Assessment and Presenting Issues In Play Therapy – Navigating The Process

This workshop will offer useful strategies for engaging children and families in the play therapy process through assessment, treatment planning, and goal setting. Participants will review a variety of assessment methods and have opportunities to practice and evaluate assessment, goal setting, and treatment planning techniques.

Emphasizing person-centered approaches—including relational attunement, secure attachment, congruence, unconditional positive regard, and clear therapeutic limits—we’ll practice these therapeutic responses and discuss techniques that foster growth and positive change in children experiencing a variety of concerns.

In the afternoon, we will address commonly observed patterns among children who have experienced abuse, neglect, violence, or trauma, and examine best-practice therapeutic responses aimed at helping each child construct a coherent life narrative and move toward recovery.

Participants will practice implementing play therapy interventions designed to help children develop impulse control, manage anger, improve self-regulation, increase emotional literacy, practice pro-social skills, understand their stress responses, address problematic thoughts and behaviors, and cope with their narratives of the hard things that have happened in their lives.

Sheri Austen is a Certified Play Therapist through The Canadian Association of Play Therapy (CAPT). Sheri’s specialized training in several different methods of Play Therapy contributed to her reputation as an exceptional play therapist during her 26 years of providing play therapy in private practice. She then continued to use her play therapy skills in school settings for 2 decades.