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Family Play Therapy—Adlerian Style

Wear comfortable clothes and come prepared to play in this fun, experiential workshop designed to teach you exciting ways to include families in the therapy process. Learn play therapy techniques for involving family members in play therapy and use the power of play to help strengthen family relationships and communication. 

Days/Times

Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM CT

Objectives:

  1. Explain the rationale for family play therapy. 
  2. Describe the 4 phases of Adlerian family play therapy.  
  3. Describe 3 play therapy techniques they could use with families in Adlerian family play therapy. 
  4. Describe 3 elements of Adlerian lifestyles they could use to conceptualize family members and develop a treatment plan for the family in Adlerian family play therapy.    
  5. Describe the importance of understanding the culture of a family as part of the process of family play therapy.  
  6. Demonstrate helping the family members generate ideas about activities that would contribute to the "Positive Energy Bank" for the family. 
  7. Learn 3 hours play therapy seminal or historically significant theories .
  8. Describe 2 play therapy skills and methods.
  9. Describe 1 play therapy special topic.

Meet the Speaker

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 46 years and has a delightful adult son, Jacob, of whom she is inordinately proud.

References

Chen, S., Roller, K., & Kottman, T. (2021). Adlerian family play therapy: Healing the attachment trauma of divorce. International Journal of Play Therapy 30(1):28-39. https://doi.org/ 10.1037/pla0000146 

Daley, L. P., Miller, R. B., Bean, R. A., & Oka, M. (2018). Family system play therapy: An integrative approach. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 46(5), 421–436. https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2019.1570386 

Gil, E. (2016). Play in family therapy (2nd ed.). Guilford.  

Kottman, T., & Ashby, J. (2024).  Play therapy: Basics and beyond (3rd ed.). American Counseling Association.   

Kottman, T., & Meany-Walen, K. (2018). Doing play therapy: From building the relationship to facilitating change. Guilford.  

Kottman, T., & Meany-Walen, K. (2015). Adlerian family play therapy. In E. Green, J. Baggerly, & A. Myrick (Eds.), Counseling families: Play-based treatment (pp. 71-87). Rowman & Littlefield.  

McClintock, D. (2024). Family-centered play therapy: The integration of child–parent relationship therapy and family play therapy. International Journal of Play Therapy, 33(2), 107–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/pla0000217 

Wonders, L., & Affee, M. (Eds.). (2024). Play therapy treatment planning with children and families. Routledge.