Introduction to Family Play Therapy
| Course code: | 25-SS-117 |
|---|---|
| Dates: | January 17-18, 2025 Alternate Course Dates |
| Meets: | F and Sa from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, 2 sessions |
| Hours: | 12.00 |
| Location: | ChildSavers and Online |
| Instructor: | Katie Francis |
| Fee: | $249.00 |
Description
Learning Objectives:
- Apply fundamental principles and theories of family play therapy to engage both children and parents effectively.
- Demonstrate key play therapy techniques that promote healthy family dynamics and lead to successful therapeutic outcomes.
- Develop skills in planning, supporting, and delivering feedback to parents, and learn to structure and implement effective family-based play assessments.
- Identify and address play-based themes that increase practitioner confidence and inform the development of effective family treatment plans.
Virtual Session (4 Non-Contact Hours):
- Explore the intersection of play therapy and family therapy, focusing on seminal theories and their therapeutic benefits to promote healthy family dynamics.
- Learn foundational concepts of play therapy and how they can be applied to enhance family relationships and support healthy family dynamics.
- Understand the historical evolution of family play therapy, providing theoretical grounding for practical application in therapy sessions.
In-Person Session (8 Contact Hours):
- Gain hands-on experience using play therapy techniques to engage families and strengthen parent-child relationships.
- Set up and review family-based play assessments, and learn how to observe and interpret child and family behavior during play therapy sessions.
- Practice delivering constructive feedback to parents and caregivers, including role-playing real-life scenarios.
- Explore tools, materials, and strategies necessary for creating therapeutic play spaces that encourage effective communication and interaction.
- Implement directive and non-directive play therapy interventions to support parenting skill development and build parental confidence.
- Learn how to document therapeutic progress and adjust interventions to foster ongoing growth in family dynamics.
Notes
Instructor: Katie Francis, LCSW, RPT-S™, CTP-CKatie Francis is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Registered Play Therapist -Supervisor™ (RPT-S), and Certified Trauma Practitioner-Clinical (CTP-C). She has been working for ChildSavers for over 10 years providing outpatient therapy to children, teens and families. Katie is also the Program Manager for Mental Health Services Outpatient Program and Immediate Response program and provides clinical supervision to some of our staff. Katie has extensive training in providing trauma focused treatment to children, teens and families as well as training in the use of play, art, sand and attachment-based treatments. She has previously taught for the Play Therapy training courses on Group, Family and Filial work. Katie thoroughly enjoys supporting our community’s children and families by helping them to find healing and build resiliency through the use of play and expressive therapies.
The Association for Play Therapy (APT) has approved this in person VCU event for 4 hours of live-webinar hours and 12 hours of contact hours. Effective July 1, 2022, the required 150 hours of play therapy instruction may be earned via contact training (in person only), non-contact training, and live webinars. Of the 150 hours of play therapy instruction, a minimum of 75 hours must be met by contact/in person training. A maximum of 75 hours may be met via live webinars and of those 75 hours, no more than 40 hours may be met via non-contact trainings. Definition of the above terms can be found at https://www.a4pt.org/
Synchronous In Person Session
Our in person session will be held at ChildSavers in Richmond, VA and offer an opportunity to interact with the instructor and other participants. There will be a one-hour break per day. Please bring your own lunch for the sessions.
Synchronous Virtual Session
Online meetings will be held live online using Zoom meetings. VCU will provide you with a link where you can connect through your PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, or Android device.
Attendance and Participation
Participants must attend the full workshop to receive APT continuing education hours from VCU and to earn the certificate of completion and the digital badge. Any individuals who test positive for COVID 19 or presumed positive, i.e. have an identifiable COVID-19 contact and are symptomatic, are not permitted to attend the in-person training and should reach out to ssschuetz@vcu.edu to discuss a transfer to another play therapy offering. Individuals, who have been exposed to a COVID-positive individual, are able to attend the in-person trainings after they have quarantined for 5 days and have been fever free for 24 hours.
Should the training need to move to a teleconference platform, participants will be notified 48 hours prior to the training start date to adjust any travel plans. If you have any questions or concerns regarding these standards, please reach out to Katie Francis, Kfrancis@childsavers.org
Creative Materials
Your instructor will send you a list of specific creative materials to have on-hand during the workshop. All VCU play therapy workshops require basic art materials including paper, markers, colored pencils, poster board, scissors, decorative items, and glue.
Required Assessments
VCU conducts a two-part assessment in each workshop. To earn educational hours toward an Association for Play Therapy (APT) credential, you must pass both assessments. These include a scored rubric that demonstrates your mastery of workshop objectives via small and large group activities and discussion, and a multiple-choice test. Only participants who pass the activity rubric will be eligible to take the test.
Questions? Should you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Shelly Schuetz at ssschuetz@vcu.edu or (804) 828-1322.
Cancellation and Refund Policies:
You may cancel your registration up until two weeks before the workshop start date, and receive a full refund minus a $35 credit card processing fee. After that date, no refunds will be given. Cancellations must be received via email at ocpe@vcu.edu
In the unlikely event that this workshop is cancelled or postponed due to insufficient enrollments or unforeseen circumstances, the university will fully refund registration fees, but cannot be held responsible for any other expenses, including change or cancellation charges to include but not limited to airlines, hotels, travel agencies, or other organizations.
Transfer Policy:
Workshop registrations may be transferred to a different workshop or person if requested in writing via email at ocpe@vcu.edu by the cancellation deadline. The participant must meet all prerequisites or qualifications required by the program.
Student/Participant Conduct:
Participants are subject to all university policies applicable to students, unless a specific university or VCU Continuing and Professional Education policy explicitly states otherwise. University policies governing students are available at https://vcu.public.doctract.com including:
Student Code of Conduct
Honor System and Standards of Academic Conduct
Preventing and Responding to Discrimination
Title IX Sexual Harassment Policy-Interim
Sex-Based Misconduct Policy-Interim
For Academic Accommodations, please visit https://ocpe.vcu.edu/courses/policies.html#accommodations
There are still openings remaining at this time.
