Lorri Yasenik and Ken Gardner are co-directors of the Rocky Mountain Play Therapy Institute in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, an accredited training institute founded in 1996 that offers experiential learning opportunities, integrating play therapy theory and practice. Lorri is a certified play therapist, and a founding member and former executive board member of the Alberta Play Therapy Association. She has presented nationally and internationally in the areas of play therapy, child psychotherapy, attachment, family violence, high conflict divorce and family mediation, and her PhD study is in the area of 'The Voice of the Child in Legal Matters'. Ken is a Clinical Psychologist and a Certified Play Therapy Supervisor. He is a past executive board member of the Canadian Association for Child Psychotherapy and Play Therapy, and has been a clinical practitioner for over 24 years. He is a former teacher of young children with special needs, and provides consultation to early intervention services as well as to therapists, schools, case managers and families. Ken has presented nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics related to play therapy and play-based interventions. Lorri Yasenik and Ken Gardner are co-directors of the Rocky Mountain Play Therapy Institute in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, an accredited training institute founded in 1996 that offers experiential learning opportunities, integrating play therapy theory and practice. Lorri is a certified play therapist, and a founding member and former executive board member of the Alberta Play Therapy Association. She has presented nationally and internationally in the areas of play therapy, child psychotherapy, attachment, family violence, high conflict divorce and family mediation, and her PhD study is in the area of 'The Voice of the Child in Legal Matters'. Ken is a Clinical Psychologist and a Certified Play Therapy Supervisor. He is a past executive board member of the Canadian Association for Child Psychotherapy and Play Therapy, and has been a clinical practitioner for over 24 years. He is a former teacher of young children with special needs, and provides consultation to early intervention services as well as to therapists, schools, case managers and families. Ken has presented nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics related to play therapy and play-based interventions.
Yasenik and Gardner have masterfully gathered respected play therapists from diverse theoretical orientations to frame the totality of turning points and its various interlinked elements. Utilizing case vignettes, contributing authors take us inside the sanctity of the play therapy change process. Situated within four main types of turning points; this book applies the Play Therapy Dimensions Model of decision making with the critical importance of the self-reflective tool: Degree of Immersion: The Therapist Use of Self scale to understand, measure, and influence clinical reasoning and decision making. This book is an exemplar of sound clinical synthesis with profound implications for change in play therapy clients, practitioners, and supervisors. I predict you will experience your own developmental turning points of growth as you read through the pages. Savor this experience! -- Mary Anne Peabody, Ed.D., LCSW, RPT-S Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Southern Maine This book is a must read for all child psychotherapists and play therapists! Its unique focus on change mechanisms and how the Play Therapy Dimensions Model can help practitioners to identify, and track, shifts their own therapeutic use of self as the child moves through the healing process provides rich learning for even the most experienced practitioner. The use of case material is both educational and engaging. -- Siobhán Prendiville, MA Course Leader, the Children's Therapy Centre