Creating Safe Spaces: Play Therapy Approaches for Neurodivergent Children

Neurodivergent children experience and express themselves in ways that are deeply authentic, meaningful, and uniquely their own, and they deserve play therapy spaces that honor those differences. Creating Safe Spaces is a specialized training designed to help clinicians adapt play therapy interventions and environments to meet the needs of autistic, ADHD, sensory-sensitive, and otherwise neurodivergent children.

Grounded in neurodiversity-affirming principles and informed by AutPlay and contemporary play therapy research, this workshop challenges deficit-based models and embraces neurological differences as natural human variation. Clinicians will learn how to recognize alternative communication styles, support regulatory play patterns such as stimming, and build therapeutic relationships that do not require masking or conformity to neurotypical norms.

Through this training, case examples, and practical strategies, participants will explore how to modify play therapy rooms for sensory accessibility, select toys and materials that respect neurodivergent play preferences, and build attuned, affirming rapport through parallel play, shared special interests,…