Working with Caregivers in Play Therapy
About
Parents and caregivers are not just bystanders in the therapeutic process — they arepowerful agents of change. This presentation explores practical strategies for
engaging, educating, and collaborating with caregivers throughout their child's play
therapy journey. This brief overview will cover initial consultations and the process of
the caregiver intake (including initial contact, some basic adult counselling skills,
paperwork, and a very brief look at quick questionnaires you could administer to
caregivers before the intake meeting), collaborative goal setting and goal
clarification, managing caregiver expectations, scheduling / pattern of therapy,
progress check-ins, and brief rupture management ideas.
Learning Outcomes
1. Understand the importance of the initial contact points and intake session for
therapy success, including how to convey a sense of confidence and gain
collaboration with caregivers.
2. Apply practical counselling and relational skills to manage caregiver expectations
of the therapy process, including realistic goal setting.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the logistical and relational considerations
involved in structuring and scheduling a play therapy intervention, including patterns
of therapy.
4. Practice predicting therapeutic ruptures with caregivers based on their
presentation, to support rupture repair.
Presenter: Joan Caelli
Joan Caelli is a child psychologist, play therapist and play therapy supervisor in
private practice in Brisbane (Meanjin), Australia, working and playing on the deeply
respected lands of the Turrbal and Juggera peoples. Joan is passionate about
providing care from a systemic and client-centred framework to support wellbeing
and enhance meaningful life experiences and connections for clients and
supervisees alike. Engaging in deep, playful, and expressive practices is key to
Joan’s practice. Joan became a registered psychologist in 2012, later completing a
Master of Child Play Therapy (2016) and a Master of Clinical Psychology (2025), and
is currently completing the clinical psychology registrar program.
Wed 26th August, 2026
7-8.30pm AEST
6.30pm-8pm ACST
5-6.30pm AWST
This is a live, online event. Recording will be made available for 3 months to those unable to attend live.
Pricing:
APTA Member Live, Online - $30.00
Non APTA Member Live, Online - $60.00
APTA Member - 3 month recording access - $35.00
Non APTA Member - 3 month recording access - $65.00
Date
Wednesday 26 August 2026 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM (UTC+10)Location
Online event access details will be provided by the event organiser
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Working with Caregivers in Play Therapy
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