Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy

What is Synergetic Play Therapy® (SPT)?

Synergetic Play Therapy (2008) is a researched-informed model of play therapy blending the therapeutic power of play with nervous system regulation, interpersonal neurobiology, physics, attachment, mindfulness, and therapist authenticity. It grew from personal experience as well as research in neuroscience, Interpersonal Neurobiology, and attachment theory.

Offered 3 times a year online and one time in-person, the Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy program is a comprehensive play therapy training that explores the foundational skills of SPT. This six-month program is designed for both beginning and advanced practitioners.

Regulation

Becoming an external regulator to support children with integration and repatterning the activation of their nervous systems
Supporting healing at deeper levels through right brain to right brain attuned communication
Learning how to teach children interoceptive (body) awareness (the key ingredient for self-regulation and co-regulation)
Understanding how the activation of the nervous system is linked to all mental health symptoms
Making transference and countertransference a friend instead of a foe in the therapeutic process

The Brain & Neuroscience

Supporting children in integrating their perceptions of the perceived challenging events in their lives
Creating a neuroception of safety for a child when emotional flooding happens
Learning how to set boundaries with the brain in mind to not minimize, shame or shut down the child's play, but keep them engaged in their therapy process
Learning a variety of reflections and responses that support multiple areas of a child's brain for integration
Understanding the role of dual-attention and dual-awareness to support your capacity to go deeper with your clients

Collaborative Relationships

Building collaborative relationships with caregivers to support their child’s therapeutic process
Helping caregivers understand that ALL behavior make sense (even the one’s perceived as negative)
Learning how to more effectively set goals, track a child's therapeutic process, and translate what's happening during the child's therapy session to their caregiver(s) and others in their world
Recognizing the difference between the child's emotional and chronological age and being able to communicate to caregivers when a child has reached empowerment

Authenticity & Congruence

Deepening your understanding of attachment theory and learning ways to help children develop a secure attachment to themselves (a foundation for resilience)
Exploring Synergetic Play Therapy and it's concepts from a cultural lens, leading to cultivation of a more inclusive and culturally sensitive clinical orientation where your client's unique experiences and needs are honored
Experiencing aggressive play, sand, and art from the perspectives of nervous system regulation, attunement, attachment, mindfulness and authenticity
Using therapist authenticity and congruence as a way to support a client in experiencing deeper change and healing (...because we know inauthenticity is the fastest way to burnout and compassion fatigue)

Module 1: Understand The Set Up/Offering

Learn the game changing SPT concept of The Set Up/Offering, the Interpersonal Neurobiology projective experience and how it shows up in the relationship between the therapist and client, and the key healing agent in all therapy processes.

Module 2: Understand States of Activation

Begin the journey into neurobiology to learn about the brain, states of activation of the nervous system and regulation, and how all a child's symptoms are expressions of the activation of the autonomic nervous system.

Module 3: Become a Child's External Regulator

Deepen your understanding of what it means to become an external regulator to help children expand their windows of tolerance, re-pattern their nervous system and integrate their experiences.

Module 4: Partnering with Caregivers/Tracking the Play

Understand parents/caregivers at a deeper level and learn how to become their external regulator. This module also includes how to do an intake with the brain in mind, goal setting, learning how to track a client's progress and translating the play, and how to support caregivers when they are in the session.

Module 5: Understand Attachment and Emotional Age

Deepen your understanding of attachment, attachment to self, and attunement. Also explore the difference between a child's emotional age and their chronological age, as well as why interoception is the prerequisite for developing self-regulation.

Module 6: Sand, Art, and Aggression in SPT

Explore how to facilitate sand, art and aggression through an SPT lens. You'll also learn how to use regulation as a way to help integrate aggressive energy in the playroom, and why the therapist is truly the most important toy in the playroom!

Book Review: Aggression in Play Therapy

Lisa Dion's book Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity will be your reference guide for this course.

Cultural Diversity Video Lessons

Explore Synergetic Play Therapy and it's concepts from a cultural lens. We’ve added two additional video lessons – Synergetic Play Therapy and Cultural Humility & 4 Threats and the Set Up Through a Cultural Lens to help you do this.

Teletherapy Bonus Video

Learn more about how to approach teletherapy sessions with your clients through a Synergetic Play Therapy lens in an optional bonus video.

