Play Based Healing Summit

Join us for the first annual conference inviting the exploration, discussion, and research of play in healthy child and adult development, trauma healing, and restoration.
Oct 27 - 29 8:30 am - 5 pm EDT
Overview
Speakers
Scholarships
Registration

Trauma research foundation and ED TRONICK are delighted to announce the 1st annual Play based healing summit

We are excited to announce that the Play-Based Healing Summit will take place October 27-29, 2022. Hosted by Licia Sky and Ed Tronick, the Play-Based Healing Summit is an annual conference that invites the exploration, discussion, and research of play throughout life, from development to maturity. 

This year we’ll examine the importance of play for our global communities. This is an opportunity to expand the cultural understanding of play for human development, self realization, thriving communities, and healing trauma, to create a safer world for children and adults.

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What you will learn by attending:

  • We are all created for play, connection, and community.
  • Interactive play serves as a conduit for exploration, imagination and figuring out our relationship to the world around us.
  • Trauma interferes with being able to play. It impacts our well-being socially, emotionally, and the development of our brain.
  • The opportunity to explore and experience play in safety offers a pathway to connection and nervous system regulation, supporting physical and mental health.
  • Restoring our capacity to play is an essential element of learning how to recover from trauma.

And much more…

We invite you to be a part of our Play Based Healing Summit for 3 days of conversation, connection, collaboration, and play. Join us and leading researchers, clinicians, and playmakers!

Vision

Bringing the importance of play to our global communities; to expand the cultural understanding of play for human development, self realization, thriving communities, and healing trauma, to create a safer world for children and adults.

Mission

The Play-Based Healing Summit is an annual conference that invites the exploration, discussion, and research of play in healthy child and adult development, trauma healing and restoration.

Play Statement

We are all created for connection and community. Our social brains require it and interactive play serves as a conduit for this need to be in sync with one another. Trauma disrupts and interferes with our ability to connect and play, thus impacting well-being socially, emotionally, and even in our brain development. But, the opportunity to explore and experience play in safety offers a pathway to connection and nervous system regulation, supporting physical and mental health.

JOIN US LIVE Online

We invite you to ask:

  • What does play mean to you?
  • How does trauma impact a person's ability to play?
  • Did you play as a child? Do you play now?
  • What is the role of play in healing?

3 Days

Join us and leading researchers, clinicians, and playmakers!

Virtual - Join from Home

Register to join us online from all over the world.

Oct 27 - 29, 2022

Save the date in your calendar.

Overview
Speakers
Scholarships
Registration

Register Today!

Days
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JOIN US WITH...

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Bessel Van Der Kolk

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Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is the President and Co-founder of the Trauma Research Foundation. He is a clinician, researcher, and teacher best known for his work with PTSD. Kolk has been active in the mental health field since the 1970s and is the author of the New York Times best-seller The Body Keeps the Score, which has been translated into 35 languages, and of well over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

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Title:Rhythmicity, Synchronicity, and the Restoration of Capacity to Play

Description: An overview of how trauma affects play and the role of play in healing trauma.

Session Info
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Ed Tronick​

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Ed Tronick focuses on social-emotional development and self-regulatory processes in all infants.
Tronick is extensively recognized for his Still-Face Paradigm and continues revolutionizing our
understanding of children-first relationships and their critical importance to normal social and
emotional development.

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Title: Play like a baby:  Change state and change meanings

Description: Using video tapes and microtermporal analysis of infant dyadic interactions the match-mismatch-repair organization will be presented. The developmental benefits of that mismatch-repair organization will be presented. This organization of the dyadic interaction of infants/children and adults and its benefits is a model or metaphor for the organization and benefits of play based therapies.

Session Info
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Licia Sky​

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Co-founder and current CEO of Trauma Research Foundation, Licia Sky guides transformational experiences by incorporating dynamic observational exercises to foster safe, transformative inner and interpersonal connections. Her methods are informed by over 25 years as an artist, musician, bodywork therapist, yoga practitioner, and dancer; and integrate poly-vagal theory, parts work, and the latest research on trauma and the body.

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Title: Experiential Embodied Awareness

Description: A warm up invoking curiosity and presence for play.

Session Info
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Dafna Lender​

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Dafna Lender is a child and family therapist with over 20 years of experience. She works with children and their parents to encourage healing from their backgrounds. They range from those who have lived in orphanages, suffered from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, been exposed to domestic violence, and to children whose parents have chronic mental illnesses.

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Beatrice-Beebe​

Beatrice Beebe​

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Beatrice Beebe is a clinical psychologist recognized for her research in attachment and early
infant-parent communication. Her work has established the importance of non-verbal
communication in early child development.

Bio
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Title: Mother-infant trauma: Contributions of video microanalysis

Description: Because human face-to-face relating is usually too fast to fully capture with the naked eye, video microanalysis operates as a social microscope, uniquely positioned to help us see more of the details of the process of mother-infant communication. Video viewed in slow time or second-by-second is a powerful tool for the mother-infant therapist to identify where the difficulties of the interaction lie.

Mother-infant trauma covers a wide range of difficulties. Current approaches to treatment deal broadly with relational disturbance, but not specific patterns of interaction. Video microanalysis identifies specific patterns of disturbance associated with different forms of trauma, facilitating more focused intervention. I illustrate the contribution of video microanalysis with the case of Linda and Dan, where the mother was suicidal at birth.

I will teach filming with one camera with a smartphone, and slow motion playback or “video scrubbing,” so that the therapist can see the mother and infant both move in relation to the other’s movement pattern.

Session Info
Alexandra-Harrison

Alexandra Harrison

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Alexandra Murray Harrison, MD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute in Adult and Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and on the Faculty of the Infant-Parent Mental Health Post Graduate Certificate Program at University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Harrison has a private practice in both adult and child psychoanalysis and psychiatry. In the context of visits to orphanages in Central America and India, Dr. Harrison has developed a model for mental health professionals in developed countries to volunteer their consultation services to caregivers of children in care in developing countries in the context of a long term relationship with episodic visits and regular skype and video contact. Dr. Harrison is the author of numerous articles on infant research and child analysis.

