BAPT Annual Conference 2013

Friday 28th June & Saturday 29th June 2013
Conference Aston, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7 ET.

‘A Sensory & body orientated)
approach to Play Therapy with traumatised children

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Friday 28th June 1.30pm - 4.30pm

Four experiential workshops on the theme of sensory play - cost £50 each:

1) John Roberston - – Another fine mess. . .. . . Or why do I need to mess about? As an artist or a therapist, what I do is play. Whether in the studio or the therapy room, if I am not playing, I am not doing it properly.
Experience is complex and messy; recovering from trauma more complex and messier still. Those young people and families that I have the privilege of working with are playing for real.
Playing together takes us to unpredictable places where certainties slip and defences fall away. It is exciting and frightening in equal measure. It challenges preconceptions. It is dynamic, confusing, silly and deadly serious. Or do I perhaps mean seriously silly?
This workshop is an invitation to play together. Resources provided will be a room (ours for 3 hours) full of people, ideas, paper, clay and lots of warm soapy water and towels.
Loose, comfortable clothing and a readiness to play will be helpful; expensive rings, bracelets and watches less so.

2) Anna Pinkerton - – Integrating sensory awareness & attunement in trauma resolution art therapy This hands on workshop will take a look at & 'a feel' for the nuances of sensory attunement in a trauma re-processing model. It will provide participants with a 'taster session of supporting child clients through the journey of incident specific & thematic trauma

3) David LeVey- ‘To See a World in Grain of Sand’ In this workshop participants will have the opportunity to explore how sand and sandplay can facilitate a creative process of symbolic expression and be a powerful medium with which to work with children who have experienced abuse and trauma. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in a sensory exploration of sand as a therapeutic medium as well as engaging in a process of narrative sandplay through the creation of their own ‘worlds’. This will primarily be an experiential workshop although some links to theory will be made. If time allows we may look at one or two case examples of how children who have experienced trauma have used a sandplay process within Play Therapy.

4) Claire Harrison-Breed - There are spiders in my belly and a jelly in my heart: A Gestalt Play Therapy approach to trauma processing - Since its creation Gestalt Psychotherapy has recognised that the body and mind are not split and that we hold and somatise emotions and trauma in our bodies and psyche. As a UKCP registered Gestalt Psychotherapist and BAPT registered Play Therapist Claire Harrison-Breed is pleased to be offering an experiential workshop exploring a range of techniques to enable children and young people to process trauma through their bodies, from a Gestalt Play Therapy perspective. Gestalt is interested in raising awareness in the here and now by integrating metaphor and somatic responses. A brief introduction to Gestalt Play Therapy theory will be incorporated into practical and experiential activities to underpin the strategies offered. With Gestalt Play Therapists such as violet Oaklander seamlessly integrating Gestalt theory into play therapy practice this model is an accessible and effective way of working with trauma.

Followed by: 5.30pm - Annual AGM open to ALL members of BAPT

8pm - Conference Dinner at , all welcome.

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Saturday 29th June 8.45 am - 4.30pm

We are delighted to announce that we have three Keynote speakers for this year’s BAPT conference, all talking on the topic of Sensory Play.

Tim Woodhouse – BAPT Play Therapist - The Map Makers Quest: Sensorimotor perspectives in trauma interventions with children. This keynote will consider the foundations of child development, attachment formation, the impact of trauma and developmental psychopathology. It will reflect on the importance of scaffolding and systemic underpinning before using case examples and techniques to illustrate stabilising the body, arousal and defence patterns. It will describe trauma symptom reduction, uncoupling of dysfunctional behaviours and the development of resources for growth.

Caroline Lowe – BAPT Play Therapist - The embodiment of being within the therapeutic space: creating a sensory safe space and opportunities for the traumatised child to find the self through sensory play experiences.This keynote will demystify the power of embodiment play within the therapeutic space, to reunite mind (psyche), body (soma) and brain, and heal the self that trauma shattered. Synthesising theory and case studies, it will examine in detail the tactile, kinaesthetic and proprioceptive processes of embodiment play and their critical relevance to stabilising and restoring a child’s felt sense of their own existence, their very being in his body self, the somatic sense of I am and trusting that I continue to be despite past trauma experiences. Traumatised children easily dysregulate and dissociate and need help to reconnect to the physical and emotional experience of self, grounded in the here and now of the wider world. This keynote will look at creating a sensory safe therapeutic space and opportunities for embodiment play as essential ingredients of stabilisation, the phase of trauma recovery that must be achieved to support trauma integration and adaptation.

Tessa Scully – Pediatric Occupational Therapist - Regulating the traumatised child (and their parents) through the use of Sensory Attachment and body based techniques.This keynote will serve as an introduction to Sensory Attachment Intervention, an integrated brain- based approach for traumatised children developed by Eadaoin Bhreathnach, Consultant Occupational Therapist and Attachment Counsellor.
Attachment and sensory processing challenges both impact on a child’s nervous system and their ability to self-regulate and to be regulated by their parents/ caregivers.
SAI aims to address the regulation needs of both the child and their parents to achieve the ‘just-right state’ of arousal vital for relating and participating in all areas of daily life. These needs are addressed through provision of and education about the regulating properties of sensory activities, food and an enriched environment.
A range of sensory and body based techniques will be introduced, as well as a framework for resourcing and teaching children about their own survival behaviours using ‘The Scared Gang’ characters. Sources of recommended equipment will be provided on the day.
Case study video examples will be shared and a range of strategies given that can easily be integrated into your work with children and families and replicated into the home and school environment.

Saturday Timetable

8.45am Registration

9.15 am Welcome

9.30 am Tim Woodhouse

11.00 am Coffee

11.30am Caroline Lowe

1- 2 pm Lunch

2- 3.30pm Tessa Scully

3.30pm Coffee

4- 4.30pm plenary session

At Lunchtime Sue Elmer, Chair of the Research Sub-committee, will be hosting a discussion entitled 'Practitioner research for play therapists: questions, connections and pathways’. There will be a dedicated table for those interested to gather at Lunchtime, so if you are interested in joining this debate, please feel free to join the table! *********************************************************************************

BAPT Annual Conference

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