APT content area: Skills and Methods, Special Topics

Too Stressed To Play

Description:

Therapists live each day on the front line in their work putting in countless hours helping children heal, but let’s be honest- there are days when being fully present in the playroom or online is not an easy task. Yes there are many moments in the play therapy process that are fun, but the truth is that helping children integrate their pains and working with their parents can be hard work and taxing to therapists' nervous systems. As play therapists, we spend a lot of time learning about how to heal the children we work with, but what about us? What happens when we are too stressed to play?

This interactive workshop will help guide therapists back to themselves. With the help of neuroscience, therapists will learn how to identify their own states of dys-regulation beyond the common warning signs that many therapists are already familiar with. Therapists will not only learn what is happening in their own brains and nervous systems and how to regulate their bodies, but will also be able to apply the information directly to their child clients resulting in a deeper healing process.

The myth that therapist self care can only happen before and after work and on the weekends will be challenged as we look at eclectic and creative approaches to help therapists regulate during sessions (in person and online) and deal with stress in between sessions. Therapists will learn that it is possible to leave each day with a deeper connection to themselves and more energy.


Learning Objectives:

1. Explore ways to identify different states of dys-regulation in your own body and your child client’s body.

2. Identify and discuss at least 4 ideas from neurobiology, the creative arts, and mindfulness to help you stay present in the playroom and deal with stress in between sessions.

3. Examine the role that “shoulds” play in the development of symptoms in the therapist and the child client.

4. Explore the Synergetic Play Therapy concept of “one foot in and one foot out” and how it applies to self care in the playroom

5. Examine what regulation is and what it is not and how play therapists can use this knowledge to deal with compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma

6. Explore at least 2 ideas for strengthening the therapists’ and the child’s interoceptive sense

 

Instructor Bio:

Lisa Dion, LPC, RPT-S, is an international teacher, creator of Synergetic Play Therapy, founder and President of the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute, co-founder of the Synergetic Education Institute, creator of the Business of Therapy and host of the Lessons from the Playroom podcast. She is the author of Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity and is the 2015 recipient of the Association for Play Therapy’s Professional Education and Training Award of Excellence.

Lisa Dion, LPC, RPT-S