• 2024-2025 Synergetic Play Therapy® Certification Program (Level 2)

    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!!!!
    This fully-immersive online experience will transform you from a therapist who understands to one who truly embodies the power of what you do in the world. It’s time to move beyond your Level 1 Introductory Synergetic Play Therapy skills and turn them into a way of being in the playroom! The transformation begins from day one. As one of our students said, “I already got my money’s worth in just the first day of the program.” She was speaking to the level of insight that she had already gained about herself and her clients after only a few hours of stepping into her next level of Synergetic Play Therapy learning.  Dive deeper into the Synergetic Play Therapy process and embrace yourself, discover your magnificence, and tap into a higher state of authenticity. It’s time to embody Synergetic Play Therapy and take it to the next level. You’re worth it, your own transformation is worth it, and the individuals in your life are worth it. This is not the end of the road – it’s just the beginning of a remarkable journey! Check out what others had to say about this program! ***By enrolling in this course you will also receive a FREE BONUS video course "How to Have a Successful Intake" to help you begin preparing for your time in the Synergetic Play Therapy Certification program and the first Learning Retreat! Synergetic Play Therapy Prerequisites: Must have completed one SPT introductory course and their corresponding prerequisites to apply to this program (price of the introductory course is independent of the Certification program pricing):
    • 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)
    Ready to submit your application? Please click "Add to Cart" below to pay the $150 application fee. Once payment is confirmed you will be sent a link to complete the online application!
    *For all class details, class objectives, research scholarship, CE credits and more, see below.
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  • Adverse Childhood Experiences in Play Therapy

    Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) can be a part of growing up. But how can we help turn these obstacles into opportunities for growth and resilience and apply this knowledge to the play therapy process? This course explores how play therapy can be used to help mitigate the effects of ACES. Learn the major categories of ACES, along with protective factors or strategies that have been shown to be helpful both in the short-term and long-term. This course is designed to enhance or increase the professional knowledge of graduate-level counselors.    
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  • Aggression in Play Therapy: A Synergetic Approach

    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.
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  • Becoming an External Regulator for Trauma Integration in Play Therapy

    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.
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  • Conceptualizing Cases from a Synergetic Play Therapy® Lens

    The Synergetic Play Therapy Institute® in collaboration with PIP Solutions presents “Conceptualizing Cases from a Synergetic Play Therapy® Lens”. Translating a right brain play experience into a left brain conceptualization is not an easy task.  Play therapists often grapple with a sense of uncertainty when trying to comprehend a child’s unique therapeutic progression and assessing whether goals are being achieved. This course, led by Lisa Dion, aims to address this issue by introducing a structured framework derived from Synergetic Play Therapy. Students will gain insights into how to conceptualize cases effectively and apply this framework to enhance the efficacy of their therapeutic interventions.
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  • Cultivating an Inclusive & Culturally Sensitive Clinical Practice

    This 1.5-hour recorded webinar, in the form of a roundtable discussion, delves into the evolving landscape of diversity, inclusion, and cultural awareness in mental health, exploring how to create a more inclusive and culturally sensitive clinical practice. Led by Lisa Dion, guest panelists Marshall Lyles, Liliana Baylon, and Robert Jason Grant will share their insights and expertise on a range of essential topics, fostering a deeper understanding of the role culture plays in the therapy process, embracing neurodiversity, and creating inclusive play spaces to cater to individual needs.  *The course is provided by the Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation. The Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation is dedicated to helping make play therapy trainings accessible and affordable to clinicians worldwide and to funding research initiatives in Synergetic Play Therapy®. The Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation provides scholarships to clinicians seeking post-graduate training in Synergetic Play Therapy® or another play therapy model of their choosing. Scholarships are funded through donations from webinars, donors, and supporters of Play Therapy. By purchasing this course, you are making a direct donation to the Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation. All proceeds will contribute to future scholarships and to the foundation itself! Please scroll down for course details and objectives.
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  • Eating Challenges in Play Therapy