This online SPT training has been one of the most influential trainings that I have ever taken. SPT incorporates so many things that I already know to work with my clients, has added new things that I had not already learned and things that I had not previously thought about, and has put it all together in a way that has allowed me to use the training in my day to day work with my clients. This training has been so valuable that I am planning on taking the certification course.

Kim Kendall, Clinical Counsellor

I’m learning Synergetic Play Therapy after over 20 years of providing play therapy and 10+ years of providing play therapy training and supervision. I'm here today to tell you that what Lisa is teaching is a game changer. Every one of us needs to understand in an embodied way what it means to combine neurobiology and relationship as the foundation of all the work we are doing with clients, but also with colleagues, friends, family members and SELF. Much of what I’m learning, I've known and done intuitively for years but it is SO liberating to connect the dots and have an understanding through the neurobiological lens of WHY we need to utilize and trust what we feel in our own bodies when in connection with another person.

Lynn Louise Wonders, LPC, RPT-S, CPCS, DCC

This course was a pivotal training in my professional development as a Certified Child Life Specialist. It supported the work I was already doing as a CCLS by providing valuable research and science to validate many of the best practices of child life and gave me the knowledge and framework to better justify my work to multi-disciplinary team members. It gave me the skills and practice of self-regulation to be able to “feel with” patients and families without the negative side effects of burn out and compassion fatigue that often plague our field. SPT helped me tap into and trust my felt experiences and intuition in working with children and families in highly stressful moments.

Cara Smith, Certified Child Life Specialist

This course was eye opening for me in so many ways. Lisa puts the newest information from the various fields into a whole new perspective. There are new 'anchors' in my work now that I can rely on and there is a lot more of the feeling: I know what I'm doing. It has allowed me to be more active as a therapist while staying non-directive and trusting the child's own process.

Kamila Hollá, Special Education Teacher, Clinical Counselor

This class was a perfect combination of understanding the current science/research, gaining clinical understanding and learning new practical skills in order to find the perfect balance of how to work with clients and their families.

Kaity Sollenberger, LCSW, Outpatient Mental Health Therapist

SPT has been groundbreaking for me in terms of continuing education. I learned more about play therapy in this course than I did during graduate school. Lisa does a wonderful job explaining "right-brain" concepts like play in a "left-brained" way that makes sense to me and the parents of the child clients I work with. Not only has this knowledge helped me in my professional career, but also in my personal life. I've learned so much more about myself and how I move through the world. I cannot recommend this course enough!

Taylor Daniel, Licensed Professional Counselor

International Teacher & Speaker, Author, Business Coach, Parent ...

Lisa Dion, MA, LPC is a Registered Play Therapy Supervisor, Certified Gestalt Therapist, Level II EMDR Practitioner, Parent Educator and Master Certified Demartini Method™ Facilitator. She is an international teacher, host of the Lessons from the Playroom podcast, creator of The Business of Therapy™, author of Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity and the creator of Synergetic Play Therapy®, a model of play therapy bridging the gap between psychology and neuroscience.

Lisa was awarded the Association for Play Therapy’s 2015 Professional Training and Education Award of Excellence for her outstanding professional education and training that significantly developed, promoted, and advanced the value of play, play therapy, and credentialed play therapists.

As the founder and President of the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute® and co-founder of the Synergetic Education Institute™, she trains and supervises therapists across the world in therapeutic skill development and business creation.

Q. Do I need to attend the one-hour LIVE webinars live?

While we'd love to have you join us, you do not need to attend the LIVE webinars live. All the webinars are recorded and available to watch (or re-watch) at your leisure while you have access to the course.

Q. How do I choose my consultation time and what if I don't reside in the United States?

You'll have the opportunity to complete a Group Consultation Request form. Within this form, you'll be asked to choose from a selection of times for your monthly group consultation sessions. We offer several different options to accommodate all time zones.

Q. What happens during the monthly group consultation?

This is your time to integrate the material from the course and deepen your learning. It's not supervision for all your clients you work with.

During consultation, you'll have the opportunity to learn from other group members and discuss how you are applying SPT into your work/practices, share challenges and progress, and deepen your understanding of basic SPT concepts.

You're also encouraged to explore ways that you can apply SPT to a wide range of settings including schools, mental health centers, home-based services, in your personal life, etc. (whatever is applicable to you), as well as the various populations that you interact (e.g., children, teens, families, adults).

Q. Who will be facilitating my monthly group consultation?

The SPT Consultants are Certified Synergetic Play Therapists and Supervisors of this work. They're incredibly knowledgeable and will be a huge asset to you throughout the course!

