Course Description:
While pain often causes individuals to shift into a sympathetic response with their nervous system (flight, fight, freeze), play occurs in the parasympathetic realm where healing, creativity, connections, learning and more occur. Interoception is the key to knowing what is going on in your body and feeling the difference between these responses or zones. Research suggests that chronic pain can impair interoceptive skills and that being in a state of play can help to build interoception skills.
This course will be a hands on experience going through commonly accepted developmental stages of play, sensory systems, nervous system states and common types of play. The types of play we will be delving into include: attunement/ observation, body and movement, object, imaginative, social, rough and tumble/ risky, celebratory and ritual, and Storytelling and Narrative. Although these types of play will look different with different populations, all can and should be experienced across the lifespan.
For this course, the term “play” will be used to signify a curious, open, flexible, engaged and connected state. This is where we should be operating from the majority of the time! It is imperative for the therapist to recognize and demonstrate this state with their client in order to facilitate healing.
Course Objectives:
Learn more about what defines play in terms of neurological state and how to recognize this state in yourself and your clients
Develop skills to reflect on what playful feels and looks like (and when it turns into something else) indicating a shift in the nervous system state
Explore what safety means and feels like from a sensory processing lens and how this relates to play, pain and interoception
Discover what type(s) of play you feel most comfortable with and how to help support you and your client’s state of play
Utilize play to decrease pain and increase interoception skills and therefore participation in life!
Learn more about the benefits of play at the individual and community levels
Discuss literature and research around stages & types of play and how these apply to individuals across the lifespan
Recognize a play state with horses and how this relates to humans
Learn how to write goals relating to play, pain and interoception
Discuss the role of restorative time for nervous system resets and play
Review the literature on play, pain and interoception
Become familiar with different ways of assessing interoception, pain and state of play (objective, subjective, standardized, non-standardized)
Group discount: $250/ person when registering groups of 3 or more
Financial hardship: if you are interested in this course and the fee poses a financial hardship, please contact me.
Registration: Email desertquailtherapy@gmail.com. Registration closes 3/19/2025