    Eating challenges in children can show up in many ways. From the refusal to eat to eating too much, underneath often lies the need for perfectionism and control. Helping kids take these challenges off their plates involves offering choices and uncovering co-existing issues, as well as providing parental support. This course takes a look at this important struggle.
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  • Engaging the Resistant Child in Play Therapy

    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.
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  • Explore FREE Webinars to Support Your Journey

    In response to COVID-19, the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute began offering free webinars to address the challenges, stress and impact that therapists, teachers, parents, and those on the frontlines were facing. Since then, we've continued to offer free webinars to support you on your professional and personal life's journey. Please enjoy free access to these very special webinars. You may view and share it with as many people as you feel it would help.
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  • Helping Children through Divorce and Separation

    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.
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  • June 2024 Online Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy® (Level 1)

    LEARN A SOLID PLAY THERAPY THEORY THAT COMBINES THE POWER OF PLAY WITH INTERPERSONAL NEUROBIOLOGY!

    Registration deadline is June 17th, 2024, 12pm Mountain Time, Denver

    CLICK HERE FOR MORE PROGRAM DETAILS!!

    Have you been searching for ways to create a deeper impact for your clients? Or perhaps you are wanting to improve or learn more about ...
    • Becoming an external regulator to support children with integration and repatterning the activation of their nervous system.
    • Supporting healing at deeper levels through right brain to right brain attuned communication.
    • Teaching children interoceptive (body) awareness (...the key ingredient for self-regulation and co-regulation). 
    • Creating a neuroception of safety for a child when emotional flooding happens.
    • Setting boundaries with the brain in mind to not minimize, shame or shut down the child's play, but keep them engaged in their therapy process.
    • Building collaborative relationships with caregivers to support their child's therapeutic process.
    • Developing goals, tracking a child's therapeutic process, and translating what's happening during the child's therapy session to their caregiver(s) and others in the world.
    • Helping children develop a secure attachment to themselves (...a foundation of resilience).
    • Applying SPT concepts from a cultural lens for a more inclusive and culturally sensitive clinical orientation where a client's unique experiences and needs are honored.
    • How to feel a little more like YOU in the therapy process (...because we know inauthenticity is the fastest way to burnout and compassion fatigue). 
    Learn all of this and so much more! Online Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy is a comprehensive 32-hour program that explores the foundational skills of SPT. This six-month online program is designed for both beginning and advanced practitioners and will take you on a journey to explore the neuroscience behind what is happening in the play therapy process, how to effectively work with caregivers and what it means to create a neuroception of safety allowing both the child and the caregiver to have a deeper integration, and (....if this wasn't enough), you'll come to understand the magic of aggressive play, sand and art from the perspectives of nervous system regulation, attunement, attachment, mindfulness, and authenticity.

    Come discover what showing up in the playroom truly means and explore what is happening in the play therapy process, how change occurs, and ultimately what it takes to help children heal at profound levels. And the best part is, you get to be you on the journey! 

    Check out what past students had to say about their experiences in the course!

    "SPT is the missing piece in play therapy. I gained an understanding of who I am in the playroom - a humanness that wasn't there before." -Frances Donohue

    Join the growing number of mental health professionals, those in related roles (Child Life Specialists, School Counselors, Occupational Therapists, Coaches, etc.) and parents/caregivers who are learning SPT!

    *For program details and objectives, see below.

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  • Managing Screen Time In & Out of the Playroom

    We live in a technological age: there is no pacifying Pac-Man, no axing Apple. But screen time doesn’t always mean zoning out. In moderation, Mickey Mouse and Mario can be our allies, helping children better connect to the world around them. This webinar explores the therapeutic value of screen time and how to use it as part of a play therapy process. Learn how to recognize when a child is using it to avoid and when a child’s use of technology is the perfect entry into the therapeutic alliance.
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