IN PERSON TRAINING WITH CE HOURS
Using a Neuroscience and Attachment Lens with Sand Tray in Play Therapy
IN PERSON TRAINING WITH CE HOURS
Using a Neuroscience and Attachment Lens with Sand Tray in Play Therapy
Confidently use sand tray therapy to access deep healing for your clients
When: November 2 - 3, 2024 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Mountain Time Zone (USA)
Where: 249 East Tabernacle St. Suite 100, St. George, UT
Using a sand tray in play therapy is very popular. If you're a play therapist, then you've probably heard of sand tray therapy because it's an amazing way to help your clients access deep healing in a way that isn't overwhelming for them. You may even be using sand tray therapy in play therapy with your clients now.
Your young clients can use the sand tray making process to explore experiences and emotions to make sense of their lives and heal.
How do you use sand tray in play therapy effectively？
That’s an important question because ensuring a quality sand tray making experience for your clients in play therapy requires your ability to confidently help your clients navigate through all the stages of the change process. Your ability to ground your work in a theoretical foundation so your clients can access the therapeutic powers of play is critical for accurately understanding what your clients are working through during play therapy sessions.
NO MORE SECOND GUESSING
Over the past twenty years of using sand tray in play therapy and teaching play therapists how to get really grounded using it with their clients,
Here are questions I'm always asked by play therapists:
- How do you know how to make sense of what your clients are doing in the sand tray making process?
- How do you make sure that you’re identifying actual themes and not mistaking what you clients have created?
- How do you know if your clients are making progress in play therapy using the sand tray?
- How do you process clients sand trays during the play therapy change process in a way that facilitates healing and doesn’t cause them harm?
- What’s the best way to talk to clients about their sand trays and how do you handle it when clients ask to show their parents what they’ve created in sessions?
These are excellent questions because if you don’t know how to effectively use this projective modality, you won’t likely get the most benefit for your clients in the play therapy process.
Using sand tray in play therapy requires the ability to process and hold the sand tray making process in a way that facilitates healing for children.
That's why good training is important.
I’m a firm believer that the best way to learn how to use sand tray in play therapy effectively means getting your hands in the sand tray creating and processing sand trays to fully understand the power of this modality.
Especially to understand the sensory aspect of sand tray and how the sand tray making process accesses experiences and memories at a deep level.
To do that effectively, you need to ground your work in a theory model that will guide you through the process and help you understand what’s going on for your clients in their play therapy sessions.
I'VE BEEN WHERE YOU ARE
Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S
I remember trying to figure out how to help my young clients using play therapy and the sand tray prior to finding good training. It felt horrible.
I wasn't sure what my clients were working on or what their play in the sand tray meant.
Because I couldn’t figure this out, I had no idea how to tell if play therapy was even working or how to explain what my clients were doing to their parents. If this is you, then you know how horrible this feels. What was the game-changer for me? Getting good training gave me a foundation to know what to do, how to do it, and what to say.
If you’re like me, helping children heal feels like a calling rather than just a profession. From a young age, I was drawn to supporting children in their healing journey.
My initial dream was to become a teacher, as I’ve always loved breaking things down for better understanding. Over time, I realized my true passion lies in helping children heal. Now, I’m able to blend my love for teaching with my commitment to healing by training the next generation of play therapists to excel in their practice.
I’ve been in the child/adolescent mental health field for 30+ years. I’ve worked with children and their families in a variety of settings including outpatient counseling, residential treatment, homeless shelters and transitional housing programs, and intensive in-home treatment programs. These children and their families have struggled with a variety of mental health issues.
Sand tray therapy is one of my FAVORITE modalities to use when helping children heal, and understanding their healing using an attachment theory and neuroscience lens.
thAT's why I created this two-day, in-person sand tray training focused on using a neuroscience and attachment-theory lens to effectively and confidently facilitate healing using sand tray in play therapy.
Introducing
Using a Neuroscience and Attachment Lens with Sand Tray in Play Therapy
Confidently use sand tray therapy to access deep healing for your clients
When: November 2 - 3, 2024 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Mountain Time zone (USA)
Where: 249 East Tabernacle St. Suite 100, St. George, UT
This training will show you how to use a neuroscience and attachment lens providing sand tray in play therapy to make sense of client sand tray scenes and whether your clients are making progress using sand tray.
