Ultimate Partnership in Play Therapy: Make Parent Consultations Effective

When play therapists in agency, school, and private practice settings work with children, they necessarily work with parents and caregivers. Play therapists often cite working with parents or guardians as the most challenging aspect of counseling with children (Landreth, 2024; Ray, 2011). In order to have access to working with children, play therapists must forge collaborative relationships with caregivers. Partnering with parents starts from the first marketing outreach and extends to session-to-session support and education. All interactions between play therapist and parent are initiated to facilitate growth in the child. A play therapist’s goal is to develop a relationship with parents in which caregivers feel accepted, understood, and safe so that they will be open to encouragement, skill-building, and change in parenting style. The first aim of this workshop is to provide participants with processes regarding structure of reaching out and holding consultations with parents/caregivers that support progress in the child’s play therapy. Secondly, this workshop will offer play therapists skill concepts that effectively help to improve parenting practices and ways to teach these concepts to parents successfully. Workshop participants will learn how to align with parents/caregivers to keep children in play therapy, how to develop plans for parents/caregivers, and what methods and strategies are used with parents/caregivers to benefit their children. Using examples from real-life cases, Dr. Ray will demonstrate use of the model through handouts, experiential activities, and role-play.

6 Contact CE Hours Total

Date:
Saturday, September 13, 2025

Time:
9:00 AM - 4:30 PM CDT

Includes 1-hr lunch break and two 15-min breaks

Location:
The Robert & Lee Duvall Center
948B Highland Village Rd, Highland Village, TX 75077

1. Participants will list at least two marketing techniques for getting parents on board with play therapy.
2. Participants will describe essential components to a first play therapy consultation.
3. Participants will be able to apply introduction to play therapy techniques for parents.
4. Participants will list and describe steps to successful ongoing parent consultations.
5. Participants will list and describe at least eight teaching concepts for parents that support child’s play therapy progress.
6. Participants will be able to apply tools to effectively teach parents play therapy concepts.

You will receive 6 total Contact CE hours for this presentation. APT Approved Provider: 22-674. Participants must be present in order to receive the CE credits and full completion of the course.

Dee C. Ray, Ph.D., LPC-S, NCC, RPT-S is co-owner of the counseling practice, EmpathyWell, in Highland Village, TX where she facilitates play therapy, training, consultation, and supervision. Dr. Ray is Regents Emerita Professor in the Counseling Program and Director Emerita of the Center for Play Therapy at the University of North Texas. Dr. Ray has published over 150 articles, chapters, and books in the field of play therapy, specializing in research specifically examining the process and effects of Child Centered Play Therapy. Dr. Ray is author of Playful Education: Using Play Therapy Strategies to Elevate Your Classroom, A Therapist’s Guide to Development: The Extraordinarily Normal Years, Advanced Play Therapy: Essential Conditions, Knowledge, and Skills for Child Practice, and co-author of Multicultural Play Therapy and Group Play Therapy. She is a founding board member and past president of the Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling, as well as past board chair of the Association for Play Therapy. She is an American Counseling Association Fellow, and two-time recipient of the Association for Play Therapy Outstanding Research Award, among many others.

Registration is final and a refund will not be processed. EmpathyWell reserves the right to cancel this webinar in the event of unforeseen circumstances. If such occurs, EmpathyWell will attempt to notify registrants prior to the workshop and refund all registration, workshop, and fees. In all instances, the liability of EmpathyWell is limited to refunding such fees.

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