Polyvagal Power in the Playroom

A Guide for Play Therapists

Paris Goodyear-Brown, Lorri A. Yasenik, Paris Goodyear-Brown, Lorri A. Yasenik

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781003854197
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Polyvagal Power in the Playroom shows therapists how to treat children using play therapy to address the hierarchy of autonomic states. What do children need and how do play therapists purposefully use the principles of play to increase the feeling states of safety and regulation? Step inside the playroom and discover how trained play therapists are addressing treatment using polyvagal theory when working with children and teens.

The book is organized into three parts:

1. Interruptions explores developmental derailments brought about by relational betrayals such as domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and attachment ruptures implicated in a myriad of adverse childhood experiences. In these cases, the neuroception of safety scaffolded through "good enough" rhythms of healthy caregiver/child interactions is either compromised through a thousand relational cuts (parental addiction or parental mental illness) or abruptly ended (divorce, death or incarceration of a parent)
2. Happenings explores events that involve an external intrusion, such as natural disasters, wars, and pandemics
3. Expressions of risk and resilience explores mental health symptom clusters such as depression, anxiety, dissociation, and explosive behavior through the lens of dorsal vagal or sympathetic nervous system states, as well as specific play therapy methods for healing the nervous system

The therapeutic powers of play are illustrated through case examples and in practical, play-based interventions woven throughout the book.

Child and play therapists will come away from Polyvagal Power in the Playroom with the tools they need to help children and their caregivers achieve deeper levels of safety and connection.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword: Play Therapy Through the Lens of the Polyvagal Theory
• About the Editors
• List of Contributors
• 1 How the Science of Relationships Impacts Our Thinking About Development Interruptions, Happenings, and Expressions of Risk or Resilience
• 2 Listening Inside Our Bodies, Outside Our Bodies, and Between Bodies Interoception, Exteroception, and Setting Up a Polyvagal-Informed Playroom
• 3 The Sounds of Safety in an Unsafe World Recovering from Domestic Violence Through Polyvagal-Informed Play Therapy
• 4 The Genius of the Disembodied Self Coping with Childhood Sexual Abuse
• 5 Healing Attachment Ruptures with Safety and Connection Through Play
• 6 Neurodivergencies and Polyvagal Theory Incorporating Polyvagal Theory
• 7 Plagues, Pandemics, and the Polyvagal Theory in the Playroom
• 8 Reclaiming a Feeling of Safety in Natural Disasters Preparatory and Advanced Interventions Using Play and Play Therapy
• 9 Polyvagal-Informed Practice to Support Children and Caregivers in War Toward the Creation of a Huge and Reassuring Playroom
• 10 Anxiety, the Autonomic Nervous System, and Play as the Mechanism of Change
• 11 Polyvagal Theory and Play Therapy with Children Who Exhibit Aggression
• 12 Helping Depressed, Dissociative, and Withdrawn Children Integrating Holistic Expressive Play Therapy and Polyvagal Theory
• 13 Nature and Play as Polyvagal Partners in Play Therapy
• 14 Child-Centered Play Therapy Person of the Therapist Presence, Neuroception of Safety, and Co-Regulation
• 15 Safety in Sand and Symbols Polyvagal Shifts in the Sand Tray
• 16 Expressive Arts Therapy as Polyvagal Play Shifting States Towards Safety
• 17 Animal Assisted Play Therapy™ as a Polyvagal Process
• 18 Digital Play Therapy™ Harnessing the Felt Sense of Safety in the Digital Space
• Index