Q. Does this course offer CE credits?

Yes! This program offers 25 CE credits. Upon completion of this course, students will receive a digital copy of a CE certificate, which you can download or print. The continuing education credits earned in this course may be used toward licensure credential requirements or for other professional associations. Check with your State licensing board or professional association to see how these credits may apply. To access more information about the course and the affiliations SPTI is an approved provider with, please visit our Learn website.

Q. Can I take this course if I'm not a mental health professional or do not have a play therapy background?

Yes, this course is for anyone that wants to learn the principles of Synergetic Play Therapy.

Past students of the course have included school counselors, teachers, occupational therapists, coaches, child life specialists, and parents/caregivers to name a few. The principles of SPT can be applied not only to our relationship with children, but also with teens and adults, and even ourselves!

*Please note that credit can only be awarded to graduate students enrolled in a graduate mental health program or individuals who hold a graduate mental health degree. If you're not a mental health professional and would like to receive a certificate of completion, you may contact the Institute at the end of the course. Please contact your appropriate association to find out if they will accept your certificate of completion.

Q. I would like to do the Synergetic Play Therapy Certification program. Where do I start?

You're in the right place! A pre-requisite of the level 2 Synergetic Play Therapy Certification program is completion of a level 1 Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy course (online or in-person). Throughout the course, we'll provide you with more information about the certification program and support you in applying.

Q. Is the price in US dollars?

Yes, all of our pricing is listed in US dollars.

Q. Do you offer monthly payment options, student discounts or scholarships?

Yes, we offer a monthly payment option for this course. Find details under the Cost section on the program page.

We do not offer a student discount, but the Synergetic Play Therapy Foundation awards scholarships two times per year. Our scholarships are available to clinicians that have a financial need such that they could not pursue play therapy training without scholarship.

*The SPT Foundation does not discriminate based on rage, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, religious orientation, etc. to receive the funds. Learn more here!

Synergetic Play Therapy has now been cited and published in the following books/chapters:

Dion, L. & Schaad, J. (2021). Synergetic Play Therapy Combined with EMDR Therapy. In A. Beckley-Forest & A. Monaco (Eds.), EMDR with Children in the Play Therapy Room: An Integrated Approach (pp. )Springer Publishing Company.
Dion, L. (2018). Aggression in Play Therapy: A neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity. W.W. Norton & Company.
Keating, B. (2023). Diving into the World of Online Play Therapy. In H. Weinberg, A. Rolnick, & A. Leighton (Eds.), Advances in Online Therapy: Emergence of a new Paradigm (pp: 299-307). Routledge.
LaPiere, R., & Dion, L. (2022). Using Nature to Create Safety for Medical Trauma. In J.A. Courtney, J.L. Langley, L.L. Wonders, R. Heiko (Eds.), Nature-based play and expressive therapies: Interventions for working with children, teens, and families (pp. ). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Upcoming authored chapters for 2024 publications:

Chapter on A Synergetic Play Therapy Approach to Treatment Planning in The Play-based and Expressive Therapies Treatment Planner: A Guide to Working with Children and Adolescents (Routledge Publishing)
Chapter on A Synergetic Play Therapy Approach to Working with Dissociation in Handbook of Child Complex Trauma and Dissociation: Theory, Research, Clinical Applications (Routledge Publishing)

Subsequent research articles that have been published:

Dion, L., & Gray, K. (2014). Impact of Therapist Authentic Expression on Emotional Tolerance in Synergetic Play Therapy. International Journal of Play Therapy, 23(1), 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035495
Simmons, J. (2020). Moving Toward Regulation Using Synergetic Play Therapy. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 54(3), 242–258. Retrieved from https://cjc-rcc.ucalgary.ca/article/view/69443
Townsend, Bethany & Ishman, Lindsay & Dion, Lisa & Holt, Kara. (2021). An Examination of Child-Centered Play Therapy and Synergetic Play Therapy. Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling. 7. 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/23727810.2021.1964931.
Yian, Q.S., & Yong, M. (2022). The Inner Hum Project: A Psychosocial Program for Children Building Emotional Resilience during the Pandemic in Malaysia. Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature 60(2), 50-59. doi:10.1353/bkb.2022.0025.
Current research project: Examining the Impact of Synergetic Play Therapy on Reducing Compassion Fatigue in Synergetic Play Therapy Providers (to be published)

Transform you and your child clients from the inside out!