Description: This training focuses on the basic tenets Experiential Play Therapy, including the ability to understand metaphor and the power of play for children as they process their pain and trauma. We will incorporate the importance of tracking the physiology in children during play. Principles of neuroscience and tracking for fight, flight, freeze, and collapse will also be discussed. Lecture, power point, experiential learning, and video case examples will be used to enhance learning. Participants will gain an understanding of what children's physiology is communicating during play and ways to respond to and support their nervous systems in the resolution of trauma. 

Learning Objectives:  

• Gain a basic foundation of experiential play therapy and how to integrate somatic principles 
• Increase understanding of the autonomic nervous system and how it responds to trauma during play
• Identify a stuck nervous system in children and gain a few resources to help support children through this while playing
• Learn how to facilitate appropriate fight or flight response in children via play

About the Presenters: 

• Melissa Wetterlund, MA, LP, LMFT, RPT-S has been in the counseling field for almost 20 years.  In her work with children she specializes in trauma, family issues, divorce, adoption, and blended family concerns.  In addition, she enjoys marriage & family therapy, parent education, and individual identity work.  She has done extensive training in the field of Somatic Experiencing, which she integrates in her work with both children and adults.  In addition to her clinical practice, Melissa teaches and trains in Experiential Play Therapy independently and as an adjunct professor in Bethel University’s and Crown College's graduate programs.   As an AAMFT and BBHT approved supervisor, Melissa spends a lot of her time mentoring and supervising other therapists.  She also loves supporting and equipping other supervisors as an AAMFT supervision mentor.  
• Sara Werner, MA, LP, RPT-S, SEP has been in the counseling field for 25 years. An emphasis of her training with both children and adults has been in facilitating recovery from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, as well as from other traumatic events, such as car accidents, injury, death or loss. She specializes in Experiential Play Therapy with children and co-teaches an Experiential Play Therapy training for other therapy professionals in the community.  Sara is EMDR level II trained, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and a Registered Play Therapist - Supervisor.  She is the founder and first president of the Minnesota Association for Play Therapy and also enjoys being an Adjunct Professor in the graduate program at Bethel University.