BC Play Therapy Association holds workshops throughout the year to help advance the education of Play Therapy Practitioners and related professions. These usually revolve around a specialized speaker teaching a subject of importance to the advancement of play therapy as a therapeutic practice.

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ABOUT THE PRESENTER:

Bonnie Badenoch, PhD, LMFT, therapist, mentor, teacher, and author, has spent the last 15 years integrating the discoveries of relational neuroscience into the art of therapy. In 2008, she cofounded the nonprofit agency Nurturing the Heart with the Brain in Mind to offer this work to the community of therapists, healthcare providers, and others interested in becoming therapeutic presences in the world. For 25 years, she has supported trauma survivors and those with significant attachment wounds to reshape their neural landscapes for a life of meaning, resilience, and warm relationships. These days, Bonnie takes joy in offering immersion trainings for therapists and others. These year-long groups cultivate the capacity for presence through the development of deep listening and the embodiment of the principles of interpersonal neurobiology. Her conviction that wisdom about the relational brain can support healing experiences for people at every age led to the publication of Being a Brain-Wise Therapist: A Practical Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology in 2008 and The Brain-Savvy Therapist’s Workbook in 2011. Bonnie’s latest writing is The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships (2017). These books seek to build a bridge between science and practice with clarity, compassion, and heart.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

Building on an understanding of how our brains respond to traumatic circumstances, we can create a rich play environment that supports development of embodied brains that can sustain a life of resilience and meaningful relationships for people of every age. Interpersonal neurobiology tells us that within the foundation of a warm, sustaining relationship, all the ingredients for repairing upset nervous systems and finding the road toward secure attachment are present. Whether we play with little ones, teens, or adults, our deepening understanding of the brains and minds of our clients and ourselves can enrich our capacity to collaborate with the brain’s abundant natural healing processes. In addition, our clarity about these processes can provide us with a greater sense of stability and balance, side by side with broader compassion – both of which are secure foundations to bring into the playroom for being with trauma’s emotional intensity. Our process in these two days will be to engage in whole-brained learning, expanding our knowledge about how these neurobiological processes unfold, while we are also engaging in experiences to help us embody our learning and deepen our capacity for presence.

We will begin by developing a neurobiologically-based understanding of what trauma is, and then spend time with brain development in the first two years of life in traumatic and non-traumatic circumstances. The embodied brain – including belly and heart, the importance of implicit memory, the workings of the autonomic nervous system, mirror neurons and resonance circuitry will be among the topics we visit, to gain a sense of their value for play therapy. Because many of our most traumatic experiences arise within our attaching relationships, we will spend time understanding and experiencing the four attachment patterns – both as we might see them in our clients and as they enter the therapy room within us. On this foundation, we will be able to explore the neurobiology of the change processes that are facilitated by play within the safety of a warm, stable relationship – for little ones, teens, and adults. By the end of our two days, we may find ourselves more settled and hopeful than ever before about the possibility of strong recovery from even the most tragic circumstances.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the development of our embodied brains in the first 36 months in traumatic and non-traumatic circumstances.
• Define trauma from the perspective of interpersonal neurobiology, with particular focus on the influence of trauma at various developmental stages (beginning before birth).
• Understand the layers of memory that develop in traumatic and non-traumatic circumstances (epigenetic, implicit, explicit, and autobiographical) and how they manifest in play therapy.
• Explain the 7 inherent motivational systems, how they are shaped by experience, and how they show up in play therapy and parenting support.
• Identify aspects of the 4 attachment patterns within ourselves and how they enter the process in play therapy, particularly with traumatized clients.
• Explain the neurobiological basis for identifying the therapist’s capacity for nonjudgmental presence as the most important factor in healing.
• Explain the three branches of the autonomic nervous system and how they form the basis for creating safety in the playroom with traumatized clients.
• Describe the role of mirror neurons and resonance circuitry in the process of recovery from trauma.
• Master use of the hand model of the brain with children, teens, and adults.
• Describe the ways in which the subjective quality of implicit memory can change, and how play can facilitate these changes.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Play therapists, family therapists, psychologists, social workers, school counsellors, and other mental health professionals working with children, adolescents and families will benefit from this training. A basic understanding of play therapy would be be beneficial.

The AGM will take place over the lunch hour on Saturday, May 25th. Everyone welcome.

CANCELLATION POLICY:

1. To cancel your registration, please send us a cancellation notice via email at [email protected] no later than 2 weeks before the start of an event for a full refund less a $25.00 cancellation fee. No refund is issued if you cancel your registration within 2 weeks of the event.
2. Please note that all payments received and/or processed on workshop day will be processed at manual registration rates.
3. If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact us at info@bcplaytherapy.ca.