Learning Center

Watch Adlerian child therapist Terry Kottman in an actual play therapy session with a 5-year old boy.

Simply learning the theories of child development and therapy does not make us better or even more effective child therapists. Watch and learn from a talented trio of child clinicians as they demonstrate 10 playful, creative and interactive techniques for connecting with children and helping them cope with sadness, anger, anxiety and trauma.

Watch master child therapist Robin Walker model therapeutic play with children in a series of vignettes aimed at helping therapists develop authentic, empathic, fun-filled relationships with kids. 

Do you want a powerful new tool to enhance your work with children and families? Watch, learn, and enjoy as master family therapist Monica McGoldrick explains how to use family play genograms.

Watch renowned Object Relations psychotherapist David Scharff in an actual counseling session with an 11-year old boy who is grieving the death of his grandmother.

There is growing awareness that the traditional deficit-based therapeutic mindset that pathologizes neurological differences such as autism and ADHD often lead to poor mental health outcomes. Learn how to help young neurodivergent clients thrive by using neurodiversity-affirming play practices that build therapeutic connection and emphasize collaboration and validation. Empower neurodivergent children and teens with play interventions tailored to support their unique needs and celebrate their strengths all while having fun. 

This video shows activities in multiple arts modalities—music, dance, art, and drama—in a creative arts program for young children at risk for the development of emotional problems.

Videotaped sessions from two families show similarities and differences in art and drama family sessions, but interactional patterns and conflicts are illustrated in both, including issues of dominance/submission; victim/aggressor; problem-maker/problem-solver.

Children express grief differently than adults, but their pain is just as real and their feelings equally as intense. “A Child’s Grief” takes viewers into the lives of eight children in bereavement support group. 

In this video, Violet Oaklander sensitively guides two children in the exploration of their conflicts while engaging them in the therapeutic use of clay and sand. 

Here is a rare opportunity to witness world-famous art and drama therapists working with clients from all walks of life on their journeys to healing, including an adolescent boy with Asperger’s, families affected by cancer, an Alzheimer’s patient, and combat veterans. 

This video, narrated by Dr. Gussie Klorer, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM, follows the course of 26 years of intermittent treatment with a client who first entered therapy at age 4 due to abuse, neglect, and abandonment. 

In this video, arts therapists with specialties in dance/movement, music, and art are seen working with special needs children of elementary school age in different schools, explaining why they work the way they do. 

While many arts therapists doing child assessments have adequate play space and an abundance of play materials, this is not always the case. This video showcases how therapists can help a child make up a personalized story or fantasy regardless of abundancy of materials.

This video shows four different children (ages 6 to 13 years old) in therapy using puppets. Through four different sessions, conducted by three different therapists (two drama therapists, and one child psychiatrist), one can see how the clinician listens to and follows the interactions. 

This video features Dora Kalff, a Jungian child analyst from Zurich, who offers her patients a sandbox along with a large array of miniature objects to be used in making sandplay constructions. 

This teaching video demonstrates how a therapist observes the decision making process within a family, the roles and patterns of behavior among family members, and the symbolic communication in their play with puppets.

This video shows excerpts from a workshop conducted by Judy Rubin, an art therapist, and Ellie Irwin, a drama therapist, with 9 Child Life Therapists and a Music Therapist at a Children’s Hospital. The group is led in art and drama activities, illustrating possible interventions with seriously ill children. In addition to the potential use of the specific exercises, instruction is offered throughout about basic principles for sensitivity and success in ways of incorporating art and drama more safely and effectively. Staff members are invited to raise questions during the training.

In this video, teenaged siblings, Ben and Anna, are in expressive therapy (art and drama) sessions. The video provides three different examples of how different therapists use their helping skills that might be applied to work with couples or groups as well.

This documentary highlights the psychological and educational lessons that Fred Rogers taught through music, puppetry and metaphor – in a powerful way that was both authentic and direct.

Watch Gestalt child therapist Violet Oaklander in an actual counseling session with a 13-year old boy who has difficulty expressing anger.

In this live consultation, you will get a tangible sense of how Violet Oaklander works with a variety of children, while gaining practical skills to bring back to your own clients immediately.

Start your pre-teen clients on their journey down the path of career development with CACCI, a creative, play-based group training program designed to help adolescents develop self-knowledge and skill awareness.