Unlocking the Unspeakable: Integrating Expressive Arts and Attachment Centered Play Therapy with Traumatized Tweens & Teens

Credit

Handouts/Brochure

Speaker

Clair Mellenthin, PhD, LCSW, RPT-S™ Related seminars and products

Clair Mellenthin, LLC

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Clair Mellenthin, PhD, LCSW, RPT-S™, is an international speaker, author, psychologist, and Registered Play Therapist Supervisor. Throughout her career, she has specialized in providing play therapy to children, teens, and their families. She is currently the Director of Child & Adolescents at Wasatch Family Therapy. Ms. Mellenthin frequently presents professional play therapy and family therapy trainings on Attachment-Centered Play Therapy, Family, and Trauma issues both nationally and internationally.

Ms. Mellenthin is a sought-after supervisor, training graduate students and interns in play therapy, and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California MSW program. She is the past-president of the Utah Association for Play Therapy and remains an active member on the Board of Directors. She is the author of the books Attachment Centered Play Therapy; Play Therapy: Engaging & Powerful Techniques for the Treatment of Childhood Disorders; My Many Colors of Me Workbookand has authored several chapters and articles. In addition to being an experienced play therapist and professor, Ms. Mellenthin also appears on local and national TV and radio as an expert on children and family issues. She holds a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Clair Mellenthin has an employment relationship with Wasatch Family Therapy. She is a published author and receives royalties. Clair Mellenthin receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Clair Mellenthin is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, the Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Play Therapy.

Melanie Davis, MS, LCMHC Related seminars and products

Planted Healing LLC - PLAE Therapy

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Melanie D. Davis, MS, LCMHC, is the owner of Planted Healing Mental Health Practice, PLAE Therapy, Child and Adolescent Integrative Practice. She is also co-founder of Continuum Mind + Body Collaborative. Melanie is a highly regarded speaker, educator, wellness advocate, child advocate and psychotherapist.

In addition to being an experienced mental health therapist and presenter, she frequently appears on local media as an expert on children and family issues, cultural topics and transracial adoption related topics.

As a practitioner of holistic psychotherapy, Melanie’s treatment approach places an emphasis on the mind-body relationship and is both experiential and pragmatic. Melanie specializes in the treatment of mood disorders, anxiety and trauma, as well as culture-based identity experiences. She works with individuals and families to help them develop deeper connections to themselves and stronger more fulfilling relationships with others, resulting in increased vitality, liveliness and joy. Melanie finds honor in the opportunity to partner with her clients on their journey towards restoration and growth.

Following the completion of her undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of Utah, Melanie worked within varying clinical settings before going on to complete her Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling at the University of Phoenix. She has also completed advanced training in Nutritional Psychology through John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, CA, as well as advanced training and certifications with trauma care, play therapy, expressive arts, cognitive behavioral therapy and DBT. Melanie currently serves on the Utah Association for Play Therapy board.

In addition to her passion for clinical work, Melanie is also an accomplished artist, and is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She loves to spend time with her husband and three children and finds joy in serving her community in various capacities.

Melanie’s creative therapeutic interventions have been published in Attachment Centered Play Therapy, Play Therapy: Proven Strategies for Childhood Disorders.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Melanie Davis has employment relationships with the Utah Association for Play Therapy, PLAE Therapy, Planted Healing, Continuum Mind-Body Collaborative, The Black Clinicians, and Happy Brain Foods. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Melanie Davis is a member of the National Board for Certified Counselors and the American Mental Health Counselors Association.

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Objectives

1. Describe 1 expressive arts-based interventions in play therapy with teens.  
2. Explain how utilizing a blended approach of modalities can be useful in play therapy with teens and tweens.  
3. Evaluate attachment theory and different attachment styles that impact parent’s ability to engage and be involved in their child’s play therapy treatment.  

Outline

Expressive Arts and Play Therapy  

• Express the “unspeakables” in trauma work with teens  
• Developmentally appropriate rapport building and processing  
• Integrating theory and techniques to be empirically sound interventions  

Play Therapy with Teens & Tween  

• How play therapy changes with older kids  
• Managing resistance and defense mechanisms  
• Engaging and powerful interventions for trauma 

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Marriage and family therapists
• Nurses
• Physicians 
• Play therapists 
• Psychologists
• Social workers