hi there are you an EMD art therapist working with children and adolescents and you'd like to do a more thorough phase two with your kids clients but not sure exactly how hi I'm Jackie Flynn I'm an interior approved consultant a registered play therapist and I'm the creator of eight phases of EMDR therapy with children and adolescents integrating play therapy techniques course in this video I want to share with you how you superheroes in session to help my child and teen clients to really build on those inner resources remember we want to really have an imbalance between lots and lots of good stuff so that when they're working through the tough stuff that they have plenty to draw on so this is how I use superheroes in session now to be true to play therapy we do not name the toys until the client names us to toys so right here I see the Hulk and from in front of me I see a bad guy the client may not see a bad guy the client may not see the Hulk the client may see someone that was helpful that was big and strong the client may see a family member may see themselves may see someone at school any any number of different possibilities so being as non-directive as possible as where we get our most opportunity for growth and healing and as the play occurs really look for strength to come out what's really cool about superheroes in a number of different things that we could do for phase two is we can also look find lots of targets that the play as well and it's really important to do a thorough phase one to get a good solid intake from the client the parent and whatever external sources are but specifically as we're building their inner resources to strengthen that just a positive stuff and prepare the child for the EMDR therapy you may notice different themes in the play themes of power themes of strength themes of helping people things of support it can just be a seemingly endless amount of resources that comes out through this so you may say what about this one do you feel like you are kind of like so I'll show you they may say you know I feel like I can get through really tough situations and you may need to be a little bit more guided depending on where your clients at or I feel like I can keep myself safe when necessary and they'll of course use kids language and you reflect that but there's so many different ways as you see those positive characteristics or positive situations you can then access that through the inner resource development and I like to do a slow BLS and just really strengthen that and keep that in mind for any cognitive interweaves that may be necessary later on down the road now I want to be very clear don't over use cognitive interweaves they can be so powerful and so robust but we only want to use them when absolutely necessary so that we don't get in the clients way of doing that natural healing themselves this is how I use superheroes with my inner resource development efforts in my therapy sessions with my child clients now with my team clients we may just talk about the superheroes in which ones that can relate to there's a number of different ways you can just gotta get really creative so let me show you what I have here at this one this one this one this one this one and this one and as you can see a lot of them have been through so many different battles they are so durable so many different things that you can do with those and it's really cool it may sound like later on the therapy that makes me think about how you said you're kind of like and if they've named them Captain America and you can have them kind of played out with the sword or do that movement and therapy you can also you whatever for the bilateral stimulation so many different things that you could do well if you're in need of more support I would love to help you even whether you want to hone your skills or you want to join one of my certification groups or you would just like case consultation just contact me Jackie at Jackie Flynn consulting.com all right take care