How to Engage Parents & Caregivers in Play Therapy
Get buy-in from parents
Help them understand their role
Optimize outcomes
1 hour LIVE Training via Zoom (FREE)
Georgie Wisen-Vincent
LMFT RPT-S
PLAYCON 2023
NEURODIVERSITY TRAINING SERIES
Play Therapy, Interpersonal Neurobiology, and Neurodiversity: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Treatment with the Brain in Mind
12 CE Conference / The Center For Connection
Now Available for Video Streaming
Georgie Wisen-Vincent, LMFT, RPT-S
Registered Play Therapist
Olivia Martinez-Hauge, MA
Occupational Therapist
Tina Payne Bryson, PhD
Keynote Speaker
Cathy Schaefer, PhD
Neuropsychologist
Hanna Bogen Novak, M.S., CCC-SLP
Speech & Language Therapist
Tami Millard, MA
Educational Therapist
Maggie Moore, MA, LPCC
Infant Mental Health Specialist
Annalise Kordell, LCSW
Adolescent Mental Health Therapist
A paradigm shifting experience bringing you today’s most cutting edge, strengths-based interventions to help your neurodiverse clients thrive!
When you view this one-of-a-kind, recorded 2-day event, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from an interdisciplinary team from The Center for Connection, and see how our unique interpersonal neurobiology approach really works. Following a welcoming keynote by Dr. Tina Bryson, our renowned professionals will guide you through neurodiversity-affirming interventions that leverage the neuro-relational benefits of play, attachment and parenting, somatic and trauma models, sensory integration, and the neuroception of safety. From early intervention to adolescence, you’ll take away dozens of transformational play-based interventions to support your clients across their ages and developmental stages. Best of all, this incredible learning will culminate in a panel discussion simulating a real case conference, so you can see our team planning and formulating interdisciplinary treatment in real-time as a model for your own practice!
Plus, earn 12 CE hours (approved by APA for psychologists, CA BBS for LMFTs, LCSWs, and LPCs, and the Association for Play Therapy for aspiring and renewing Registered Play Therapists)!
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR CONNECTION
The Center for Connection's integrative, collaborative network of professionals represents a unique model of providing highly creative and playful, interdisciplinary, and neuro-affirming mental health treatment to children, teens, and families that has garnered international attention from groups trying to replicate our cutting-edge approach.
Influenced by the lens of Interpersonal Neurobiology, a term coined by Daniel J. Siegel, MD, attachment research and developmental theories, we believe that a child’s brain, mind, and relationships interact to shape who the child is. NY Times bestselling author Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, PhD, founded The Center for Connection with IPNB in mind. Her books (co-authored with Dan Siegel), including The Whole-Brain Child, No Drama Discipline, The Yes Brain, and the Power of Showing Up, have sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide.
Current clinical models make communication among professionals difficult or nearly impossible, despite the obvious advantages of having specialists from different disciplines working together. That's why the CFC's connection-based model provides more comprehensive services, with expert professionals meeting weekly together ranging from psychotherapy and play therapy, parent education, neuropsychological assessments, educational therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and more.
Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, PhD
Founder Executive Director The Center for Connection
"We’ve assembled some of the best and most capable professionals in Southern California, from a wide assortment of fields, and we’re all here to help. Working from a whole-child, Whole-Brain perspective that relies on the latest research and emphasizes the importance of relationships and development, our various approaches can help you and your family not only survive what you’re going through, but learn to thrive in ways you probably haven’t even imagined."
Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, PhD, New York Times bestselling author with Dr. Daniel Siegel MD, of The Whole-Brain Child parenting book series and Executive Director of The Center for Connection
Here’s a peek at some of the goals of our cutting-edge interventions and approaches. After the conference you’ll have a wider lens and more practical approaches to help your clients:
Increase physiological and emotional regulation: Prevent the duration, frequency, and intensity of meltdowns, emotional outbursts, and dysregulation
Develop deeper awareness, genuineness, and confidence in their social relationships
Build a foundation of safety and trust, increasing a neuroception of safety through play and co-regulation
Understand the uniqueness of each child’s mind, brain, and relationships
Build on their strengths through neuro-affirming approaches
Enjoy parent and family relationships that are full of wonder and meaning
Successfully engage in school and learning through the early years, elementary school, middle school, high school, and beyond
And so much more!
