Treating Children’s Attachment Wounds with Play Therapy Interventions: Creative and Playful Solutions for Child Therapists and Play Therapists (Live In-Person)

In-person workshop.

APT Approved 6.5 contact CEs for play therapy special topics.

Play therapists are often at a loss when treating attachment wounds and managing dissociative symptoms. We will take a prescriptive approach to play therapy treatment of attachment wounds, using neurosequential thinking and dyadic play therapy techniques and attachment-focused modalities to support gradual change. Our goal will be for clinicians to increase the intentional use of the self in these encounters with children and caregivers in the play therapy setting through an experiential exploration of their own attachment style and an awareness of how these patterns develop in the therapeutic relationship with the child.

Involving the family/caregivers in these attachment focused play therapy activities will increase their ability to mentalize for the child and allow for improved relationships at home, school and in the community. Extended case examples will help to illustrate this process. We will also focus on developing an in-depth case formulation and treatment plan and apply play therapy approaches within a prescriptive framework based on the current literature on polyvagal theory, developmental trauma and attachment and discuss the complications therapists may encounter in using trauma protocols to heal “attachment trauma”.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe at least three aspects of combining an in-depth attachment history with unfolding narratives and dynamics within play therapy sessions to assess for early attachment wounds and disruptions.
2. Utilize 3 mentalization questions and corresponding attachment repair interventions with caregivers in the play therapy room.
3. Utilize animal archetypes to identify 8 adaptation strategies children use to cope with complex trauma and explore ways to employ these in the playroom.
4. Analyze themes of play to amplify and suggest metaphors for gradually approaching traumatic material as a way of assessing the attachment and pre-verbal trauma targets
5. Utilize a play-based storytelling method within a play therapy context to heal attachment wounds and preverbal traumas
6. Utilize 5 play therapy interventions which apply polyvagal theory and therapeutic presence in the playroom to activate the conditions for the interoception of safety

Research:

• Ainsworth, M., & Bell, S. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year- olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41, 49-67. https://doi.org/10.2307/1127388
• Beckley-Forest, A., & Monaco, A., Eds. (2020). EMDR with children in the play therapy room: An integrated approach. New York: Springer.
• Boone, S., Steele, K. & Vanderhart, O., 2011. Coping with trauma-related dissociation. W.W. Norton.
• Bowlby, J. (1969) Attachment and loss. New York: Basic Books.
• Carroll, F. (2013) Every child’s life is worth a story: A tool for integration, in J. Chang, Ed. Creative interventions with children: A transtheoretical approach (pp. 187-191). Calgary, CA: Family Psychology press. Dana, D. (2018) The polyvagal theory in therapy: Engaging the rhythm of regulation. Norton.
• Davis, D. E., DeBlaere, C., Owen, J., Hook, J. N., Rivera, D. P., Choe, E., Van Tongeren, D. R., Worthington, E. L., Jr., & Gaskill, R. & Perry, B. (2014) The neurobiological power of play: Using the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics  to guide play in the healing process. In C. Machoidi & D. Crenshaw, (Eds.) Creative arts & play therapy for attachment trauma. New York: Guilford Press.
• Gil, E. (2016) Posttraumatic play in children: What clinicians need to know. New York: Guilford Press. Goodyear-Brown, P. (2010) Play therapy with traumatized children: A prescriptive approach. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Publishing.
• Gomez, A. (2013) EMDR therapy and adjunct approaches with children. New York: Springer Publishing.
• Hong, R., & Mason, C. M. (2016). Becoming a neurobiologically-informed play therapist. International Journal of Play Therapy, 25(1), 35-44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pla0000020
• Hughes, D. (1998) Building the bonds of attachment: Awakening love in deeply troubled children. Lanham, Maryland: Jason Aronson Publishing.
• Hudspeth, E. F., & Matthews, K. (2016). Neuroscience and play therapy: The neurobiologically-informed play therapist. In K. J. O'Connor, C. E. Schaefer, & L. D. Braverman (Eds.), Handbook of play therapy (pp. 583– 597). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Landreth, G. (2012) Play therapy: the art of the relationship, 3rd edition. New York: Routledge.
• Mills, J.C. and Crowley, R.J. (2014). Therapeutic metaphors for children and the child within, 2nd ed.. Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel.
• Mosquera, D., Gonzalez, A. & Leeds, A. Relational Problems Questionnaire (RPQ). Retrieved from https://emdrtherapyvolusia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Relational_Problems_Questionnaire.pdf
• Oaklander, V. (2015) Windows to our children. (35th anniversary edition), Gouldsboro, Maine: Gestalt Journal Press.
• Oehlman Forbes, D., Lee, M., & Lakeman, R. (2021). The role of mentalization in child psychotherapy, interpersonal trauma, and recovery: A scoping review. Psychotherapy, 58(1), 50–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000341
• Parker, M. M., Hergenrather, K., Smelser, Q., & Kelly, C. T. (2021). Exploring child-centered play therapy and trauma: A systematic review of literature. International Journal of Play Therapy, 30(1), 2–
• 13. https://doi.org/10.1037/pla0000136
• Porges, S. (2011) The Polyvagal Theory. New York: Routledge.
• Schore, A. (2012) Playing on the right side of the brain: An interview with Allan N. Schore. American Journal of Play, 9(2), 105-142.
• Schaefer, C. and Drews, A. (2014) Therapeutic powers of play: 20 core agents of change. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons.
• Schaefer, C. (2011) Prescriptive play therapy. In C. Schaefer, Ed., Handbook of play therapy (365-377). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.
• Rathore, H. E. (2018). Trust and Attunement-Focused EMDR With a Child. Journal of EMDR Practice & Research, 12(4), 255–268. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fau.edu/10.1891/1933-3196.12.4.255
• Spooner, C. (2021) Attachment-focused family play therapy. An intervention for children and adolescents after trauma. Routledge.
• Wagner, D. (2015) Polyvagal theory and peek-a-boo: how the therapeutic pas-de-deux heals attachment trauma. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy 10(4), 256-265.
• Wheeler, N., & Dillman Taylor, D. (2016). Integrating interpersonal neurobiology with play therapy. International Journal of Play Therapy, 25(1), 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1037/pla0000018
• *Woolett, N, Bandeira, M & Hatcher, A. (2020). Trauma informed art and play therapy: Pilot study outcomes for children and mothers in domestic violence shelters in the United States and South Africa. Child Abuse and Neglect (107)104564. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104564

Target Audience: social workers, psychologists, mental health practitioners, creative arts therapists, play therapists, marriage and facility therapists, psychologists, school counselors and other interested individuals.

We are happy to respond to any concerns or questions you may have. Please contact us at by email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu or by phone at 716-829-5841.

ADA Accommodations: If you require any support for your ADA needs in the United States, please contact us by email at least 3 weeks prior to the event by email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu or by phone at 716-829-5841.

Registration open until: 6/22/25