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Title: How Children’s Play Works  to Heal Trauma

Description: This presentation will describe play as a core therapeutic modality of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), an evidence-based treatment to help young children and their caregivers repair ruptures in physical and emotional safety stemming from traumatic experiences and other forms of adversity. Play can serve as the “royal road to the unconscious”, used by the child to enact factual experiences of danger and protection and to express realistic fears, fantasized dangers, and longings for care, love, and security. CPP engages the child and the parent in creating joint narratives of trauma and protection, co-creating a shared reality that builds bridges between the child’s and the parent’s objective realities and subjective experiences. Through play, parents can gain entry into the emotional world of the young child and “play with reality” in ways that circumvent rigid psychological defenses. Clinical vignettes will be used to describe play as an interpersonal therapeutic modality in early childhood.

Session Info
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Margaret Blaustein

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Margaret E. Blaustein is a practising clinical psychologist and Director of the Center for Trauma Training in Massachusetts. Her career continues to focus on understanding and discovering treatments of complex childhood trauma, alongside her active involvement in local, regional, and national collaborative groups dedicated to the empathic, respectful, and adequate provision of services to all.

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Title: London Bridges Falling Down: The Role of Joy and Connection in Building Relational Bridges Between Children and Adolescents

Description: Traumatic stress and childhood adversity rarely influence just one individual: children are embedded in layers of nested relationships which are themselves often deeply impacted by stress and trauma. Clinical work with children and adolescents too often follows a model of leaving caregivers in the waiting room: working to address the impact of relational trauma without actually purposefully working to support key relationships. In this brief workshop, we will highlight the critical role of the caregiving system in the treatment of adversity in childhood, and will examine some key ways to support children and their caregivers in building positive relationships.

Session Info
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Steve Gross​

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The founder and chief playmaker of Life is Good, Steve Cross has developed a non-profit whose mission is to harness the power of hope whilst helping over a million children annually. Gross’s widespread healing efforts bring optimism, joy, and resilience to communities affected by war,
natural disasters, gun violence, poverty, addiction, and illness worldwide.

Bio
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Title: Oplaysis - Setting up Play & How to Teach Adults how to Play with Children

Description: The Life is Good Playmakers has boiled down 30+ years of field experience into a 4-step framework for building corrective play experiences that help to augment recovery in children who have experienced both acute and/or chronic trauma. Using research, personal stories, and evidence-based practices, Founder and Chief Playmaker, Steve Gross, will introduce participants to the Playmakers’ trauma-informed, optimism-infused approach to building optimal environments for healing.

Session Info
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Colwyn Trevarthen

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For the past 30 years, Colwyn Trevarthen's research with infants and toddlers has focused on communication. He studied the rhythms and expressions of children's play and fantasy, and how musical games and songs, stories and acts of discovery, with real or imaginary companions, support the development of skills during infancy and the pre-school years.
Trevarthen is Professor (Emeritus) of Child Psychology and Psychobiology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, where he has taught since 1971. His professional generosity, enthusiasm and scholarship have been recognised internationally (for example, he has been made an Honorary Doctor of Psychology by the University of Crete, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters).


In Bosnia Herzegovina, Trevarthen collaborated in founding a centre for music therapy. His findings are widely quoted around the world, an example being the January 2005 edition of India's national newspaper, The Hindu, which, on Trevarthen's recommendation, urged parents to sing to their babies. He argues that talk and singing provides emotional stability and music gives small children clues, together with a sense of what is going on, even when they do not understand the words.

Bio
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Title: Play-Based Care and Healing for Trauma from Birth to Maturity and Old Age

Description:

The method of research is Descriptive Natural Science - detailed recording of forms and rhythms of actions are measured within subjects’ experience of vitality and well-being of family and neighborhoods in familiar communication. Joy of playful

self-expression in immediate sympathy is revealed as the affective regulator of shared well-being in vitality of human body movement for any purpose. The body has evolved with unique organs for signaling affective responses and for seeking to regulate relationships. Affects or emotions shape movements of sense organs and management of dynamic and rhythmic patterning of special motor systems aimed to influence others’ feelings and actions. Affective states of self-regulation of persons in all cultural systems are rhythmic and musical or poetic. and all show sympathetic or harmonious reaction to signs of other individuals’ personal experience of vitality. The findings have immediate value for education in cultural forms of thinking and symbolizing, and they are managed in effective methods of care for therapy to correct painful and aggressive forms of self-motivation.

Session Info
Alicia_Lieberman

Alicia Lieberman

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Alicia F. Lieberman, Ph.D., is Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair in Infant Mental Health, Professor and Vice Chair for Faculty Development at UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and director of the UCSF Child Trauma Research Program. She directs the Early Trauma Treatment Network, a center of SAMHSA National Child Traumatic Stress Network and is the PI of the Infancy and Early Childhood Mental Health Consortium, a federal grant to create an early childhood mental health workforce in 10 rural counties of Northern California and other states with large rural populations.


She is the senior developer of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), a relationship-focused treatment for traumatized children aged birth-five broadly and their caregivers supported by 5 randomized studies and used extensively in the U. S. and internationally. Her research involves treatment outcome studies in pregnancy and with traumatized young children and families from low-income and under-represented racial and ethnic minority groups. She is the author of numerous professional books, treatment manuals, and articles on pregnancy and early childhood mental health, including The Emotional Life of the Toddler, in print for 25 years and now in its second edition. Born in Paraguay, she received her professional training in Israel and the United States. Her cross-cultural experience as a Jewish Latina informs her commitment to increasing access and raising the standard of care for marginalized and oppressed children and families. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including most recently the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award from Zero to Three.

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Title: How Children’s Play Works  to Heal Trauma

Description: How does trauma disrupt and interrupt play? The capacity for play is a developmental accomplishment. It requires the ability to focus attention, to create or respect goals and work in an organized way to achieve them, to control impulses, and--in dyadic or group play—to participate in reciprocal relationships. The unique play mode of pretend play also requires the capacity to create an “intermediate space” between reality and fantasy, a particularly flexible and potentially innovative mind space in which the child can pretend about life scenarios and imagine solutions to the conflicts within them (Winnicott, 1951). In typical children, pretend play--at least in Western cultures—occurs in the 3-6-yo age period that an early child expert, Selma Fraiberg, named “the magic years” (Fraiberg, 1959). A child whose early neurodevelopment is compromised by chronic neglect or abuse often cannot build the capacities for play, and a child who experiences a traumatic experience even after relatively typical development, may become preoccupied with perceived threat and close down the previously available capacity for play.

