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Playful Pathways: Integrating Attachment-Centered Play Therapy with Tweens & Teens (and their Parents)

September 5th & 6th, 2024

Presenter Bio

Clair Mellenthin, LCSW, holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California. Throughout her career, she has focused on providing therapy to children, teens, and their families. Before joining Wasatch Family Therapy as the Director of Child and Adolescent Services, she worked in a successful private practice. She is currently the Clinical Director at Wasatch Family Therapy. Ms. Mellenthin is a sought after supervisor, training graduate students and interns in play therapy, and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah, Utah Valley University, and the University of Southern California MSW programs. She is currently the President of the Utah Association For Play Therapy.

In addition to being an experienced play therapist and professor, Ms. Mellenthin frequently presents professional play therapy and family therapy trainings and appears on local and national TV and radio as an expert on children and family issues.

Program Description

Day 1:

Attachment Centered Play Therapy (ACPT) is an integrative, prescriptive play therapy model that blends the original and current theories of attachment with the power of play therapy to create a holistic, systemic approach to working with children and families.  This approach allows the clinician to view the child within the framework of their family system, treating the family as if they were “the client” instead of focusing on the individual child and presenting behavioral or emotional issues.  Through the lens of attachment theory, participants will gain a new understanding of how children and families interact and bond to one another in healthy vs maladaptive ways. We will be exploring how trauma, abuse, neglect, and grief impact the bonds of attachment within the family system, as well as ways to engage even the most difficult parents and invite them into the play therapy process.  You will learn how to repair, rebuild, and create safety within the parent-child relationship using the power of Attachment Centered Play Therapy.

Participants will spend the day learning new and innovative play therapy techniques including hands on experiential activities, sand tray interventions, and expressive arts.  You will leave with a creative toolbox of tips, techniques, and a clear understanding of how attachment styles impact relationships.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Identify how attachment theory applies to play therapy and to view family systems through the lens of attachment.
  2. Conceptualize attachment patterns that impact parent-child relationships.
  3. Conceptualize generational attachment patterns and how these manifests in family-based play therapy. 
  4. Analyze attachment theory as it applies to play therapy to provide integrated therapeutic treatment.
  5. Evaluate the four key concepts of attachment theory and how these concepts apply to attachment centered play therapy.
  6. Analyze various family systems through the lens of attachment theory to strengthen clinical assessment skills.

Day 2:

Take a deeper dive into how ACPT can be used successfully with tweens and teens (and their parents!!) Enhance your clinical practice by learning how to blend expressive arts techniques with Attachment Centered Play Therapy! By doing so, a creative atmosphere featuring safety and compassion is created in the office, studio, or play therapy room to support freedom of expression, allowing clients to communicate the unspeakable.  

Expressive arts have long been heralded in psychotherapy for their effectiveness in trauma treatment, making them a valuable resource for play therapists and other mental health professionals. In this workshop, we will be exploring and demonstrating through hands-on activities how to use expressive arts alongside play therapy techniques with tweens and teens to address attachment issues, trauma, self-esteem, and empathy development.  

Appropriate for play therapists, counselors, psychotherapists, and others working with tweens and teens, participants will end the day having gained a diverse toolbox of play therapy and expressive arts techniques, and a deeper understanding of the complimentary healing powers that play therapy combined with expressive arts can bring to clinical work with this population. 

Learning Objectives: 

  1. Describe 2 expressive arts-based interventions in play therapy with teens. 
  2. Explain how utilizing a blended approach of modalities can be useful in play therapy. 
  3. Evaluate attachment theory and different attachment styles that impact parent’s ability to engage and be involved in their child’s treatment 
  4. Develop strategies to introduce and maintain parent involvement in play therapy
  5. Analyze how adolescent’s participation changes in play therapy
  6. Conceptualize the neuroscience of the impact of trauma on brain development and it’s impact on behavior and emotions.
  • Date: Thursday & Friday September 5th & 6th, 2024
  • Location: In-Person (Elizabethtown Tourism & Convention Bureau–1030 N. Mulberry Street, Elizabethtown, KY 42701)
  • Time: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM EST (12 Contact Hours)
  • Cost: $250.00
  • Continuing Education:
    • APT Approved Provider # 20-599 (12 Contact Hours)
    • Brighter Futures Counseling is an Approved Sponsor by the Kentucky Board of Licensure for Marriage and Family Therapists
    • Brighter Futures Counseling is an approved sponsor with The Kentucky Board of Social Work (Approval number KBSWSP 2024008).
    • The Kentucky Board of Professional Counselors Approved this training on 03/15/24
    • The Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology (Approval number 2023081)