Workshops for Mental Health Professionals

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Organize a workshop for your agency or training event. For topics, rates and availability contact Liana: (Tel) 416-575-7836 (Email) lianalowenstein@gmail.com

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Workshop Descriptions

Introduction to Play Therapy

This workshop will introduce participants to the theory and practice of play therapy. The training will cover various issues including the history of play therapy and the major models of play therapy, the therapeutic powers of play, the therapeutic relationship, phases of therapy, themes in children’s play, and limit setting. Participants will also learn how to set up a playroom and how to select appropriate toys and materials. Play therapy techniques, including games, art, puppetry, and sand tray will be presented. Selected research studies supporting the effectiveness of play therapy will also be presented. Experiential exercises and activity demonstrations will be incorporated into this workshop.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the value and therapeutic powers of play therapy.
2. Summarize the history and major theoretical models of play therapy, including the pioneers, major components, role of the therapist, and empirical support.
3. Identify how to set up a playroom and how to select toys and materials to facilitate therapeutic growth.
4. Describe basic themes in children's play and how to tie them to children's life experiences.
5. Describe the use of therapeutic games, art, puppets, stories, and sand tray in play therapy sessions.

Creative Interventions for Troubled Children & Families

This very practical training will present creative engagement, assessment, and treatment interventions to make individual, group, and family sessions meaningful and effective. A step-by-step assessment model will be presented and steps for effective treatment planning will be outlined. Next, innovative treatment activities will be presented including therapeutic games, art, and stories. Interventions will be presented to address issues such as anger management, social skills, stress reduction, and self-esteem. Techniques to strengthen parenting skills will also be highlighted.

Learning Objectives:

1. Use at least 3 interventions to engage clients in therapy.
2. Implement an innovative model for assessing children and families.
3. Use many new treatment techniques in individual, group, and family therapy sessions.

Creative Family Therapy Techniques

The use of play, art, and other creative activities in family therapy provides a medium for all members to participate in sessions and facilitates family relatedness. Through this dynamic workshop, participants will learn a number of innovative techniques to engage, assess, and treat families. This will include art, games, puppets, drama, and stories. The advantages of using creative techniques with families will be outlined, and tips for overcoming challenges will be discussed. Videos and live demonstrations will be used to illustrate techniques.

Learning Objectives:

1. List three benefits to using play, art, and other expressive techniques in family therapy.
2. Describe three common challenges in family therapy and identify strategies to overcome these challenges.
3. Utilize many new and creative techniques in therapy sessions with families.

Creative Interventions for Children and Families Coping with Loss

This dynamic workshop will present an innovative model for working with children and families coping with loss. Structured assessment and treatment techniques will be illustrated for use in individual, group, and family therapy. Participants will come away with many innovative techniques. Although the focus will be on bereavement, divorce, and foster care, interventions can be adapted for use with a variety of other populations.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define grief, traumatic grief, and disenfranchised grief.
2. Articulate the continuum of parent-child relationships after separation and divorce.
3. Utilize many new and innovative assessment and treatment techniques with children and families coping with loss.

Creative Interventions for Sexually Abused Children

This workshop is designed to familiarize participants with an innovative model for working with sexually abused children. The presenter will provide participants with creative, structured assessment and treatment interventions for use with clients from preschoolers to teens.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain some of the trauma effects on sexually abused children.
2. Use the presenter’s model for assessing sexually abused children.
3. Use many innovative treatment techniques with sexually abused and traumatized children.

Creative Evidence-Based Interventions for Traumatized Children

There have been a number of treatments developed and tested in recent years specifically geared to treating traumatized children. These approaches share many of the same core components: Engaging clients; conducting a systemic assessment; providing psychoeducation; addressing children and families’ traumatic stress reactions; enhancing emotional regulation; facilitating adaptive coping; completing and processing a trauma narrative; enhancing safety skills; and strengthening parenting skills. The effectiveness of trauma-treatment with children is enhanced by integrating playful, developmentally appropriate interventions so clients will engage in treatment. This workshop will present innovative techniques for each of the core components of evidence-based trauma treatment. Participants will come away with many new and creative interventions they can use with clients from preschoolers to teens.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the core components of evidence-based trauma treatment.
2. Discuss the benefits of integrating playful approaches in trauma treatment.
3. Implement at least five new interventions in therapy sessions with traumatized youth.