Session Info
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Rick Gaskill

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Dr. Gaskill holds a doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology and has worked in community mental health for 45 years. Currently, he is Executive Director of Sumner Mental Health Center in Wellington, KS. Rick also served as Children’s Director and Clinical Director before becoming the Executive Director. He is a Licensed Clinical Psychotherapist, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, and an Infant Mental Health Clinical Mentor. Rick was a founding member and past president of the Kansas Association for Play Therapy and is a pass Chair of the Board of Directors for the national Association for Play Therapy as well have serving as a reviewer for the International Journal for Play Therapy.

Dr. Gaskill is an adjunct faculty member at Wichita State University, teaching play therapy and supervising play therapy practica since 1995. He cofounder of the WSU Approved Play Therapy Center in 2010. Dr. Gaskill has published 4 book chapters (3 with Dr. Bruce Perry Senior Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy), a research article, as well as multiple articles involving the neurobiology of trauma, the use of play therapy, and NMT guided play activities in treating trauma. He has designed, operated, consulted, and lectured on children’s therapy, therapeutic preschools, trauma informed schools, and the integration of school based mental health services throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia over the past 30 years.


He received the Chairman’s Award from Future’s Unlimited in 1997 for his work with at risk children and was named the Kansas Head Start Partner of the Year in 2005 for his work with therapeutic preschools. Dr. Gaskill was named a Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas, in 2004. In 2006, he was named one of the Regional Administrator’s Leadership Award Winners for ACF Region VI of the Department of Health and Human Services regarding trauma informed care, and in 2013 served on the Governor’s Mental Health Task Force for the State of Kansas. In 2014, Dr. Gaskill was honored with the Exemplary Service to Children and Families Award at the Kansas Governor’s Conference for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. In 2015, he was also recognized for his consultation and work with traumatized preschoolers by the National Association to Protect Children and in 2017 Wichita State University awarded him the College of Education’s Champion of Education Award. Also in 2017, Dr. Gaskill was presented the Alice Eberhart-Wright Visionary Award for his outstanding achievements and contributions in the field of early childhood mental health by the Kansas Association of Infant Mental Health. Finally, the Kansas Association for Play Therapy named Dr. Gaskill the first recipient of the Rick Gaskill Luminary Award for his contributions to play therapy in the State of Kansas in 2018 naming the award in his honor. In 2020 Rick was selected for the Wichita State University Hall of Fame.

Bio
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Title: Multi-Level Healing for Traumatized Children

Description: Neuroscience is rapidly providing new knowledge and understanding of neural developmental processes in children. This information is of immense help in understanding how neurological development is altered by maltreatment. It has also greatly advanced our understanding of intervention design. As child therapists increase their knowledge and understanding of these principles they are better equipped to provide brain region specific interventions for children struggling to cope with trauma and neglect. Most of these interventions are play based, stimulating lower brain regions in a bottom up therapeutic process. Outcome research employing somatosensory,
movement, and play oriented approaches show enhanced outcomes over traditional verbally mediated approaches.

Session Info
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Cyndi Mendoza

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Program Director at Skateistan, an award-winning international non-profit organization. We provide programs that combine skateboarding and education. Through the hook of skateboarding, we engage children, especially girls and children from low-income backgrounds, and provide them with access to safe spaces and education. Our innovative programs teach children valuable life skills that go beyond the skatepark and the classroom. At Skateistan, our vision is to create leaders that make a better world.

Bio
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Title: Skateistan

Description: Skateboarding as a tool for youth development is part of the more significant S4D sector, in which sports are increasingly incorporated into youth programming as a “hook” due to their ability to engage young people and provide them with further education or advocacy programming. Skateboarding can be an alternative treatment for high-needs young people. Dr. Emily Wang describes, “Time spent on a skateboard by young people can help their brains to heal from past trauma. It can move the development of the brain into a more positive trajectory, from the brain stem right up to the neocortex”. When used intentionally and skillfully, a skatepark can become a therapeutic environment for teaching social skills, self-regulation, emotional regulation, and cognitive competency. Skateboarding provides realistic and accessible opportunities for relationship development while encouraging skill development and mastery. 

The Skateistan course will take you through an experiential Skateistan session to share examples and best practices to create a therapeutic environment and trauma-sensitive coaching techniques.  

Session Info
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Title: Tidings of cuddles and joy: Interactions of comfort and play to increase connection and decrease stress between children and caregivers.

Description: The quickest and most powerful way to get to transformative moments with children is through play— meaning interactive, face-to-face, reciprocal, cooperative interactions that rely on movement, rhythm, touch, a prosodic voice, and eye contact. Children learn to regulate, connect and share joy with others through play. The more the child learns that it’s pleasurable and safe to be completely caught up in a moment of shared joy or attention with another person, the deeper sense of connection. That is why facilitating safe, engaging play between children is so important for their overall development. This workshop will focus on the physiologic, nonverbal connection between parent or caring adult and child to improve the relationship. You will learn how to enhance regulation, connection, and joy between adult caregivers and children.

Session Info
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Alexandra Cook (SMARTmoves)

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Alexandra Cook, PhD is a partner of SMARTmoves and one of the original developers of the SMART model. Currently, she trains and consults in SMART, and she maintains a small private practice in Newton. Formerly, Dr. Cook was the Associate Director of The Trauma Center where she worked for over 20 years and contributed to earliest formulations of the impact of developmental trauma. She is a co-author of With the Phoenix Rising.

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Title:The Role of Play in Regulation, Trauma Processing, and Attachment- Building

Description: This course will present the basic structure of the SMART model and then explore how play can be used in each element of the SMART spiral -somatic regulation, trauma processing, and attachment-building. The curriculum will use experiential exercises and video to illustrate the embodied nature of the model and the essential function of play in this treatment.

Session Info
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Elizabeth Warner (SMARTmoves)

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Elizabeth Warner, EdM, PsyD is a psychologist with 40+ years of experience working with children and families in psychiatric inpatient and outpatient settings, schools, mental health clinics and residential treatment, as well as in her private practice. Since 2006, her focus has been on development of SMART as an innovative bottom-up treatment for children and families impacted by chronic stress and complex interpersonal trauma. As Project Director at the Trauma Center, she oversaw the first decade of the development of SMART and a research method for analyzing videotaped therapy sessions to study mechanisms of somatic regulation.  She was lead author of several publications. Currently, she trains and consults to therapists in the US and internationally with an interest in how to collaborate cross-culturally in applications of SMART, and how to further research mechanism of action in the therapeutic environment of SMART.

