Eliana Gil, PhD, ATR, RPT-S, LMFT

This 2-hour evening session will provide play therapists with continuing education contact hours in group supervision that can be applied towards an RPT credential. To structure our time, we invite interested pre-registrants to apply for the opportunity to present a case that features a consultation question specific to the application of play therapy with child or family clients. (Note: Presenting a case is not required. This opportunity is completely voluntary.) Case presenters may present a videotaped session if they wish (signed consent forms required) or artwork, images of sand trays, or other play therapy work on a flash drive. After they present a concise consultation question, the group supervisor and session participants will engage in focused discussion and feedback designed to advance treatment goals. Countertransference issues will be highlighted and participants will be encouraged to “think play.” If you are interested in presenting, please contact Dr. Gil at elianagil@me.com as soon as you register. Limited seating. 

Please Note: There is an additional fee for this session.

Eligible for 2.0 Credit/Clock Hours: APA, MFT; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

This session not eligible for NASW or NBCC credits.

Susan Taylor, LCSW-C, CMA, RPT-S
Kimberly Cosgrove, LCSW-C
Carole Norris-Shortle, LCSW-C, LCMFT, RPT-S

This interactive evening workshop will offer play therapists and other mental health professionals opportunities to experience the mindful musical and movement play critical in promoting self-regulation, co-regulation, and engagement in parent-child dyads. Experiential exercises will illustrate the regulatory power of song and gesture with this population.  Based on the presenters’ more than 20 years of experience creating an attachment-based, trauma-informed, play therapy model serving homeless babies and their parents, we will investigate multiple uses of music and movement as stand-alone play therapy sessions that can be integrated into any therapeutic encounter.  Join us for a joyful exploration!

Please Note: There is an additional fee for this session.

Eligible for 2.0 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Eliana Gil, PhD, ATR, RPT-S, LMFT

Session Full

Mandalas—circular artwork that can be seen in most all cultures throughout the ages—were popularized as a therapeutic drawing technique once Carl Jung declared them a representation of the wholeness of the Self. This 2-hour evening workshop will give play therapists the opportunity to make a mandala and process them in groups to promote reflection and dialogue.  Play therapists will be encouraged to consider this powerful art-based strategy in two important ways: to help clients have a mindful expressive experience that is often therapeutic in and of itself; and to use language-specific prompts to encourage reflection and insight. In this limited time, play therapists will receive a quick overview to the more in-depth process of using mandalas in assessment by trained and/or certified professionals, however this brief introductory experience will not prepare play therapists to do more in-depth treatment using this technique. No previous art experience required.

Please Note: There is an additional fee for this session.

Eligible for 2.0 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Please Note: This session is NOT eligible for APA, MFT or Nursing credits.

Mary DeRaedt, PhD, LPC, NCC

Play therapists working with traumatized child and adolescent clients often overlook the problematic symptoms of dissociation, which can be mistaken for the false appearance of functionality as well as a variety of acting-out behaviors. Grounded in leading-edge neurological understanding of dissociation and cross-cultural play therapy work with refugee youth coping with severe, daily trauma, this 2-hour evening workshop will describe and demonstrate interventions that will help play therapists to identify and clarify this rather elusive coping mechanism. Participants will also learn how to provide more effective play therapy treatment for treating this often-misunderstood, and ultimately dysfunctional, trauma response which, if caught in childhood, can be much more easily reversed, than if it goes undiscovered until adulthood. 

Please Note: There is an additional fee for this session.

Eligible for 2.0 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Rick Gaskill, EdD, RPT-S

Play therapy has a long history of providing excellent, developmentally appropriate treatment to emotionally disturbed children. Today, neuroscience is providing new and increasingly powerful insights that offer play therapists greatly enhanced capabilities in the application of play therapy techniques and interventions. Play therapists who develop the essential skills to assess the neurobiological source of a child’s trauma symptoms are better able to develop and offer therapeutic interventions that maximally benefits the child. Eliana Gil and colleagues will help bridge theory and practice by demonstrating some brain-based play therapy techniques.

Eligible for 1.5 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Grab & Go lunches are available daily. They include a sandwich, beverage, and snack. Pre-order one during the online registration process, pick yours up at the start of the lunch break, and go!

$18 ticket required

April D. Duncan, MSW, LCSW, RPT

Session Full

African American preschoolers make up 18% of the school population, but account for 48% of the suspensions and expulsions in schools. These disciplinary rates are feeding into what has become known as the “preschool to prison pipeline” — essentially feeding young black students into the criminal justice system. This master class will explore how play therapy can help to reduce acting-out behaviors, thus reducing the number of disciplinary actions against black students in schools. Using an Adlerian play therapy framework, attendees will learn how to apply play therapy principles to address “disruptive” behaviors in African American children while taking into account difficulties they may experience due to racial discrimination. Participants will learn how to engage African American children and their families in play therapy as a way to address and potentially reduce suspension/expulsion as a result of the behavioral symptoms of trauma, including those stemming from familial and community violence.

