will be exploring how trauma, abuse, neglect, and grief impact the bonds of attachment within the family system, as well as ways to engage even the most difficult parents and invite them into the play therapy process. You will learn how to repair, rebuild, and create safety within the parent-child relationship using the power of Attachment Centered Play Therapy.
Participants will spend the day learning new and innovative play therapy techniques including hands on experiential activities, sand tray interventions, and expressive arts. You will leave with a creative toolbox of tips, techniques, and a clear understanding of how attachment styles impact relationships.
Day 2: Take a deeper dive into how ACPT can be used successfully with tweens and teens (and their parents!!) Enhance your clinical practice by learning how to blend expressive arts techniques with Attachment Centered Play Therapy! By doing so, a creative atmosphere featuring safety and compassion is created in the office, studio, or play therapy room to support freedom of expression, allowing clients to communicate the unspeakable.
Expressive arts have long been heralded in psychotherapy for their effectiveness in trauma treatment, making them a valuable resource for play therapists and other mental health professionals. In this workshop, we will be exploring and demonstrating through hands-on activities how to use expressive arts alongside play therapy techniques with tweens and teens to address attachment issues, trauma, self-esteem, and empathy development.
Appropriate for play therapists, counselors, psychotherapists, and others working with tweens and teens, participants will end the day having gained a diverse toolbox of play therapy and expressive arts techniques, and a deeper understanding of the complimentary healing powers that play therapy combined with expressive arts can bring to clinical work with this population.