Bio
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Title:The Role of Play in Regulation, Trauma Processing, and Attachment- Building

Description: This course will present the basic structure of the SMART model and then explore how play can be used in each element of the SMART spiral -somatic regulation, trauma processing, and attachment-building. The curriculum will use experiential exercises and video to illustrate the embodied nature of the model and the essential function of play in this treatment.

Session Info
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Joy Osofsky

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Dr. Osofsky is past president of the World Association for Infant Mental Health, and has published widely and authored or edited seven books on trauma in the lives of children. She serves as Clinical Consultant on the Leadership team for the ZERO TO THREE Safe Babies Court Program and as the Chair of the Program Committee Workgroup for ZERO TO THREE’s Annual Conference. Dr. Osofsky has played a leadership role in the Gulf Region on multiple occasions, serving as Clinical Director for Child and Adolescent Initiatives for Louisiana Spirit following Hurricane Katrina and as Co-Principal Investigator for the Mental and Behavioral Capacity Project following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She currently serves as Co-Principal Investigator for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Center, Terrorism, and Disaster Coalition for Child and Family Resilience. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Psychology from Syracuse University.

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Title: Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Young Children through Play

Description: Children who have been exposed to trauma such as abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic violence, or even being in car accidents show how they feel and their experiences through play. Their play looks different from regular children’s play because they express their feelings including emotional and behavioral dysregulation through their play. Often the play includes emotional and behavioral outbursts if things don’t go their way including inconsistencies, anger, and competition. Often, their play doesn’t look like “fun” but rather a way to cope with their feelings of fear, anger, and helplessness. And often the play after traumatic experiences can be upsetting to parents or caregivers. However, for the child, reenacting the trauma repeatedly through their play allows them to express their feelings and emotions and may provide an opportunity for them to work through the trauma. This presentation will include examples of young children’s play following different types of traumatic experiences

Session Info
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Kevin Coleman

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Kevin G. Coleman, founding member, Shakespeare & Company, where he serves as the director of the Education Program. Shakespeare & Young Company, Shakespeare in the Courts, (a collaboration with Berkshire County Juvenile Court), where juvenile offenders work with actors to perform Shakespeare as an obligation to the Court and the all Festival of Shakespeare. Theater Director at the Austen Riggs Center.

Bio
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Title: Shakespeare’s Works for Growth and Development: In Theater we Play

Description:

The Fall Festival deeply engages students through personally meaningful, educationally rigorous and dramatically compelling experiences of Shakespeare's classical dramas. The Festival is truly a celebration, never a competition. Students from multiple schools work collaboratively, exploring Shakespeare’s words, unpacking the humor and the heartbreak, the intensity and humanity of these unparalleled plays. Following a curriculum based on the acclaimed Actor’s Training Program, participants train not only their voices and their bodies with a the exploration of text and play, but also delve deeply into their own imaginations, intellects, and emotional lives. Here, they find the dynamic energy of authentic self in safety and community.

Subsequent to the creation of the Fall Fest, principals and judges who saw the changes in the participating students, advocated for bringing a similar training to troubled youth within the juvenile court system, and Shakespeare in the Courts was developed.

Session Info
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Ali Smith
(Holistic Life Foundation)

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Ali Smith was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, he is a graduate of the Friends School of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park, where he received a BS in Environmental Science and Policy with a Biodiversity specialization. Ali started his journey with contemplative practices as a small child, learning meditation from his father and attending the Kriya Yoga based Divine Life Church of Absolute Oneness run by Swami Shankarananda. He deepened his practice as a young adult, learning yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and breathwork from his teacher and godfather Will Joyner.


Ali has almost 20 years’ experience teaching yoga, mindfulness, and meditation internationally to a broad demographic spectrum that includes schools, retreat centers, wellness centers, mental crisis facilities, detention centers, drug treatment centers, the corporate setting, as well as private one-on-one sessions. He co-founded the Holistic Life Foundation in 2001. During his tenure as Executive Director, his leadership helped guide HLF to grow an organization that employed over 50 people, and served communities worldwide. He is a published author, written several curriculums, and is a pioneer in the fields of yoga and mindfulness in education, as well as trauma informed yoga and mindfulness, developing best practices that are used around the world. Ali has taught in seven countries on three continents.
His work has been featured on the CBS News, CNN, NBC Nightly News, PBS, as well as in Oprah Magazine and Forbes. Ali is also a co-host of the Look Again Podcast and Co-Owner of the Involution Group.

Bio
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Title: Holistic Life Foundation

Description: The Holistic Life Foundation is a Baltimore-based 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization committed to nurturing the wellness of children and adults in underserved communities. Through a comprehensive approach that helps children develop their inner lives through yoga, mindfulness, and self-care HLF demonstrates a deep commitment to learning, community, and stewardship of the environment. HLF is also committed to developing high-quality evidence-based programs and curriculum to improve community well-being. 


Building on our 20 years of experience teaching yoga to traumatized communities we will show participants how to truly be trauma informed with the practice.  We will also help their students heal from trauma and how to heal from secondary trauma.

 

This includes:

Reciprocal Teaching

Making it fun

Making it practical

Authenticity

Session Info
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Atman Smith (Holistic Life Foundation)

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Atman is one of the Co-founders of the Holistic Life Foundation. Since 2001, he has been teaching yoga and mindfulness to a diverse population including underserved and high-risk youth in Baltimore City Public Schools, drug treatment centers, wellness centers, and colleges. A native of Baltimore, Atman attended the University of Maryland, College Park where he was a letter award winner for the University’s men's basketball team. He graduated with a B.A.in Criminology and Criminal Justice. His work with the Holistic Life Foundation has been featured on Making a Difference on the NBC Nightly News, CNN, and CBS, as well as O the Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, Upworthy, Mindful Magazine, Yoga Journal, Shambala Sun, and many other publications.

Bio
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Title: Holistic Life Foundation

Description: The Holistic Life Foundation is a Baltimore-based 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization committed to nurturing the wellness of children and adults in underserved communities. Through a comprehensive approach that helps children develop their inner lives through yoga, mindfulness, and self-care HLF demonstrates a deep commitment to learning, community, and stewardship of the environment. HLF is also committed to developing high-quality evidence-based programs and curriculum to improve community well-being.

Building on our 20 years of experience teaching yoga to traumatized communities we will show participants how to truly be trauma informed with the practice.  We will also help their students heal from trauma and how to heal from secondary trauma.

