Quiet Connections: Harnessing Nonverbal Play Therapy to Support Every Child

Service Description

Format: Live virtual | Length: 3 hours | Credit: 3 APT non-contact hours | Level: Intermediate Platform: Zoom Many children who come to play therapy can’t, or don’t, use spoken language to express what they’re experiencing. This includes children who are nonspeaking, minimally speaking, or unreliably speaking, and children with language delays, selective mutism, trauma histories, or emotional flooding. Because play therapy is so often built around talking, these children can be misunderstood and underserved. This experiential play therapy training shows play therapists how to meet children where they are. Participants will explore how language develops, why language delays are often misread as defiance, and how to partner with caregivers who value verbal language in play therapy. Through a silence exercise, a film-clip activity, and hands-on small-group practice, participants will build nonverbal play therapy skills and strategies for staying regulated and congruent when play therapy sessions become intense. Learning Objectives By the end of this play therapy training, participants will be able to: 1. Differentiate language from communication in play therapy, and define preverbal, nonverbal, nonspeaking, minimally speaking, and unreliably speaking. 2. Identify at least three barriers to verbal communication in play therapy, including language delay, selective mutism, trauma-related regression, and emotional flooding. 3. Describe and demonstrate seven nonverbal play therapy skills, including body language, movement, use of space, sounds, mirroring, and responding to emotional flooding. 4. Apply at least three regulation strategies to support a child and the play therapist during emotional flooding in play therapy. 5. Explain at least three strategies for partnering with caregivers of nonverbal children in play therapy. 6. Recognize considerations and contraindications for nonverbal approaches in play therapy. Attendance and Credit Participants must attend the full 3-hour session to receive credit. Partial credit is not available. A CE certificate is issued after the course evaluation is completed. Presenters Genevieve Johnson, MA, LPC, RPT, and Alicia Lord, MA, LPC, RPT, founders of Empowered Play: Center for Child and Family Therapy For more information, please contact Empowered Education at education@empoweredplayco.com. APT Approved Provider #25-799​