This workshop will focus on multiple ways in which play therapists can better understand and respond to sexually and physically traumatized children. The literature on child sexual and physical abuse will be reviewed, along with the clinical studies that facilitate the healing. Focus will be placed on responding to the young victim’s feelings of powerlessness, betrayal, shame and confusion. It will also illustrate treatment approaches designed to help these children voice their painful feelings through play therapy, regain a sense of mastery and integrate the abuse into a broader sense of self. The play therapist’s vulnerability will also be discussed as a necessary aspect of this play therapy treatment, and self-care methods to use to fight the fatigue, compassion, and possible vicarious trauma that may result from care giving. This is a level 2 Core Course.
Course Objectives
-Know the definitions of abuse, neglect and trauma, and how that impacts the play of a child in play therapy;
-Learn techniques for play therapy interventions to increase positive self-esteem in children.
-Understand how to use Active Play Therapy to assess a situation in the playroom.
-Learn about the different types of play seen in play therapy that may reflect abuse in a child’s life.
-Understand the cultural significance when defining different types of play themes
-Learn how to use the powers of play as the change agents for children who have been abused