Partnering with Parents: Building Confidence and Ease from First Meeting to Ongoing Support in Play Therapy

About this training

Watch a Real Class At Your Own Pace One of the most common challenges play therapists face, especially interns, pre-licensed therapists, and RPT™ candidates, is building and maintaining effective relationships with parents. Even seasoned therapists can feel uncertain about how to communicate, set boundaries, and gain trust. As both a play therapist and a parent, I understand how hard parenting is and why a compassionate, strengths-based approach matters. This 4-hour pre-recorded training will give you tangible tools for communicating with parents and caregivers so that your work feels easier, clearer, and more collaborative. How This Training Can Help YOU ☀️ Explore a detailed play therapy assessment for parent intakes and practice gathering holistic information about the child and family. ☀️ Learn how to set the tone for therapy and gain parental trust from the very first meeting. ☀️ Practice using a strengths-based model through the lens of attachment to “hook” parents into teaming up with you. ☀️ Experiment with family therapy tools and ideas for working with parents individually, in groups, or through workshops. ☀️ Nurture the person within the therapist through integrated self-care activities woven throughout the course. By the end, you will leave with a roadmap for turning potentially difficult parent interactions into supportive, trusting partnerships that benefit the child, the family, and you. Learning Objectives Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to: 🍎 Describe regulation, attachment, and the nervous system in parent-friendly language to enhance understanding and buy-in. 🍎 Identify at least five strategies for effectively communicating with parents and other helping adults from the intake session onward. 🍎 Compare different play therapy models that integrate parent and family work, noting their distinct advantages and applications. 🍎 Explain at least two interventions that can be taught to parents or caregivers to support their child’s regulation at home. 🍎 Demonstrate ways to structure parent intakes and early sessions to build trust, set clear expectations, and establish collaborative goals. 🍎 Apply a strengths-based, attachment-informed framework to parent interactions in individual, group, and workshop settings.