MNAPT Annual Conference: Play Therapy in Critical Moments

Conference Details

Join us in Minnesota for our annual PLAY THERAPY conference. This year, our presenters is Dana Wyss, PhD, LMFT, ATR-BC, RPT who will be speaking on the topic of Play Therapy in Critical Moments: Skills for Tough Topics in this two day conference!

The workshop emphasizes trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, offering strategies for risk assessment, crisis communication, and treatment of complex cases (American Counseling Association, 2014; Association for Play Therapy, 2022). Through interactive demonstrations, case discussions, experiential play and art exercises, attendees will gain tools to hold space for supervisees and clients during their most vulnerable moments. Clinicians will leave with actionable resources to enhance therapeutic effectiveness and maintain professional standards when addressing sensitive, high-stakes issues with individuals and groups in child, teens, adult, and family play therapy.

Time: 8:30 am - 4 pm Thursday and Friday
Date: Thursday April 24th and Friday April 25th
Cost: Members: $300 | Non Members: $350
CEs: This two day training is approved by the Minnesota Association for Play Therapy (APT Approved Provider 06-177) for 12 APT Contact CEs. Play therapy credit may not be given to non-mental health professionals. This training is pending approval by the Minnesota Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy, Social Work, and Marriage and Family Therapy.

**Partial CE credit will not be issued - this is a two day event and participants cannot sign up for partial attendance****

Location:
Eagan Community Center
1501 Central Pkwy
​Eagan, MN 55121

***Any accommodations are needed at least 30 days in advance. When registering you will be able to identify accommodations needed****

Training Objectives ​

• Identify and articulate at least three high-risk clinical issues (e.g., suicidal ideation, self-injury, traumatic loss) and their impact on play therapy practice
• Develop a personalized action plan outlining steps to apply trauma-informed and culturally responsive strategies in complex cases
• Apply ethical decision-making frameworks to maintain professional boundaries and resilience when addressing sensitive, high-stakes issues
• Identify at least three types of self-injury and discuss how warning signs and risk factors vary across clients.
• Develop a strong art and play based plan to support your own wellness in response to work with high-risk situations.
• Identify three or more replacement behaviors to support someone who engages in self-injurious behaviors
• Define grief, mourning, and suicide loss, and name events that qualify; identify three types of traumatic loss.
• Examine and understand three different grief models to explore for self and clients.
• Practice and utilize three different bibliotherapy resources in your play therapy work.
• Develop a plan that includes at least three play therapy-based tools for use with clients experiencing a suicide-related loss.
• Create a wellness plan that integrates three art and play therapy-based tools, to support clinician resilience when working with high-risk situations and traumatic loss.
• Demonstrate the ability to integrate play and art techniques (e.g., sand tray, metaphor-based art, expressive arts) into play therapy interventions for clients experiencing high-risk situations.