Description
When trauma, grief, and loss disrupts the family system, a child may feel unprotected, unloved, or disbelieved, causing relational injury and at times rupture the attachment bond.
Clair Mellenthin – Attachment Centered Play Therapy: Repair Relational Trauma and Build Secure Attachment to Accelerate Family Treatment
Children, not having the words to express how they feel, display the hurt in maladaptive ways — aggression, rage, defiance, oppositional behaviors, shutting down, hiding away, or numbing. For the parent, shame is a factor. Shame that they can’t “parent away†the hurt and the misbehavior—that their love isn’t “good enoughâ€.
How do we as therapists, help families begin repairing and rebuilding the lost connection/disruption?
Watch me in this interactive recording to discover an integrative therapeutic approach, Attachment Centered Play Therapy that includes the parents in the therapy process. The parent is integral in creating conditions of security and trustworthiness to address attachment wounds, trauma, grief and loss.
This developmentally appropriate, client-centered method brings a holistic, systemic approach to address:
Vulnerability to acknowledge the hurt, and the roadblocks
Challenging issues of shame, vulnerability, grief, and loss
Aggression and defiance and other maladaptive behavioral issues
Attachment centered and proactive strategies instead of reactivity or reactive responses
Repairing and strengthening the bonds of attachment between parent and child
Parents becoming a resource, as well as coregulator for their child
Rapport building with parents (this is a MUST in child and family therapy)
You’ll learn new and innovative attachment-centered play therapy techniques including hands on experiential activities, guided imagery, sand tray interventions, and expressive arts—practicing sand tray therapy, techniques assessing family relationships, bonds of attachment, and family dynamics.
We will explore difficult cases, ask questions, develop new assessment skills, and explore styles of attachment and how this plays out in therapeutic relationships with our clients.
Handouts
Manual – Attachment Centered Play Therapy (1.81 MB) 34 Pages Available after Purchase Instructions for ASHA Credit – LIVE WEBCAST ONLY – 02/08/19 (38.5 KB) Available after Purchase
Outline
Advancing Family Treatment with Play Therapy
4 key concepts of attachment
Blending attachment theory with play therapy
Attachment patterns across the lifespan and impact on parent/child relationship
Risks and limitations
Invite Parents to Play
Engagement strategies to strengthen parent/child relationship
Roadblocks and triggers – parent/child/therapist
Shame and vulnerability – shame shields
Build rappaport and make room for parent in the playroom
Sand tray, genograms, play-based treatment planning
Establish boundaries and set expectations
Encourage participation
Attachment Centered Play Therapy Strategies
Treatment of relational trauma – Attachment, wounding and ruptures
Parent/child relationship cycle
Generational attachment patterns –
Catch me if you can
Butterfly fly away
Two hands
Empowerment collage
Case Studies of Abuse; Healing Attachment Wounds
Challenging Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
Defiance, ODD, moodiness, anger, aggressiveness and school refusal
Attachment injuries at root of undesirable behavior
Prescriptive play therapy interventions
Self-regulation, co-regulation
calm down jars, guided imagery
Case Studies of Extreme Defiance and School Refusal
Strategies to Promote Positive Attachment-Based Parenting
Maximize parent involvement to rebuild trust, repair injuries
Proactive vs reactive parenting
Get parent buy in
Case Study of Proactive vs Reactive Parenting
Faculty
Clair Mellenthin, LCSW, RPT-S
Clair Mellenthin, LCSW, RPT-S, is a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor and is the past president of the Utah Association for Play Therapy. Throughout her career, she has focused on providing therapy to children, teens, and their families. Clair is the director of Child and Adolescent Services at Wasatch Family Therapy. She is a sought-after supervisor, training graduate students and interns in play therapy, and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California MSW program. Clair is the author of Play Therapy: Engaging & Powerful Techniques for the Treatment of Childhood Disorders (PESI, 2018) and My Many Colors of Me Workbook. (Self-Published, 2013). In addition to being an experienced play therapist and professor, she frequently presents professional play therapy and family therapy trainings and appears on local and national TV and radio as an expert on children and family issues.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Clair Mellenthin is the clinical director at Wasatch Family Therapy. She is the author of My Many Colors of Me Workbook; she maintains intellectual property rights and receives royalties. Ms. Mellenthin receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.
Non-financial: Clair Mellenthin is the president of the Utah Association for Play Therapy.
