Adult Play Therapy and Parenting Skills : (2-day, 12 CEs)
About this Event
Joining Parenting Skills and Adult Play Therapy so Therapists and Parents can Team Up Together!!!
Do you love working with children but feel lost with how to help parents?
Do you see areas where the child’s life could improve if parents could try different parenting skills?
Do you find yourself frustrated because parents aren’t using the skills you taught? Do you feel like something is missing?
As a Marriage and Family Therapist it has been my desire to consider the whole system when working with children. Sometimes families have been ready to come for family therapy sessions all together at day one and those situations have worked well. But, more often, I noticed that in my eagerness to involve parents, sometimes I was too quick to jump to things like family therapy. Don’t get me wrong, I love interventions like Family Play Therapy and Filial Therapy (they are my favorite to do and teach), but oftentimes, I have learned there are some building blocks that are needed to bridge families to those interventions, and meeting those needs first set everyone up for sucess.
In my experience, parents are often entering the counseling process overwhelmed, stressed, burnout, and discouraged. Sometimes they lack parenting skills, or maybe they have many skills but not ones that fit their child’s unique needs. Sometimes, they have all the skills, but are too exhausted to keep using them. Sometimes they are without support systems, resources, or respite care they are desperately in need of.
When we can see parents and meet them where they are at, we create the ability to join with them as a team and here the whole family wins! Meanwhile, the world of Adult Play Therapy shows meaningful ways we can integrate play therapy techniques.
In this training we will be discussing the use of various play therapy techniques to help form bonds with parents and learn how to join with them so you can work together as a team. We will also explore how to assess whether they are needing respite care or self-compassion, parenting skills or resources, and how to utilize play therapy to meet these various needs.
With use of lecture, videos, demonstrations, and role play, we will play our way through this program.
When therapists and parents become a team, everyone wins!
Prerequisite: None
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Learning Objectives
This workshop is designed to help you:
- Describe various media and methods for use of Adult Play Therapy for working with parents.
- Utilize Adult Play THerapy to assess for parents needs and compile matching treatment goals.
- Describe a way of utilizing Expressive Art therapy to help clients identify ways to increase their support systems.
- Demonstrate 3 Sandtray Play Therapy or Expressive Arts techniques for helping parents identify ways to self-regulate while parenting.
- Explain 4 Sandtray Play Therapy or Expressive Arts techniques to help parents process grief related to parenting.
- Recite the process of learning skills to aid in having realistic expectations for how parents develop or change parenting patterns or skills as they engage in the process of Play Therapy.
- Identify resources to use to help parents gain realistic expectations for their children’s developmental process.
- List verbal and non-verbal co-regulation strategies for parents to use to regulate a highly dysregulated child that incorporate the therapeutic powers of play.
- Identify structuring strategies for meeting child’s needs to decrease behaviors.
- Compare Natural Consequences, verses Related Consequences, versus Unrelated Consequences.
- Practice utilizing Drama Play Therapy to help parents gain parenting skills like Redos and Positive Predicting to encourage positive loop patterns of behavior.
- Describe how parents can provide repair in response to attachment disruptions and utilize Play Therapy to engage in self-forgiveness.
- Describe key characteristics of a therapist that help create a safe environment for parents to learn and grow while engaged in Adult Play Therapy.
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12 Contact Hr. Continuing Education Hours Available.
APT APPROVED PROVIDER: #19-592
NBCC APPROVED PROVIDER ACEP: #7853
LMFT IDFPR PROVIDER: #168.010428
SW IDFPR PROVIDER: # 159.011767
This training is classified as a "Contact" trianing for APT.
Location: 999 N. Main St. Suite #202 (second floor), Glen Ellyn, IL, 60137
Schedule: Friday and Saturday Sept 25th and 26th 2026, 9am-4:30pm CST,
Friday, Sept 25th 8:45am CST Registration, 9am-4:30pm CST Training (meal break from 12:30am-1:30pm)
Saturday, Sept. 26th 8:45am CST Registration, 9am-4:30pm CST Training (meal break from 12:30am-1:30pm)
Meals on your own. Snacks, coffee and tea will be provided!
Disablity: If you have a disablity and need accomodations per ADA/504, please provide notification at the time of registration but no later than two weeks after starting the first workshop to provide accewssibility.
Investment:
$150 for Full-Time students ($75 per day), Space is limited.
$325 Early Bird Rate for Professionals available before Aug. 15th 2026.
$355 Professionals after Aug. 15th 2026.
$275 Nonprofit and Associate Licensed Professional Rate, Space is limited, see below for requirements.
$50 discount for those who work at a non-profit. Tickets in this category are limited and indicated at checkout by the title "Nonprofit and Associate Licensed Professional Rate". Please provide a copy of tax exempt status via email to [email protected]. There are limited spots available for this discount per training.
$50 discount for those who have an Associate license only. Tickets in this category are limited and are indicated at checkout by the title "Nonprofit and Associate Licensed Professional Rate". Please provide a copy of your associate license via email to [email protected] . There are limited spots available for this discount per training.
Payments accepted: Credit Card (thru Eventbrite), Check or Chase Quick Pay Zelle (received 1 week before event)
Refund: Full Refund Available (minus credit card fees) up to 7 days in advance.
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About Sharon:
Sharon Bryant, LMFT, EMDR, RPT-S, CCPT-S, FFT-S, is certified in Child-Centered Play Therapy, Filial Therapy, Relationship Enhancement Programming, an EMDRIA Approved EMDR Trained Clinician, and an EMDR Consultant in Training. Sharon is a Child-Centered Play Therapy and Filial Family Therapy Skills Consultant for NIRE. She is the founder of Flourishing Families LLC and works in private practice at Flourishing Families LLC in Glen Ellyn, IL. She has presented twice at the NIRE national conference in Washington D.C., has taught play therapy as an adjunct professor, and has trained in play therapy for a variety of settings. Sharon has co-authored a life-skills curriculum called Back on Track and has contributed to a marriage-enrichment program (“Couple Talk”) as well as a parenting book titled A Life Shared: Meaningful Conversations with Our Kids.
Flourishing Families empowers, equips, and nurtures mental health professionals by offering quality trainings, supervision and resources. Find us on Facebook!
Click here to receive more info on what we have for you: http://eepurl.com/gfg8Gr
Flourishing Families delivers quality training, supervision, and resources for mental health professionals. Our goal is to empower, equip, and nurture clinicians to enable them to provide quality mental health services that help families heal and flourish.
Flourishing Families is an APT Approved Provider #19-592.
Flourishing Families is an IDFPR MFT Provider #168.010428
Flourishing Families is an IDFPR SW Provider # 159.011767
Flourishing Families LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education
Provider, ACEP No. 7853. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.
Flourishing Families LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Sponsor: Flourishing Families, LLC https://www.flourishingfams.com/
If you have any questions, please email [email protected]
Phone: 630-480-9188
Flourishing Families
999 N. Main St. Suite #103
Glen Ellyn, IL
60137
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 161.90 to USD 380.66
