MNAPT Annual Conference: Trauma, Dissociation, and Parts in Play Therapy

Join us in Minnesota for our annual PLAY THERAPY conference. This year, our presenters are Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S and Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT-S who will be speaking on the topic of Trauma, Dissociation, and Parts in Play Therapy in this two day conference! This is a must-have training if you work with kids and teens with trauma!
Prescriptive play therapy approaches to healing from trauma and adversity have particular potency in complex trauma, especially chronic betrayal trauma, or the experience of ongoing adversity at the hands of caregivers. These wounded attachments lead to the child’s increasing need to rely on dissociation in order to manage and can lead to fragmented and disorganized, even extreme behaviors.
In this training we will explore Gestalt play therapy techniques and other expressive and projective approaches using sand tray art, movement and creativity which flexibly integrate with trauma narratives and protocols (such as EMDR) by offering the child dramatic distance and titration of the intensity of the most painful narratives. We will use experiential activities and in-depth case examples to illustrate a way to gently explore and support the fragmented states of highly dissociative children and move them towards healing, ideally with the increasing support of caregivers.
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Time: 8:30 am - 4 pm Thursday and Friday
Date: Thursday April 25th and Friday April 26th
Cost: Members: $300 | Non Members: $350
CEs: This two day training is approved by the Minnesota Association for Play Therapy (APT Approved Provider 06-177) for 12 APT Contact CEs. Play therapy credit may not be given to non-mental health professionals. This training is pending approval by the Minnesota Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy, Social Work, and Marriage and Family Therapy.
**Partial CE credit will not be issued - this is a two day event and participants cannot sign up for partial attendance****
Location:
Eagan Community Center
1501 Central Pkwy
​Eagan, MN 55121

• Describe 5 aspects of how dissociative fragmentation presents in our child and teen clients in a play therapy setting.
  
• Apply the principles of curiosity and gradual exposure to allow dissociative parts of self to emerge during play therapy.
  
• Analyze themes of play to amplify and suggest metaphors to gradually approaching traumatic material as a way of assessing the targets of attachment wounds and pre-verbal trauma.
  
• Summarize the steps in constructing a therapy story in metaphor to gradually approach the trauma narrative.
  
• Describe 2 examples of how to initiate cooperation with self-states and use developmentally appropriate ego-state language through sand tray or art
  
• Utilize a play therapy version of the conference table technique to identify different types of emotional parts and their roles, and initiate internal cooperation
• Apply principles and practices from Gestalt play therapy in a practice session to promote contact with protective parts of self
  
• Apply play-based neurosequential intervention through movement and regulation activities.
  
• Describe 2 examples of playful, active and creative trauma narrative/processing work.
  
• Utilize parent psychoeducation and coaching to support their highly dissociative children and engage hostile parts.
  
• Describe an example of engaging and managing hostile, aggressive and suicidal dissociative self-states through play therapy materials.
  
• ​Utilize projective approaches to resolve traumatic experiences and reduce violent behaviors.

Host or Publisher Minnesota Association for Play Therapy