While adoption is often seen as the solution to the problem of child maltreatment, the disruption of primary attachments is also a risk factor for children after placement. Play therapists can play an important role in recognizing the impact of these attachment wounds as well as themes of belonging and identity formation that become increasingly pressing for children as they grow up in adoptive families, foster families kinship adoption. In this session we will look at a prescriptive play therapy approach to this work including the themes that can emerge in the child’s play, approaching the traumatic history of disruption and placement through the attachment narratives, and how to support the adoptive parents in adjusting their expectations and strategies. Of special note will be the important considerations related to race, ethnicity and culture that often impact the adoption kinship network and ways to invite those themes in the play therapy process.
Adoption Themes in Play Therapy Learning Objectives:
- Describe 2 examples of attachment wounds that play therapists should be attending to in play therapy
- Describe a prescriptive play therapy approach to healing attachment wounds through play therapy attachment narratives
- Describe the process for play therapists broaching and responding to themes of belonging related race, ethnicity and culture within adoptive families
CE Credit Hours: 1 CE Credit Hour, NBCC Content Areas: Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship, Human Growth and Development, Social and Cultural Foundations
Synergetic Play Therapy Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7450. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Synergetic Play Therapy Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Synergetic Play Therapy Institute is also an Approved Provider for the following associations:
*Australian Play Therapists Association (APTA) Approved Provider
*British Columbia Play Therapy Association (BCPTA) Approved Provider 23-01
Continuing education credit hours may be awarded to graduate-level counselors or students enrolled in a graduate-level mental health program. If you do not qualify for continuing education credit hours and would like to receive a certificate of completion for this course please contact the Institute directly.
Your participation in this course has directly contributed to the Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation‘s mission of making play therapy trainings accessible and affordable to clinicians worldwide, as well as to fund research initiatives in Synergetic Play Therapy! All proceeds from this course have been donated to the Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation to support this mission!
Each lesson of this course must be completed in order to receive a CE Certificate. Please click on the blue letters below, “Synergetic Play Therapy Institute – Course Agreements”, to begin. Once you have completed this first lesson, you will gain access to the next lesson to view the course video.
Please remember that your access to this course and its content will expire 365 days from the date of purchase.