Play Therapy Conference 2025

Dates: Thursday, September 18 AND Friday, September 19
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: South Central Service Cooperative (SCSC) - Map to SCSC

Cost: $279 for both days OR $159 for one day

• Includes continental breakfast and lunch
• $40 discount for site supervisors attending both days. Contact workforce@mnsu.edu for promo code. 
• $40 discount for those attending both days who also attended the April 4, 2025 Play Therapy Workshop. Contact workforce@mnsu.edu for promo code. 

Accommodations: Comfort Inn & Suites, 507-388-3800 - Map to Comfort Inn & Suites

Earn up to 12 CEUs!

DAY ONE

Play Therapy Special Topics Greatest Hits!

PART 1 - 
If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join with Them...Play Therapy Interventions Based on Video Games

1. Describe 3 video games commonly played out in play therapy sessions and explain why certain play therapy clients might be attracted to them.
2. Describe 2 play therapy interventions based on video games you could use to build a relationship with gamer clients and/or help gamer clients gain insight into maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving.
3. Describe 2 play therapy interventions based on video games you could use to help gamer clients practice more appropriate ways of interacting with others.

PART 2 - 
Journeying Through Grief with Adlerian Play Therapy

Join us to dive deeply into the frequently challenging topic of grief with play therapy clients. This is an interactive, discussion-based class in which we will explore how to use Adlerian play therapy to conceptualize, plan treatment, and be with our grieving clients. The presenter will facilitate reflection-based discussion, share case examples, provide resources for clinicians and clients, and teach Adlerian play therapy interventions for grieving clients. You will leave with a greater understanding of grief and mourning, the process of conceptualizing grief and mourning from an Adlerian play therapy perspective, and techniques to better support your clients and their families along their grief process. We hope to empower you to feel more ease with the discomfort of grief in play therapy.

1. List and describe four interventions that align with the four phases of Adlerian play therapy that will help you support your play therapy clients with the grieving process.
2. Explain why it is necessary for clinicians to be aware of countertransference (or how their lifestyle interacts with their clients’ lifestyles) and to seek out professional consultation or supervision around grief-related countertransference.
3. Explain how to conceptualize grief and mourning from an Adlerian play therapy perspective.

DAY TWO

Let's Get Messy! Play Therapy with Divorced and Blended Families

It’s time to get MESSY! Working with blended/divorced families can be complex and it’s absolutely worth it! Learn to lean into the complexity of these families as you gain confidence to conceptualize and plan treatment uniquely and effectively. The family unit is where a child first learns how to belong. Oftentimes family dynamics can be complicated. We will focus this class on the unique dynamics experienced by blended and divorced families. In this fun and interactive play therapy class, you will learn to reduce tensions, disarm and connect with family members, and use creative activities to engage family members during individual and family play therapy through an Adlerian play therapy perspective. 

1. Describe four interventions that align with the four phases of Adlerian play therapy that will help you support your work with blended and divorced families. 
2. Explain 3 of the 5 basic concepts of Adlerian theory and how they are relevant to play therapy with blended and divorced families. 
3. Identify at least 3 unique concerns that bring blended families into the play therapy room.
4. Explain at least two rationales for incorporating parent consultation into their work with children and families in Adlerian play therapy.
5. Explain how to conceptualize individual family members and the family as a whole from an Adlerian play therapy perspective.
6. List and describe at least 3 creative play therapy interventions to address presenting concerns of blended and divorced families. 

PRESENTER INFORMATION: 

Terry Kottman developed Adlerian play therapy, an approach to working with children, families, and adults that combines the ideas and techniques of Individual Psychology and play therapy. She founded the League of Extraordinary Adlerian Play Therapists and created a certification program for Adlerian play therapy. Terry is a fun and engaging presenter and author who regularly teaches classes and writes about play therapy.  She is co-author (with Kristin Meany-Walen) of Doing Play Therapy: From Building the Relationship to Facilitating Change and Partners in Play: An Adlerian Approach to Play Therapy, and the author of Play Therapy: Basics and Beyond and several other books. In 2014, she was granted a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Play Therapy; in 2017, she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Iowa Association for Play Therapy; and in 2020, she received a third Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Society for Adlerian Psychology. (She seems to be collecting them.) In 2024, Terry received the Innovation in Counseling: Practice and Clinical Service Award from the National Board of Certified Counselors. She has been married to her husband Rick for 49 years and has a delightful adult son, Jacob.

Nikole Pauli, LMHC, NCC, RPT-S, C-AdPT

Nikki was trained by the Dr. Terry Kottman, creator of Adlerian Play Therapy. In addition to teaching for LEAPT (League of Extraordinary Adlerian Play Therapists), Nikki runs a successful private practice in her college turned home town of Cedar Falls, IA. She is passionate about walking alongside adults, children, families, and couples. In addition to counseling, Nikki serves as a high school youth director at Orchard Hill Church. As a former collegiate and professional track and field athlete, Nikki now uses that passion to coach high school hurdlers and teach classes at Ninja U, a ninja obstacle gym she co-owns with her husband, Jacob.

Outside of serving those in her community, Nikki enjoys spending time with her husband and their four children. You can find them enjoying the outdoors as often as possible or cuddled up reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Series of Unfortunate Events.

Nikki finds joy in time spent laughing with her people, dirtying her hands gardening, getting in a good workout, and enjoying good food.  

Thank you to our co-sponsors, the League of Extraordinary Adlerian Play Therapists (LEAPT) and the Blue Cross® and Blue Shield® of Minnesota Center for Rural Behavioral Health at Minnesota State University, Mankato!

 

• APT Approved Provider 99-055
• NBCC (NBCC ACEP # 4558)
• MN Board of Social Work
• MN Board of Behavioral Health
• MN Board of Marriage and Family Therapy

APT Approved Provider 99-055

League of Extraordinary Adlerian Play Therapists (LEAPT) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7402. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. League of Extraordinary Adlerian Play Therapists (LEAPT) is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Registration Questions:  Email workforce@mnsu.edu or call 507-389-1094
Training Questions:  Email tracie.self@mnsu.edu