Phase-Oriented Play Therapy Framework for Treating Childhood Trauma

This training presents a phase-oriented play therapy framework for treating children affected by acute, chronic, and complex trauma. Participants will examine how childhood trauma may appear in the playroom through dysregulation, withdrawal, relational difficulties, and rigid, repetitive, aggressive, or controlling play themes.
The training organizes play therapy treatment around the phases of assessment and stabilization, traumatic-memory processing, and integration. Participants will learn how to evaluate environmental safety, developmental functioning, emotional regulation, attachment, car...Read moreegiver support, and readiness for trauma processing. Play therapy interventions—including symbolic play, sensory and movement activities, puppets, role-play, expressive arts, emotional scaling, containment, and dyadic play—will be demonstrated throughout the training. Emphasis will be placed on selecting play therapy interventions that match the child’s developmental needs and current phase of trauma treatment. Less...

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate acute, chronic, and complex childhood trauma and describe how each may present during play therapy.
• Identify the primary phases of trauma treatment and explain how play therapy interventions can be incorporated into each phase.
• Select at least three play therapy interventions that support emotional identification, affect tolerance, stabilization, and emotional regulation.
• Explain how caregiver involvement and dyadic play therapy interventions can support co-regulation and caregiver-child attachment repair.
• Evaluate a child’s readiness for traumatic-memory processing in play therapy by considering environmental safety, support systems, defenses, emotional regulation, affect tolerance, and timing.

Saturday, August 29, 2026

10:00 AM MDT - 12:30 PM MDT