March 24th, 2023

Presenter Bio
Eliana Gil, PhD, ATR, RPT-S, LMFT, is a Founding Partner of Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery & Education, LLC, a group private practice in Fairfax, Va. She is an Approved MFT Supervisor as well as a Registered Play Therapist/Supervisor and a Registered Art Therapist. She is also a Circle of Security Certified Parent Educator, a Level II Theraplay provider, and participated and completed a two-year Individual Certification process with Dr. Bruce Perry. Dr. Gil provides specialized trainings on an array of topics involving trauma, attachment, and treatment options, with an integration of expressive therapies (art, sand, play). In the last two decades, Eliana has directed two child sexual abuse treatment programs in Northern Virginia and continues her work in the field of child abuse prevention and treatment. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who received her doctorate in family therapy from the California Graduate School of Family Psychology in San Rafael, California. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Professional Society on the Abused of Children and the National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse. She is also a former President of the Association for Play Therapy and received APT’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
Dr. Gil has written numerous chapters, journal articles, and books on child abuse and related topics and has participated in educational videotapes that feature her work through Guilford Press, as well as a self-published DVD on Family Play Therapy. Her most recent books include Post-Traumatic Play: What Clinicians Should Know and the second edition of Play in Family Therapy. She also co-authored a book with Dr. David Crenshaw on Termination Challenges in Psychotherapy. Her classic book Outgrowing the Pain, has been translated into many languages. Dr. Gil is a well-known international lecturer, author, and clinician. She is bilingual and bicultural with Ecuadorian parents. Since 2014, she has been semi-retired and continues to supervise, consult and teach. Dr. Gil conducts specialized, unique trainings in Fairfax, VA and provides trainings across the country on a regular basis, although greatly reduced from previous years. She also sponsors the Mid-Atlantic Play Therapy Institute in Northern Virginia on an annual basis.
Eliana has dreamed of being a grandmother since she was a young child and cherished her relationship to her own grandmothers, Emilia and Teresa. She now has four grandchildren and looks forward to being closer to them geographically and continuing to be a part of their lives. She loves watching her children as they have grown into loving, smart, patient, and creative parents.
Program Description
The overriding goal of this workshop is to raise awareness about creating an anti-racist practice and the proactive ways that play therapists can address issues of equity and racial justice in our clinical practices. This workshop will be experiential in nature and will provide several guidelines for assessing the messages we might be sending to clients as they enter our therapy spaces. And more importantly, this workshop will help clinicians think through the potential continuum of responses when facing generic play that clearly manifests racist thoughts and attitudes. The balance between honoring play themes children raise, and a clinician’s perspectives about racism, will be discussed through a variety of scenarios that clinicians could face in the play therapy office.
The schedule will consist of a brief didactic presentation, experiential work, clinical case presentations, and group work to process specific clinical presentations of play therapy that raise issues of social justice. Specifically, participants will have opportunities to sharpen their consideration of how to create an anti-racist clinical practice.
Workshop Objectives:
- Define cultural humility and define anti-racist posture
- List three ways play therapists can ensure anti-racist messages in their setting
- Discuss three possible responses to racist play themes
- Discuss three play therapy toys that need to be inclusive and show diversity
- Name one thing a play therapist can do to ensure introspection in this area
- Describe one expressive therapy activity that can promote countertransference work for play therapists
- Name two different approaches that play therapist can use with parents regarding racism
- Date: March 24th, 2023
- Location: Live Training Via Zoom–Non-Contact
- Time: The training will run from 1:00 PM EST until 4:00 PM EST
- Cost: $80.00
- Cancellation Policy can be viewed here.
- Continuing Education:
- 3 Live Webinar Hours (Approved Provider # 20-599)
- Brighter Futures Counseling, PLLC has been approved by NBCC as an approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7035. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Brighter Futures Counseling, PLLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
- NBCC Credit allows this training to qualify for CE Hours for both KY Counselors and Social Workers
- Approved by the KY Board of Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (Approved Sponsor 02/17/2022)