Date: February 6, 2026
Times: 8:30 am-12:50 pm Eastern (Find the time for your location)
Instructor: Sumayya Bengali Garib, MBACP (Member of British Association of Counselling Psychotherapy) and Liz Brenner, LICSW
Location: Live on Zoom (synchronous), not recorded for participants
Credits: 4 CEs
Integrating Play in Family Therapy
This workshop will provide clinicians with essential tools and knowledge to integrate family systems practices with play therapy interventions. We will focus on how to tailor family therapy to engage and support children and their caregivers. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of how to match play therapy practices with the emotional and cognitive abilities of children according to their developmental stages. Evidence based play therapy tools and interventions will be presented and discussed using case material. You will learn specific play methodologies to integrate into family therapy including: the use of animals as metaphors, exploring timelines of problems and solutions through storytelling, family games, sand tray, and art activities to assess and impact family functioning.
We will apply playful interventions in the context of Therapy Training Boston’s six phases of a transtheoretical family therapy session: joining, problem identification, information gathering, redefining the problem in systems terms, feedback, and contracting. Liz will describe the purposes and principles of each phase of effective family meetings. Sumayya will describe specific activities to use in each phase of the family work. She will help participants understand how to use playful strategies to accomplish goals of a variety of family systems therapy models.
Participants will discuss potential family scenarios in small groups. They will develop strategies to enhance their family therapy sessions with children by using the workshop material.
Statement of Need for this Training: Many practitioners are unaware of how to address the nuanced needs of children as they present in family therapy. The family therapy literature and training mostly address systems with adolescents and adults. When children are involved, treatment needs to be expanded to meet a range of levels of development: neurologically, cognitively, and emotionally. Children and families are at a disadvantage when these needs are not taken into consideration. When children’s needs are addressed with age and developmentally appropriate play, new resources emerge in the family system as limits to creative problem solving are dissolved.
Sumayya Bengali Garib, MBACP
Sumayya Bengali Garib, MBACP, is a humanistic integrative therapist working with children, young adults and their families. She provides support for family conflict resolution, chronic illness, grief, loss, and trauma, using play therapy techniques, sand play, art and yoga. She was trained as a therapist in the United Kingdom. Sumayya graduated from Therapy Training Boston’s Intensive Certificate Program in Couple and Family Therapy in June of 2023. Living in Pakistan, Sumayya is a mother of three young adults and belongs to a joint family which is home to four generations. Her life experience and therapeutic practice is driven by the belief that relational challenges in families can be overcome when all members, regardless of their age, feel safe in authenticity and communication. Through the practice of family therapy she hopes to bridge the deepening generation gap in Pakistani society.
Liz Brenner, LICSW
Liz Brenner, LICSW, is the Director of Therapy Training Boston. She is the primary instructor of the Intensive Certificate Program in Couple and Family Therapy, hosts a couple therapy course ,and several workshops annually, as well as facilitating monthly consultation groups. Liz is in Private Practice online and in Watertown MA; she is a Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; and is Co-Director of the Harvard/CHA Treating Couples Conference. Liz published two chapters on doing home based family therapy, the article The Development of the Internal Family Systems Model: Honoring Contributions from Family Systems Therapies with Richard Schwartz, PhD, and Carol Becker, PhD, published in the Family Process Journal and edited What Helps When Children and Families Struggle: An attachment-informed guide for families and clinicians with John Stewart and Erin Belfort. In 2017, Liz was the recipient of the Greatest Contribution to Social Work, MA Chapter, NASW.
Schedule: Eastern Time
Learning: 8:30 am-10:00 am 1.5 hours
Break 10:00 am- 10:10 am
Learning: 10:10 pm-11:40 pm 1.5 hours
Break: 11:40 am- 11:50 am
Learning: 11:50 am-12:50 pm 1 hour
Learning Objectives, Participants will:
- Identify the developmental stages of children aged 0-10yrs, specifying their capacity and limitations in emotional growth and communication.
- Select play therapy inspired interventions and apply them to hypothetical family therapy situations using a transtheoretical family systems lens.
- List the tools and equipment needed to integrate play therapy interventions in their practice.
- Apply play therapy and art-based interventions to each of the six phase of the family therapy interview.
Target Audience
This learning event is designed for helping professionals including, but not limited to, social workers, mental health counselors, and marriage & family therapists. People who attend from professions other than those for whom we are approved for CEs may check their local Board of License Registration to see if these CEs will apply. Details about our CE approvals are listed here
Cost
- Individual Registration: Regular Rate—$120; Early Bird Rate: $100
- Early Registration Deadline: January 9, 2026
- Black Therapists Rock and all BIPOC clinicians are eligible for an equity discount of 25% by using the code EQUITY in the online registration form. NEAFAST Members are eligible for a 15% discount using the code NEAFAST.
- 4 CEs will be available at an additional cost of $25 paid upon registration for social workers, mental health counselors, marriage & family therapists and anyone else who determines their board will accept our CEs.
Location Live on Zoom, not videotape for participants.
Additional Information
Participants MUST attend 100% of the program to earn the 4 CEUs approved for eligible professions.
CE certificates will be downloadable within three days of each event after participants complete the workshop or course and fill out the online evaluation.
- Therapy Training Boston is approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6707 for Mental Health Counselors. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Therapy Training Boston is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR CEUs FOR MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELORS -
Application for 4 CEs for LMFT continuing education has been submitted to NEAFAST on behalf of the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health & Human Services Professions for LMFT Professional Continuing Education. LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR CEUs FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS
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Application has been submitted for 4 CEs for Social Work Continuing Education for relicensure, in accordance with 258 CMR, NASW-MA Chapter CE Approval Program LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR CEUs FOR SOCIAL WORKERS
- Check with your state board to determine whether our approved CEUs meet the criteria for your license
Read detailed information about CEUs here.
No refunds are available for late cancellations. If participants cancel 30 days or more prior to the start of the event, they may apply the fee to a future program. Workshops may be cancelled by Therapy Training Boston if minimum enrollment requirements are not met or in the case of other unexpected circumstances. If this occurs, a full refund will be provided.