Build Neuro-Affirming Skills Now
Play Therapy, Interpersonal Neurobiology, and Neurodiversity: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Treatment with the Brain in Mind with Dr. Tina Payne Bryson and The Center For Connection
$289 Value
Now just $149 – Stunning Savings!
Stream the entire conference from the convenience of home
12 live webinar CE hours/ APT non-contact CE hours
8 leading experts in their fields
9 lively, interactive sessions of training
2 hours of bonus content
Ease of completing recordings, CE tests, and print certificate using our online dashboard
PLUS, a deep discount on our premier Play Therapy Certificate course that meets educational requirements to become a Registered Play Therapist (learn more)!
GET STARTED NOW - $149
Contact us for group discounts (5+ people).
Who is This Conference For?
We invite professionals across all practices and disciplines to join us, including, but not limited to: Play Therapists, Licensed and Pre-Licensed Mental Health Professionals, Counselors, Psychologists, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Educational Therapists and Learning Specialists, Educators, School Counselors, Medical Professionals, Development Specialists, Students and Interns.
Learning Objectives
Over the course of this training, you’ll gain insights for your clinical practice and practical application that will help you:
Utilize at least 5 innovative play therapy strategies to increase engagement and build neuro-affirming relationships toward optimal functioning and mental health.
Outline 3 best practices of being a neurodiversity affirming clinician or play therapist.
Identify at least 4 highly effective skills of collaborative team approaches supporting neurodiverse youth, spanning mental health, play therapy, neuropsychological assessment, OT, SLP, and ET.
Discuss 2 advantages of interdisciplinary mental health practice and play therapy in working with neurodivergent youth with complex treatment needs.
Expand on 3 key strategies of active collaboration within interdisciplinary treatment teams (including mental health, play therapy, neuropsychological assessment, OT, SLP, and ET).
Describe at least 3 proven methods to increase caregiver engagement in play-based, neuro-informed therapy processes to help neurodivergent clients grow and heal in their mental health goals.
Utilize at least 2 play-based techniques and insight informed by the occupational therapy perspective helpful to mental health and play therapy clients with sensory processing and physiological regulation needs.
Demonstrate at least 2 play-based techniques and insight informed by the speech and language therapy perspective helpful to mental health and play therapy clients with social and communication difficulties.
Identify at least 2 play-based assessment methods and insight informed by neuropsychological assessment helpful to mental health and play therapy clients to address minimal treatment progress and enhance treatment planning.
Outline at least 2 play-based techniques and insight informed by the educational therapy perspective helpful to mental health and play therapy clients with learning differences and educational challenges.
Expand on least 2 play-based techniques and insight informed by the infant parent mental health perspective helpful to mental health and play therapy clients affected by parental stress and relational trauma.
Discuss at least 2 play-based techniques and insight informed by the adolescent mental health perspective helpful to mental health and play therapy clients affected by complex neurological issues and higher risk behaviors.
Course Schedule
Interpersonal Neurobiology and The Whole-Brain Child: Enhancing Joy, Connection, and Meaning in Relationships
This keynote session will empower you to understand how the mind, the brain, and relationships all interact to shape who we are, and who we become through intentional intervention, harnessing the power of relationships, play, and neuroplasticity. With Dr. Bryson’s signature style, renowned expertise, relatable stories, and humor, she’ll offer key strategies and the revolutionary thinking we use as a collaborative team, inspired by Interpersonal Neurobiology, that help us support neurodiverse children, find and develop their strengths, honor their uniqueness, “chase the why” of what their behavior is communicating, and enable kids and caregivers to nurture the relationships they need to thrive!
Embracing Neurodiversity from the Play Therapy and Mental Health Perspective
Drawing on both clinical as well as lived experience as the parent of a neurodivergent child, Olivia Martinez-Hauge will speak from her vast experience as a dual trained occupational therapist and licensed mental health clinician, and explain the concepts of neurodiversity, ableism, and neurodivergence. Using powerful activities, she will highlight the qualities of a neurodiversity affirming clinician that will encourage you to design strategies for more equitable and just engagement with neurodivergent clients and their families.
Enhancing Sensory and Adaptive Functioning with Playful Interventions from an Occupational Therapy Perspective
Olivia Martinez-Hauge will guide you through creative and innovative approaches occupational therapists use to design individualized interventions to help children with neuro-differences learn sensorimotor skills and emotional regulation. Through highly flexible and adaptive practice strategies, you’ll learn how occupational therapists team up with mental health, play therapy, and other professionals to address children’s developmental challenges and provide integrative sessions that improve body-based regulation and decrease anxiety.