 

This includes:

Reciprocal Teaching

Making it fun

Making it practical

Authenticity

Session Info
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Andres Gonzalez (Holistic Life Foundation)

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Andres Gonzalez is one of the Co-Founders of the Holistic Life Foundation. For twenty years, Andres has taught yoga to diverse populations throughout the world, including Baltimore City Public School students, drug treatment centers, mental crisis facilities, homeless shelters, wellness centers, colleges, private schools and other various venues throughout the nation. He has partnered with John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health and the Penn State’s Prevention Research Center on a Stress and Relaxation Study and is a published author in the Journal of Children’s Services. His work with the Holistic Life Foundation has been featured on Making a Difference on the NBC Nightly News, CNN, and CBS, as well as O the Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, Upworthy, Mindful Magazine, Yoga Journal, Shambala Sun, and many other publications. He is a certified Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, maintains a B.S. in Marketing from University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA from the University of Maryland, University College.

Bio
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Title: Holistic Life Foundation

Description: The Holistic Life Foundation is a Baltimore-based 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization committed to nurturing the wellness of children and adults in underserved communities. Through a comprehensive approach that helps children develop their inner lives through yoga, mindfulness, and self-care HLF demonstrates a deep commitment to learning, community, and stewardship of the environment. HLF is also committed to developing high-quality evidence-based programs and curriculum to improve community well-being.

Building on our 20 years of experience teaching yoga to traumatized communities we will show participants how to truly be trauma informed with the practice.  We will also help their students heal from trauma and how to heal from secondary trauma.

 

This includes:

Reciprocal Teaching

Making it fun

Making it practical

Authenticity

Session Info
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Mimi Sullivan

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Dr. Sullivan is working to create templates for practical field studies that accurately capture the effect of drama and other creative arts interventions on healing when conducted by clinicians in the treatment setting. She was formerly a professional actor and member of the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) and is currently a member of the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists [SAG-AFTRA]). She has appeared in theatre, on television, and in film. Sullivan’s private psychotherapy practice in Haddonfield, NJ, is focused on addressing issues related to complex posttraumatic stress, in particular the neuro/bio/psycho/social impacts of interpersonal/intimate partner coercive control and other forms of psychological, emotional, and/or physical abuse/oppression. She has spoken widely on the cumulative impact of interpersonal trauma on the mind, body, and spirit, as well as on becoming free from abuse and its effects. Sullivan obtained the Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work from Widener University in 2021 and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She has co-authored a textbook chapter on the treatment of psychological trauma and has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Widener University in the Center for Social Work Education (designing and teaching graduate-level coursework on trauma treatment and co-writing a syllabus that has been used as a cross-institutional trauma-treatment course template disseminated by the Council on Social Work Education and the National Center for Trauma Education and Workforce Development).

Bio
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Title: Trauma Drama: How do we demonstrate the impact of drama on healing?

Description: Trauma Drama is an evidence-informed and manualized 18–22 session group therapy for complex-trauma-impacted people that synthesizes scenario-driven, professional improvisational theater with expert-consensus guidelines for three-phase treatment of complex trauma. Although historically used as a natural way to heal trauma, drama’s strengths have rendered it resistant to quantification. This course describes an exploratory mixed-method study of TD in two residential-adolescent cohorts. The study sought to identify a dimensional matrix of simplified variables with which to reliably capture drama’s seemingly irreducible effects across treatment settings and cultures. Standardized variables might allow collaborative aggregation of a data set that is substantive enough to support the statistical modeling that could yield legitimizing evidence of drama’s processes and effects. To this end, the TD study cross-compared physiological heart rate variability data, eight standardized psychological questionnaires, and phenomenological interviews. Findings suggested that there were at least three physiological subtypes embedded within both the treatment and comparison groups. Statistically significant symptom changes varied by subgroup. With a few exceptions, the entire treatment group reported common and spontaneously occurring mechanism-of-action change processes. The processes themselves, as well as shifts in trust and attachment schemas, may be the generalizable effects of Trauma Drama and other drama interventions, while the effects on symptom remission may vary by subtype.

Session Info
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Dawn Stern
(DeCruit)

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DAWN STERN is a New York City-based AEA/SAG-AFTRA actor, member of the off-Broadway theatre collective
The Coop, and COO of the non-profit DE-CRUIT She obtained her B.S. in Theatre Performance from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIU-E) and earned her AFTRA, AEA, and SAG union cards in St Louis and Chicago. Dawn moved to Los Angeles in 1996 where she built a seventeen-year television acting career. Dawn has taught The Business of Acting, movement, yoga, breath work and Shakespeare to veterans and students in the US at Syracuse University and Norwich University, Canada, Italy, Prague, and The Hague. She currently is co-chair of the Inclusion Diversity Equity Accessibility (IDEA) committee for Shakespeare Theater Association (STA).

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Title: DeCruit

Description: DE-CRUIT—the name of the program tells of a need for veterans who were recruited into the world of the military and “wired up” for war, and now need to better understand the emotions roiling them as they re-enter the civilian world. The words of the great playwright are seen as a way to develop that understanding, and to help them rewire their brains for civilian life.

Session Info
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Stephan Wolfert (DeCruit)

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Actor/Writer/Director; AEA/SAG member; U.S. Army ’86-’93 –Medic and Infantry Officer has taught and performed his award winning play Cry Havoc throughout North America, Europe and Australia. His program De-Cruit uses Shakespeare’s text and actor training to heal trauma and to aid in the transition from military service back into life as a civilian.

Bio
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Title: DeCruit

Description: DE-CRUIT—the name of the program tells of a need for veterans who were recruited into the world of the military and “wired up” for war, and now need to better understand the emotions roiling them as they re-enter the civilian world. The words of the great playwright are seen as a way to develop that understanding, and to help them rewire their brains for civilian life.

Session Info
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Elliot Gann

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Dr. Elliot Gann — better known in the DJing and beat making world as Phillipdrummond — brings a unique skill set to the world of education and instrumental production. Wearing multiple hats as a producer and psychotherapist, Gann first joined the Bay Area-based organization Today’s Future Sound (TFS) to further bolster their efforts to empower young people through instrumental production.

