This 4-part, live online training with Dr Eliana Gil is designed to equip child therapists to facilitate healing play, and to make informed clinical decisions and utilise integrated approaches when providing play therapy to traumatised children whose play remains stuck and where their behaviour may be problematic to themselves and or others. This will specifically include children where port-traumatic play may be retraumatising and children who struggle with sexual behaviour problems. 12 CE Hours.

This 4-part, live online training with Dr Eliana Gil is designed to equip child therapists to facilitate healing play, and to make informed clinical decisions and utilise integrated approaches when providing play therapy to traumatised children whose play remains stuck and where their behaviour may be problematic to themselves and or others. This will specifically include children where port-traumatic play may be retraumatising and children who struggle with sexual behaviour problems. 12 CE Hours. Sessions 1 & 2: Post-traumatic play in children:  What clinicians should know Sessions 1 & 2 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 play therapy 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 informed play therapy 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.   Objectives: At the end of these first 2 sessions, participants will be able to

1. Define the term “post-traumatic play”
2. List three characteristics of post-traumatic play
3. Name two substantial benefits of children utilizing post-traumatic play in play therapy
4. List two ways to document positive progress when children use post-trauma play in play therapy
5. Name three ways to help children interrupt stuck patterns in their play therapy process
6. Describe two ways parents can be of assistance to the child’s post-trauma play and trauma processing

  Sessions 3 & 4: Working with Children with Sexual Behaviour Problems: Integrating Play Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Approaches

Sessions 3 and 4 are designed to provide information to guide the play therapy process with children exhibiting 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 play therapy treatment.  The assessment results help to tailor individualized treatment plans and selecting play therapy 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 play therapy interventions 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:

• Assist the play therapist in defining sexual behavior problems to enable differentiation 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 therapy 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 available to the play therapist for working with children’s sexual behaviour problems

  Objectives:  At the end of these final 2 sessions participants will be able to

• • Define sexual behaviour problems
  • Provide four criteria for differentiating between normative sexual play and

sexual behaviour problems

• • List two indicators of low-risk family dynamics and two indicators of high-risk family dynamics
  • List four play therapy assessment strategies
  • List two expressive arts strategies for exploring intensity of sexual behaviour problem
  • Give a rationale for the integration of play therapy and CBT-based strategies when working with children with sexual behavior problems
  • Discuss pros and cons of individual versus group play therapy

Participants will be advised on what materials to have for the live online sessions closer to the training days.