IAPT Fall Conference: Thursday & Friday Presentations

Meet the Presenter:

Thursday and Friday Presentation:

Attachment and Play Therapy: Recognizing Safe Haven and Secure Base in the Sand Tray (12 hours)

Overview:

Attachment needs deserve to be held in homeostatic balance. We need to be held close and we need to be supported in exploration. When our relational needs are not held in rhythm, the internalized models wisely hold self-protective strategies that, tragically, then make having those needs met in the future more complicated. This both contains trauma and increases the chances for accumulating future trauma more likely. Expressive and play therapies are well suited for trauma-informed work due to their utilization of all the senses, their honoring of client timing, and their comfort with externalized metaphor. This 2-day workshop will overview some expressive approaches, with special focus on play and sandtray therapy, allowing practice time for trauma-sensitive applications and taking special consideration for the added complexities of working with those with attachment and trauma (such as families impacted by intergenerational trauma and adoption). This workshop will be highly experiential.

Objectives:

1. Overview major tenets of play and expressive therapies 

2. Discuss trauma-informed concepts involved in play and expressive therapies 

3. Discuss relevant trauma-informed relational neuroscience to attachment-sensitive play therapy 

4. Overview how attachment rhythms affect resiliency during effective play and expressive therapies sessions 

5. Practice trauma-informed specific interventions from different types of play and expressive therapies that adjust to shifting streams of attachment energy. There will be particular focus on learning specialized adaptations in expressive sand tray work for attachment-related presentations.   

6. Practice play therapy treatment planning for those affected by attachment trauma.