Play Therapy for Tweens and Teens: Strategies to Build Rapport, Invite Emotional Expression, and Navigate Unique Developmental Challenges

Credit

Handouts/Brochure

Speaker

Sophia Ansari, LCPC, LPCC, RPT™ Related seminars and products

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Sophia Ansari, LCPC, LPCC, RPT™ is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Registered Play Therapist™, as well as an author, international speaker, activist, and owner of the Let’s Play Therapy Institute. She brings a deep passion for mental health, education, and community empowerment.

Sophia works with schools and organizations around the world to create strength-based, inclusive learning environments. Known for her creative approach to therapy, she incorporates pop culture, video games, and storytelling into her work and has shared her insights through publications, Comic-Con panels, and global trainings.

She also co-hosts Hero Nation, a podcast on the Geek Therapy Network that explores how media and geek culture can support mental health. Sophia holds a B.S. in biology from Wright State University and an M.A. in mental health counseling from the University of Cincinnati.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Sophia Ansari is the owner of Let’s Play Therapy Institute. Sophia Ansari receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Sophia Ansari has no relevant financial relationships.

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Objectives

1. Demonstrate an understanding of unique developmental needs of adolescents including adolescent brain development and its implications on behaviors.
2. Integrate the core principles and benefits of play therapy in the context of working with teenagers.
3. Support parents and caregivers with tools and skills to help them enhance their relationship with their teens.
4. Employ ethical guidelines and considerations specific to working with minors in a therapeutic setting (confidentiality, boundaries, and informed consent when engaging in play therapy with teenagers).
5. Apply a range of creative play therapy techniques using LEGO®, sand tray, video games, expressive arts, music, pop culture, and more that facilitate self-expression, emotional exploration, and communication for teens.
6. Determine how to adapt play therapy techniques to address common teen issues such as anxiety, depression, self-esteem, peer relationships, and family dynamics.

Outline

Ignite Transformation in Teens Through Play Therapy 

• Get hesitant and resistant clients on board
• Effectively use self-disclosure to build rapport
• Keys to relating to teens
• Confidentiality – the central ingredient to strong rapport
• Play therapy strategies to light up the brain at the first session
• Develop trust and attunement that doesn’t fade
• Put teens at ease with a self-affirming office space
• Discover “Greek Therapy” and how to use it
• Be intention with play therapy interventions 
• Have the right games, materials, and play items for teens

Must-Know Interventions for Suicidality & Teen Crises

• Know assessments and scales for suicidality 
• Sensitively assess for non-suicidal self-injury & active suicidality 
• Help teens transition back to school after crisis
• Dan Siegel’s “name it to tame it” to help teens overcome suicidal thoughts
• DBT tips for emotion regulation and coping with distress
• Play Therapy inspired poetry exercises for self-expression
• Know cultural suicide crises and population-specific concerns
• Ethical considerations and confidentiality 

Play Therapy Redefined: A Teen-Centric Approach

• Identifying “regressive play” and how it shows unmet needs
• Create collaborative rules for games 
• Master non-directive approaches and being patient
• Know when to bring in the family
• Must-have games and materials for the playroom
• Integrate the most important psychology theories into play – CBT, Gestalt, Psychodynamic, Narrative, Jungian & MORE
• Create memes for kids to be expressive

Unlock the Teenage Psyche

• How adolescent brain development works & why it matters
• Develop sensitivities to neurodivergence 
• Know the role peer influence on the teen brain
• Unique sensitivity of the teen brain and drives behavior
• The ins-and-outs of what teens need for sleep
• The truth about social media and the brain development

How to Support Parents & Caregivers

• Gives parents the skills to know “when to be concerned”
• Get teens talking with their parents
• Direct teens toward healthy distractions at home
• Help parents set limits with social media
• How to talk WITHOUT lecturing or advice giving
• Know how teens use technology for connection
• Identify drivers behind teens’ addictive impulses and behaviors

Create Breakthroughs with Teens 

• Sand Tray therapy to promote non-verbal self-expression
• Modify tabletop games to client specific needs and preferences
• Master roleplaying in therapy games to help teens build new skills
• How to make video games therapeutic & game recommendations
• Navigate when teens lean toward “dark themes” and violence in play
• Incorporate music, Legos®, “Oddly Satisfying Videos”, and pop culture
• Create individualized self-care recipes
• Specific play ideas for expression anger

Empowerment Approaches to Guide Tomorrow's Leaders

• Cultivate self-compassion in distressed teens through writing
• Increase personal strengths with positive psychology 
• How to emphasize strengths in any play therapy exercise 
• Create psychology flexibility with ACT
• Replace avoidance with resilience

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychiatrists
• Psychologists
• Play Therapists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counselors
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psych Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals
• Educators
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Any professionals working with children