Making the Most of Limited Time: Play, Expressive Arts, and Sandtray Interventions for Brief Counseling with Children and Teens - 5 hours

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• CE Hours Included: 5 (please see below for details)
• Format: On-Demand Webinar (“Asynchronous”, Non-Interactive) ~ At your leisure this recorded video is to be viewed at your own pace. You may pause, rewind, and fast forward at any point during the videos. You are in complete control of how you view this workshop. It also comes with a PowerPoint and references. There is a quiz at the end to ensure viewing and required by all CE approval organizations.
  • NOTE: Your certificate will be dated when you complete the course - Click here for more detailed information on the best way to do this: https://www.theknowledgetree.org/p/help
• Investment: $120 (provides lifetime access!)
• Presented by: Ashley Tolleson, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, RPT, CPCS and Terris Hagan, LPC, RPT, CPDPE, CPCS (see bios below)
• Date of Recording: September 18, 2026
• Instruction Level: Intermediate
• Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists
• This workshop is not yet available; by pre-registering, you will receive immediate access when it becomes available in October.

Learning Objectives:

After completing this workshop in its entirety, you will be able to:

• Apply a developmentally attuned and intentional framework to brief counseling with children and teens.
• Demonstrate specific play, expressive arts, and sandtray interventions that support connection and expression in brief counseling.
• Utilize expressive modalities across a short arc of care, adapting interventions to fit varying settings and client needs.
• Demonstrate how to structure sessions to support engagement, clinical focus, and continuity across sessions.
• Apply ethical and culturally responsive considerations when using expressive modalities in brief therapy.

Workshop Description:

Join us for a warm, engaging, and practical 5-hour workshop designed to support clinicians doing meaningful work with children and teens in time-limited settings. Whether you’re in schools, agencies, or higher levels of care, we’ll focus on how to make each session count.

We’ll begin by grounding in the foundations of brief counseling, including how to think developmentally, set focused and realistic goals, and structure sessions with intention. From there, we’ll explore how play therapy, expressive arts, and sandtray can be used purposefully to help children and teens access, express, and move through their experiences in ways that are both focused and impactful.

Throughout the workshop, you’ll engage in experiential activities, see real examples, and have space to reflect on how these approaches fit your own clinical style and setting. We’ll also look at how this work unfolds across a short arc of care, whether you’re working within shorter sessions, a limited number of sessions, or both, with attention to ethical, developmentally attuned, and culturally responsive practice.

You’ll leave with practical tools, a fresh perspective, and a clearer sense of how to use your time in ways that feel both effective and deeply connected.

Workshop Agenda:

1. Foundations of Brief Counseling with Children & Teens (60 min)
   1. Define brief counseling and common time constraints
   2. Developmental considerations in brief work, across ages
   3. Treatment planning - identifying goals, session mapping, tracking progress
2. Play Therapy Interventions for Brief Counseling (60 min)
   1. Define play therapy & strategic use of play in brief sessions
   2. Play interventions
   3. Case example + discussion
   4. Experiential activity
3. Expressive Arts Interventions for Brief Counseling (60 min)
   1. Define expressive arts therapy & why it works quickly
   2. How to structure expressive arts interventions in brief sessions
   3. Expressive arts interventions
   4. Experiential activity
4. Sandtray Interventions for Brief Counseling (60 min)
   1. Define sandtray therapy & why it works in brief sessions
   2. Therapist role + clinical decision-making
   3. Sandtray Interventions
   4. Case example + discussion
5. Integration, Ethics, and Clinical Applications (60 min)
   1. Integrating all modalities across sessions (play + expressive arts + sandtray)
   2. Ethical + cultural considerations
   3. Case example + discussion
   4. Q+A

Presented by:

Ashley Tolleson, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, RPT, CPCS

Dr. Ashley Tolleson is a Board-Certified Licensed Professional Counselor and the Founder of Tolleson Counseling Center in Marietta, GA. She holds a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Practice and specializes in trauma-informed and creative approaches to counseling children, teens, and adults, with a focus on anxiety, stress management, trauma, and neurodiversity. Dr. Tolleson’s expertise extends to supporting high-achieving girls and women in overcoming burnout and challenging perfectionism. Her passion for these areas is reflected in her workshops on stress management and burnout prevention, which she delivers to cross-disciplinary associations, including her role as a mental health consultant for the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Tolleson is a Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor and a Registered Play Therapist™ with extensive training in trauma-informed care and Play Therapy. She has supervised both mental health and school counselors-in-training and frequently guest lectures in counseling graduate programs nationwide. Dr. Tolleson's published work on creativity in counseling has been presented at national and international conferences. In 2017, she was recognized as an Emerging Leader in the counseling profession by the Association for Creativity in Counseling.

Terris Hagan, LPC, RPT, CPDPE, CPCS

Terris Hagan is the founder of Roots to Stillness Counseling, a private practice in Marietta, Georgia, where her clinical work focuses on children, teens, and their caregivers, informed by developmental and relational frameworks.

Terris holds a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Georgia State University and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Registered Play Therapist™, Certified Positive Discipline Parent Educator, and Clinical Professional Counselor Supervisor. She specializes in play therapy, expressive arts, and trauma-informed care, supporting clients navigating anxiety, trauma, emotion regulation, self-esteem, life transitions, and neurodiversity. She is especially drawn to working with children who have big hearts and big feelings, striving to create a nurturing environment where those feelings can be explored and expressed safely.

In addition to her clinical work, Terris provides clinical supervision to counselors working toward licensure and enjoys sharing her passion for play therapy and relational work through trainings for schools, organizations, and mental health professionals. She also guest lectures for counseling graduate programs and values opportunities to support and mentor emerging clinicians.

5 "Asynchronous" CE Hours Included - Details by License Type Below:

• PSYCHOLOGISTS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For more detailed information on the current CE ruling in Georgia, or if you are licensed in another state or country, please click here.
• COUNSELORS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP), ACEP No. 7153. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Please click here for more detailed information.
• SOCIAL WORKERS: The Knowledge Tree, a Summit Professional Education Company, provider #2470, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 1/14/2026-1/14/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 5 clinical continuing education credits. Please click here for more detailed information.
• MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPISTS: TKT has applied for approval for this workshop through the Georgia Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (GAMFT). If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.

We are an approved vendor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for easy reimbursement of educational expenses for VA employees.