Big Feelings, Busy Bodies and Strong Wills: Understanding Temperament Through Adlerian Play Therapy – Live Webinar/Kansas City
Description:
Have you ever been in an intake or working with a family when a child has a behavior that is frustrating, confusing, or difficult—but doesn’t quite rise to the level of a diagnosis? Maybe the child is highly active, slow to warm up, intensely emotional, easily distracted, or persistent to the point of exhaustion. And sometimes the challenge is not simply the child’s behavior, but the “mismatch” between the child’s temperament and a parent’s own personality, expectations, or way of responding.
Temperament offers a playful and practical way to understand these differences. Temperament refers to biologically based characteristics that influence how children respond to people, situations, and their environments. Traits such as sensitivity, intensity, adaptability, activity level, and persistence can be seen early in life and often remain relatively stable over time, providing an important foundation for personality development (Landy & Thompson, 2006).
In Adlerian play therapy, understanding the child within the context of relationships, family dynamics, and lifestyle is central to effective conceptualization and treatment (Kottman & Meany-Walen, 2016, 2018). While Adlerian theory has traditionally placed greater emphasis on nurture and environmental influences than on biological characteristics (Adler, 1958), temperament can provide another valuable piece of the puzzle. Looking at temperament can help therapists move beyond asking, “What’s wrong with this child?” and instead ask, “What is this child’s unique way of experiencing and responding to the world—and how can we help the family work with it?”
In this interactive, play therapy–focused workshop, participants will learn practical ways to recognize temperament in the playroom and consider how temperament influences children’s behavior, relationships, and family dynamics. Through playful activities and clinical examples, participants will explore how temperament can become a valuable part of case conceptualization and help therapists understand the “goodness of fit” between children and their caregivers.
Participants will also learn how to use this understanding to create play therapy interventions that help children work with their unique temperament while helping parents better understand and respond to their child’s individual style. The goal is not to change who children are, but to help children and families find more successful—and perhaps more playful—ways of working together.
Workshop Objectives:
- Describe the effects of trauma on the brain, body, emotions, thoughts, and behavior.
- Identify 3 techniques for increasing sensorimotor awareness in traumatized play therapy clients.
- Differentiate between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and identify strategies that support regulation.
- Apply 2 Adlerian conceptulatiztion of lifestyle elements impacted by trauma in children and adolescents.
- Describe how to use at least 2 body-centered and sensorimotor art techniques in play therapy with traumatized clients.
- Identify at least two therapeutic powers of play that are particularly relevant when working with traumatized clients and explain how culture may influence a client’s experience and response to trauma.
Instructor: Nikole Pauli, LMHC, NCC, RPT-S, C-Adpt
Workshop Schedule:
10:30-10:45 Morning Break
10:45-12:00 Training Continues
1:00-2:30 Training Resumes
2:30-2:45 Afternoon Break
2:45-4:30 Training Continues with Workshop Conclusion
Live Webinar Policy:
For a successful Live Webinar that ensures full CE credit, you will need:
- A device (computer or tablet preferred) with a working camera and microphone.
- A strong and reliable internet connection.
- A designated safe space of your choosing free from disruption.
- A reliable childcare plan (if applicable).
- A commitment to keep your webcam on the entire workshop.
- The workshop supplies nearby that have either been requested in the workshop email or provided in the supply shipment (if applicable).
Workshop Cancellation:
- Cancellation requests should be submitted by email to Heartlandpti@gmail.com no later than 7 calendar days prior to the scheduled workshop date in order to receive a full refund of the paid workshop fee. Cancellation and/or rescheduled requests that are submitted after 7 calendar days prior to the scheduled workshop date will result in a refund of the paid workshop fee – with the exception of a $25 administrative fee for a half-day workshop, a $50 administrative fee for a full-day workshop a $75 administrative fee for 2-day workshop.
- Heartland Play reserves the right to cancel a workshop due to insufficient enrollment. Heartland Play will email workshop students at least 5 calendar days in advance of the scheduled workshop date to notify students of the cancellation. Notice will be provided with the option to reschedule for a future course date or to receive a full refund of paid workshop fees.
- Heartland Play reserves the right to cancel a workshop due to inclement weather, instructor illness or instructor family emergency. If a workshop is canceled, students will be notified via e-mail prior to the workshop start time. Heartland Play will notify the students of a reschedule date for the workshop within 10 calendar days of the cancelled workshop. Notice will be provided with the option to reschedule for the future course date or to receive a full refund of the paid workshop fee.