Advanced Psychotherapy Training

Scope of Practice: Ethical Considerations for Expressive Therapies

Date & Time:
Saturday, October 26, 2024
4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Format:
Live Online. A link will be provided before the course start date.

Cost: $95

Instructor:
Dee Preston-Dillon, MA, Ph.D.

Continuing Education Hours:
2 CE Credits Awarded (APA and APT)

Workshop Overview:

Understanding the scope of practice is crucial for defining our professional boundaries, competencies, and areas for growth. This workshop will explore how therapist attitude, training, creativity, and immersive practices influence our scope of practice and extend our boundaries.

We will delve into how expressive therapies—such as play therapy, art therapy, drama therapy, poetry therapy, and music therapy—can help clients articulate their non-verbal experiences and foster a safe, collaborative therapeutic environment. Key questions we’ll address include:

• How can we integrate creative therapies with traditional talk therapy?
• What practices ensure creativity remains safe and effective?
• How do we incorporate diverse cultural aesthetics and maintain mind-body-cultural resonance?

The session will cover five core components essential for maintaining safe and competent creative therapeutic practices:

1. Therapist Attributes: Personal qualities, clinical knowledge, and method-specific skills.
2. Theoretical Integration: Conceptualizing the client-therapist relationship and matching theory with technique and client/therapist capabilities.
3. Clinician-Client Dynamics: Understanding roles, perceptions, and responses including transference and countertransference.
4. Therapeutic Process: Active listening, presence, empathy, timing, and innovative engagement.
5. Ethical Guidelines: Adhering to ethical principles and codes in creative practices.

Key Areas of Focus:

• Challenges and enhancements in using symbols, metaphors, and various therapeutic techniques.
• The importance of caution in invention, prompts, interpretation, and cultural representation.

Discussion Points:

• What are three aspects of psychotherapy governed by the scope of practice?
• What competencies are essential for therapists using expressive and play therapies?
• What are the challenges in educating and supporting therapists regarding scope of practice?

Objectives:

1. Identify three aspects of creative psychotherapy influenced by scope of practice.
2. Recognize three key competencies for therapists in creative/expressive/play therapies.
3. Outline three challenges mental health disciplines face in supporting therapists’ understanding of scope.
4. Describe two creative interventions suitable for play therapy and competencies to maintain scope.
5. Explain the role of projection and its implications for scope of practice.
6. Provide a case example of problematic reification and interpretation.
7. Discuss two examples of how ethnic identity and cultural experience shape expressive and play psychotherapy.

References:

• American Psychological Association (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. APA Code of Conduct
• Anderson, C. (2022). Professional development in play therapy among counselors. Journal of Play Therapy, 31(3), 153–164. DOI
• Bedi, R. P. (2018). Racial, ethnic, cultural, and national disparities in counseling and psychotherapy outcome are inevitable but eliminating global mental health disparities with indigenous healing is not. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 6, 96-104. DOI
• Bennett-Levy, J. (2019). Why therapists should walk the talk: The theoretical and empirical case for personal practice in therapist training and professional development. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 62, 133–145. DOI
• Georganda, E. T. (2022). Becoming: An existential-developmental understanding of human dilemmas and existential psychotherapy. Existential Analysis: Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis, 33(2), 309-323.
• Gil, E., Drews, A. (2021). Cultural Issues in Play Therapy. Guilford Press, NY.
• Grayson, R., Fraser, T. (Eds.). (2022). The embodied brain and sandtray therapy: Stories of healing and transformation. Routledge, NY.
• Kowen, M. R. (2020). A phenomenological study of therapists’ co-transference experiences in Sandplay Therapy. Journal of Symbols & Sandplay Therapy, 11(2), 143–166.
• Kuri, E. L. (2020). Ethics in arts-based research: Drawing on the strengths of creative arts therapists. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 54(3), 197–219.
• McNamee, S. (2015). Ethics as discursive potential. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 36(4), 419-433.
• Parker, M. M., Hoeelnbaugh, M. H., Kelly, C. T. (2021). Exploring the Impact of Child-Centered Play Therapy for Children. International Journal of Play Therapy, 30(4), 259–271. DOI
• Purswell, K. E., Stulmaker, H. L. (2015). Expressive arts in supervision: Choosing developmentally appropriate interventions. International Journal of Play Therapy, 24(2), 103–117. DOI
• Staugger, S. D. (2019). Ethical use of drawings in play therapy: Considerations for assessment, practice, and supervision. International Journal of Play Therapy, 28(4), 183-194. DOI
• Turner, R., Ray, D., Schoeneberg, C., Lin, Y-W (2020). Establishing play therapy competencies: A Delphi study. International Journal of Play Therapy, 29(4), 177-190. DOI

Join us to deepen your understanding and practice of ethical considerations in expressive therapies!

 

 

This training is approved by APT. Approved Provider 05-161.

 

 

 

 

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.