Certificate in Neuro-Filial Therapy

A Parent Child Intervention

The Certificate in Neuro-Filial Therapy is a professional training program for agency and private practice teams wishing to train extensively in the theory and skills of parent-child dyadic intervention in child and family mental health. This program was designed in collaboration with renowned play therapy expert and co-founder of the Play Strong Institute, Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT RPT-S, and New York Times bestselling author and parenting expert, Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, founder and Executive Director of The Center for Connection, to promote development and research in working with children, adolescents, and their families. The field of filial therapy has a longstanding history of research, and professionals from all over the world have studied with us to learn the foundations of family-based relational support and intervention.

With a core emphasis in attachment-based practice and neuroscience, the underpinnings of the Neuro-Filial Therapy Certificate currently include an integrative, multidisciplinary relationship-based model focused on the latest research in child development, individual differences, psychotherapy, trauma, and attachment. With the Play Strong Institute’s NFT program, professionals can expand their content knowledge through a hybrid format of live classes and self-paced study and learn new strategies for leading the field with evidence-based practice. Students study diverse perspectives integrating filial therapy with concepts associated with a child and family’s holistic well-being, including neurodevelopmental, biological, social-emotional, sensorimotor, language, cognitive, and caregiving systems. Program participation offers introductory to intermediate level perspectives in evidence-based practice to promote healthy relationships in early childhood, school-age children, preadolescents, and families.

Course Overview

One of the most common themes of psychological research is the influence of parenting on children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. Parents build their children’s cognitive, social, and emotional skills through various parenting practices and strategies. Children often present for treatment intervention with social adjustment issues and behavioral and emotional dysregulation, which according to research is often associated with parenting challenges and difficulty in the parent-child relationship.

Drawing upon the neuroscience, current research supports the crucial role that early relationships play in influencing the development of the brain and enhancing children’s social emotional development. For professionals working with children and families under stress due to substantial trauma histories, attachment difficulties, or developmental concerns, the focus needs to be placed on scaffolding children’s development in the context of their caregiver relationships.

Neuro-Filial therapy (NFT) is a research-validated parent-child dyadic relational enhancement model for children ages 2-12 years and their caregivers, focused on assessing and targeting multidimensional factors of parenting that may contribute to children’s dysregulated emotions and behavior. NFT was developed by Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT RPT-S, based on filial therapy methods of teaching caregivers to actively support their children’s mental health, develop positive parenting skills within caregiving and play-based interactions, and reflect on parents’ perceptions of their children. Filial therapy has a long history of empirical efficacy with children with behavioral and emotional problems and at-risk factors often correlated with poor child outcomes. Concepts of interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB) are woven into NFT sessions to increase parental understanding of their children’s emotional and developmental needs based on the most current brain science. Therefore, the term “neuro-filial” has been adopted to reflect the unique and close integration of filial therapy and IPNB into the therapy delivery. IPNB may be particularly relevant to clinical intervention with parents, as it is heavily focused on the impact of healthy attachment experiences with primary caregivers as foundational to neural development, emotional regulation, and mental health.

This intensive curriculum is presented as a hybrid program with both live and self-paced instruction and provides the theoretical knowledge and applied clinical and educational foundations for integrated assessment and intervention at an introductory to intermediate level employing NFT techniques. The Level 1 certificate program, led by our therapy faculty, as well as experts in neurobiology, development, and interdisciplinary practice, offers a combination of live or in-person workshop sessions, interactive class participation, video case presentations, instruction in reflective practice, and if desired, supervision of NFT practice for an additional fee.

Participants will be guided through lectures, case formulations, experiential activities, role play skill building, and interactive demonstrations while working towards their Certificate in Neuro-Filial Therapy.

Study With Us

We welcome groups who wish to study NFT from a variety of backgrounds, all over the world. Anyone who works clinically with children and caregivers providing therapeutic intervention can benefit from learning NFT techniques and more effective, neuroscience-informed strategies for supporting the child’s developing mind, brain and relationships. Our students range from mental health professionals, psychologists, graduate students and interns in counseling and psychology, school-based therapists, social workers, infant, early child and parent mental health practitioners, developmental specialists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, educational therapists, child welfare workers, parenting coaches, and other home-based interventionists.

Meet the Faculty

Thank you for your interest in the Neuro-Filial Certificate! As the Co-Founder, Program Director, and Lead Faculty of the Play Strong Institute, I’d like to tell you more about this incredible program and the benefits of learning the research-based methods we teach in this course. Over the years, we have engaged with hundreds of professionals and parents, and worked extensively in schools, community agencies, nonprofits and private practice. Our strong commitment to teaching and training child and family therapy practitioners is evident as we supervise and guide the next generation toward their own successful practice.