Engaging Caregivers Joyfully and Effectively: Using Dyadic Play Therapy Techniques and Treatment Teams in Early Intervention
Maggie Moore will teach you how to partner with parents and caregivers, not only to relieve their children’s symptoms, but ultimately in pursuit of a deeper self-knowing and sense of resilience as a family. You’ll learn how to provide caring and attuned presence within systemic interventions and treatment team collaboration for young children, drawing from several dyadic play therapy models. Looking at problems through a systemic lens welcomes self-compassion - an essential source of emotional fuel for the hard work that caregivers invest in the therapy process.
Twice Exceptional: Using Safe and Playful Neuroception to Expand the Window of Tolerance for Neurodivergent Adolescents
When teens are anxious and struggling, it’s helpful to hold the young person’s complete developmental profile in mind when creating a treatment plan and designing supportive interventions. Annalise Kordell shares her wealth of experience assisting neurodiverse and twice exceptional (2E) teens to understand how their brains work, address high-risk behaviors, and help their professionals and parents navigate with more creativity and calm the “storm and stress” of adolescence.
A Clinician’s Guide to Neuropsychological Assessment: Evaluating Children’s Therapeutic Play Interactions, Learning and Developmental Needs Impacting Treatment
Learn the “when, why and how” of pediatric neuropsychological assessment from Cathy Schaefer, a psychologist specializing in comprehensive educational assessments for neurodiverse children and adolescents. You’ll see how neuropsychologists skillfully use specific screening and observational tools to differentiate children’s complexity when you feel stuck, understand challenging behaviors that may be impacting treatment, communicate needs/gaps and strengths to other professionals and parents, and tailor and modify intervention plans to optimize therapy work.
Educational Therapy: Soothing the Nervous System Through Playful Learning and Therapeutic Relationships with Students and Schools
As an educational therapist, Tami Millard focuses on the “how” of learning with students, helping them to develop an individualized toolbox of skills and strategies that they can use not only at school but throughout life. In this dynamic presentation, you’ll discover how partnering with an educational therapist helps students with learning difficulties celebrate their strengths and build upon them. Mental health clinicians should consider working in tandem with educational therapy, as it provides a safe, empathetic, and playful environment in which struggling students begin to explore feelings of self-efficacy and hopefulness.
Empowering Children to Relate and Communicate: Applying Neurodiversity Principles and Play-Informed Tools from Speech and Language Therapy
Sharing her vast experience guiding early intervention and interdisciplinary teams, speech and language therapist Hanna Bogen Novak will help you understand the communication needs and differences underlying your clients’ mental health, social, emotional and behavioral challenges. Often missed by mental health clinicians who are not trained to recognize communication delays, you’ll learn to consider deeper developmental gaps and delays in assessment and how to strengthen core capacities of relating, communicating, and thinking with input from speech and language therapy.
Panel Discussion: A Look Inside The Center for Connection’s Interdisciplinary Team Approach to Complex Case Formulation for Mental Health, Play Therapists, and More
Annalise Kordell, LCSW, Mental Health and Play Therapy
Join us for a rare opportunity to witness our unique connection-based approach to case conceptualization and treatment planning designed to optimize efficacy for our clients with complex neurodevelopmental needs. We invite you to observe and interact as our practitioners, each from a specific discipline, simulate a real case conference, so you can see our team planning and formulating cutting-edge, interdisciplinary treatment in real-time as a model for your own practice.
BONUS CONTENT! PlayStrong: Effectiveness of a New Neuro-Filial Therapy Program to Unlock Behavior and Build Children’s Emotional Intelligence and Resilience
In their bestselling book, The Whole-Brain Child, Tina Payne Bryson and Dan Siegel introduced many parents to the idea that the brain is significantly shaped by the experiences we offer our children. Now we take this expert knowledge of how the brain actually works to make parenting easier and more meaningful, and combine that with Georgie Wisen-Vincent’s insight as an accomplished play therapist, as we share the innovative PlayStrong approach for parents, that leverages what kids do best and learn from most — playing — to positively affect them at the brain-level of their development, resulting in lasting improvement in their behavior and overall mental, emotional, and relational growth.
Build Neuro-Affirming Skills Now
Play Therapy, Interpersonal Neurobiology, and Neurodiversity: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Treatment with the Brain in Mind with Dr. Tina Payne Bryson and The Center For Connection
$289 Value
Now just $149 – Stunning Savings!