During this two-day, in-person, experiential sand tray training, YOU'LL learn:
- How to use a neuroscience and attachment lens for sand tray therapy in play therapy
- How to recognize themes in client sand trays by knowing what to look for in play therapy sessions and what to do with that information
- What to say and how to say it to help your clients fully engage in the change process using the sand tray making process in play therapy
- How to use the sand tray making process to help clients access deep healing in a way that feels safe while also allowing them to process experiences and emotions at a deep level
SAND TRAY IN PLAY THERAPY TRAINING INFORMATION
Program Description
Over the past several decades, neuroscientists and mental health professionals have discovered how our early childhood experiences are processed and stored in the brain and how those experiences influence our daily lives and relationships. Attachment theory and neuroscience provide a well-grounded framework for conceptualizing and helping your clients in play therapy resolve factors contributing to their presenting issues.
This 2-Day in-person training provides play therapists with a neuroscience and attachment-informed lens that integrates Jungian concepts to understand and process client sand trays. Play therapists and participants will learn what to look for in client sand trays to identify clinically relevant themes, what to say to clients to help them process their sand trays, and how to effectively process client sand trays using a framework grounded in neuroscience, attachment, and basic Jungian-informed principles of sand tray. Play therapists and participants will also understand how the therapeutic powers of play are accessed using sand tray in play therapy.
Program Objectives
Play Therapists and Participants will:
- Describe the concept of mentalizing and the role of memory as it relates to conceptualizations of self, others and relationships and themes in the sand tray in a play therapy setting.
- Identify the benefit of sand tray in the play therapy process for the mind-body connection and integration in the healing process.
- Explain at least three therapeutic powers of play accessed by using sand tray in play therapy.
- Describe specifically what to look for in client sand trays in play therapy sessions to identify clinically relevant themes.
- Recognize themes within client sand trays based on an attachment and neuroscience informed lens in play therapy.
- Describe how to therapeutically hold and process sand trays in play therapy with clients.
- Describe the Jungian theory of archetypes and shadow in sand tray in play therapy
Two-Day In Person Training Schedule
Day One
9:00 – 9:30 am (30 minutes): Introductions and initial sand tray activity
9:30 – 10:15 am (45 minutes): Overview of Sand Tray Basics: How to “Hold” sand trays
- Therapist role: silent witness and creating a “safe therapeutic space” for healing
- Tapping into Resonance Circuits for Attunement in the treatment process
- How to Introduce client sand trays
- Boundaries with client sand trays and how to manage showing parents/dismantling sand trays, cleaning sand tray, etc.
10:15 – 11:15 am (60 minutes): Identifying Clinically Relevant Themes and “Holding” Sand trays
- What to look for in client sand trays to recognize themes (collecting “data”)
- Use of clinical hypotheses to identify themes over time for case conceptualization and clinical decision-making
- What is an “energy spot” and identifying what they may mean including identifying attachment issues and factors contributing to presenting issues
- What to say when processing sand tray and what not to say
- “Holding” the therapeutic space using metaphor and understanding polarities
- Projective technique and recognizing therapist projections
11:15 – 11:30 am (15 minutes): Break
11:30 am – 12:15 pm (45 minutes): Experiential Sand Tray Activity
12:15 – 1:15 pm (60 minutes): Lunch
1:15 – 2:45 pm (90 minutes): Creating a Neuroscience and Attachment Lens for Conceptualizing Clinical Issues
- Overview of neurobiology and attachment concepts of mentalization
- Discuss the relationship of mentalization and one’s conceptualization of self, others and relationships
- Overview of the mind-body connection and integration using sand tray
2:45 – 3:00 pm: Break
3:00 – 3:45 pm (45 minutes): Experiential Activity Creating Sand Trays
3:45 – 4: 30 pm (45 minutes): Deeper Understanding of Symbols in Sand Tray
- Purpose of Symbols
- Deeper Exploration of Themes
Day Two
9:00 – 9:30 am (30 minutes): Questions and review of previous day
9:30 – 10:30 am (60 minutes): Using a Neuroscience Lens for the Sand tray Making Process and the Therapeutic Experience to Access Healing
- Sand tray making experience for healing
- Neuroscience and the sand tray making experience
10:30 – 11:00 am (30 minutes): Introducing Jungian Concepts and Archetypes of Attachment/Mentalization
- Individuation as the path to wholeness
- Access to the unconscious to address shadow for healing and wholeness
- Archetypes of attachment
- Archetype cards Activity
11:00 – 11:15 am (15 minutes): Break
11:15 – Noon (45 minutes): Experiential Activity Creating Sand Trays
Noon – 1:00 pm (60 minutes): Lunch
1:00 – 1:45 pm (45 minutes): Processing and holding sand trays
- Group Activity: Identify Themes in Client Sand Tray Photos
1:45 – 2:30 pm (45 minutes): What does the research say?
