Aggression in the Playroom – A Synergetic Approach for Working with Trauma and Intensity in Play Therapy: One-Day Workshop at the Minnesota APT Conference – Minneapolis, Minnesota
March 6, 2020
With the help of neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology, and a Synergetic Play Therapy framework, therapists will learn how to effectively work with aggressive play in a way that supports nervous system regulation and reorganization of the child’s lower centers of the brain while decreasing compassion fatigue. Join us as we learn how to become a child’s external regulator during trauma and intensive play, allowing you to maximize integration and healing in your child clients (and in yourself).
Although aggression and death are common parts of the play therapy process, many therapists don’t have a clear understanding of what to do and how to facilitate the intensity when it enters the playroom during play. The result can lead to inadvertently promoting aggression and increasing low brain disorganization. It can also lead to the therapist feeling beat up, exhausted, and hyper-aroused themselves, which can – over time – significantly impact their longevity in the field as well as their ability to stay attuned and present to a child in the playroom.
For more information or to register, click here.
Course Objectives
- Recognize the significance of congruence and authentic expression in the play therapy process
- Discuss how to work with aggression and trauma in the playroom without having your own nervous system shut down leading to vicarious trauma
- Discuss the link between a child’s dysregulated states of their nervous system and their aggressive and traumatic play
- Practice facilitating aggressive play in the play therapy process without increasing or promoting aggression
- Discuss the Synergetic Play Therapy concept of “The Set Up” in the playroom
- Demonstrate how to set boundaries without shaming or shutting down a child’s play