You hold stories that many people never hear. Session after session you sit with trauma, grief, injustice, and the parts of human experience that most of the world turns away from.

You keep showing up, therapist, but something shifts. Maybe it is harder to feel. Or you dread the schedule. You stay late to finish notes because you need time to come back to yourself before going home.

Some days you wonder how long you can do this work.

Vicarious trauma does not always arrive dramatically. It often settles in quietly. Numbness here. Irritability there. A growing distance between the work you believe in and the way your body feels while doing it. When the system that cares for others is not cared for itself, burnout follows.

Talk-based processing helps, but it is not always enough.

How Can This Training Help YOU?

The load of trauma sits in the nervous system and in images that linger. Right-brain, play-informed practices give us another way in. Symbol. Image. Gentle art responses. Short visualizations that re-anchor the body.

When we use these with intention, we can notice what we carry sooner, regulate more effectively, and return to the work with integrity.

This training is a protected space for therapists who carry trauma for a living.

You will experience each exercise personally, see it demonstrated for use with clients or supervision groups, and leave with practical routines you can integrate between sessions.

Bring a symbolic or image-based card deck and simple art supplies. We will work with what you have.

Tell Me The Details!

Friday, March 20, 2026 | 9:30AM–12:45 PM EST ($99)

Virtual: 3 Non-Contact CE (NBCC & APT) (apt requires a passing grade of 80% on exam)

In Person: Loudoun Co: 3 Contact CE (NBCC & APT)

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, participants will be able to:

Demonstrate an image-based, card-guided self-care exercise that can be adapted for client use to support emotional regulation and resilience.

Apply a guided visualization protocol to identify early indicators of compassion fatigue and to re-center therapeutic presence.

Identify and reimagine how personal energy is currently spent versus how it is most desired, by engaging in art projects and card-based prompts. Participants will compare current and ideal energy patterns as a way to uncover imbalance, restore vitality, and strengthen protection against burnout and vicarious trauma.

Observe and reflect on a live sand tray demonstration of a therapist externalizing accumulated trauma from sessions. Participants will experience how symbolic expression can create immediate relief, deepen emotional clarity, and model sustainable practices for well-being.

Develop a personal action plan for sustaining resilience by integrating at least one experiential self-care practice from the training into daily life, with consideration for how modeling these practices benefits clients and supervisees.

Evaluate how experiential self-care practices (art, cards, visualization, sand tray) can be adapted to support therapists working with diverse clients, including those presenting with complex trauma and challenging behaviors, while maintaining cultural sensitivity and ethical standards.

☀️ Who Should Attend ☀️

☀️ Play therapists and creative arts therapists

☀️ Any therapist wishing to learn techniques of letting go of stress and vicarious trauma (non-play therapists too!)

☀️ Therapists on the brink of burn out (non-play therapists too!)

☀️ Curious counselors, social workers, psychologists

Agenda (Eastern Time)

9:30  Brain Hemisphere and Function Overview

10:30  Experiential Practice & Collaboration 

12:45  See You Next Time!