Session Description

Play therapists need to understand how the demographics of children in the United States is changing and the impacts on practice. In 2015, more than 50% of children under 5 years old in the United States were children of color (Cohn, 2016). By the year 2020, the number of minority group children under 18 years old will surpass the number of children in the majority group, with the largest growth being in the Hispanic community (Chappell, 2015). The relationship between race and poverty cannot be ignored. Children from marginalized populations have lower access to preschool, higher rates of suspension from preschool onward (US Dept. of Education, 2014), and are likely to have more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

The theoretical basis of this presentation will be focusing on the multicultural and social justice competencies (Ratts, Singh, Nasser-McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2016) for play therapists. The focus of the workshop is to increase self-awareness of play therapists related to attitudes and beliefs of diverse populations as well as the integration of multicultural issues into their overall conceptualization of children. The experiential workshop will address self-awareness of the participants, the intersectionality of identities, in-depth discussion of oppression and privilege, and developing advocacy plans. Through experiential activities, discussion, and presentation of case studies, participants will acquire greater multicultural and social justice awareness and advocacy strategies for working with children from marginalized populations.