June 2025 Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy (SPT Credential Renewal/Recertification)

• Describe how Synergetic Play Therapy was inspired, the tenets, the history, and its main play therapy influences
• Explain how children use The Set Up/Offering in play therapy to set the toys and the therapist up to feel how they feel
• Describe how children are looking for templates to help pattern and re-pattern their states of activation

Module 2 – Understanding States of Activation

• Explain the link between nervous system states and the symptoms that show up in the playroom
• Describe the importance of regulation in the playroom
• Explain what regulation is and isn’t according to Synergetic Play Therapy

Module 3 / Webinar 2 – Becoming an External Regulator

• Explain the “funnel analogy” as a way to understand what children are attempting to integrate in their play therapy sessions
• Describe how Synergetic Play Therapy approaches boundary setting
• Describe what it means to become the external regulator in a session to help a child integrate their challenges

Video Lesson – Synergetic Play Therapy and Cultural Humility 

• Identify the importance of differences in how a child approaches play therapy depending on an individual’s culture
• Explain what it means for play therapists to have “done the work” to become curious with their clients in play therapy using a cultural approach
• Understand the term “microaggressions’ and how to apply Synergetic Play Therapy concepts in the play therapy process

Video Lesson – 4 Threats and the Set Up Through a Cultural Lens 

• Explain why culture is important when considering the 4 Threats in play therapy
• Understand how culture impacts the Set Up and Offering in play therapy
• Demonstrate ways that as a therapist culture can be considered in the play therapy process

Module 4 – Partnering with Caregivers / Tracking the Play

• Discuss the implications for caregivers being in their own grief process when they bring their children to play therapy
• Describe what it means to become a caregiver’s external regulator
• Discuss the importance of setting goals and speaking in terms of what is important to the caregiver when partnering with them in therapy
• Describe the Therapeutic Stages in Synergetic Play Therapy

Module 5 – Understanding Attachment & Emotional Age

• Discuss Synergetic Play Therapy’s perspective on attachment
• Explain why interoception is the pre-req for the ability to regulate and co-regulate and why this is a key focus in a Synergetic Play Therapy session
• Describe the difference between a child’s emotional age and their chronological age

Module 6 / Webinar 3 – Sand, Art, & Aggression in Synergetic Play Therapy

• Explain how to use regulation as a way to help integrate aggressive energy in the playroom
• Describe how to facilitate the use of sand from a Synergetic Play Therapy perspective in the playroom
• Explain how to facilitate the use of art from a Synergetic Play Therapy perspective in the playroom