Description
Program Prerequisites:
- Must have completed or be actively enrolled in a graduate level counseling/mental health program (or equivalent within your country).
- Must have previously worked or currently be working with children.
Program Details:
This program includes 3 days, 18 hours, of in-person training with Lisa Dion, followed by 6, 1-hour group consultations over the course of 4 months with a Synergetic Play Therapy Consultant, 2 pre-recorded one-hour video lessons on the topic of cultural humility, a BONUS video lesson on Synergetic Play Therapy and Teletherapy to further your learning, and a Book Review of the required book, Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurological Approach to Integrating Intensity.
*Please note that consultation is a mandatory part of the program to help you integrate what you are learning. These consultation sessions will be 60 minutes in length and will be led by a Synergetic Play Therapy Consultant. Consultation is provided to accommodate ALL time zones. Students will receive an email from the Institute as we approach the start of the program with a link to a Group Consultation Assignment Form providing a selection of consultation group times to choose from. Group consultation assignments will be granted on a first come first serve basis.
If you have any questions about program requirements please contact the Institute.
Program Dates:
September 12th-14th, 2025, 9:00am – 4:30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (Brisbane)
*We will have a one-hour lunch break each day. Morning/afternoon tea and lunch will be provided by the Institute each day as part of the registration fee.
You will have access to all program content until February 28, 2026.
Venue/Location:
Novotel Brisbane South Bank, 38 Cordelia Street, South Brisbane, 4101 Brisbane, Australia
The Synergetic Play Therapy Institute has a special room rate for this event of $290 AUD/night for the dates of September 11-14, 2025.
Use this link to reserve your room or contact the hotel directly (+61 7 3295 4100). Rooms must be booked by August 30th, 2025, to be eligible for the Institute’s room rate.
What You Will Learn:
Throughout this comprehensive program, you’ll delve into topics including: the neuroscience behind what’s happening in the playroom; how to repattern the activation within your client’s nervous system; what it means to become an external regulator; how to work with aggression and create a neuroception of safety; how to more effectively work with caregivers/parents; a deeper understanding of attachment theory and ways to help children develop a secure attachment to themselves (a foundation for resilience); ways to honor a client’s culture in the play therapy process; offering sand and art from the perspectives of nervous system regulation, attunement, attachment, mindfulness, and authenticity; the importance of developing a child’s interoceptive awareness (a crucial skill for regulation); and so much more!
Mandatory Book:
Please purchase this required book before your training: Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity by Lisa Dion. The book is also currently available in Audio format, and Spanish and Japanese translations. If you have not already purchased the required reading, you can get it at a 25% discount. This only applies for purchase made in the U.S.
Go here to redeem: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393713190. Use coupon code LDION21 or https://WWNorton.com/rd/LDION21.
If you reside in Australia/New Zealand, you can order the book through Booktopia, Dymocks, QBD, Amazon AU, etc. Search the ISBN, 9780393713190 to pull results quickly. And if you are unable to locate the book in your country, please email us at info@synergeticplaytherapy.com, so we can contact the publisher and assist you in obtaining a copy.
Program Learning Objectives:
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
Understanding the Set Up/Offering
- 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
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
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
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
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
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
Bonus Video Lesson – Synergetic Play Therapy and Teletherapy
- Explore how to become the client’s external regulator while facilitating a telehealth play therapy session
- Identity at least 3 ways the play therapist can regulate during a teletherapy session to prevent compassion fatigue and burnout
- Explore how the Synergetic Play Therapy concept of “The Set Up/The Offering” applies in a telehealth play therapy session
Book Review – Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurological Approach to Integrating Intensity
- Develop an understanding of aggression and death play that is based on brain function and neuroscience in the play therapy process
- Explain the four threats to the brain that activate a fight/flight/collapse response and why this is so important to know when working with children in play therapy
- Assess the concept of “one foot in and one foot out” and its impact on the play therapy process
- Understand the practical ways to authentically work with the intensity of aggression and death play, without causing compassion fatigue or burnout in play therapy
- Develop an understanding of how to set boundaries without shaming or shutting the child down in the play therapy process
- Identify ways to regulate yourself in the midst of an intense play therapy session so as to model to the child client how to do the same, thereby enhancing the child’s capacity for self-regulation
CE Credit Hours:
26 CE Credit Hours, NBCC Content Areas: Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship and 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 program, please contact the Institute directly.
If you are not a mental health professional and would like to receive a certificate of completion, you may contact the Institute upon completion of the program.
Cost: $248.42/month for 6 months.
*Morning/afternoon tea and lunch will be provided by the Institute each day as part of the registration fee.
You may use the coupon code “Brisbane2025” at checkout for $50 USD off until May 6th, 2025!
Click here to save money and pay in full!
*We are excited to offer an organizational partnership discount if your organization has 4 or more individuals that are registering for this program. Contact the Institute for more information.
Final Registration Deadline: August 29, 2025, 12pm Mountain Time (Denver)
Refund Policy:
A full refund of the program fee, minus a $150 USD administrative fee, will be provided if the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute is notified within 30 calendar days of registration/enrollment in the program.
No refunds will be issued after 30 calendar days from the date of registration/enrollment in the program or after 4 weeks before the start of the program, whichever comes first. However, participants may transfer their payment to another program offered by the Institute or transfer their registration to a different year. Requests for transfers must be made at least 30 days before the start of the originally registered program.
In the case of an emergency situation that prevents participation in the program, please contact the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute directly to discuss your circumstances. Emergency considerations will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the Institute’s discretion.
Interested in Scholarship opportunities?
Partial and full scholarships are offered through the Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation! For application details please visit the SPT Foundation Scholarship page.
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