Description
What: A 1-hour home study course designed for clinical professionals working with children and to support in navigating the complexities of working with children with avoidant or dismissive attachment patterns in the playroom.
*This video course is a recording of a live webinar on March 31, 2026.
Where: Anywhere you are!
When: You will have access to this course for 365 days from the date of purchase. Access to this course and its content will expire at that time.
Holding the Child Who Won’t Be Held: Working with Avoidant and Dismissive Attachment in the Playroom Learning Objectives:
- Identify at least three neurobiological or emotional characteristics associated with avoidant/dismissive attachment in children
- Recognize at least two ways avoidant attachment patterns may present within the therapeutic relationship
- Explain how therapist congruence and regulated presence support the development of internal secure attachment in children with avoidant patterns
CE Credit Hours: 1 CE Credit Hour, NBCC Content Areas: Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship, Human Growth and Development
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.
Cost: $35 USD
Or, bundle this course with any 3, 1-hour courses and save. Get all the details here: Buy a Bundle of 4 and Save!
If you are needing financial assistance or wo
Some children don’t cling. They don’t protest. They may appear independent, self-contained, or even unaffected. But beneath that independence can live a deep fear of rejection—and a learned belief that needing others isn’t safe.
In the playroom, avoidant and dismissive attachment patterns may show up as distance, compliance, control, emotional flatness, or a child who seems determined to need nothing from you. And when a child doesn’t reach for connection, therapists can find themselves wondering: How do I reach them without pushing them further away?
Drawing from Synergetic Play Therapy® and the neurobiology of attachment, this course explores what may be happening beneath the child’s presentation and how the therapeutic relationship can become a place where something new is possible.
Rather than trying to make a child connect, you’ll explore how to use your own regulated, congruent presence to create the conditions for connection to emerge at the child’s pace. You’ll deepen your understanding of how avoidant attachment patterns can unfold in the therapeutic relationship and discover ways to stay attuned when a child’s greatest expression of vulnerability may be keeping you at a distance.
Because sometimes the most powerful invitation to connection is not reaching harder—it’s learning how to hold steady.
A 1-hour home study course exploring the neurobiological and relational foundations of avoidant and dismissive attachment and how to support these children through the therapeutic relationship and the play therapy process.
uld like to make a donation to support other play therapists in being able to afford play therapy training, please visit the Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation website to learn more.
Presenter: Lisa Dion, LPC, RPT-S
Refund Policy: Fees are non-refundable, but are transferable to other courses. You will not receive CE credit hours for this course should you choose to transfer your enrollment to another course. Please contact the Institute should you have any questions or concerns.