About this Course

This new course has been under development since the opening of the Play Strong Institute. It is now available for group registration as a hybrid program with live and self-paced components. We have pioneered the use of filial therapy integrated with IPNB at The Center for Connection with our own team of child and family mental health therapists working closely with professionals of other developmental disciplines. Over 1,000 on-demand students have enrolled in our already well-established Play Therapy Certificate Program, and we have created this course in response to their overwhelmingly positive feedback and frequent requests to learn our IPNB dyadic approach.

What's inside the course

It is imperative that professionals are taught to assess for the often multiple, complex, and co-occurring parenting needs of primary caregivers that may impact their ability to provide the emotionally responsive interactions to their children that contribute to healthy brain development and positive child adjustment.

NFT teaches a set of techniques that can effectively help caregivers and children alleviate stress, build stronger relationships, learn emotional tools, and enjoy each other more deeply and meaningfully.

This course includes exploring cutting-edge research around attachment, trauma, child development and all the latest insight from the science of Interpersonal Neurobiology, founded by Dr. Daniel Siegel. Recognized experts and researchers contributing to the theory and practice of IPNB will be covered in the training.

It contains live or in-person teaching sessions with our faculty and students, role play sessions with colleagues, and in-depth group discussions to clarify concepts for students at different levels of training, from beginners to intermediate.

Core Concepts

NFT facilitates secure attachment between children and their primary caregivers. Secure attachment between the child and the important adults in their life has been linked with better mental health and emotional functioning, as well as the foundation of resilience in dealing with trauma and adversity. Modern research and the field of neuroscience have shown that attachment forms the child’s first models for loving relationships, emotion regulation, reflective thinking, and resilience in the world.

NFT clinicians nurture the caregiving relationships in a child’s life in several ways. The primary focus is to support the people who provide love, guidance, learning, and care to children through reflection, teaching, direct resourcing, culture and community-building. Engaging at different levels of impact is key to the model. NFT clinicians learn to scaffold support around the family by working with caregivers, the holistic caregiving system, and with the caregiver and child through their interactions. Caregivers and children experience being deeply cared for, reflected upon, and kept safe, enabling higher level skills to be learned and practiced.

NFT interactions and skill-building focus on four parenting dimensions (the Four R’s) found in healthy parent-child dyads:

• Relationship: In a close relationship, the parent functions as both a secure base and a safe haven for the child at appropriate times, offering warmth, affection, and open communication of emotions while also promoting the exploration and autonomy of the child and discouraging over-dependency.
• Reflection: Reflective functioning, also known as mentalizing, is defined as the caregiver’s capacity to reflect upon the child’s internal mental experiences as well as their own. In NFT, parents are taught to reflect on external indicators of children’s mental states and mirror their emotional cues to promote understanding and reduce reactivity.
• Regulation: The parent’s ability to self-regulate when confronted with their child’s challenging emotions and behaviors affects the degree to which they can then attune to the needs of their child in the moment, offer comfort measures, also known as co-regulation, and teach their children key emotional skills.
• Resilience: Parents need resilience to adapt effectively to the challenges of parenting. NFT provides social support and increases the parent’s developmental knowledge and effective scaffolding of the child, thereby augmenting competence in parenting and parental resilience.

Join a supportive community

We are excited to offer you this remarkable training that will greatly enhance your child and family psychotherapy practice. Also, by joining the course today, you'll get direct access to this vibrant community of NFT professionals as we regularly network with each other and support everyone's important work. Once you've registered your group, you’ll receive an invitation to build your profile as NFT team members with the privileges of a shared modality and mindset for family engagement. We hope you'll join us!

Core Faculty

This certificate is taught by multiple faculty members. Click on a faculty member below to view their bio:

• Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT RPT-S

  Georgie is the Managing Director and Lead Faculty for The Center for Connection Play Strong Institute, a clinical and training institute focused on helping children and families connect and thrive with play therapy. Georgie completed advanced postgraduate study in Child-Centered Play Therapy at the University of Roehampton, England, Intensive Play Therapy Supervision at the University of North Texas Center for Play Therapy, and her Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy at Chapman University. Georgie helped create and coordinate the Loma Linda University Play Therapy Program where she also teaches and supervises graduate students as an adjunct faculty member. Georgie is a frequent speaker for parents and professional groups interested in learning about her Play Strong model for trauma resilience, and other topics related to trauma-informed care and the neurobiology of play and relationships.

