Baffling Behaviors in the Playroom: Movement, Rhythm, and Sensory Strategies for Highly Dysregulated Children

Sponsoring Organization: Washington Association for Play Therapy

Date: April 3ed, 2027

Time: 9am – 4:30pm pacific

Location: Seattle, WA

Description:
All behavior makes sense — except the ones that don’t. Some children have big, baffling behaviors that leave even seasoned play therapists confused, overwhelmed, burned out, or referring out. These are the kids who aren’t playing with the toys — they’re throwing them across the room, running out the door, hiding under the table, or shutting completely down.

Understanding behavior through the lens of neurosequential brain development and the autonomic nervous system gives us a completely different roadmap for treatment — one where highly dysregulated children receive organized, coherent, rhythmic, repetitive, relational, and somatosensory experiences before symbolic or metaphor-based play can emerge.

In this full-day workshop, attendees will learn a playful, body-based paradigm for understanding and treating extreme dysregulation in children. Building the foundation that makes all other play therapy work possible, we’ll explore how movement, rhythm, and sensory play directly target the brainstem and subcortical systems where these children are stuck. Attendees will leave with a framework for making sense of even the most baffling behaviors — and with practical, immediately implementable strategies for working with highly dysregulated children and their families inside the play therapy room.

Registration Information: This is a training for Washington Association for Play Therapy. If you are interested in scheduling a similar training for your organization, contact Robyn’s team at hello@robyngobbel.com