Transform Your Practice - and Yourself
through
Online Learning
from the comfort of your own space
or
In-Person Learning
from Chicago, Brisbane Australia, or Palm Springs!
Registration Open Now
This program is a one-of-a-kind experience! The six-month online program includes 3 one-hour LIVE webinars with Lisa Dion, six 2.5-hour recorded videos, 2 additional one-hour video lessons for cultural competency, a book review (Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach to Integrating Intensity by Lisa Dion), and monthly group consultations with a Synergetic Play Therapy Consultant. Similarly, the in-person program gives you 3-days in-person followed by 6 months of group consultation and additional learning/video lessons. Start your program at one of our In-Person locations, or take it all from the comfort of your own space. It all adds up to 32 hours of engagement!
January 2025
Online
- Use Early Bird Coupon Code “Intro2025” for $50 USD off until January 7th, 2025
- Registration deadline is January 19th, 12pm Mountain Time
March 2025
In-Person ● 3-Day
- March 28-30 at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Illinois 🇺🇸
- Registration deadline is March 14th, 12pm Mountain Time
Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates!
June 2025
Online
- Program starts June 24th
September 2025
In-Person ● 3-Day
- September 12-14 in Brisbane, Australia 🇦🇺
October 2025
Online
- Program starts October 14th
October 2025
In-Person ● 3-Day
- November 1-3 in Palm Springs, California 🇺🇸
What is Synergetic Play Therapy?
Synergetic Play Therapy (SPT) 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 several times a year online or 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.
What You'll Learn
Regulation
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Become an external regulator to support children with integration and repatterning the activation of their nervous systems
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Support healing at deeper levels through right brain to right brain attuned communication
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Learn how to teach children interoceptive (body) awareness (the key ingredient for self-regulation and co-regulation)
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Understand how the activation of the nervous system is linked to all mental health symptoms
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Make transference and countertransference a friend instead of a foe in the therapeutic process
The Brain & Neuroscience
- Support children in integrating their perceptions of the perceived challenging events in their lives
- Create a neuroception of safety for a child when emotional flooding happens
- Learn 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
- Learn a variety of reflections and responses that support multiple areas of a child's brain for integration
- Understand the role of dual-attention and dual-awareness to support your capacity to go deeper with your clients
Collaborative Relationships
- Build collaborative relationships with caregivers to support their child’s therapeutic process
- Help caregivers understand that ALL behavior make sense (even the one’s perceived as negative)
- Learn 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
- Recognize 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
- Deepen your understanding of attachment theory and learning ways to help children develop a secure attachment to themselves (a foundation for resilience)
- Explore 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
- Experience aggressive play, sand, and art from the perspectives of nervous system regulation, attunement, attachment, mindfulness and authenticity
- Use 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)
How Our Program is Structured
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 (and their caregivers to become their child's external regulator) 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. Discover ways to regulate yourself in an intense play therapy session to model to the child client how to do the same, thereby enhancing the child’s capacity for self-regulation, and so much more!
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.
Why the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute?
What Our Students Say
Over 3,000 mental health professionals and those in related roles (Child Life Specialists, School Counselors, Occupational Therapists, Coaches, etc.) from more than 20 different countries have studied Synergetic Play Therapy with us. Welcome to our community!
Kim Kendall, Clinical Counsellor
Lynn Louise Wonders, LPC, RPT-S, CPCS, DCC
Cara Smith, Certified Child Life Specialist
Kamila Hollá, Special Education Teacher, Clinical Counselor
Kaity Sollenberger, LCSW, Outpatient Mental Health Therapist
Taylor Daniel, Licensed Professional Counselor
Meet Your Teacher
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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!
More About Synergetic Play Therapy
Synergetic Play Therapy has been cited and published in the following books/chapters:
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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.
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Dion, L. (2018). Aggression in Play Therapy: A neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity. W.W. Norton & Company.
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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.
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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:
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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)
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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:
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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/
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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.
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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.
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Current research project: Examining the Impact of Synergetic Play Therapy on Reducing Compassion Fatigue in Synergetic Play Therapy Providers (to be published)