Divorce Play Therapy Training

If your heart sinks a little bit when you hear the word divorce on an intake call, you're not alone. Let’s be real - working with families in the thick of separation and change isn’t just challenging—it can feel like navigating an emotional minefield.

You feel like you spend more time dealing with co-parenting concerns vs. actually seeing your child client. Parents want you to be "on their side”, try to use therapy to get more custody, or use it to point out everything their ex is doing wrong.

And when things aren’t going quite right? Kids stay up too late, have too much device time, or didn’t have their leotard washed (again), they want YOU to fix it.

You want to show up fully for your kid clients, but the court jargon, co-parenting chaos, and constant emotional tension? It’s a lot.

You didn’t sign up to be a referee in a custody battle --you signed up to help kids heal.

For kids - life as they know it is over.

Everything is changing, and on top of all of that it feels like they are in the middle of a tug-of-war. Each parent has different ideas about everything - from curfews, screen times, or carpooling to Lacrosse practice. Even though parents just want what's best for their kids - all this fighting is confusing, exhausting, and overwhelming when all kids want is just a little piece of normal.

And the kids? The laaaast thing they want to do is talk about it.

Kids are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They want to be loyal to both of their parents, are confused about what is "okay to say", and are terrified of making things worse. Kids say they are fine but their grades are tanking, anxiety is spiking, and there is a soundtrack of slamming doors at home. And without the right tools and support, they're left trying to process these adult-sized problems in their kid-sized bodies.

Having the support and training to help you effectively navigate and successfully work with divorce in the playroom can make allllll the difference. For you. For the kids and teens you see. For parents.

By creating space for the power of play therapy, you can help children express what they can’t always say, process those big, tangled emotions, and start to rebuild their sense of security and normal —one session at a time.

Because when the adults are stuck in the storm, kids need someone who knows how to bring the calm.

That someone? It’s you.

A trained therapists who has a toolbelt full of the best interventions and techniques (for both inside the playroom and navigating parent sessions) can have massive impact.

Here's what you really need.

You need support. The practical step-by-step roadmap that actually works, starting with the policies, procedures, and legal protections you need at intake to create the safety and trust to actually do the therapy.

You need the play therapy interventions that don't just scratch the surface but go deep to create meaningful healing for the trauma of divorce. You need the scripts for those hard conversations with parents and a plan that helps you show up as the calm in the chaos - without completely burning yourself out in the process.

If you're nodding along - this training was made for you my friend. This is the comprehensive three-sixty-degree training that will help you finally feel confident and effective with divorce in the playroom.

Buckle up for the road map that you need to work with divorce.

This training is the essential comprehensive deep dive you need for working with divorce in the playroom. You will walk away with the rock solid base to help you create healthy boundaries and good working relationships with both parents and kids - right from the start.

With all of the policies, procedures, legal protections, and tweaks to your intake paperwork you can start out the play therapy process on the right foot allowing therapy to be a safe space for kids. And when kids feel safe and are out of the middle? The healing and rebuilding can begin.

And this course? It goes deep.

I'm handing you my full framework - developed through years of working with divorce, separation, and high-conflict families.

By the end of this training you'll have a toolkit full of over 25 play therapy interventions that will take kids deeper into processing the trauma of divorce. Interventions and techniques that are flexible and meet kids where they are at - in any stage of the divorce process - and grounded in well-established Play Therapy models.

With tons of case examples this course holds your hand to troubleshoot the toughest stuck points when working with divorce and separation in the playroom. From subpoenas, navigating the legal dos and don'ts of working with divorce, clarifying your role, working high conflict-divorce, and loyalty conflicts - this course covers it all! This isn't a one or two hour beginning course - it will take your practice to the next level.

It's time to go from "What do I do?" to "I've got this."

☀️ CLARITY

🌈 CONNECTION

🚀 CONFIDENCE

You have nearly foolproof tools at your fingertips to navigate the emotional maze of divorce in your play therapy practice. No second-guessing. Just clear, confident, compassionate direction for working with kids in the thick of family change.

