Telehealth Meets Play: Treating Children and Adolescents in a Virtual Setting

CPD

Handouts

Speaker

Cheryl Catron, MEd, LPCC-S, RPT-S™ Related seminars and products

Sophia Ansari, LCPC, LPCC, RPT™ Related seminars and products

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Sophia Ansari, LCPC, LPCC, RPT™ is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Registered Play Therapist™, as well as an author, international speaker, activist, and owner of the Let’s Play Therapy Institute. She brings a deep passion for mental health, education, and community empowerment.

Sophia works with schools and organizations around the world to create strength-based, inclusive learning environments. Known for her creative approach to therapy, she incorporates pop culture, video games, and storytelling into her work and has shared her insights through publications, Comic-Con panels, and global trainings.

She also co-hosts Hero Nation, a podcast on the Geek Therapy Network that explores how media and geek culture can support mental health. Sophia holds a B.S. in biology from Wright State University and an M.A. in mental health counseling from the University of Cincinnati.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Sophia Ansari is the owner of Let’s Play Therapy Institute. Sophia Ansari receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Sophia Ansari has no relevant financial relationships.

Objectives

1. Determine the benefits of providing play therapy on a digital platform.  
2. Apply directive and non-directive play therapy interventions to use in telehealth therapy sessions with children and adolescents. 
3. Develop interventions for challenging clinical scenarios in telehealth, including resistance and crisis intervention.  

Outline

Optimizing Your Telehealth Sessions from the Start 

Setting up your space (and why it matters) 

Preparation for virtual sessions 

• Games that require little-to-no material 
• Planning ahead for connectivity disruption 
• Boundaries and child-centred limit setting 

How to structure a teletherapy session 

Adjusting expectations and outcome

Creative Teleplay Interventions for your Virtual Toolbox 

Demonstrations and resources, including: 

• Movement and regulation 
• Creative and expressive arts 
• Interactive choice boards, like PPT 
• Sandtray  
• Games, LEGO®, and other play techniques 
• Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) 
• Mindfulness techniques 
• And more!

Troubleshooting Common Scenarios 

What to do when:  Resistance, hyperactivity, limit testing, crisis intervention, and more 

Teleplay with non-verbal children 

Clinician self-care (screen time is exhausting!) 

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Psychologists(For CE Credit)
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Nurses

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