You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join with Them… Play Therapy Interventions Based on Video Games

Description of Training:

Many play therapy clients are avid video gamers. Instead of fighting a losing battle trying to convince them to stop, meet them where they are. Many play therapists are video game novices–or even video game haters. And video games are here to stay–with many of our clients. You can disapprove of video games, ignore them and hope they go away, or you can learn to use your knowledge of video games in your play therapy sessions. In this experiential workshop, participants will learn play therapy interventions based on the characters and plots of selected video games for building relationships with gamer play therapy clients. Workshop participants will learn techniques to help gamer clients gain insight into their self-defeating patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving and help them experiment with more adaptive patterns. You will leave with practical strategies you can use in your play therapy sessions to develop strategies for connecting, communicating, and intervening with gamer clients.

Presenter Information:

Terry Kottman, Ph.D., RPT-S, NCC founded The Encouragement Zone, a center in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she provides play therapy training and supervision, life coaching, counseling, and “playshops” for women. Terry developed Adlerian play therapy, an approach to counseling children that combines the ideas and techniques of Individual Psychology and play therapy. She regularly presents workshops and writes about play therapy, activity- based counseling, school counseling, and life coaching. She is the author of Partners in Play, Play Therapy: Basics and Beyond, and several other books.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to…

1. Describe three video games commonly played out in play therapy sessions and explain why certain play therapy clients might be attracted to them.
2. Describe two play therapy interventions based on video games you could use to build a relationship with gamer clients and/or help gamer clients gain insight into maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving.
3. Describe two play therapy interventions based on video games you could use to help gamer clients practice more appropriate ways of interacting with others.
4. Develop an original intervention based on a video game one of your clients currently plays and describe how you could generalize the development process to create other video game-based interventions.