Play Therapy-Supported EMDR for Children

Monday, March 20, 2023, 9:00 AM EDT

$0.00 Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT & Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S

When child and adolescent therapists complete training in EMDR therapy, they sometimes find it challenging to integrate EMDR into their current work and are often looking for ways to deliver the 8 phase EMDR protocol in more developmentally sensitive ways. This workshop will help clinicians integrate play therapy principles with EMDR for children to increase the confidence of the clinician and make EMDR therapy possible in a child friendly setting. Children learn best through the tactile/kinesthetic or full body learning of play, thus making the integration of play therapy and EMDR therapy an important component of effective treatment for traumatized children. We will master a variety of preparation phase interventions and explore how to invite children into re-processing phase in the context of their play. We will expose participants to titration of trauma content in using EMDR with play-based trauma narratives using some video examples and discussion. We will demonstrate how to respect the child's movement towards and away from the trauma content using storytelling, especially children with more complex trauma and attachment wounds. Case examples will illustrate how to integrate parents into this work.

About the Presenter

Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Buffalo, New York, and co-founder of Playful EMDR, an online hub for training and consultation in treating trauma-exposed children. Her specialties include attachment and child and adolescent trauma, and she also works with adult survivors. She is certified in EMDR and is an EMDR Approved Consultant and Trainer and a faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute, as well as a Registered Play Therapist and Supervisor and Approved Provider of play therapy continuing education through the Association for Play Therapy. She provides consultation in person and remotely, and gives trainings across the US and internationally. Her primary interest is in the intersection of play therapy and EMDR and has published on this topic including as contributor and co-editor of EMDR with Children in the Play Therapy Room: An Integrated Approach (2020). Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Registered Play Therapist and a faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute & Trauma Institute and of University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Annie travels throughout the US and internationally providing trauma-informed trainings and agency and therapist consultation. Annie is an EMDRIA-approved Trainer of EMDR, Progressive Counting and STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resiliency). Annie also provides specialty trainings on attachment, dissociation, and EMDR with teenagers and with younger children. Annie was a Director of Restorative Justice programs at a non- profit agency where she oversaw juvenile and adult offender programs for over 10 years. Presently her private practice includes primarily foster care, out of country adoptions, juvenile justice and dissociation. Annie is the co-editor and contributor of chapters for EMDR with Children in the Play Therapy Room: An Integrated Approach (2020) and co- founder of Playful EMDR, an online hub for training and consultation.

These workshops offer 12 Live Interactive Continuing Education Credits

Learning Objectives:

1. List 8 essential considerations in integrating the therapeutic powers of play therapy with EMDR for children.

2. Apply a play therapy supported scripted technique for obtaining a trauma history from the child in a developmentally sensitive way during phase one.

3. Demonstrate a play therapy intervention to install and enhance positive beliefs and resources during phase two to make the client stronger.

4. Select materials and activities to prepare children for the EMDR protocol and notice their own body sensations during play therapy sessions.

5. Explain 2 ways of inviting and guiding play narratives that titrate the approach to traumatic material during assessment, desensitization and reprocessing phases.

6. Identify 5 prescriptive play therapy activities to promote self-regulation throughout EMDR preparation and processing.

7. Integrate dyadic attachment repair play involving caregivers with the EMDR protocol

8. Utilize a scripted parent interview and reporting form to closely involve parents and caregivers in both the closure and re-evaluation phases of playful EMDR.

9. Describe the EMDR storytelling approach, and how stories in the play therapy setting can support trauma processing.

10. Utilize a case formulation process apply best practices in the EMDR and play therpay integrated approach to a current case.