2:30 – 2:45 pm (15 minutes): Break
2:45 – 3:30 pm (45 minutes): Experiential Activity Creating Sand Trays
3:30 – 4:00 pm (30 minutes): Individual Journal Activity to Amplify Symbols
- Amplify symbols
- Journal a dialogue between symbols
4:00 – 4:30pm (30 minutes): Wrap Up Group Activity
"This sand tray training was probably the most insightful training I have attended to date. Choosing and manipulating objects as we placed them in the sand became personally meaningful. Experiencing sand tray ourselves opened my mind to the possibilities of its use with my clients. Cathi's passion for Sand Tray Therapy is contagious! Her enthusiasm for the power of the theory and her wealth of knowledge and experience are what makes this course so valuable. It has been several months since I've taken the course. The insights my clients have gained from doing sand tray is valuable to them in ways that continue over time. I also gain insight as their therapist that I tap into as I get to know my clients better. The possibilities are exponential with sand tray therapy."
Sherry C.
Using a Neuroscience and Attachment Lens with Sand Tray in Play Therapy
Frequently Asked Questions:
Who is this training for？
Mental health professionals, such as social workers, school social workers, mental health counselors, marriage & family therapists, school counselors, providing psychotherapy to children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into the treatment process with their clients.
Continuing Education Credit is available for the following organizations:
This training is approved for 12 continuing education hours from the following organizations and participants must be present for the entire training to receive the continuing education hours:
- 12 Contact Hours, APT Approved Provider #20-621
- Play therapy credit may not be awarded to non-mental health professionals
- 12 Live/In-person Hours, Utah Chapter, NASW, currently pending
For mental health professionals pursuing a Registered Play Therapy (RPT) certification, this training fits into Category 3: Play Therapy Skills and Methods.
Here’s my rationale: the seminal and historically significant theories underlying this training are Humanistic and Ecosystemic/Prescriptive Play Therapy. Humanistic play therapy because the use of the therapeutic relationship is critical for the change process. Ecosystemic/Prescriptive play therapy models provide a framework for the integration of theories to individualize the interventions used to meet the needs of individual clients. This training uses these seminal and historically significant theories as the foundation to inform the treatment process and use interventions based on the needs of each client/family within a safe, strong therapeutic relationship.
Refund Policy
Written notification to cancel and receive refund MUST be provided to Cathi Spooner at info@rhplaytherapytraining.com no later than 10/18/2024 11:59 pm Pacific Time zone (USA). No refunds will be provided after that time.
Disclaimer and Consent
By participating in this training, you consent to receive email notifications about the event and future events. You can unsubscribe at any time after the event or by providing notification to Cathi Spooner directly. You understand that your feedback comments and photos of your participation in the training may be used for future marketing purposes unless you specifically request (on comments form) that you do not wish for your feedback and photos to be used for marketing purposes. Notifications about this event will only be provided via email therefore a valid email address is required. By registering for this event, you also agree that you will hold harmless Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training. You understand it is your responsibility to ensure you are providing mental health services in compliance with laws and expectations of the jurisdiction under which you provide services.
"Shout out to Cathi Spooner. She hosted an amazing sand tray therapy weekend training. I expected to show up and have a very relaxed, non emotional training. It's mind blowing how quickly a box full of sand can elicit right brained and somatic reactions. Should you do this training if you work with kids? Yes. Should you do this training if you only work with adults and don't do play therapy. Maybe. There are so many golden nuggets to take from this training that can apply across modalities and can improve your practice various ways. Should you do this training if you're an EMDR therapist? Yes. The addition of sand tray during reprocessing is a great experiential interweave."
Carlos G.
WHAT YOUR COLLEAGUES HAVE SAID
Feedback from Cathi's Sand Tray Trainings
IN PERSON TRAINING
IN PERSON TRAINING
Using a Neuroscience and Attachment Lens with Sand Tray in Play Therapy
When: November 2 - 3, 2024
Time: 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Mountain Time zone (USA)
Where: 249 East Tabernacle St., Suite 100, St. George, UT
ONE TIME PAYMENT OF
$379
With CEs
Copyright Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training 2024
