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You've landed in the right place! Whether you've had Synergetic Play Therapy® training and are searching for ongoing support in its application OR you're new to Synergetic Play Therapy® and would like to receive consultation through an SPT lens, we've got you covered! This is for you if you:- Have previously enrolled or are currently enrolled in an SPT course and want ongoing support to continue to learn and grow in your application of Synergetic Play Therapy®;
- Have taken any of our 1-hr, 2-hr, 3-hr courses and would like consultation from an SPT lens;
- Have ever attended an event or 2-day training with Lisa Dion and would like consultation to continue to integrate what you learned into your practice;
- Or have never taken a course through the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute® and would just love consultation support from an SPT lens!
2024-2025 Synergetic Play Therapy® Certification Program
**If you are currently enrolled in the January 2024 Online Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy program or 2024 Refresher program, your extended Early Bird application deadline is June 1, 2024.**
FINAL Application Deadline for all applicants is June 14th, 2024.
Take a moment to reflect on the growth you’ve witnessed since starting the introductory course. How have your clients evolved? How have your therapy sessions changed? Most importantly, how have you changed? Your growth is the key to unlocking your clients’ full potential for transformation. During the introductory course, you've merely scratched the surface of what's possible for client healing and transformation. Imagine delving deeper into a wealth of knowledge and skills with 85 hours of content (plus 13 hours of consultation!). This is precisely what awaits you in our 10-month SPT Certification program, designed to empower you as a therapist or other professional! Here's what you can look forward to!- Dive deeper into understanding attunement, attachment, and mindfulness to enhance your client’s reflective awareness, self-regulation, and co-regulation.
- Gain insight on how to scaffold the development of a child’s interoceptive sense.
- Cultivate an ability to hold awareness of self and other (dual awareness) in order to become an attuned external regulator.
- Explore the interconnectedness between physics and psychology.
- Learn why individuals are driven to do what they do and become who they are.
- Discover how trauma is stored in the body and mind, shaping a client’s narrative.
- Learn how to work with implicit memory to repattern the somatic imprints and protective patterns of the autonomic nervous system.
- Understand the Vagus Nerve and the role it plays in trauma integration and regulation.
- Gain profound insight into the homeostatic mechanisms within the mind and how these contribute to emotions.
- Understand how to assess and work with a child’s emotional age.
- Overcome fears related to working with caregivers and create true collaborative partnerships.
- Master the use of sand and art in both non-directive and directive approaches.
- Learn about the sensory system and how to use this information with neurodivergent children.
- Explore directive interventions for groups, families, teens, siblings, and adults using the SPT tenets.
- Learn how to work with non-verbal regressive states.
- Work with your own activation that naturally arises in sessions and repattern your own nervous system response.
- Deepen your understanding of how to track a child’s progress on the SPT Therapeutic Stages.
- Master the art of managing endings, transitions, and strategies for facilitating a meaningful “goodbye process” with caregivers and children.
- Empower both yourself and your clients within the therapy process, tracking small moments and significant empowerment experiences in a client’s therapeutic journey.
- And so much more!!!!
*For all class details, class objectives, research scholarship, CE credits and more, see below.- 6-Month Online Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy Online course
- 3-Day In-Person Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy course
- Synergetic Play Therapy Supplemental course (no longer offered)
- 6-Day SPT Intensive Training (no longer offered)
With their changing brains and hormones, finding ways to integrate play with pre-teens and teens can at times just feel “Awkward”. Learn how to navigate therapy with our clients who are no longer children, but also not quite yet adults. From twelve-year-olds to seniors in high school, adolescence is a time filled with change. This can make the notion of bringing play therapy to this population a challenge. Do we play? Do we talk? Do I ask questions? What do I do?" As such, many therapists find themselves at a loss with this age group, feeling just as confused as they do! In this workshop, play therapists will delve into the mysteries of the teenage mind as we bust myths and glean insight into how to best offer therapeutic support. Using neuroscience, Developmental, Synergetic, and Systemic theories, participants will explore how to navigate this "awkward" and sometimes "overwhelming" developmental stage using an eclectic framework of non-directive and directive play therapy approaches. Understanding how to assess the teen's emotional age, an area often missed when working with this population, will also be covered as a way to understand how to incorporate play into the therapy process. The information presented is designed to open minds and hearts as participants uncover the wisdom of the changing brain and the wisdom of the teenage years. Through lecture, demonstration, and discussion, this workshop will deconstruct this mysterious stage and support play therapists in discovering how they can help mature and remodel the teenage brain, while supporting movement towards the discovery of the authentic self- the cornerstone of the development of a teenager's identity. To get a sense for the course, check out this short video below:See course details below.
