welcome! Play AND LEARN

1. welcome!Play AND LEARN

2. Play Therapy & Creative Counseling Interventions for Children PRESENTED BY: AMANDA M. KENNARD, EDD, LMHC, NBCC, CCTP

3. WELCOME PACKETS • Presentation handout • Play therapy bag: • Bubble Wrap • Pipe Cleaner • Stickers • Faces or Stars

4. History of Play Therapy • As early as the 18th century, play has been recognized as children's natural form of expression. Jean-Jacques Rousseau stated, “It is important to observe children play to understand them”. • In 1903, Friedrich Froebel identified the symbolic components of children’s play. Froebel also recognized that play had conscious and unconscious purpose regardless of the nature of play, therefore, meaning can be derived from the play process.

5. THE POWER OF PLAY THERAPY

6. “TOYS” ARE CHILDREN’S WORDS AND “PLAY” IS THEIR LANGUAGE GARRY LANDRETH-“The Art of the Relationship”

7. What is play therapy? • Play allows children to give voice to their experiences, to have a safe place to express confusing and painful feelings, and to find pathways to healing and mastery in the face of life’s challenges. (Hirschland, 2009)

8. What Play Therapy is…… Widely used to treat children with emotional and behavioral disorders; Used with children 12 and under due to their lack of fully developed capacity for abstract thought; The use of play materials to symbolically act out feelings, thoughts and experiences they are not able to meaningfully express through words; A treatment that has existed since the early 1900’s-APT (1982); Growing rapidly the last 20 years-Over 4,500 professionals around the world; Current research indicates that Play Therapy demonstrates itself to be an effective intervention for children’s problems, one that uniquely responds to developmental needs.

9. Who or what is a Play Therapist? • A trained mental health professional- credentialed by the International Association for Play Therapy; http://www.a4pt.org/ • Someone who helps children resolve their own problems; • Someone who facilitates behavioral and emotional growth through children’s natural play; • Someone who understands that play is children’s most important work.

10. Trauma-Related Problems Behavioral or Developmental Problems Play Therapy is Useful for a Variety of Problems • Sexual abuse • TFCBT & Play • Neglect • TFCBT & Play • Physical abuse • TFCBT & Play • Divorce (adjustment) • Loss (adjustment) • Attachment • Separation from caregiver • ADHD • Directive play • Parenting • ADD • Directive play • Disruptive behavior • Directive and nondirective play • School problems • Directive play

11. Types of Play Therapy • Directive play therapy • Therapist leads the sessions • Planned activities • Nondirective play therapy • Child leads the sessions • Child-centered

12. Nonevaluative Observation • You drew a green tree. • Encouragement • I can see that you are working very hard. • Building self-esteem • You did that all by yourself! • Setting therapeutic limits • Only set limits when a child is breaking a limit such as: • When a child is trying to kick you, you say, “people are not for kicking, you can kick the pillow.”

13. sandTRAY Therapy What is Sandtray Therapy? • Sandtray Therapy is an expressive therapy, also known as, sand play. • Sandtray Therapy uses methods such as, the world technique. The world approach involves the use of miniatures. Children are encouraged to use miniature toys, figurines, and objects in the sand in the way they choose. They can add water to the sand , place the miniatures in the sand tray in any order. The design of the sand tray is guided by the child’s imagination and their subconscious. • The result is a microcosm of their inner world.

14. SandTrays

15. Play Therapy Rooms Problems

16. P Play Therapy Rooms

17. Play Play Therapy Rooms

18. Pet Assisted Therapy Presented by: Amanda M. Kennard, Ed.D., LMHC, NBCC, CCTP

19. What is Pet Assisted Therapy? • Pet Assisted Therapy is a goal-directed intervention in which an animal meeting specific criteria is an integral part of the treatment process. Animal assisted therapy is designed to promote improvement in human physical, social, emotional and/or cognitive functioning. Animal assisted therapy is provided in a variety of settings and may be in group and/or individual in nature (Delta Society, 1996).

20. WHO IS HEALING TRANSITIONS PET ASSISTED THERAPY CANINE? • Isabelle is a Certified Therapy Dog through Therapy Dog International (TDI). Isabelle is also a Canine Good Citizen (CGC).

21. WHERE IS PET ASSISTED THERAPY PROVIDED? • Healing Transitions Creative Counseling provides pet assisted therapy in community settings (School/Home/Group Home). • Healing Transitions Creative Counseling also provides pet assisted therapy within our office locations.

22. WHAT IS COST OF PET ASSISTED THERAPY? • Healing Transitions Creative Counseling is contracted with Medicaid and many insurance companies who are billed for individual and/or family counseling services. Healing Transitions does not charge for specialized services such as play therapy, art therapy and/or pet assisted therapy. Healing Transitions believes in creative modalities that enhance the counseling process without increasing the cost to the client.

23. WHAT IS COST OF PET ASSISTED THERAPY? • Healing Transitions Creative Counseling is contracted with Medicaid and many insurance companies who are billed for individual and/or family counseling services. Healing Transitions does not charge for specialized services such as play therapy, art therapy and/or pet assisted therapy. Healing Transitions believes in creative modalities that enhance the counseling process without increasing the cost to the client.

24. Questions and commentsmany thanks!