VSOF Workshop Series #2

The experience of Joy can be an antidote to living with negative introjects, anxiety, and fear. Knowing we can have joy gives us the courage to face the harder parts of being human. Dr. Violet Oaklander explained that children come into therapy for two main reasons:

1) difficulty making good contact with themselves and their environment and

2) a lessened sense of self. Dr. Oaklander emphasized that developing a greater sense of self can happen with play in a safe therapeutic relationship.

One way to strengthen our sense of self and increase self-support is to experience emotions, and especially the polarities within the emotional realm. In this three-hour workshop, we will explore the polarities of joy and pain. We will share ways to help children find and own their joyful experiences so they can bear to touch their pain. Using the creative projective process of the Oaklander Model in this workshop, participants will have the opportunity for first-hand experience with making better contact with their joy, so they can better understand how to co-create a similar process with young people. Bring your favorite drawing tools and paper to explore and learn together.

Participants will leave this workshop having gained:

1) Learning about the steps of the Oaklander Model therapeutic process, the role of the therapist, and the sequence of therapeutic play.

2) Experience with the polarities of joy and pain through a creative projective process often present in the Oaklander Model.

3) Increased understanding about how to help children and adolescents become more aware and accepting of their emotions, and develop external support, and ultimately, self-support through this process.