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Title:An Introduction to Hip Hop Therapy (HHT) and Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM)

Description: This course will introduce the rapidly developing field and practice of Hip Hop Therapy as well as the Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM) model, culturally responsive modalities which have proven highly effective in working with both youth and adult populations that have experienced significant trauma. While these practices make use of music and rhythm, they are grounded in the culture of Hip Hop and its practices and elements that go beyond the strictly musical, but involve community, connection, metacognition/self-awareness and narratives in various forms. The history of Hip Hop will also be explored, and this course will be multidimensional in nature with several clinicians/presenters discussing how they use Hip Hop to heal. Hip Hop Therapy is distinct from Music Therapy, and is a non-Eurocentric modality that values skills and practices that have been undervalued in mainstream society, schools, mental health settings, etc. despite the fact that it has helped millions of people struggling with trauma to cope and to heal. 

Session Info
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Tian Dayton

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Dr. Dayton is a Senior Fellow at The Meadows. She is the author of fifteen books including The Soulful Journey of Recovery, The ACoA Trauma Syndrome, Emotional Sobriety,Trauma and Addiction, Forgiving and Moving On and The Living Stage. She has developed an approach for incorporating experiential work into treatment programs and group work, Relationship Trauma Repair RTR.

Tian Dayton has a masters in educational psychology and a PhD in clinical psychology and is a board certified trainer in psychodrama, sociometry and group psychotherapy. She is a certified Montessori teacher. Dr. Dayton is the director of The New York Psychodrama Training Institute. She is a nationally renowned speaker, expert, and consultant in psychodrama, trauma and addiction, ACoAs and self help related issues. Dr, Dayton was on the faculty at NYU for eight years teaching psychodrama. Dr. Dayton is a fellow of the American Society of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy ASGPP, Lifetime Achievement Award, the scholar’s award, President’s Award and Gratitude Award, former editor in chief of the Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy and professional standards committee. She is also the winner of The Mona Mansell Award and The Ackermann Black Awaard. Dr. Dayton has been a guest expert on NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Montel, Rikki Lake, John Walsh, Geraldo. Tian blogs for Thrive Global and The Huffington Post,

Psychodramatist

Dr. Dayton is a fully certified practitioner and trainer by the American Society of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy (ASGPP).
She served for eight years as the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy and eight years as an executive editor of same. She is the winner of ASGPP’s Lifetime Achievement Award, The Scholars’/Research Award, The President’s Award and The Gratitude Award for her contributions to this field. Tian has spent her career raising the standard of expertise and training of these methods in the addictions’ field and adapting psychodrama and sociometry for work specifically with relational trauma and addictions. Her trademarked processes Socio Metrics, are in use nationally and around the world, as is her model Relational Trauma Repair (RTR). These processes combine research with psychodrama and sociometry creating a contained, psycho-educational, experiential approach to healing. Clients learn about the issues and symptoms while engaging in an experiential, relational healing process. Her books The Living Stage, Relational Trauma Repair (Therapist’s Guide) and her upcoming book Socio Metrics all explore this process along with the basics of psychodrama and sociometry. The videos in the nav bar are examples of Socio Metrics and psychodrama, they are living, spontaneous case studies.

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Title: Psychodrama: Experiential, Embodied Training in Spontaneity and Creativity

Description: JL Moreno the creator of Psychodrama and Sociometry and known as the father of group psychotherapy found his original inspiration for psychodrama from watching children play in the parks of turn of the century Vienna.  Moreno observed that serious mental health issues resulted in rigidity and a loss of spontaneity, by making role playing, role reversal and spontaneity training a goal, he recreated a method that was at the core of re-training the ability to be spontaneous. He let clients’ reverse roles as children naturally do in play and use their creative imagination to enter the internal world of anything from another person, pet, or entity….to playing God.

As Zerka, Morenos wife and the co-creator of what we know as the psychodrama that we use today said, “the catharsis of laughter is every bit as important as the catharsis of pain in healing the whole being”!

Session Info
Jacqui Johnson

Jacqui Johnson

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Founder/Clinical Director of Sankofa Healing Studio

(She/Her/Hers Pronouns) Jacqui Johnson, a Somatic Social-Justice Art & Play Therapist+, prioritizes the need to bridge the Black mental health access gap while upending oppression within healing spaces. Her advanced training in multiple evidence-based modalities informs her unique holistic style blending Art, Play, Storytelling, Hip-Hop, Brainspotting, EMDR, and Energy-based practices. Jacqui is an educator who lectures widely, provides supervision, and consultation, and leads international initiatives that increase training accessibility to Therapists of Color. 

Jacqui’s expertise and community work are rooted in the importance of gender and trauma-responsive care. She addresses head-on the complex intersectionality of adverse childhood experiences, race, community violence, and the (in)justice system.

Bio
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Title: An Introduction to Hip Hop Therapy (HHT) and Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM)

Description: This course will introduce the rapidly developing field and practice of Hip Hop Therapy as well as the Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM) model, culturally responsive modalities which have proven highly effective in working with both youth and adult populations that have experienced significant trauma. While these practices make use of music and rhythm, they are grounded in the culture of Hip Hop and its practices and elements that go beyond the strictly musical, but involve community, connection, metacognition/self-awareness and narratives in various forms. The history of Hip Hop will also be explored, and this course will be multidimensional in nature with several clinicians/presenters discussing how they use Hip Hop to heal. Hip Hop Therapy is distinct from Music Therapy, and is a non-Eurocentric modality that values skills and practices that have been undervalued in mainstream society, schools, mental health settings, etc. despite the fact that it has helped millions of people struggling with trauma to cope and to heal. 

Session Info
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Raphael Travis

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Dr. Raphael Travis is a Professor and MSW Program Director at Texas State University in the School of Social Work. His research, practice and consultancy work emphasize healthy development over the life-course, resilience, and civic engagement. He also investigates creative arts, especially Hip-Hop culture, as a source of health and well-being for individuals and communities. He is author of the book “The Healing Power of Hip Hop.” Dr. Travis integrates the best of social work research and public health research within applied research and direct practice strategies. His latest research, linking arts engagement and well-being, appears in a variety of academic journals and book chapters. Dr. Travis leads the Collaborative Research for Education, Art, and Therapeutic Engagement (CREATE) Lab.

Bio
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Title: An Introduction to Hip Hop Therapy (HHT) and Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM)

Description: This course will introduce the rapidly developing field and practice of Hip Hop Therapy as well as the Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM) model, culturally responsive modalities which have proven highly effective in working with both youth and adult populations that have experienced significant trauma. While these practices make use of music and rhythm, they are grounded in the culture of Hip Hop and its practices and elements that go beyond the strictly musical, but involve community, connection, metacognition/self-awareness and narratives in various forms. The history of Hip Hop will also be explored, and this course will be multidimensional in nature with several clinicians/presenters discussing how they use Hip Hop to heal. Hip Hop Therapy is distinct from Music Therapy, and is a non-Eurocentric modality that values skills and practices that have been undervalued in mainstream society, schools, mental health settings, etc. despite the fact that it has helped millions of people struggling with trauma to cope and to heal. 

