PLAY THERAPY INTERVENTIONS FOR ATTACHMENT DIFFICULTIES

Designed for practitioners adding play therapy to their practice, this engaging one-day workshop provides practical skills to work with children, young people and families/carers who experience relational and attachment difficulties. Play Therapy assessment and interventions will be demonstrated and practiced to provide the steps for building strong relationships with clients; exploring their clinical issues and underlying dynamics; developing and working toward clear treatment goals; and collaborating with parents and teachers. The Play Therapy approaches are based on the foundation knowledge and understanding of attachment theory, developmental trauma, neurobiology, and play therapy, including the work of Garry Landreth, Charles Schaefer, Athena Drewes, Bruce Perry, Dan Hughes, just name a few. 

With an accessible theory-to-practice focus the learning objectives for the day include:

• Understanding the concept of attachment security and internal working model.
• Identifying attachment patterns related to attachment difficulties and how they are displayed.
• Learning how to use Play Therapy approaches to do intervention-oriented assessment. 
• Learning how to use Play Therapy approaches to conduct treatment interventions for children and families with attachment difficulties. 
  • Creating safety: finding safe people and safe places.
  • My feelings and me – increase understanding of emotions and how they relate to self and experiences.
  • Degree of safety – increase awareness of safety boundaries.
  • From fear to safely scared activities/seeking and receiving comfort and nurture.
  • Resources - My support team; digging for treasures.
  • What happened to me - creating new narratives.
  • Using stories to integrate experiences and reflective capacity.
  • Teaching brain science using play activities.
  • Parent-child interactions – increase open and engaged parent-child interactions, and increase capacity to experience joy in healthy attachment relationships.
  • Hope – increase capacity to mentalise a positive future.

Participants will leave with the confidence to immediately incorporate these techniques into their work with children, young people and families struggling with emotional, behavioural and relational problems or life challenges. If you are a Play Therapist, the learning will add to your toolbox. If you are new to Play Therapy, the learning will open your eyes to a new therapeutic approach to reflect on and develop your clinical style.

Presented by: Hannah Sun-Reid lives and works in Ontario Canada and has more than 35 years’ experience working therapeutically with children and families. She is a Certified Play Therapist, Supervisor and Approved training provider with the Canadian Association for Play Therapy (CAPT). She has been teaching play therapy and mentoring play therapists in Canada and internationally for the past 20 years. Hannah is a board member and the Certification committee chair with CAPT. She is also a certified therapist, supervisor, and trainer in Theraplay® and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. Hannah is an author of therapeutic children’s books and games. 

Audience: This training is suitable for all professionals who work with children, young people and their families/carers who experience relational and attachment difficulties. This could include parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, kinship carers, or caregivers, such as in residential care. 

Mental Health Professionals: All mental health professionals including, but not limited to Psychologists, Play Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Nurses, Social Workers, Child Protection and Disability Workers, Guidance Officers, Residential Care Workers and Foster Support Workers, and all other mental health professionals looking.

Education Professionals: Professionals who work with children or youth including, but not limited to K–12 School Counsellors, School Paraprofessionals and all other professionals who support behavioural challenges and complex learning needs.