Preconference Day Workshops: June 12th
Morning Workshop: 8:30am-12pm
Session Title: Building a Play Therapy Playroom, Practice, Business, and Everything in Between: With
Special Emphasis on Ethics in Play Therapy and Rural Areas
Presenters: Rose Harriet, MS, NCC, LPC, RPT-S, STR-CT, ACS & Jamie Straessler, MEd, NCC, LPC,
RPT-S, STR-C
Session Objectives:
- Participants will be able to identify at least 5 basic themes to include in their
play therapy rooms.
- Participants will be able to identify the basics in a play therapy room and the additional
luxuries to consider in their play therapy rooms.
- Participants will be able to identify 3 steps to creating their own private practice
or expanding their business.
- Participants will be able to identify ethical considerations in Play Therapy.
- Participants will be able to identify the unique challenges and ethical considerations
in rural areas.
Afternoon Workshop: 1:30pm-5:00pm
Session Title: When Two Worlds Collide: Norton's Experiential Play Therapy Meets Kalffian Sandplay
Creating Interactive Sandplay Therapy
Presenters: Rose Harriet, MS, NCC, LPC, RPT-S, STR-CT, ACS & Jamie Straessler, MEd, NCC, LPC,
RPT-S, STR-C
Session Objectives:
- Participants will be able to briefly explain Nortons’ Experiential Play Therapy.
- Participants will be able to briefly explain Kallfian Sandplay Therapy.
- Participants will list two reasons showing why containment is essential to clients.
- Participants will identify at least two ways Interactive Sandplay Therapy enhances
treatment goals.
- Participants will be able to list at least two reasons why clinicians join the client
in the sand tray.
Main Conference: June 13th-15th
Thursday, June 13: 8:30am-5pm
All Day Session:
Session Title: Historical Origins and Theoretical Principles of Gestalt Play Therapy
Presenter: Felicia Carroll, MEd, LMFT-S, RPT-S
Session Objectives:
- Attendees will be able to discuss at least six theoretical principles of Gestalt Therapy
essential to clinical work with children/adolescents.
- Attendees will be able to explain seven points in the Gestalt Awareness Cycle of organismic
functioning in children/adolescents.
- Attendees will be able to name and explain two global difficulties that underlie the
symptoms that bring children/adolescents into therapy according to the Oaklander Approach
to Gestalt Therapy with children/adolescents.
- Attendees will be able to discuss the organismic view of psychopathology and the phrase,
“A Child’s Way of Being.”
- Attendees will be able to list five elements of the Gestalt Therapy Process with children
as presented by the Oaklander Approach.
- Attendees will describe how the principles from contemporary neuroscience confirm
the basic principles of Gestalt Therapy with children/adolescents.
Friday, June 14: 8:30am-5pm
All Day Session:
June 14th
Session Title: The Relational Field: Qualities of the Therapeutic Relationship and Working with Creativity,
Novelty, and the Experimental Attitude in Gestalt Play Therapy
Presenter: Felicia Carroll, MEd, LMFT-S, RPT-S
Session Objectives:
- Attendees will be able to explain four elements of the dialogic relationship process
in Gestalt Play Therapy and how each supports the development of an effective therapeutic
relationship.
- Attendees will be able to discuss the concept of Relational Field and how working
with families, schools, and others in the child’s life is a significant component
of Gestalt Play Therapy.
- Attendees will be able to give examples of how to vary the level of difficulty in
designing therapeutic experiments in Gestalt Play Therapy.
- Attendees will be able to use the four stages in a phenomenological method in using
various playful, creative modalities including clay, drawings, sand tray, Legos, etc.
- Attendees will be able to describe three playful/expressive interventions that support
emotional expression and regulation.
- Attendees will be able to explain the purpose and function of aggressive biological
energy in emotional expression and regulation.
Saturday, June 15: 8:30am-5pm
All Day Session:
June 15th
Session Title: How is Integration Achieved in Gestalt Play Therapy?
Presenter: Felicia Carroll, MEd, LMFT-S, RPT-S
Session Objectives:
- Attendees will be able to explain the characteristics of complex systems in understanding
the nature of integrative process in Gestalt Play Therapy.
- Attendees will be able to describe the meaning of negative introjects which emerge
through adaptations of shame experiences.
- Attendees will explain the Paradoxical Theory of Change in Gestalt Therapy with children/adolescents.
- Attendees will be able to describe and apply the Oaklander process of self-nurturing
in integrating the effects of negative introjects and the effects of shame-based experiences
on a child/adolescent’s sense of Self.
- Attendees will be able to plan a Trauma/Life Narrative as an integrative experience.
- Attendees will be able to describe the process of closure in general and the importance
of a closure process in Gestalt Play Therapy.