Eligible for 4.5 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Jennifer Lefebre, PsyD, RPT-S

Session Full

Many of our young clients are referred to treatment due to rapidly shifting states of arousal, affect, thinking, and/or behavior. Affective disorders, ADHD, sensory processing issues, and developmental trauma may all lead to these dysregulated states. Knowing how to accurately read these cues and provide appropriate play therapy and other interventions is key to working with these challenges. Adapting to the environment—and the constantly changing needs and demands on the nervous system—requires very complex processing in the brain, which is not always possible. Depending on the neuro-behavioral state of the brain, a child may need an increased or a decreased amount of sensory input. In this 4.5-hour master class, participants will be introduced to movement, sensory, and play therapy interventions to help them learn to strengthen the regulatory capacities of the children with whom they work. They will learn the importance of co-regulation in developing a child’s ability to self-soothe, and how to determine which sensory strategies and play therapy interventions are appropriate for differing levels and types of dysregulation.

Eligible for 4.5 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Dee Preston-Dillon, MA, PhD

Session Full

Sand therapy is a three-dimensional projective process appropriate for clients across the lifespan, often practiced by expressive arts and play therapists. In clinical work, it is especially important to be attuned to the psychic impact of the symbolic aspects inherent in sand therapy. Understanding theory, contexts, and the construction of meaning that occurs in sand work are critical factors in grasping a client's process. Play therapists must remain aware of projections, attitude toward symbols, sense of boundaries, and an understanding of the unique play therapy client-clinician relationship with sand, essential for an ethical practice. In this master class, the speaker will provide an overview of the core principles and practices for safe, ethical, and empowering sand therapy by play therapists, expressive arts therapists, and others. Relevant research and case examples will be offered and complemented by an experiential component during which participants will have the opportunity to work with peers to explore the core principles and practices that will be featured. Volunteers are invited from among the group to help demonstrate play therapy approaches with sand.

Eligible for 4.5 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Myriam Goldin, LCSW, RPT-S

This 2-hour evening session will provide continuing education contact hours in group supervision that can be used towards RPT credentials. To structure our time, we invite interested pre-registrants to apply for the opportunity to present a case that features a consultation question specific to Theraplay. (Note: Presenting a case is not required. This opportunity is completely voluntary.) Case presenters may present a videotaped session if they wish (signed consent forms required). After they present a concise consultation question, the group supervisor and session participants will engage in focused discussion and feedback designed to advance treatment goals. If you are interested in being one of the two participants to present a case, please submit a summary of your case and consultation question to Myriam Goldin (mgoldin@gilinstitute.com) as soon as you register for this 2-hour group supervision. Seating limited. 

Please Note: There is an additional fee for this session.

Eligible for 2.0 Credit/Clock Hours: APA, MFT; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

This session not eligible for NASW or NBCC credits.

Justin Barrasso, MS, LPC, NCC

Engaging “resistant” teenagers in play therapy can induce feelings of frustration and incompetence, and elicit doubt in our clinical approach—especially once we've already tried using everything in our “toolbox.” In today’s age of manualized treatments, diagnostic protocols, and other structured solutions, it is no wonder why “rebellious” teens can be “resistant” to any sort of therapy. Luckily, adapting the principles of child-centered play therapy to the needs of teens can provide a new direction for therapists who find teens resistant to their agendas, their parents' agendas, and most all other efforts to be helpful: Without an agenda, there isn't much for a teen to resist. Conveniently, the child-centered play therapy approach creates stronger opportunities for a therapeutic alliance. Through here-and-now interactions that promote autonomy, teen clients can begin to establish a clearer sense of reality in terms of whose responsibility their challenges actually are, rather than being driven by someone (or something) outside their locus of control. A child-centered play approach adapted for teens can "set the table" for developing a therapeutic rapport more conducive to what research has shown us to make therapy effective across theoretical lines. In this 2-hour evening workshop, participants will learn what ingredients are needed to make therapy successful, understand how a child-centered play approach can help the therapist move therapy in a more successful direction, learn how to adjust child-centered play therapy for adolescents, and discover how child-centered play therapy can facilitate motivation in adolescents, inspiring them to change. We will also discuss how to teach parents about this approach so that they can establish more effective relationships with their adolescents.

Please Note: There is an additional fee for this session.

Eligible for 2.0 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Grab & Go lunches are available daily. They include a sandwich, beverage, and snack. Pre-order one during the online registration process, pick yours up at the start of the lunch break, and go!

Note: Master Classes will break for lunch for approximately 90 minutes

$18 ticket required

Peggy Kolodny, MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT
Sharon Strouse, MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT

More Seats Just Added

Trauma and grief work supports the effectiveness of nonverbal creative arts and play therapy interventions to address the somatic impact on mind and body. This 4.5 hour master class focuses on a collage making technique that trauma-focused play therapists and art therapists—who are often hesitant to treat grief—can use in their practices. The neurobiological effects of complicated grief as they relate to van der Kolk's and Perry’s trauma theory will be briefly reviewed. Images created by an art therapist in response to the suicide of her seventeen-year-old daughter will be presented as visual representations of complicated grief and complex trauma. This case material is grounded in the grief and bereavement work of Neimeyer's Constructivist Theory of Meaning Making, Shear’s Complicated Grief Theories, Worden’s Task Model of Bereavement, and Stroebe's Dual Process Model. The impact of traumatic grief on the social, behavioral, emotional, and psychological development of children and families will be reviewed along with age-appropriate creative interventions for play therapists. Experiential activities will include diverse collage-making directives including containers and books. Jungian active imagination processing of collages will be demonstrated.

