Expressive Play Therapy® – for Healing Complex Trauma
Overview
Date: October 3-5, 2025
Time: 9:00am – 4:00pm PST
Participants: Max of 12
Cost: CAD$750.00 + GST
CEU Credits: 18
This 3-day live online webinar will focus on the use of Expressive Play Therapy to help children who have experienced multiple traumatic events within the context of pervasive and severe maltreatment – including different forms of abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual), neglect, and witnessing domestic violence.
The goal of this webinar is to provide a compassionate understanding of the many layered clinical issues of children suffering from complex trauma and, based on such an understanding, to find practical ways of helping them strengthen themselves, begin to heal their wounds, and live more healthily in a reality that often cannot be changed.
After exploring the theoretical principles of Expressive Play Therapy as related to complex trauma, we will discuss the challenges of helping maltreated children first and foremost feel safe and grounded, so that they can be embodied enough to draw upon their own resources and use the healing power of creative play.
Through viewing multiple case examples and a videotaped session, we will consider how, starting from the child’s primary need, the therapist follows and guides the play, interweaving interventions that combine the multisensory gifts of nature, body centered exercises, imagery, and a variety of expressive play therapies. We will then examine how Expressive Play Therapy helps the child move from the traumatic play they initially engage in, to the creative play that allows them to discover their own unique way of safely transforming and integrating their traumatic experiences.
Each afternoon, participants will practice and further explore the use of expressive play therapy with maltreated children through experiential exercises and discussion of case concerns.
Content
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe the theoretical principles of Expressive Play Therapy as related to the subject of complex trauma – resiliency based, attachment based, and trauma informed.
- Describe the crucial role of attachment and the different forms of attachment impairment caused by pervasive maltreatment.
- Identify the effects of various forms of abuse and neglect on the child’s development.
- Demonstrate a compassionate understanding and explain the therapeutic needs specific to abused and neglected children.
- List the major components of Expressive Play Therapy as related to the subject of healing complex trauma.
- Design a structured Play Therapy session – beginning, middle, and end – to ensure closure that allows a child to re-enter their environment securely.
- Select appropriate reparative experiences during play therapy sessions that address the child’s most basic needs, tailored to emotional, cognitive, and behavioural stages of development.
- Utilize imagery and a variety of expressive play therapy methods to help maltreated children safely deal with painful issues and internalize a sense of safety.
- Describe the stages of the therapy process and patterns of imagery that indicate healing is taking place.
Fee includes certificate of attendance for purposes of continuing education programs.
For participants wishing to count credits toward certification with CAPT, a successful student evaluation by Marie Jose in the form of an essay will be required. There will be an additional charge of $75 for this service.
For those seeking Play Therapy registration or certification, this course equals 3 hours of theory / approach, 3 hours of techniques, and 12 hours of special populations.
The Centre for Expressive Therapy is an APT Approved Provider #95-010, a BC Play Therapy Association Approved Provider #18-01, and a Canadian Association for Play Therapy Approved Provider #09-102. Please visit their websites to learn more about their specific requirements.
Please visit their websites to learn more about their specific requirements.