Who are the People in your Neighborhood? Ethics with Dual Relationships in Rural Communities
With Sandy Bourgeois, LPC-S, RPT-S™ and
Lisa Morrell Dawson, LPC-S, RPT-S™
(to find out more about Sandy and Lisa go here)
-
Saturday, November 7, 2026, 9:00 am - 12:15 pm (CST)
-
Location: Playful Pathways Consulting - 102 S Main, Beggs, OK
-
Cost: $80
-
3 CE Contact Hours
-
Dawson Counseling and Play Therapy is an Approved Provider for APT (Provider #17-514) and for Oklahoma LPC, LMFT, and LCSW (Provider #20260385)
Location:
Playful Pathways Consulting
102 Main, Beggs, OK
Please note! Beggs, OK, is a small town about 40 minutes south of Tulsa, OK. There are limited food and lodging options. If you require lodging, we can help you locate lodging - the closest cities will be Glenpool, OK, and Okmulgee, OK (both around 20 minutes away).
Therapists in Oklahoma often practice in communities where overlapping relationships are unavoidable. Clients may also be neighbors, classmates of the therapist or the therapist’s child, church members, relatives of friends, or members of the same civic organizations. In rural communities, where anonymity can be harder to maintain than in urban settings, clinicians must balance professional boundaries with community involvement while continuing to provide ethical, competent care. Not all dual relationships are inherently unethical; however, therapists need clear strategies for managing dual relationships and related ethical challenges in ways that best serve the child and family.
Training Focus
-
Understand key differences between rural and urban communities and how those differences may affect therapy and play therapy.
-
Identify ethical challenges that commonly arise in rural therapy and play therapy practice.
-
Apply professional ethical codes to real-world rural practice dilemmas.
-
Explain how dual relationships and community visibility can affect therapy and play therapy boundaries.
-
Develop practical strategies for confidentiality, boundaries, supervision, and cultural humility when working with children and families.
Objectives:
-
Describe the differences between rural and urban communities and how those differences may affect therapy and play therapy.
-
Identify five ethical challenges unique to rural therapy and play therapy practice.
-
Apply professional ethical codes to real-world rural practice dilemmas in therapy and play therapy.
-
Explain how dual relationships and community visibility can affect therapy boundaries.
-
Identify practical strategies for maintaining confidentiality, boundaries, supervision, and cultural humility when working with families in therapy and play therapy.
Schedule:
8:45 am - Registration
9:00 am - Course Begins
12:15 pm - Course Ends
There will be one 15-minute break
Taking a Closer Look - Addressing Internal Bias in Therapy Supervision and Consultation
With Lisa Morrell Dawson, MA, MS, LPC-S, Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor™
(to find out more about Lisa go here)
-
Saturday, November 7, 2026, 1:15 pm- 4:30 pm (CST)
-
Location: Playful Pathways Consulting - 102 S Main, Beggs, OK
-
Cost: $80
-
3 CE Contact Hours
-
Dawson Counseling and Play Therapy is an Approved Provider for APT (Provider #17-514) and for Oklahoma LPC, LMFT, and LCSW (Provider #20260385)
-
Class size is limited
Location:
Playful Pathways Consulting
102 Main, Beggs, OK
Please note! Beggs, OK, is a small town about 40 minutes south of Tulsa, OK. There are limited food and lodging options. If you require lodging, we can help you locate lodging - the closest cities will be Glenpool, OK, and Okmulgee, OK (both around 20 minutes away).
As supervisors and consultants, we are responsible for providing ethical guidance while remaining aware of our own biases, assumptions, and professional limits. This training invites participants to examine personal and intrinsic bias, consider how bias may affect supervision, and practice strategies for guiding meaningful conversations with therapy and play therapy supervisees. Participants will receive current research and quality resources to support culturally humble, ethically grounded supervision.
Objectives:
-
Identify personal and intrinsic bias and support therapy and play therapy supervisees in recognizing their own biases.
-
Locate and evaluate quality information, resources, and research related to internal bias and cultural humility in therapy and play therapy.
-
Identify microaggressions that may occur in therapy and play therapy with children, adolescents, adults, and families.
Schedule:
-
1:00 pm - Registration
-
1:15 pm - Course Begins
-
4:30 pm - Course Ends
-
There will be one 15 minute break.
Autplay Therapy Training
Friday and Saturday, March 26-27, 2027
-
Cost: $575 (plus processing fee
-
Early Bird by December 31, 2026: $499 (plus processing fee)
-
12 CE Non-Contact Hours
-
12 CE Contact Hours
-
Dawson Counseling and Play Therapy is an Approved APT Provider #17-514
-
Dawson Counseling and Play Therapy is an approved providers for LPC, LMFT, and LCSW (Provider Number 20260385) in Oklahoma.
-
This course meets the APT social and cultural diversity requirements.
This is an intensive 12 hour training that focuses on teaching the AutPlay Therapy framework – a diversity understanding for implementing play therapy with neurodivergent children (autistic, ADHD, sensory differences, learning differences, developmental disabilities, etc.) and their families. The AutPlay Therapy framework highlights neurodiversity affirming and informed constructs within the therapeutic powers of play and seminal play therapy theories and approaches. Emphasis is placed on understanding and addressing mental health needs for neurodivergent children and adolescents.
This training provides awareness for the play therapist in working with neurodivergent children and adolescents and how to be in healthy, safe, and affirming therapeutic relationship. Participants learn how to conceptualize the neurodivergent child’s spectrum of presentation and how to assess for needs (therapy goals). AutPlay inventories and worksheets will be highlighted along with how to affirmingly include parents and children as partners in the play therapy process. Concepts will be covered and explored through experiential play interventions designed to address therapy goals.
The three general therapy phases in play therapy implementation will be covered which include intake and assessment, structured play interventions (theory and approach selection), and termination. Affirming understanding of neurodivergent play and regulation and dysregulation concepts will be covered. The AutPlay Therapy Follow Me Approach (FMA) is explained which details how to work with children with little to no engagement and attunement ability creating integrative play therapy to improve connection and relationship development. Several play therapy interventions are explained and demonstrated through session video clips. Experiential activities are presented, and case conceptualization and planning are discussed.
Once you have registered for the training, you will be emailed a pre-training form with a few instructions before your two-day in-person training. The instructions include processes for completing the full AutPlay certification program. This includes instructions for purchasing and reading the book The AutPlay Therapy Handbook: Integrative Family Play Therapy with Neurodivergent Children by Robert Jason Grant and watching the recorded webinar – Introduction to AutPlay Therapy.
Objectives:
-
Explain neurodiversity and the neurodiversity paradigm as it relates to play therapy work.
-
Conceptualize the foundational principles of being neurodiversity informed and affirming related to play therapy.
-
Conceptualize integrative play therapy processes for individualizing therapy approach.
-
Describe common mental health goals for neurodivergent children addressed through play therapy.
-
Identify several structured play therapy interventions to use for addressing therapy goals.
-
Implement the three overarching phases of play therapy (AutPlay Therapy framework) – intake and assessment, structured intervention (play therapy theory/approach selection), and termination.
-
Discuss how to affirmingly involve parents and children as partners in the play therapy process.
-
Describe the AutPlay model of regulation/dysregulation.
-
Identify play therapy interventions to address dysregulation needs (creating a regulation play time).
-
Implement the AutPlay Follow Me Approach, designed for children with higher support needs.
-
Explain common neurodivergent play presentations as manifested in play therapy work.
-
Understand the diverse complexities and concepts present when implementing play therapy with neurodivergent children.