Session Info
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J.C. Hall

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J.C. Hall, LMSW is a Hip Hop artist and clinically trained social worker who received the 2020 Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting the New York Community. In 2010, Hall discovered the work of Dr. Edgar Tyson, the originator of Hip Hop Therapy (HHT), and he began collaborating with him to explore ways of further introducing expressive elements into the approach. Over the years, Hall worked extensively with Dr. Tyson to build upon the framework of HHT by leaning into its parallels with expressive arts therapy. Hall (2016) argues that the intermodal nature of expressive arts therapy naturally aligns with the Hip Hop gestalt through its integration of various artistic elements, such as music, movement, drama and visual art. Through a receptive and expressive approach, Hall focuses on further operationalizing the inherently therapeutic processes involved in embracing and partaking in the creation of Hip Hop. 

 

Since 2013, Hall has run his Hip Hop Therapy Studio program at a “second chance,” transfer high school called Mott Haven Community in the South Bronx—the birthplace of Hip Hop culture as well as the poorest congressional district in the country. The program employs HHT in an individual and group setting through the use of writing, recording, producing and performing original works. After Hall graduated from Fordham, the men developed a close friendship and cultivated a strong working relationship, both presenting together and collaborating on scholarly works over several years. In 2016, Dr. Tyson asked Hall to contribute to his textbook on HHT as a co-author, and Hall added several chapters to Tyson’s extensive compilation of unpublished research. 

Bio
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Title: An Introduction to Hip Hop Therapy (HHT) and Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM)

Description: This course will introduce the rapidly developing field and practice of Hip Hop Therapy as well as the Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM) model, culturally responsive modalities which have proven highly effective in working with both youth and adult populations that have experienced significant trauma. While these practices make use of music and rhythm, they are grounded in the culture of Hip Hop and its practices and elements that go beyond the strictly musical, but involve community, connection, metacognition/self-awareness and narratives in various forms. The history of Hip Hop will also be explored, and this course will be multidimensional in nature with several clinicians/presenters discussing how they use Hip Hop to heal. Hip Hop Therapy is distinct from Music Therapy, and is a non-Eurocentric modality that values skills and practices that have been undervalued in mainstream society, schools, mental health settings, etc. despite the fact that it has helped millions of people struggling with trauma to cope and to heal. 

Session Info
Vuyo Cekiso Headshot

Vuyo Cekiso

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Program Officer, South Africa at Skateistan, an award-winning international non-profit organization. We provide programs that combine skateboarding and education. Through the hook of skateboarding, we engage children, especially girls and children from low-income backgrounds, and provide them with access to safe spaces and education. Our innovative programs teach children valuable life skills that go beyond the skatepark and the classroom. At Skateistan, our vision is to create leaders that make a better world.

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Skateboarding as a tool for youth development is part of the more significant S4D sector, in which sports are increasingly incorporated into youth programming as a “hook” due to their ability to engage young people and provide them with further education or advocacy programming. Skateboarding can be an alternative treatment for high-needs young people. Dr. Emily Wang describes, “Time spent on a skateboard by young people can help their brains to heal from past trauma. It can move the development of the brain into a more positive trajectory, from the brain stem right up to the neocortex”. When used intentionally and skillfully, a skatepark can become a therapeutic environment for teaching social skills, self-regulation, emotional regulation, and cognitive competency. Skateboarding provides realistic and accessible opportunities for relationship development while encouraging skill development and mastery. 

The Skateistan course will take you through an experiential Skateistan session to share examples and best practices to create a therapeutic environment and trauma-sensitive coaching techniques.  

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Session Info
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Lawrence Cann

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Lawrence Cann is the Founder and CEO of Street Soccer USA, an organization that focuses on the use of sport for social change. In 2012, Lawrence was selected as one of 15 AMEX Ashoka Emerging Leaders in Social Entrepreneurship. He has also been honored by People Magazine, being named a Hero Among Us in 2009 and as the 2010 winner of the Kuykendall Award for Community Service at his alma mater, Davidson College. Lawrence is a recent MBA graduate of Columbia University where he has planned the growth and development of the SSUSA social enterprise.

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Title: Street Soccer

Description: Street Soccer's mission is to fight poverty and empower underserved communities through soccer. They provide an alternative to the pay-to-play model of youth sports with a focus on social impact across the United States and beyond. SSUSA brings its programs to kids 6-18 years old, as well as special needs populations including homeless families, adults and people in recovery. We focus our efforts on the 33% of youth who are living below the poverty line and have graduation rates between 55-65%. In our nearly 10 years of existence we have introduced our program and positively impacted the lives of over 15,000 youth and adults, and have grown to encompass 14 cities throughout the USA. SSUSA is also the official partner of the Homeless World Cup and the Street Child World Cup, which provides opportunities for valuable international experiences for our program participants.

Their theory of change: By creating safe places to play, supplying trained, caring coaches, and an evidence-based curriculum to build important skills, including communication, creativity, collaboration, self-confidence, independence and mutual respect for one’s self and others to encourage short and long-term positive changes in our players’ lives.

Session Info
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Lou Bergholz

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Lou founded Edgework Consulting, and finds deep satisfaction and excitement in the work. He is committed to taking the most cutting edge research and shaping it into skills, tools and program designs that are accessible, unique and high impact.

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Title: Sourcing the Amazing, Powerful, Unique Healing Core of Your Playful Activities

Description:

Every playful activity has its own special healing power. Its up to us, as the facilitators-of-play to not just run a safe and supportive experience, but to understand and surface these amazing, powerful, and unique healing cores so that our participants can maximize their benefits.  These cores sometimes are visible, just waiting on the surface. For example, playing catch is one of the most profound acts of co-regulation and rhythm you can find anywhere.  Other times, these cores are hidden, waiting for us to dig deep and uncover them. For example, consider the healing power of the on-deck circle in softball and baseball. And if you have never heard of the on-deck circle, do a little research on it before this session and see what you think its therapeutic core could be.  In this session we’ll describe the therapeutic core, how to source these cores in our work, and unlock the full powerful of our play!



