Our Play Therapy
Community Retreat

Schedule Overview

Our Presenters

This retreat brings together six local experienced play therapists who are deeply grounded in the realities of clinical work with children and families. Each presenter was chosen not just for their expertise, but for the thoughtfulness, relational depth, and clinical honesty they bring into the room.

Mandi Melendez LMFT-S, LPC-S, RPT-S
Friday Keynote · 1:30–2:30 pm
A Lasting Source of Strength: Play Therapy and Resilience
Play therapists do more than help children heal from current struggles, we help prepare them for challenges they have not yet encountered. We help children develop the internal resources to navigate adversity by creating experiences of safety, connection, and self-discovery that children can draw upon throughout their lives. While we cannot predict every challenge a child will face or provide all the answers for the road ahead, resilience developed in play therapy can become a lasting source of strength that extends far beyond the therapy room.
Learning Objectives
◦ Define resilience and describe its importance in child development.
◦ Identify three ways play therapy supports the development of resilience.
◦ Examine the unique role of the play therapist in fostering resilience.

Amanda Robinson LPC-S, RPT-S
Friday Workshop · 2:45–6:00 pm
Rupture and Repair with Clients and Parents in Play Therapy
Even the strongest therapeutic relationships experience moments of disconnection, and play therapists can find themselves feeling vulnerable, guilty, and uncertain how to respond effectively. This training will explore the signs of rupture within the play therapy relationship, including within a client’s play, verbal, and nonverbal behaviors. It will also outline the diverse ways clients (and parents) may respond to the relational stress that occurs with rupture. Participants will learn evidence-based solutions for recognizing disconnection in play therapy and parent consultation sessions, responding with attunement, and facilitating repair in ways that strengthen connection and support lasting therapeutic change. Amanda explores one of the most honest and humanizing aspects of our work: what happens when things go wrong relationally, and how we find our way back.
Learning Objectives
◦ Define rupture within the contexts of the play therapist-client relationship, as well as the play therapist-parent relationship.
◦ Identify common patterns of client and parent response to rupture in play therapy.
◦ Apply evidence-based solutions for admitting mistakes, offering repair, and re-establishing the therapeutic alliance.

Claudia Ocampo LPC-S, RPT-S
Saturday Morning Workshop · 9:00 am–12:15 pm
Playful Parts: IFS-Informed Play Therapy
Claudia introduces clinicians to using play therapy to help clients externalize and engage with parts of self in developmentally attuned ways. Participants will learn how puppets, drawing, sandtray and board games can support expression, differentiation, and dialogue between parts. Grounded in play therapy principles and informed by IFS concepts, this training emphasizes attunement, regulation, and curiosity as clinicians support clients in building compassionate relationships with their inner world.
Learning Objectives
◦ Apply play therapy strategies using board games to facilitate regulation, expression, and engagement with parts of self in developmentally appropriate ways.
◦ Demonstrate at least three play therapy interventions used to externalize parts of self within an IFS-informed play therapy framework.
◦ Analyze play therapy responses to identify parts language, roles, and functions within an IFS informed play therapy conceptualization.

Dr. Mary Bennett LPC-S, RPT-S
Saturday Afternoon · 1:30–3:00 pm
Come Struggle With Us. Building Bridges with Parents in Play Therapy.
Working with parents is often one of the most meaningful, and most challenging, aspects of play therapy. Parents may arrive feeling overwhelmed, fearful, defensive, uncertain, or deeply disconnected from themselves and their child. As therapists, we can also find ourselves navigating discomfort, urgency, frustration, self-doubt, boundary tension, and the desire to “fix” difficult situations quickly. This reflective consultation experience invites participants into honest conversation around the realities of parent work in play therapy. Together, we will explore barriers, stuck points, relational dynamics, and the emotional complexity of partnering with parents while remaining connected, curious, and grounded in the therapeutic process.
Learning Objectives
◦ Participants will identify two aspects of the parent consultation process in which they struggle when connecting parents to the play therapy process.
◦ Participants will explore three relational and emotional dynamics that impact collaboration with parents in play therapy.
◦ Participants will identify three strengths they have and how to optimize these in working with parents in the play therapy process.