You know exactly how to build deeper, trust-filled connections with both the children and parents—helping kids feel seen, safe, and supported, even when their world feels upside down.

No more avoiding the “divorce” topic, feeling unsure in session, or getting caught in the middle. This training gives you the real tools, language, and strategies that actually work—so you can show up like the rockstar therapist you really are.

Inside the course you get a 35+ page comprehensive workbook for working with divorce and separation including:

🗸 Divorce Definitions And Referral Quick Guide - this resource is the divorce dictionary you need. All the
  complex terms, referral resources, and tools are right at your fingertips!
🗸 Legal Practice Protections - get the forms you need to work effectively with divorce including intake
  questions, safe harbor paperwork, and addendums to your informed consent. This section is the legal
  protection you need!
🗸 Play Therapy Interventions - Seven engaging and interactive play therapy printable activities to use with your
  kids and teens in the playroom!
🗸 Divorce Question Cards - 70+ question cards for kids navigating divorce and separation! You can use these
printable cards with all of your favorite play therapy games over multiple sessions!

Printable, evidence-based tools designed for immediate clinical use—no filler, just function

Plus get these BONUS guides:

🗸Reality Therapy 5 Needs Handout - the tool you need to help kids and parents understand how divorce and separation is impacting children and how to help empower kids and teens to meet their needs!
🗸 Keep Calm and Regulate On: Tips for Managing Co-Regulation Cheat Sheet - my most powerful tips and tools to help parents regulate emotions and co-regulate, both with their children and in their co-parenting relationships!

This course is approved for 11 APT Non-Contact hours byMeehan Mental Health Services (APT Approved Provider 19-580).

Learning Objectives:

Describe over 25 Play Therapy interventions that are appropriate to use with divorced and separated family systems.
Identify at least 6 Play Therapy Theories that can be used effectively with children of divorce and separation.
List and describe at least three signs of distress as a result of parental divorce and separation across the 6 stages of childhood development.
Demonstrate the ability to understand and describe the role of a play therapist with divorcing and separating family systems.
Describe at least five ethical and legal considerations and concerns when working with divorce in play therapy.
List at least 6 referral resources when working with kids and families of divorce and separation.
Describe the four stages of divorce and how a child’s play therapy may be impacted by each stage.
Identify at least 10 treatment tasks specific to divorce and play therapy.
Describe at least 7 steps in the intake process therapists should take to maintain boundaries in play therapy with families of divorce and separation.
Identify at least 5 strategies to help increase trust and effective working relationships with parents for play therapy parent sessions.
List at least 10 therapeutic strategies to use with parents of divorced and separated family systems to increase stability, safety, predictability, and consistency.

This training is perfect for any busy therapist who wants to be more effective working with divorce and separation in play therapy. It's the essential and comprehensive course you need to help families navigate through the storms of divorce to the rainbow at the end - without getting caught in the downpour.

This course is self paced to fit your life. It's pre-recorded and broken into digestible modules that can be completed during client cancellations, weekends, early mornings, late nights — whenever it works for you. Log in, re-watch, and revisit content anytime.

Start filling your play therapy toolbox with these essential techniques, activities, and strategies for working with divorce and separation in the playroom!

Or formally Ann Meehan, MS, LPCC, RPT-S, EMDRIA Consultant. I work as a private practice therapist in the north woods of Minnesota and specialize in working with young people ages 3 and up using Play Therapy and EMDR. I have a library of trainings and run The Playful Therapist Blog. Overall I am passionate about helping other therapists grow into competent and confident Play Therapists, trauma therapists, and child and adolescent therapists.

Grab the essential training you need to be effective with divorce in the playroom!

Please email [email protected] with questions or concerns.

Play Therapy Credit may not be awarded to non-mental health professionals. There are no refunds for this recorded course.
See Meehan Mental Health Services full policies and procedures for online and in person trainings here.