The 31st Annual Indiana Association for Play Therapy Conference

Conference Workshop Overview: A Synergetic Approach for Integrating Intensity

Although aggression and death are a common part of the play therapy process, many therapists don’t have a clear understanding of what to do and how to facilitate the intensity when it enters the playroom during play. The result can lead to inadvertently promoting aggression and increasing low brain disorganization. It can also lead to the therapist feeling beat up, exhausted and hyper-aroused themselves, which can over time significantly impact their longevity in the field, as well as their ability to stay attuned and present to a child in the play room.This workshop is designed to help play therapists understand aggression and death play from a neuro-biological perspective and a Synergetic Play Therapy lens. With the help of neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology, therapists will learn how to effectively work with this type of play in a way that supports nervous system regulation, repatterning of the child’s autonomic activation patterns and decreases compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.This workshop will take therapists to new possibilities as they explore a science based process for working with children at the deepest, most profound levels while staying safe and sane. They will learn how to make aggressive play therapeutic while understanding what it takes to maximize growth and integration for their clients and themselves.

Learning Objectives:

Examine how play therapy works from a neurobiological perspective

Recognize the significance of congruence and authentic expression in the play therapy process

Identify strategies for maintaining regulation in the midst of intense play/trauma play and death in the play room

Identify at least 2 strategies for working with aggression and trauma in the playroom without experiencing nervous system shut down leading to vicarious trauma

Explain the link between a child’s dysregulated states of their nervous system and their aggressive and traumatic play

Describe how a therapist’s “window of tolerance” can impact the child’s healing process

Practice facilitating aggressive play in the play therapy process without increasing or promoting aggression

Examine the Synergetic Play Therapy concept of “The Set Up” in the playroom

Demonstrate at least 2 strategies for setting boundaries without shaming or shutting down a child’s play

Explain what it takes to become the “external regulator” in the playroom to support nervous system integration

Define “emotional flooding” and identify at least 2 strategies to employ when this happens in a play therapy session

Describe the importance of becoming the child’s external regulator for trauma integration

Diversity Issues As the foundation for this course is neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology, it encourages participants to view behaviors through a lens of nervous system activation rather than labeling and pathology. It helps develop a framework for relational empathy and co-regulation that is able to be applied to any population that the play therapy chooses to work with.

Powers of PlayAs the play therapist works to support the child during intense and aggressive play, the therapist uses play to teach the child about self regulation, allow for experiences of catharsis and abreaction and work on stress management as the child learns how to stay connected to their own body and emotions. These therapeutic powers of play, and others, are at the heart of the theoretical framework presented in this presentation.

*PLEASE BRING A HANDFUL OF MINATURES (small toy figurines) TO THE CONFERENCE

About the Presenter

Lisa Dion, LPC, RPT-S, is an international teacher, creator of Synergetic Play Therapy, founder and President of the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute, co-founder of the Synergetic Education Institute, creator of the Business of Therapy and host of the Lessons from the Playroom podcast. She is the author of Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity and is the 2015 recipient of the Association for Play Therapy’s Professional Education and Training Award of Excellence.

Ethics training will be provided during the lunch hour on June 25th, 2026.

Ethics Training (1 CE)

ADA: If you need special needs, please contact Paige Young via email at [email protected] or by phone at (574)340-3963

Dietary accommodations: If you are in need of dietary accommodations please contact us at [email protected]

Lodging: Hilton Garden Inn

9785 North by Northeast Boulevard

Fishers, IN 46037

Phone: (317) 577-5900

*Cutoff date to reserve a room through the room block is 5/27/26

You are invited to join APT by going online: https://www.a4pt.org/page/Membership

Continuing Education

This event is sponsored by the Indiana Association for Play Therapy. The program offers 12.00 contact hours (6.00 hrs. per day), with full attendance required. The program also offers 1.00 of ethics training on Day 1, with full attendance required.

There is no additional fee to submit an application for CE credit. CE forms will be made available to participants by the Indiana Assn. Play Therapy. CE verification will be emailed to CE applicants following the event. If you have questions regarding continuing education, contact The Indiana Association for Play Therapy at [email protected]

Important: It is the responsibility of participants to determine if CE credit offered by The Indiana Association for Play Therapy will meet the regulations of their licensing/certification board.

Indiana Board Counseling/ Social Work/ MFT: Indiana Association for Play Therapy is recognized as a provider of continuing education by the Indiana Licensing Professional Agency for the (BHHS) social work, counseling, MFT, Provider 98001258-A, expiration 04/2028.

Play Therapy: The Indiana Association for Play Therapy is approved by the Association for Play Therapy to sponsor continuing education specific to play therapy. The Indiana Association for Play Therapy maintains responsibility for the program. APT Provider 23-716.

DEADLINES:

Early Bird Discount if registration completed by end of day, April 10, 2026.

Late Registration entered after May 29, 2025- LATE REGISTRATION CHARGE: $25.00

No registrations accepted after June 5, 2025.

Notify of cancellations by June 5, 2025.

**In the event of cancelation, Eventbrite registration fees will not be refunded

Questions regarding registration? Please contact by email [email protected]

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Host or Publisher Indiana Association for Play Therapy