Amy Pezzotti LPC-S, RPT-S
Saturday Afternoon Workshop · 3:15–6:30 pm
Childhood Anxiety and Perfectionism in Play Therapy: Theory, Process, and Parent Collaboration in Practice
Explore developmentally responsive approaches for treating anxious and perfectionistic children through play therapy. Participants will examine how anxiety and perfectionism present in the playroom, understand the role of attachment, nervous system regulation, and family dynamics, and learn practical interventions drawn from child-centered, directive, and parent-involved models of play therapy. This workshop will also highlight strategies for collaborating with parents to reduce accommodation, increase emotional resilience, and support therapeutic progress across settings through case examples, clinical techniques, and practical application.
Learning Objectives
◦ Identify at least three ways childhood anxiety and perfectionism present in play therapy sessions across developmental stages.
◦ Analyze the role of parent collaboration in play therapy treatment planning for children experiencing anxiety and perfectionism.
◦ Demonstrate at least three play therapy interventions designed to increase emotional regulation, flexibility, and resilience in anxious and perfectionistic children.

Melissa Fleming LPC-S, RPT-S, CCST-T
Sunday Morning Workshop · 9:00 am–12:15 pm
Beneath the Surface: Collage, Symbolism, and Advanced Sandtray Practice
This advanced/intermediate experiential workshop explores deeper symbolic processes through collage, reflective writing, and sandtray therapy. Participants will engage in expressive arts and sandtray experiences focused on therapist self-awareness, relational presence, symbolism, and emotional sustainability within clinical work. Emphasis is placed on curiosity, witnessing, reflective community, and reconnecting with the humanity beneath the role of therapist. Melissa closes our weekend with an experiential, deeply reflective exploration of sandtray and expressive arts, both as clinical tools and as a way of tending to ourselves as therapists.
Learning Objectives
◦ Describe at least three ways symbolism and implicit emotional material may emerge through expressive arts and sandtray play therapy processes.
◦ Demonstrate the use of witnessing skills within sandtray play therapy by utilizing reflective, non-interpretive responses during experiential and group processing activities.
◦ Identify at least three ways personal experiences, emotions, and relational patterns may appear during advanced sandtray play therapy experiences.
◦ Utilize collage, reflective writing, and sandtray play therapy techniques to explore therapist use of self and emotional sustainability within clinical practice.
◦ Analyze how cultural experiences, identity, and personal meaning-making may influence symbolic expression and relational dynamics within sandtray play therapy.

Full Weekend Schedule

Friday, November 6 — Arrival + Opening

Our goal for Friday is simple: ease in. We’ll arrive, get settled, connect over light refreshments, and let the weekend begin to unfold at a pace that doesn’t feel rushed.

1:00 – 1:30 pm  Arrival, Check-In, and Light Refreshments

1:30 – 2:30 pm  Keynote (1 hr) Mandi Melendez LMFT-S, LPC-S, RPT-S presents
A Lasting Source of Strength: Play Therapy and Resilience

2:30 – 2:45 pm  Snack break

2:45 – 6:00 pm  Workshop #1 (3 hrs) Amanda Robinson LPC-S, RPT-S presents
Rupture and Repair with Clients and Parents in Play Therapy

15-minute snack break around 4:15 pm

6:00 pm  Finished for the day

Saturday, November 7 — Deep Learning + Community

Saturday is our fullest day, and we’ve built it with pacing in mind. Breaks, a shared meal, and intentional community time are woven throughout so the depth of the work stays sustainable.

9:00 am – 12:15 pm  Workshop #2 (3 hrs) Claudia Ocampo LPC-S, RPT-S presents
Playful Parts: IFS-Informed Play Therapy

15-minute snack break around 10:30 am

12:15 – 1:30 pm  Group Lunch — TBD (nearby walkable/accessible location)

1:30 – 3:00 pm  Reflective Consultation (1.5 hrs) Dr. Mary Bennett LPC-S, RPT-S presents
Come Struggle With Us. Building Bridges with Parents in Play Therapy.

3:00 – 3:15 pm  Snack break

3:15 – 6:30 pm  Workshop #3 (3 hrs) Amy Pezzotti LPC-S, RPT-S presents
Childhood Anxiety and Perfectionism in Play Therapy: Theory, Process, and Parent Collaboration in Practice

15-minute snack break around 4:30 pm

6:30 pm  Finished for the day

Sunday, November 8 — Integration + Closing

Sunday is spacious by design. We’ll ease into the morning together before our final workshop, and close the weekend at a pace that lets things actually land.

8:15 – 8:45 am  Mindfulness, Journaling, and Guided Meditation (30 min) — Led by a local practitioner

8:45 – 9:00 am  Snack break

9:00 am – 12:15 pm  Workshop #4 (3 hrs) Melissa Fleming LPC-S, RPT-S, CCST-T presents
Beneath the Surface: Collage, Symbolism, and Advanced Sandtray Practice

15-minute snack break around 10:30 am

12:15 pm  Finished for the weekend