An Affiliate Course of Kid Matters Counseling, P.C.

Change is part of being human—but for a child’s nervous system, change can also feel like a threat.

Some transitions are expected: starting a new school, welcoming a new sibling, moving to a new home. Others arrive through experiences like divorce, death, loss, or unexpected disruptions. And sometimes, the transition happening in the playroom itself is what brings the child’s nervous system to the forefront.

In this course, Lisa Dion and Susan Stutzman explore transitions through a neurobiological lens, helping play therapists understand what happens in the brain and nervous system when a child encounters change.

When the familiar becomes unfamiliar, the brain may respond by activating the autonomic nervous system. Understanding this process can help therapists move beyond simply encouraging a child to “adjust” and instead recognize the nervous system’s role in how children experience, express, and move through transition.

You’ll explore how to support children through the transitions that bring them to therapy, as well as the smaller—and sometimes more powerful—transitions that unfold within the play therapy process itself.

The course also touches on navigating transitions within professional relationships, offering an opportunity to consider how change and uncertainty show up not only for children, but within the therapeutic relationship as well.

This course is for you if you want to:

• Better understand what happens in a child’s brain and nervous system during transitions
• Support children navigating divorce, death, loss, moves, school changes, and other major life transitions
• Help children develop greater regulation and flexibility as they encounter change
• Recognize how sensory challenges can influence a child’s experience of transition
• Understand how to support transitions that naturally arise within the play therapy process
• Bring a neurobiological perspective to the way you understand and respond to change