149. Annie Monaco: Welcoming Dissociation in the Playroom

In this episode, we're talking about a topic that we've never discussed, but is such an important topic to our work as play therapists. And that is dissociation. To have this discussion, Lisa has with her the fabulous Annie Monaco. Annie is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Registered Play Therapist, and faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute. With over 20 years of experience, Annie is a global trainer and has a specialty in EMDR Therapy with children and teens, and advanced training in attachment and dissociation in children especially with aggressive and hostile parts of self - she's the perfect person to learn more about this topic!

Here's what you'll learn in this episode:

A usable definition of dissociation beyond the textbook to really get a sense for how it shows up in our client sessions;
How dissociation reflects the child's inside personal struggles and what it looks like;
Understanding dissociation connected to complex or developmental trauma;
How to help a child, parent, and even us as the therapist have compassion for all of the parts of the child (...a critical part of a child's treatment process);
Activities and strategies to support children in exploring all of their parts of themselves and facilitate a path to healing.

Also, Annie shares a great question that you can ask children to really begin to understand the parts of themselves. You'll definitely want to have this question in your play therapy toolbox!

Enjoy this conversation that will take you beyond textbook understanding of dissociation and demystify what dissociation looks like for our clients (.... and even for ourselves)!

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