2-DAY WORKSHOP OUTLINE

Solution-Focused Play Therapy
with Children & Families 

2-DAY WORKSHOP OUTLINE 

Pamela King

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DAY 1 — FOUNDATION OF RELATIONAL SOLUTION-FOCUSED PLAY THERAPY

1. Welcome & Orientation

• Emphasis on therapist–parent–child-teacher partnership.
• Why Solution-Focused Therapy fits children and families:
• Children naturally imagine hopeful futures.
• Families strive for connection and harmony.

·         Practice: Get-to-know-you with play as a shared language

 2. Core Principles: Relational SFT With Children

• Preferred future as a shared vision of family functioning.
• Exceptions as moments of cooperation and mutual support.
• Small steps as ripple effects

 3.  Parent–Child–Therapist Triangle

• Honoring child as expert on self and parent as expert on family
• Positioning parents as partners and holders of hope
• Noticing useful family or classroom interactions

4. The Role of Play

• Play as a conversational tool
• Creating a non-pathologizing, discovery-rich play space

·         Practice: “Build the Village”

 5. Listen–Select–Build

• Listen-Select-Build applications with children

·         Practice: Using vignettes to practice solution-focused listening and responding

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 DAY 2 — COLLECTIVE TOOLS & PLAY INTERVENTIONS

1. Collaborative Goal Setting Through Shared Play

• Play-scaling video and demonstration
• Practice: Play-scaling 

2. Scaling-in-Action

• Scaling questions for families or groups:
• Generate ways of asking relational questions

·         Practice: Steppingstones of Support

3. Case Application: School Refusal

• Using play and SF strategies to co-create morning routines and small, achievable steps
• Parent involvement and collaborative planning
• Identify collective “almost” successes 

4. Integrated Session Flow

• Participants run mock sessions including:
• Joining → shared preferred future → scaling → exception-building → cooperative play → feedback

5. Closing

• Key takeaways:
• Q&A and resource sharing