Creative CBT Interventions for Children with Anxiety

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most empirically supported treatment for treating childhood anxiety. The effectiveness of this approach is enhanced by integrating creative, developmentally appropriate interventions so that children will engage in treatment. In this one-day workshop, a brief overview of CBT will be presented, along with innovative techniques to engage, assess, and treat children with anxiety. Interventions will address the core treatment components: Psychoeducation, parenting skills, relaxation, affective expression, cognitive coping, and gradual exposure. Therapeutic games, art, stories, and other engaging activities will be presented for use with children aged 6-12.

Learning Objectives:

I Don’t Wanna Talk About It: Working with Hard to Engage Children, Youth, and Families

Working with difficult to engage clients can be frustrating and challenging, even for seasoned clinicians. The challenge of working with younger clients in therapy can be further compounded by their fear of entering therapy, their lack of control over the decision to attend therapy, their feeling of being scapegoated for family problems, their lack of motivation for treatment, and their developmental capacity which can make it difficult for them to respond to traditional talk-therapy. This workshop will outline the factors that underlie resistance and will present tips, tricks, and techniques to engage children, adolescents, and parents in therapy. Emphasis will be on play-based, expressive arts techniques for use with preschool, school-aged, and adolescent clients.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the factors underlying therapeutic resistance.
2. Utilize strategies to engage resistant, hard to serve children, youth, and parents.
3. Implement innovative techniques for clients who are reluctant to verbally articulate their thoughts and feelings.

***Customized multi-day trainings are also available.

• Canadian Association of Social Workers
• Indiana School Social Workers Conference
• Wisconsin School Social Workers Conference
• Wisconsin Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
• International Youth Counselor Conference
• Military Family Resource Centre
• Emily’s House Children’s Hospice
• Safepath Children’s Advocacy Center, Georgia
• American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC)
• Chadwick Center Conference on Child Sexual Abuse
• Midwest Conference on Child Sexual Abuse
• National Symposium on Child Abuse
• Association for Death Education and Counseling Annual Conference (ADEC)
• International Death, Grief, and Bereavement Annual Conference
• Association for Play Therapy (APT)
• British Play Therapy Association (BPTA)
• Canadian Association for Child and Play Therapy (CACPT)
• Israeli Play Therapy Association
• South Africa Play Therapy Association
• Family Services, Auckland, New Zealand
• Westmead Children’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia
• Association for Play Therapy State Conference (Including: Alabama, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Memphis, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah)

Testimonials

“Liana is always one of the top rated presenters at our conferences. She provides participants with lots of great ideas and treatment options and they love the practical, ready to use tools they walk away with from her sessions. We have invited her back again and again - our attendees can't get enough!”

-- Jim Campbell, PhD
Conference Coordinator
Midwest and Eastern Conferences on Child Sexual Abuse
American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC)

“Liana Lowenstein presented a two-day workshop for the Kansas Association for Play Therapy in May 2009. I sat in the back and was able to see and hear how the audience was responding to her presentation and to sum up my observation in one word-engaged! She used audience participation, videos, ice-breakers, role playing, power point and pertinent examples of her own case studies. She speaks from the heart and clearly states her objectives and rationale for therapy. Liana Lowenstein is a "must have" for a presentation!”

-- Sue Poore, LCPC, RPT, President, Kansas Association for Play Therapy

“Liana Lowenstein has presented workshops for us for over ten years. I continue to invite her back for several reasons. One is that she always presents "leading edge" ideas and practical tools in helping children and families. Our participants leave her workshops inspired, with new insights about children and things they can do differently and immediately in their work. Liana is an excellent speaker with a well-honed sense of the essentials of presenting workshops. She knows how to use the best adult education principles in helping participants learn and "do" effective approaches in working with children.”

--Michael Kerman, Leading Edge Seminars Inc.

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