Session Info

Schedule

Day 1 - Thursday October 27

  • 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM - Welcome and Introduction, How the Conference has Come About & Experiential Embodied Awareness: Warm-up Invoking Curiosity and Presence for Play with Ed Tronick, Bessel van der Kolk & Licia Sky
  • 8:45 AM - 9:15 AM - Play as Fundamental to Development and Healing with Ed Tronick
  • 9:15 AM - 9:45 AM - Full Context of Play, Development, and Trauma Healing with Bessel van der Kolk
  • 9:45 AM - 10:30 AM - Mother-Infant Trauma: Contributions of Video Microanalysis with Beatrice Beebe
  • 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM - Conversation with Beatrice Beebe, Ed Tronick, and Bessel van der Kolk
  • 11:00 AM- 11:10 AM - Morning Break
  • 11:10 AM - 11:55 AM - Tidings of Cuddles and Joy: Interactions of Comfort and Play to Increase Connection and Decrease Stress Between Children and Caregivers with Dafna Lender
  • 11:55 AM - 12:25 PM - Conversation with Dafna Lender, Ed Tronick, and Licia Sky
  • 12:25 PM - 1:25 PM - Lunch break
  • 1:25 PM - 2:10 PM - Play-Based Care and Healing for Trauma From Brith to Maturity and Old Age with Colwyn Trevarthen
  • 2:10 PM - 2:40 PM - Movement & Play Break with Dafna Lender and Steve Gross Incorporated Exercise
  • 2:40 PM - 3:25 PM - Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Young Children through Play with Joy Osofsky
  • 3:25 PM - 3:40 PM - Conversation with Joy Osofsky and Ed Tronick
  • 3:40 PM - 3:50 PM - Break
  • 3:50 PM - 4:50 PM - Holistic Life Foundation with Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andres Gonzalez
  • 4:50 PM - 5:00 PM - Day 1 Close
  • 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM - Optional Networking Session

Day 2 - Friday October 28

  • 8:30 AM - 8:35 AM - Welcome to Day 2 with Licia Sky & Ed Tronick
  • 8:35 AM - 9:20 AM - How Children's Play Works to Heal Trauma with Alexandra Harrison
  • 9:20 AM - 10:05 AM - The Uses of Play in Child-Parent Psychotherapy: Trauma and Protective Narratives to Restore Emotional Health with Alicia Lieberman
  • 10:05 AM - 10:35 AM - Conversation with Ed Tronick, Alexandra Harrison and Alicia Lieberman
  • 10:35 AM - 10:45 AM - Morning Break
  • 10:45 AM - 11:15 AM - Sourcing the Amazing, Powerful, Unique Healing Core of Your Playful Activities with Lou Bergholz
  • 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM - Multi-Level Healing for Traumatized Children with Rick Gaskill and Video by Bruce Perry
  • 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM - Conversation with Rick Gaskill and Ed Tronick
  • 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM - Lunch Break
  • 1:45 PM - 2:15 PM - Licia Sky: In Conversation with an Educator with Licia Sky
  • 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM - London Bridge is Falling Down: The Role of Joy and Connection in Building Relational Bridges Between Children and Caregivers with Margaret Blaustein
  • 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM - O'playsis: Setting Up Play & How to Teach Adults how to Play with Children with Steve Gross
  • 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM - SMART: The Role of Play in Regulation, Trauma Processing, and Attachment Building with Elizabeth Warner and Alexandra Cook
  • 4:15 PM - 4:45 PM - Conversation with Alex Cook, Liz Warner, Steve Gross, Margaret Blaustein, and Lou Bergholz, with Bessel van der Kolk
  • 4:45 PM - 4:50 PM - Closing Day 2
  • 4:50 PM - 5:50 PM - Optional Networking Session

Day 3 - Saturday October 29

  • 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM - Opening Remarks for Day 3 with Bessel van der Kolk
  • 8:45 AM - 9:15 AM - Playmakers: Domestic and International Work in Disaster Areas and Areas of Violence with Steve Gross
  • 9:15 AM - 9:30 AM - Skateistan: Trauma-Informed Best Practices for Skateboarding-Based Youth Programing with Cyndi Mendoza and Vuyo Cekiso
  • 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM - Street Soccer with Lawrence Cann
  • 9:45 AM - 10:15 AM - Conversation with Steve Gross, Cyndi Mendoza, Vuyo Cekiso, and Lawrence Cann
  • 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM - Break
  • 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM - Shakespeare & Company with Kevin Coleman
  • 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM - Conversation with Kevin Coleman, Licia Sky & Bessel Van der Kolk
  • 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM - TraumaDrama: How do we Demonstrate the Impact of Drama on Healing with Mimi Sullivan
  • 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM - Lunch Break
  • 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM - Psychodrama: Experiential, Embodied Training in Spontaneity and Creativity with Tian Dayton
  • 2:15 PM - 3:15 PM - DE-CRUIT: Playing with Shakespeare in Healing-Centered Practices with Stephan Wolfert and Dawn Stern
  • 3:15 PM - 4:00 PM - An Introduction to Hip Hop Therapy (HHT) and Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM) with Elliot Gann, Jacqui Johnson, J.C. Hall, and Raphael Travis
  • 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM - Therapuetic Applictions of Hip Hop Collaborative: Play Session
  • 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM - Closing Remarks, Take-Aways, and Thank you with Licia Sky and Ed Tronick

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

For more than three decades, the Trauma Research Foundation has been dedicated to an integrative approach to developing innovative treatments for traumatized children and adults, researching the efficacy of those methods, and to training students and clinicians from around the world in the science of treatment development, their clinical applications, and dissemination.

We want to ensure that our events are as accessible as possible, which is why we are running with Sliding Scale ticket prices.

Find out if you are eligible
Please note that scholarships are only available for regular tickets (with or without CE) – we are unable to offer scholarship discounts for educator tickets as they are already heavily discounted

Play Based Healing Summit Registration

Join us for our first annual Play Based Healing conference, inviting the exploration, discussion, and research of play in healthy child development, trauma healing, and restoration.

There are 3 ticket options available to purchase:

Standard Ticket
$200

Includes live access via zoom, and access to recordings for 30 days.

With CE credits
$250

APA and ASWB CE are available with this ticket, specific number of credits are pending approval. 

Educators' Ticket
$100

Teacher roles have evolved over the last couple of years. To meet the ever-changing requirements of teaching, we are pleased to offer teachers a special rate.

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All tickets include live access via zoom, and access to recordings for 30 days.

APA and ASWB CE are available for this event, specific number of credits are pending approval.

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