When supporting children through emotional distress, behavioural challenges, trauma, or relational difficulties, it can be tempting to search for the “right” strategy, intervention, or technique.
Yet time and time again, research and therapeutic practice point us back to something both simple and profound: meaningful change happens through relationship.
For professionals working with children and families, the quality of the therapeutic relationship is not just an important part of the work – it is the work.
This understanding sits at the heart of our upcoming live webinar, The Relationship is the Intervention: Deepening Therapeutic Connection with Children, a 3-hour professional development session exploring how connection, relational presence, and play support healing, growth, and emotional regulation in children.
Grounded in Child-Centred Play Therapy (CCPT), neuroscience research, and relational approaches to practice, this webinar invites practitioners to move beyond techniques alone and consider the deeper question: How does the way we are with children shape their capacity to heal, regulate, and grow?
Relationship Before Reasoning
One of the key themes explored in this session is the importance of understanding regulation through a “bottom-up” lens.
Children who are distressed, dysregulated, or overwhelmed cannot simply be reasoned into calmness. Before higher-level thinking and problem-solving can occur, children need to experience safety, connection, and co-regulation.
This is why relational presence matters so deeply.
When adults respond with attunement, empathy, and emotional availability, children begin to experience themselves differently. Through repeated relational experiences, children gradually develop new internal working models about themselves, others, and the world around them.
In many ways, the relationship itself becomes the intervention.
Understanding Behaviour Differently
The webinar also encourages professionals to shift the way they understand children’s behaviour.
Rather than viewing behaviour purely as something to manage or correct, participants will explore the idea that behaviour is often a form of communication – an outward expression of unmet needs, emotional overwhelm, disconnection, fear, or stress.
When practitioners approach behaviour relationally rather than reactively, it opens space for deeper understanding and more effective support.
This shift can profoundly impact the way professionals engage with children across therapeutic, educational, and care settings.
The Healing Power of Play
Play is another central focus of the session.
Drawing on neuroscience research, including the work of neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp on emotional systems, the webinar explores why play is essential for emotional development, regulation, connection, and healing.
For children, play is far more than recreation. It is a primary language through which they process experiences, express emotions, build relationships, and make sense of their world.
Through Child-Centred Play Therapy principles, participants will explore how child-led, non-directive approaches create space for children to experience acceptance, autonomy, emotional safety, and connection.
Practical, Relational, and Immediately Applicable
While grounded in strong theoretical foundations, this webinar is also deeply practical.
Participants will gain insight into:
- Child-led and non-directive practice principles
- Co-regulation and emotional regulation
- Relational attunement and therapeutic presence
- The neuroscience behind play and emotional development
- How therapeutic relationships reshape internal working models
- Core Child-Centred Play Therapy principles including empathy, unconditional positive regard, and attunement
Professionals will leave with practical relational skills and perspectives that can be immediately integrated into their work with children and families.
Learning from Experienced Practitioners
This webinar is led by two highly respected professionals with decades of experience supporting children, families, and practitioners across Aotearoa.
Melanie Gilbert-De Rios is a Child-Centred Play and Filial Family Therapist, Registered Social Worker, and founding director of Play Therapy Tauranga. With over 30 years’ experience in health and social services, Melanie brings extensive expertise in play therapy, family therapy approaches, trauma-informed practice, and professional supervision.
Joining her is Judi Jacobsen, founding director of ChildPlayWorks, who has worked alongside children professionally for more than 40 years. With a background spanning education, clinical therapeutic practice, supervision, and professional training, Judi is deeply committed to equipping practitioners with practical, evidence-informed approaches that can be readily applied in real-world settings.
Together, they bring both depth of knowledge and grounded relational wisdom to this important conversation.
An Invitation to Deepen Practice
For counsellors, social workers, therapists, educators, and professionals supporting children and families, this webinar offers an opportunity to pause and reconnect with one of the most foundational aspects of the work: relationship itself.
Because often, the most meaningful shifts do not come from what we do first – but from how we connect.
The Relationship is the Intervention: Deepening Therapeutic Connection with Children
Monday 9 June | 6:00pm – 9:00pm (NZT) | Live Online Webinar
Book now at www.lifeaplenty.nz
Professional Development:
This webinar provides 3 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). A certificate of attendance will be available for participants who attend the live session.