Eligible for 4.5 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Steven Baron, PsyD
David A. Crenshaw, PhD, ABPP, RPT-S

Session Full

Have you ever spent a session in a stalemate with a child or adolescent? The goal of any child therapy, of course, is to provide opportunities for our young clients to feel safe and secure when expressing their thoughts and feelings. However, as play therapists and their colleagues have experienced, this sense of safety can be difficult to cultivate. Sometimes children or adolescents are deliberately oppositional, sometimes they are bound by anxiety or fear, and other times they simply lack the cognitive or expressive language skills to be able to share. As play therapists and counselors, it is our responsibility to find ways to help youngsters top overcome these impediments to treatment and progress. In this 4.5 hour master class, participants will learn creative—both verbal and artistic—methods to enable children and adolescents to express their concerns in treatment through safe, secure, and fun ways. Strategies to be described and demonstrated will include direct as well as open-ended questions, as well as projective art and storytelling tasks, to encourage narratives that provide clues as to their fears, struggles, and hopes for enhanced efficacy in play therapy.

Eligible for 4.5 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Dee Preston-Dillon, MA, PhD

Session Full

Along life's journey, children and play therapists alike develop many stories, big and small, nestled deep in the heart. Narrative Sand Therapy©, developed by the presenter, encourages clients of all ages to use symbols to represent their experiences and reclaim parts of the self previously left behind in trauma and shame, re-shaping their stories through a heart-healing process. Narrative Sand Therapy is a collaborative process between play therapist and client wherein developmental stories, personal myths, and histories can unfold by using therapeutic metaphors, symbol amplification, and respectful exploration. In this 4.5 hour master class, participants will explore poetry, personal letters, dialogues, and mini-dramas to animate the symbolic, while mindful of the role of silence and subtle engagement to deepen client work. Play therapists and those who treat children will also learn four primary tenets—permission, protection, empowerment, and presence—that guide the clinician and support the young client's explorations of stories in the sand. This approach to exploratory process distinguishes Narrative Sand Therapy© from sandtray and sandplay therapies, and is eminently compatible with the work of play therapists.

Eligible for 4.5 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Eliana Gil, PhD, LMFT, ATR, RPT-S

Session Full

In this 4.5 hour master class, play therapists will have the opportunity to explore viable options for using miniatures in treatment, but outside of the sand tray.  Several techniques will be demonstrated, and participants will get the opportunity to practice them for quick inclusion in the play therapist’s repertoire. These include play and work genograms, Solution Circles, the use of common symbols such as those found in nature, color as symbol, embodying chosen figures, and others.  Play therapists will be invited to create their own interventions by applying their creative skills and insights once a foundation for symbol and metaphor work has been established. Using miniatures in play therapy treatment is particularly helpful with teens—and clients of any age, really—who are ambivalent or hesitant about communicating verbally regarding feelings or issues.

Eligible for 4.5 Credit/Clock Hours: NBCC, ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Grab & Go lunches are available daily. They include a sandwich, beverage, and snack. Pre-order one during the online registration process, pick yours up at the start of the lunch break, and go!

Note: Master Classes will break for lunch for approximately 90 minutes

$18 ticket required

Dan Walsh, MS, MT-BC

Like all clinicians, play therapists can find it challenging to form therapeutic alliances with their more resistant clients, and this is particularly true of those youngsters who shy away from self-expression and creative activities. Since most everyone has drummed in one way or another — even if only by banging on a saucepan — mutual drumming in treatment can provide a format and experience through which play therapists and other mental health professionals can facilitate or deepen a therapeutic alliance, and by doing so, provide an environment in which treatment goals can be more easily achieved. In this 4.5 hour master class, participants will learn to apply the concept of the iso principle, a technique by which music is matched with a client's affective state and can then be used to modify moods or even affect physiological responses. A simple means for providing structure such as establishing tempo and phrase length will be introduced. Participants will also engage in drumming activities that will illustrate and demonstrate Bruscia's clinical techniques of improvisation, featuring strategic approaches such as empathy, elicitation, and redirection. They will be given opportunities to apply these concepts while facilitating group and individual drumming experiences with youth and teens. We will also discuss how play therapists can help clients manage affect regulation, reality orientation, and improve self-expression. This session is appropriate for play therapists, other clinicians, and educators whose work would benefit from a drumming-based structure for enhancing alliances with clients of any age who might otherwise have difficulty connecting or flourishing using more traditional treatment approaches.

Eligible for 4.5 Credit/Clock Hours: ATCB; NASW, APA, MFT, Nursing; SWNYS, LCAT, NY-LMHC; APT**
**Play therapy credit will not be awarded to non-mental health professionals.

Not eligible for NBCC credits.