CHILD CENTERED PLAY THERAPY (CCPT) BASICS AND HEALING TRAUMA

*** This training is scheduled to take place in person. The location is 975 Foot Hills Rd Greenville at the Charles E. Shipman Center. ***

Children typically struggle to bridge the gap between concrete experience and abstract thought. Additionally, trauma impacts the brain in ways that inhibit cognitive processes and behavior. Play therapy helps children process these abstract experiences through concrete means (Landreth et al., 2009; Ray, 2004; Ray, 2005). Materials and toys are therefore used to directly or symbolically play out emotions, thoughts, or experiences that occur in their concrete and active world. Play provides an opportunity for the counselor to enter the world of children and for children to communicate at their level of understanding (Landreth et al., 2009). Play therapy has also been proven to be a statistically effective means of treating externalizing and internalizing problems in children regardless of setting, diagnosis, and cultural background (Bratton, et.…