Thirty years ago, in my second year of graduate training in Family Therapy, I asked the director if I could see not only adults, teens, and children for Family Therapy, which was the main expectation of the program, but also children for play therapy. At the time, there were two separate worlds of play therapy and family therapy, and generally neither appreciated the other.

Thirty years ago, in my second year of graduate training in Family Therapy, I asked the director if I could see not only adults, teens, and children for Family Therapy, which was the main expectation of the program, but also children for play therapy. At the time, there were two separate worlds of play therapy and family therapy, and generally neither appreciated the other. However, I wanted to work in both areas, in Family Therapy with adults, couples, and children, and in Play Therapy with children, and I found myself believing that there had to be a way to bridge the gap between the two modalities. For the next twelve years, I explored ways to integrate them. Then in 1995, I purchased what has become not only a counseling center but a postgraduate training center. We presently have a large community of therapists who participate in our trainings and supervision. Many of them join us from distant locations us through our live online classroom, iLOC.

The Center now offers trainings in:

  • Mindfulness Based Play-Family Therapy for therapists working with parents and their children ages 3-12. Therapists can get all of their hours to be a Registered Play Therapist here or can mix hours with other trainings. We also have four day courses available onsite in the summer.
  • Mindfulness Based Sandtray Therapy. Five courses with optional Certificate Programs are available. The course trainings cover working with all ages, children, teens, and adults.
  • Contextual Family Therapy. This training prepares therapists to work with adults and teens and is very helpful with parenting and working with families with younger children as well. (optional Certificate program available)

 
Since 2001, I have been writing a book about the integrated system that has continued to develop through all these years: Mindfulness Based Play-Family Therapy, Child Development and Parenting: Weaving It All Together. Publication is expected in 2012.

We have a Referral Network (seeing clients birth to 99 years). This is a network of therapists in private practice, who see clients in Philadelphia and surrounding counties. The therapists are out-of-network providers. They are experienced therapists who have trained here for five to twelve years, and have an age span from mid-thirties to sixties. Most are trained to see adults and children. Some specialize in working with teenagers, some work more with children and their families, and others have special expertise at working with babies and toddlers.

Now offering trainings both through our Interactive Live Online Classroom as well as onsite in Philadelphia!