Clair Mellenthin – 2-Day Conference: Play Therapy: Engaging Powerful Techniques for the Treatment of Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Trauma

Outline

Why Play Therapy Works

• Therapeutic power of play
• Facilities communication
• Fosters emotional wellness
• Enhances social relationships
• Increases personal strengths

Assessment and Diagnosis

• Common myths of behavior disorders
• Systemic assessment of emotional and behavioral distress
  • School, home, and community relationships
  • Impact of inconsistent and harsh parenting/relationships practices
• Race, gender, ethnicity, culture issues and bias
• Trauma assessment

TREATING DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR DISORDERS
Oppositional Defiant Disorder

• Recurrent behavioral and relational patterns
• Impact on the family system
• Shame and vulnerability (in the family) – The Kryptonite!
  • Cycle of disconnect, rejection, and attachment ruptures
• Environmental risk factors

Play Therapy Interventions to Combat Negative Behaviors

• Play-based regulation and co-regulation techniques
  • Calm down jars
  • Lemon squeezies
  • Blast It!
  • Guided imagery
• Repair and enhance relationships
  • Shame shields
  • Feeling monsters

Conduct Disorder Treatment

• Misdiagnosis and misunderstandings
  • Gender and racial bias in diagnosis
• Trauma history of the child
• Impact of trauma on brain development and maladaptive coping response
• Patterns of engagement in the home, school, and community
• Impact on family relationships

Trauma Treatment

• Etiology of trauma in disruptive behavior disorders
• Impact on neurological functioning and development
• PTSD – the most overlooked diagnosis contributing to Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD)
• Assess for attachment ruptures and relational trauma
• Shame-based punitive parenting
• Repair and restore safety in the home

Play Therapy Interventions to Address Underlying Trauma

• Increase emotional intelligence and understand trauma symptoms
  • Bound and rebound
  • Sandtray
  • Expressive arts in play
• Repair and rebuild relationships
  • Nurturing spoons
  • Volcano inside of me

Play-Based Interventions to Promote Parent/Child Attachment

• Building bridges of connection and communication
• Create emotional safety
• My safe place
• Telling my story
• My many colors of me

Inviting the Parent in the Playroom

• Help the parent become a resource to their child
• Decrease shame and vulnerability in the relationship
• Improve healthy attachment-seeking behaviors
• Repair attachment wounds and ruptures
• Teach positive parenting strategies