2-Day Conference-Play Therapy-Engaging Powerful Techniques for the Treatment of Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Trauma – Clair Mellenthin

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Childhood Disruptive Behavior Disorders are on the rise! Tantrums, anger, defiance, threatening behavior …

How can we as therapists more effectively decrease acting-out behaviors and help repair, rebuild and create strong parent-child relationships?

Watch me, Clair Mellenthin, expert in child and family trauma and attachment, as we dive into the impact of Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder on children, teens, and their families. You’ll learn effective, powerful, evidence-based play therapy interventions including guided imagery, mindfulness, expressive arts, and sandtray play – all of which include parent-child relationship enhancement activities.

This workshop will show you how:

• the impact of attachment plays a role in the etiology in childhood disruptive behavior disorders
• to utilize attachment-centered play therapy techniques to treat these diagnoses in children
• to strengthen parent-child relationships
• to improve overall self-esteem and confidence – giving the child tools to control their challenging symptoms and help heal the family system.

Purchase today to explore the power of play therapy – and incorporate these strategies into your mental health practices with young clients and their families!

1. Assess emotional and behavioral symptoms through play therapy techniques to better inform treatment outcomes.
2. Determine the ethical implications and clinical limitations of using play therapy in clinical practice.
3. Integrate attachment-based play activities into your practice to improve client engagement in treatment.
4. Determine the neurobiological implications of using play therapy among clients with various diagnoses.
5. Develop a plan for introducing play therapy into clinical practice for treatment resistant and challenging children and families.
6. Defend how play therapy can reframe trauma experiences, increase self-regulation and connect to a mind-body awareness.
7. Analyze attachment patterns that impact parent-child relationships to further advance your clinical practice.
8. Employ play therapy interventions to foster engagement with parents in family play therapy in order to repair, and enhance the parent-child relationship.
9. Apply mindfulness skills and practice in play therapy treatment to promote self-soothing and affect regulation.
10. Assess the psychological impact and long-term effects of emotional trauma on a client’s mental health.
11. Develop treatment strategies to teach attachment-focused parenting techniques.
12. Practice expressive arts, sandtray, and child-centered play therapy interventions to enhance engagement with child clients.

Why Play Therapy Works

• Therapeutic power of play
• Facilities communication
• Fosters emotional wellness
• Enhances social relationships
• Increases personal strengths

Assessment and Diagnosis

• Common myths of behavior disorders
• Systemic assessment of emotional and behavioral distress
  • School, home, and community relationships
  • Impact of inconsistent and harsh parenting/relationships practices
• Race, gender, ethnicity, culture issues and bias
• Trauma assessment

TREATING DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR DISORDERS

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

• Recurrent behavioral and relational patterns
• Impact on the family system
• Shame and vulnerability (in the family) – The Kryptonite!
  • Cycle of disconnect, rejection, and attachment ruptures
• Environmental risk factors

Play Therapy Interventions to Combat Negative Behaviors

• Play-based regulation and co-regulation techniques
  • Calm down jars
  • Lemon squeezies
  • Blast It!
  • Guided imagery
• Repair and enhance relationships
  • Shame shields
  • Feeling monsters

Conduct Disorder Treatment

• Misdiagnosis and misunderstandings
  • Gender and racial bias in diagnosis
• Trauma history of the child
• Impact of trauma on brain development and maladaptive coping response
• Patterns of engagement in the home, school, and community
• Impact on family relationships

Trauma Treatment

• Etiology of trauma in disruptive behavior disorders
• Impact on neurological functioning and development
• PTSD – the most overlooked diagnosis contributing to Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD)
• Assess for attachment ruptures and relational trauma
• Shame-based punitive parenting
• Repair and restore safety in the home

Play Therapy Interventions to Address Underlying Trauma

• Increase emotional intelligence and understand trauma symptoms
  • Bound and rebound
  • Sandtray
  • Expressive arts in play
• Repair and rebuild relationships
  • Nurturing spoons
  • Volcano inside of me

Play-Based Interventions to Promote Parent/Child Attachment

• Building bridges of connection and communication
• Create emotional safety
• My safe place
• Telling my story
• My many colors of me

Inviting the Parent in the Playroom

• Help the parent become a resource to their child
• Decrease shame and vulnerability in the relationship
• Improve healthy attachment-seeking behaviors
• Repair attachment wounds and ruptures
• Teach positive parenting strategies