From a stroll through the Lollipop woods of Candyland to a fight over the Thimble in Monopoly, games are part of childhood. In the playroom, certain games are more commonly used than others. How do we use chess as a pawn in our therapeutic healing? How can we call on checkers to check on the child’s state of regulation? What does a game tell us about a child’s emotional world? This webinar explores these questions and more!
Supporting a child struggling with obsessive compulsions and perfectionism can be incredibly challenging as the desire to move the child out of their rigidity and rituals can overshadow the deeper issues and stressors driving the behaviors. In this course, you will gain an understanding of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, the behavior of perfectionism, and how play therapy can support the integration of the underlying drivers of the behaviors so as not to intensify the inner struggle that is often experienced by these children as they attempt to stop, control and even deny the urges in their bodies.
Every therapist has been there – in a session with a child who doesn’t want to come in the room, a child who doesn’t want to do the task, a child who only wants to avoid the issue. This course explores what to do when a child client’s language and behavior say “no.” Join us as we explore resistance, with a focus on differentiating resistance from avoidance and differentiating resistance from the dorsal collapse in the nervous system. Emotional flooding is explored as well.
Helping a child heal involves helping them be themselves. One of the best ways to foster this type of environment is to cultivate safety. The therapist knowing the playroom is safe is not enough; the child must know it, too. This course explores what a neuroception of safety is and how to create it within the child and yourself.
Divorce. The “D” word. The end of the marital road. A happily ever after run amok. It’s something that often gets a bad rap, especially when we think of the children stuck in the middle. But divorce, while it can be devastating to some kids, can also be a relief for others. Children’s perceptions are not all the same. This course explores how to support children in play therapy when they are experiencing divorce and separation.
Research in neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology sheds light on the need for the play therapist to act as the external regulator supporting the child to move towards the intensity they are experiencing allowing for integration. This 3 hour video course explores this need during trauma integration for two primary reasons: 1) The child need to borrow the play therapist’s regulatory capacity as they work through their traumatic thoughts, feelings and sensations in play therapy and 2) The play therapist’s ability to regulate themselves during the intensity increases the capacity for presence and attunement with the child, while simultaneously supporting the health and longevity of their own nervous system. Without the ability of the play therapist to become the external regulator for the intensity that arises during trauma integration, both the child and the play therapist are at risk for emotional flooding and high levels of dysregulation in their nervous systems. Over time, this can significantly impact a play therapist’s longevity in the field, as well as the ability to stay attuned and present to a child in sessions. This course is a recording of a 3 hour live webinar with Trusted Provider Network. See course details below.
This course supports play therapists as they learn about setting boundaries from a neurobiological perspective, keeping the child’s brain and nervous system activation in mind! Drawing from Interpersonal Neurobiology and Synergetic Play Therapy®, participants will learn how to set boundaries without shaming the child or stopping the child’s play, allowing for deeper integration and connection. Working with emotional flooding (the child’s and the therapist’s) will also be explored. Please scroll down for course details.
Aggression and death are common parts of the play therapy process, yet many therapists don’t have a clear understanding of what to do and how to facilitate intensity. This can lead to inadvertently promoting aggression and low brain disorganization. It can also lead to the therapist feeling beat up, exhausted, and hyper-aroused, ultimately impacting their ability to stay attuned, remain present, and find inspiration in this field. Enter Synergetic Play Therapy®! Through an SPT lens, and a heavy dose of neuroscience, this 2-hour course helps therapists learn how to use play in a way that supports regulation – their own and their client’s! See course details below.Title
