Training Overview:

Family systems theory provides a central rationale for family play therapy because it views symptoms and distress as embedded in interactional patterns rather than residing only within one individual. Play-based conjoint work is particularly congruent with systemic thinking because it allows therapists to observe boundaries, coalitions, roles, hierarchy, reciprocity, and emotional climate in action while the family engages a shared task. Genograms and family mapping explicitly organize multigenerational and structural information, while the other play techniques externalize family process through symbol, action, distance, and collaboration.

Developmental and attachment-informed perspectives also support the use of family play techniques. Play offers children a primary language for expression, especially when reflective verbal capacities are still emerging, and it creates a safer medium for parents and children to communicate needs, fears, wishes, and misattunements. In family sessions, shared symbolic activity can increase co-regulation, mutual attention, and affective connection, making it easier to address relational ruptures and promote repair.

Projective, expressive, and narrative traditions further explain why these methods are clinically useful. Sandtray, drawing, puppets, and storytelling permit indirect expression and symbolic distance, which can reduce defensiveness and help family members communicate difficult material through metaphor, roles, and images rather than direct confrontation alone. Narrative play is especially compatible with externalization and re-authoring because families can represent problems as stories or scenes and then experiment with preferred meanings and outcomes.

The current literature supports family play techniques primarily as structured tools for assessment, engagement, communication, and change, though the evidence base varies by modality and is stronger for some expressive methods than for others. Family play therapy literature describes conjoint play as useful for observing attachment behavior, family roles, problem-solving, and communication patterns that may not emerge as clearly in talk-based formats alone. Sand-based approaches have been associated with improved communication and interpersonal understanding in family and group contexts. 

Research on family drawing methods also supports their use as clinically meaningful family assessment and intervention tools (Ram-Vlasov & Orkibi, 2021). The Conjoint Family Drawing literature describes the task as useful for examining both the product and the process of joint family activity, including integration, deletions, emotional climate, decision-making, parental functions, and couple support. In a sample of 117 conjoint family drawings, two trained raters demonstrated extremely high interrater agreement for the coding system, and the authors concluded that the method could support assessment, clinical reflection, and therapeutic change because “making something together” reveals and transforms family patterns (Gennari & Tamanza, 2022).

Family play genograms and family mapping are also supported in the practice literature because they adapt systemic assessment into a more concrete and developmentally accessible form. These methods help clinicians organize family membership, subsystems, distance, support, exclusion, and multigenerational themes while simultaneously inviting participation by children and caregivers. Across modalities, the literature consistently recommends attention to culture, therapist training, developmentally appropriate materials, and the integration of observation with broader clinical formulation rather than overinterpreting any single play product.

Meet your Speaker:

Amanda Sawyer, MS, LPC-Associate, is a doctoral student at Texas Tech University and president of the Mid-Texas Counseling Association chapter of the TCA. At Mindset Counseling Group, she specializes in child and adolescent private practice, pursuing full licensure and Registered Play Therapist certification while researching innovative, creative play therapy integrations.

Dr. Jared Lau is a counselor educator at Texas Tech University specializing in multicultural counseling, antiracism, and international students. A Nationally Certified Counselor and award-winning mentor, he previously held leadership roles with the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and brings extensive clinical experience in university, community, and school settings.

Dr. Ng Kok Mun is a retired Professor of Counseling at Oregon State University; licensed counsellor, certified supervisor, researcher, and co-founder of Soulcare Counselling in Malaysia. His scholarship and practice are grounded in culturally informed, systemic, social justice-oriented, and social constructivist perspectives. He has extensive training and work experience in child, adolescent, and family counseling.

Tan Jia Yue is a lecturer at the Department of Psychology with Monash University Malaysia, and is a licensed counsellor and clinical supervisor of counselling trainees. He is interested in various professional issues faced by psychotherapists and uses a humanistic lens to his counselling practice. He is also currently pursuing his PhD focusing on the personal therapy of psychotherapists in Malaysia.