Movement and Play in Trauma Processing – Live Webinar
November 5, 2025
Live Webinar
This workshop will make clinicians bolder and more flexible in using a dynamic, play based movement-intensive approach to processing traumatic material with children/teens with attachment wounds, neurodiversity and narrow windows of tolerance. We will tap into the therapeutic powers of play for regulation and gradually approaching and managing the exposure to traumatic memories and strong emotions.
Participants will practice how to combine their trauma processing models with movement, somatic and play therapy approaches to make trauma work actually happen in the play room! This will be a day of experiential, hands-on training with a practicum of processing using play therapy materials, creative arts, sensory movement and EMDR or play narrative approach that participants can take back to their own practice settings. The training will also include innovative sensory and movement options to spice up your trauma processing with clients, including children but also teens (and maybe even your adult clients) with significant attachment wounds and using dissociative strategies! You will watch client trauma processing videos of the trainers’ work to enhance participants’ learning experience.
Presenter Bios:
Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT-S, is co-founder of Playful EMDR, an online hub for training and consultation in treating trauma-exposed children. Annie travels internationally and throughout the US providing specialty trainings on EMDR with children and teens and how to effectively treat attachment wounds and dissociative strategies and self-states. Annie has extensive experience with foster care, out of country adoptions, and at-risk teenagers and family therapy. Through the Child Trauma Institute & Trauma Institute, Annie is an EMDRIA approved trainer of EMDR and provides consultation to therapists and agencies.
Annie was a Director of Restorative Justice programs at a non-profit agency where she oversaw juvenile and adult offender programs for over 10 years. Presently her private practice includes a multitude of behaviors and issues including foster care, out of country adoptions, juvenile justice and dissociation. Annie is the co-editor and contributor of chapters for EMDR with Children in the Play Therapy Room, An Integrated Approach (2020) and contributing chapter (Future Self) for EMDR and Creative Arts Therapies (2022).
Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Buffalo, New York, and co-founder of Playful EMDR, an online hub for training and consultation in treating trauma-exposed children. Her specialties include attachment and child and adolescent trauma, and she also works with adult survivors. She is certified in EMDR and is an EMDR Approved Consultant and Trainer and a faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute, as well as a Registered Play Therapist and Supervisor and Approved Provider of play therapy continuing education through the Association for Play Therapy. She provides consultation in person and remotely, and gives trainings across the US and internationally. Her primary interest is in the intersection of play therapy and EMDR and has published on this topic including as contributor and co-editor of EMDR with Children in the Play Therapy Room: An Integrated Approach (2020).
Laurie M Belanger LCSW: Speaker. Teacher. Trainer. Therapist.
Passionate about serving the needs of families coping with multi-layered, complicated concerns. Over a career of 25 years Laurie has developed a strong interest and background in trauma, sensory development, chronic pain, adoption, mental health and neurodiversity. She is an approved EMDR Consultant and Education Provider through EMDRIA, and was professionally trained in TBRI®? (Trust Based Relational Interventions) by the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development, and is an Official SSP (Safe and Sound Protocol) Clinical Mentor for Unyte. The SSP (Safe and Sound Protocol),is a Polyvagal informed, evidence-based therapeutic tool designed to reset the nervous system and return it to safety, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, creator of Polyvagal Theory. Laurie deeply integrates the most up to date trauma therapies and supports in her practice and training. Her passion for safely combining deeply sensory oriented, trauma informed materials and supports into diverse settings successfully has led to an increased focus in recent years on providing Mentorship, Consultation, Workshops, and Training. Dedicated to providing cross discipline education to the community, Laurie enjoys providing support to professionals and organizations in many fields; translating complex ideas into enjoyable and relatable material that makes an impact.
Timeline:
November 5, 2025
10:00 am – 5:30 pm with one-hour lunch and (2) 15 min breaks
Learning Objectives:
- Describe 3 preparation phase strategies for regulation and optimization of the nervous system regulation using movement and play
- Utilize 5 play therapy interventions which apply polyvagal theory and therapeutic presence in the playroom to activate the conditions for the interoception of safety
- Identify essential considerations in integrating the therapeutic powers of play therapy with trauma processing for children
- Summarize how movement, nonverbal expression and titration of exposure intersect with the possibility of using EMDR/ play narratives to treat youth with complex trauma
- Integrate somatic and sensory resources to decrease dissociative episodes in and out of the play room during desensitization and reprocessing phases of EMDR or other trauma models.
- Describe a targeting approach within the context of the child’s post-traumatic play and symptoms to activate the target for EMDR or play therapy processing
To register please visit: https://playfulemdr.com/upcoming-trainings/
This course content is based on a publication that has been peer-reviewed, the scientific standard for evaluating academic work. All studies and scientifically derived evidence have limitations that should be considered. If you have any questions about the accuracy or limitations of the content, please contact us at
support@ce-classes.com and we will get back to you.
