Not All Heroes Wear Capes: Considering Diversity and Using Superheroes in Play Therapy

Video Course Children learn through play and rehearsal of their immediate surroundings. While this helps them learn, play can also help heal children who have been through difficult and traumatic events. Play allows children to engage in the rehearsal of their immediate surroundings, recall recent events and transfer events from short-term to long-term memory (Hamilton, Reas, & Mansfield, 2017; Narimani, Soleymani, Zahed, & Abolghasemi, 2014). Specifically, child-centered play therapy (CCPT) provides children with the unique opportunity to access skills, powers, and resources in the support of a skilled clinician so that they can re-write their own story. Clinicians equipped with the ability to follow their patient’s lead, guided by CCPT principles, also need appropriate toys. Therefore, therapy playrooms should be stocked with superheroes, including superheroines, to encourage children’s expressions of their normal exterior shells, as well as their hidden inner strengths. This workshop will lay the foundation for the selection, usage, and potential therapeutic interpretations of superheroes from a CCPT framework. Moreover, considerations for gender and culture will be explored. Play therapy credit is only awarded to mental health professionals. Play therapy credit may be awarded to graduate students enrolled in a graduate mental health program. 4 APT CEs may be awarded. No partial credit is offered. Registration is final. No refunds. PlayfulLeigh Psyched is a CE provider through the Association for Play Therapy APT 26-805.