Date: Saturday, April 5, 2025
Time: 9:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET (one hour lunch break)
CEs: 5 (APA and APT)
Format: Live, Virtual
Cost: $90
Instructor: Dr. Dee Preston-Dillon
Description
School counselors face constraints of time, limits to scope of practice allowed in the school context, and parent-teacher-administration expectations. Research in play therapy and art therapy grounds the use of expressive therapies for children and adolescents. This course demonstrates the use of sand therapy, drawing, fairy tales, and mini theater for children and adolescents.
Participants will examine examples of children’s trauma experience represented in their stories, their art and play. Following a child-centered approach, participants will reflect on representations of innocence and vulnerability, engagement with heroes and heroines, safety for anger and depression, images of hope and despair, developmental challenges, and the importance of expressive therapy for survival skills, grief, loss and renewal.
This 5-hour virtual session will feature experiential explorations for play therapy, expressive arts, and mini drama in the school setting. Participants will practice therapeutic ways to understand and respond to children in focus, flow, metaphor, resonance, amplification, active imagination, and collaborative storytelling. A priority is safety, non-judgmental therapy, and creative
engagement between counselor and client.
Objectives
- Explain two (2) play therapy principles to guide school counselors with storytelling, art,
and play. - State two (2) examples of trauma and recovery using play and expressive therapy.
- Identify two (2) ethical principles for safe play therapy and expressive expression.
- Describe two (2) practices to enhance client-counselor creative engagement, positive
alliance, and collaboration. - Describe the use of sand tray and miniatures, drawing, mini drama, and fairytales for
school counseling. - Connect three (3) developmental moments reflected in the school counselor’s
experience being creative, use of imagination, and play.
This training is approved by APT Approved Provider 05-161 for 5 CE hours.
The Sand Therapy Training Institute (TSTTI) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. TSTTI maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
