Day 1: Post-traumatic play in children: What clinicians should know. This day will focus on a unique type of play that potentially can signal that traumatic material is still central and/or unresolved to the child or the family. We will look at the characteristics of post-traumatic play, three typical phases of this play, and discuss how witnessing the play in a safe setting is therapeutic in and of itself and allows for trauma processing on a deep level. The unique feature of this play is that it is client-directed and a form of gradual exposure that the child initiates at his or her pace. Clinicians will learn the benefits of post-trauma play, and recognize the signs that the play is helping the child experience a renewed sense of control and mastery, critical in trauma work. Finally, we will offer some specific ideas for making interventions when the play appears to be stuck and potentially retraumatizing to the child. This workshop focuses on Play Therapy Special Topics as well as Play Therapy Skills and Methods. Day 2 is designed to provide information about children with sexual behaviour problems and provides a context for responding to them and their families in a purposeful way. Information will be presented on both assessment and treatment. The assessment results help to tailor individualized treatment plans and selecting treatment formats that might best address client concerns. Emphasis is placed on accessing parents and caretakers to provide careful and nurturing supervision and guidance, and engaging children and their families in treatment designed to enhance their relationships. Children will be taught to identify and use their internal controls, regulate their affect, and understand their unique cues of impending problem behaviors, in addition to recognizing and growing their self-esteem and resources. A variety of play-based assessment strategies will be provided along with CBT-based treatment strategies. Specifically, this program will:
- Define sexual behavior problems
- Differentiate between normative sex play and sexual behavior problems
- Discuss the family context of sexual behavior problems, that is, look at factors that might mediate risk factors
- Describe a child-friendly assessment process for young children with sexual behavior problems
- Review and practice clinical directives associated with the assessment, including nondirective play and expressive arts
- Propose a treatment model with specific play-based assessment strategies designed to engage children in self-disclosure and self-exploration of sexual behaviour problems
- Discuss the advancement of treatment goals using a combination of play therapy strategies, expressive and CBT-based approaches
- Discuss a number of resources for working with children’s sexual behaviour problems