• Adjunct Faculty

Course Format

The Neuro-Filial Certificate Level 1 course is typically offered as a four-day intensive divided into four units of instruction completed in the following order:

• Unit 1: Working with Caregivers consists of Day 1 live in-person lectures on assessing and supporting parents, with group discussions, video analysis, and role play activities, and small group tutoring sessions to complete the day.
• Unit 2: Supporting the Caregiving System consists of Day 2 live in-person lectures on providing holistic case management, with group discussions, video analysis, and role play activities, and small group tutoring sessions to complete the day.
• Unit 3: Nurturing Parent Child Interaction consists of Day 3 dyadic assessment and intervention training, with live in-person lectures and small group tutoring sessions.
• Unit 4: Scaffolding Therapist Skills consists of Day 4 live in-person lectures on providing the NFT direct intervention skills and application to case scenarios, with group discussions, video analysis, and role play activities, and small group tutoring sessions to complete the day.

Curriculum

The scope and sequence of NFT content areas are provided for each workshop day, organized by unit.

Unit 1: Working with Caregivers (6 hours)

• NFT-L1-101: Introduction to Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-102: Neuro-Filial Therapy and Interpersonal Neurobiology
• NFT-L1-103: Theoretical Foundations of Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-104: Parenting Principles of Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-105: Assessing Parenting in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-106: Parenting Development in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-107: Parent-Child Attachment in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-108: Parental Reflective Functioning in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-109: Parental Emotion Regulation in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-110: Parenting Resilience in Neuro-Filial Therapy

Unit 2: Supporting the Caregiving System (6 hours)

• NFT-L1-201: The Caregiving System in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-202: Therapist Roles in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-203: Interdisciplinary Practice and Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-204: Individual Differences and Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-205: Developmental Assessment and Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-206: Family and Development in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-207: School and Development in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-208: Team Building in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-209: Advocacy in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-210: Resourcing in Neuro-Filial Therapy

Unit 3: Nurturing Parent Child Interaction (6 hours)

• NFT-L1-301: Observation in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-302: Dyadic Assessment Training in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-303: Treatment Planning in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-304: NFT Skills and Techniques 1
• NFT-L1-305: NFT Skills and Techniques 2
• NFT-L1-306: NFT Skills and Techniques 3
• NFT-L1-307: NFT Skills and Techniques 4
• NFT-L1-308: NFT Skills and Techniques 5
• NFT-L1-309: NFT Skills and Techniques 6
• NFT-L1-310: NFT Skills and Techniques 7

Unit 4: Scaffolding Therapist Skills (6 hours)

• NFT-L1-401: Reflective Practice in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-402: Supporting Regulation in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-403: Nurturing Relationship in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-404: Expanding Resilience in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-405: Balancing Needs in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-406: Holding Complexity in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-407: Developing Identity in Neuro-Filial Therapy
• NFT-L1-408: Holistic Progress in Neuro-Filial Therapy

Prerequisites

This is an introductory to intermediate level course with no required prerequisite study. The goal of this certificate program is to provide participants with knowledge and practical skills in Neuro-Filial Therapy techniques for supporting and working with children and caregivers who may have social, emotional, developmental and behavioral challenges using a relationship-based, neuroscience-informed approach.

Objectives

Participants who complete the certificate program will be able to:

• Develop knowledge base of Neuro-Filial Therapy including history, theory, legal and ethical considerations, child social-emotional development.
• Learn the conceptual framework of neurobiology and integrate the brain science into the Neuro-Filial Therapy process.
• Plan and prepare for a Neuro-Filial Therapy assessment at the outset of treatment, introduce Neuro-Filial Therapy to child and caregivers, conduct interactive observation, treatment planning and documentation.
• Working knowledge of Neuro-Filial Therapy skills and techniques, beginning with theoretical and practice issues including the Neuro-Filial Therapy space and relationship, and reflective responses.
• Understand working with the child’s support system and within a Neuro-Filial multi-disciplinary team approach.
• Develop knowledge base of Neuro-Filial Therapy clinical applications, such as recognizing content and process elements, cultural competence and diverse clients, and working with special populations in Neuro-Filial Therapy.
• Evaluate therapeutic progress, plan for termination, and create an effective therapeutic ending for Neuro-Filial Therapy.

Continuing Education

The Center for Connection Play Strong Institute is not offering continuing education credits for live programs hosted by outside organizations.

At a later stage, the Neuro-Filial Therapy course may be offered as a Level 1 and 2 live webinar series, and the recordings of lecture sessions may become available for new and continuing students wishing to earn non-contact hours/credit. Contact CE Administrator for further information on a future release date for NFT non-contact CE credits.

Register your Team

To request a full course prospectus and inquire about pricing, contact Play Strong Institute Director, Georgie Wisen-Vincent, by completing the interest form.

Register Your Team