Stream the entire conference from the convenience of home
12 live webinar CE hours/ APT non-contact CE hours
8 leading experts in their fields
9 lively, interactive sessions of training
2 hours of bonus content
Ease of completing recordings, CE tests, and print certificate using our online dashboard
PLUS, a deep discount on our premier Play Therapy Certificate course that meets educational requirements to become a Registered Play Therapist (learn more)!
GET STARTED NOW - $149
Contact us for group discounts (5+ people).
Additional Conference Information
Continuing Education
Georgeanne Wisen, LMFT Approved CE Provider #16-456
Georgeanne Wisen, LMFT California Board of Behavioral Sciences CE Provider #137262
Georgeanne Wisen, LMFT American Psychological Association CE Sponsor
Georgeanne Wisen, LMFT RPT-S is approved by the Association for Play Therapy to offer continuing education specific to play therapy (APT Approved Provider 16-456). Georgeanne Wisen, LMFT RPT-S (Provider #137262) is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs. Course meets qualifications for 12 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Georgeanne Wisen, LMFT RPT-S is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Georgeanne Wisen, LMFT RPT-S maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Course meets the qualifications for 12 hours of continuing education credit. NO CREDIT FOR PARTIAL ATTENDANCE. Virtual attendees will receive their Certificate of Attendance via email once a program survey and post-test have been completed.
Audience Prerequisites
None
Instructional Level
Introductory to Intermediate
Eligibility
The Play Therapy, IPNB, and Neurodiversity Conference hosted by The Center for Connection is open to mental health professionals or graduate students in a mental health field who may be eligible to receive continuing education credit for attendance. Although not eligible to receive continuing education credit, allied professionals of other pediatric disciplines (occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, educational therapists, etc.) are welcome to attend. CFC has the right to refuse or cancel ineligible registrations at any time and shall not be held accountable for any outside fees associated with this cancellation. If you have any specific questions regarding your eligibility status, please contact Georgie Wisen-Vincent, Conference Coordinator, at georgie@thecenterforconnection.org.
Scholarships Available
The Center for Connection is committed to improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Our goal is to promote connection among individuals and groups, and to also celebrate differences. We are committed to fostering a culture where everyone who visits the CFC feels safe, valued, supported, and inspired to achieve individual and shared goals.
Accordingly, we are able to open a limited number of discounted spaces to trainees and students, international residents, those with neurodiverse identities, and/or BIPOC individuals. Please contact Georgie Wisen-Vincent, Conference Coordinator, at georgie@thecenterforconnection.org to inquire about scholarship availability.
Cancellation and Refund Policy
Requests for refunds must be made in writing to Georgie Wisen-Vincent, Conference Coordinator, 3030 E. Colorado Blvd. Suite 214, Pasadena CA 91107. There is a $25 administrative fee for refunds. There are no discounts for partial attendance.
Disclaimers
This conference is being provided for educational purposes only. The material presented is not intended to represent the only or best approaches to the topics being discussed and participants waive any claim they may have against the CFC or Conference Coordinator for assurance on information presented. We expect professional conduct by attendees at all times while at conference events.
Grievances
If you are dissatisfied with this workshop or its procedures at any time, please contact Georgie Wisen-Vincent, Conference Coordinator, at georgie@thecenterforconnection.org to receive a timely response along with copy of the written grievance policy for addressing participant complaints in a reasonable, ethical, and timely fashion.
Disability
If you have a disability and need accommodations per ADA/504, please provide notification at time of registration to provide accessibility.
Conflicts of Interest
Georgeanne Wisen, LMFT RPT-S, CE Administrator, and the organization’s presenters do not maintain any relationships associated with this workshop that could be construed as a conflict of interest/commercial support.
Build Neuro-Affirming Skills Now
Play Therapy, Interpersonal Neurobiology, and Neurodiversity: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Treatment with the Brain in Mind with Dr. Tina Payne Bryson and The Center For Connection
$289 Value
Now just $149 – Stunning Savings!
Stream the entire conference from the convenience of home
12 live webinar CE hours/ APT non-contact CE hours
8 leading experts in their fields
9 lively, interactive sessions of training
2 hours of bonus content
Ease of completing recordings, CE tests, and print certificate using our online dashboard
PLUS, a deep discount on our premier Play Therapy Certificate course that meets educational requirements to become a Registered Play Therapist (learn more)!
