Using Narrative Storytelling in Play Therapy Across the Lifespan

Approved Provider 18-532

Incorporating narrative practices into play therapy can provide many adventures in the context of therapeutic conversations. During this experiential workshop, participants should be ready to connect with their own awesome stories. Training Areas: Theory: 1-Hours; Skills & Methods: 5-Hours. All materials will be provided by the presenter.

Training Summary: Storytelling is a primary a way of dealing with inner conflict and disturbances, and through its design, stories perform actions to provide play therapy practitioners with access to the teller’s (individual or family) unique portrayal of personal experience. In play therapy treatment, the ways in which the teller has positioned themself (and others) in terms of authority, knowledge, affect or identity. Play therapy practitioners may encounter some reluctance with clients not wanting to deal directly with their inner conflict or disturbance. The subjective experience of using storytelling in play therapy engages clients with their inner conflict or disturbance whether they intended to or not. The success of therapeutic storytelling depends on the cooperative participation of others present, so how the therapist responds to and affiliate with the affectual stances conveyed through client stories is of great importance in play therapy practice. Participants will leave this play therapy workshop with five (or more) MAGICAL ready to use storytelling techniques.

Training Objectives:

Explore narrative framework in the context of storytelling in play therapy practice.

Identify and discuss guidelines for using stories in play therapy treatment across the lifespan.

Compare therapeutic storytelling and mutual storytelling to facilitate client communication in play therapy sessions.

Utilize multiple play therapy expressive mediums to help clients repair their life story while increasing personal strengths.

Discuss the play therapy practitioner’s use of self to guide the psychotherapeutic treatment process.

Practice the use of storytelling in a play therapy context to demonstrate how telling a story can create meaning and coherence for clients.

Host or Publisher Althea T. Simpson, MBA, LCSW, LICSW, RPT-S