In a world where mental health needs are on the rise and access to supportive mental healthcare has been in steady deficit to meet this need, there is a movement amongst the helping professional community to evaluate the efficacy of time old approaches functioning within the sick model of medicine and mental health wellness. As of late, there is a healthy momentum towards the installation of integrated approaches when treating children in effort to treat them holistically instead of symptomatic disordered elements of their system. Join child psychotherapist Brittany McBryde Williams a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, as she explores Terry Kottman’s integrated model built on the foundations of Alfred Adler’s, Individual psychology joined with the heavy hitter of child work, Play therapy. Explore the underpinnings of this evidenced based practice and how this is translated into the systematic model of play therapy using phase work.
Upon completion of this presentation, attendees should be able to highlight the historical foundations of both Adlerian theory as well as that of Kottman’s integrated model. An additional aim is to take a closer look at how integrated models of holistic care should be viewing a child and/or their family as a whole system; which starkly contrasts with the view of childhood mental health disorders looking through the lens of the managed care sick model. The importance of this focal point demonstrates a drastic need for a paradigm shift amongst not only child mental health and medical providers but also those in positions who are informing policy at a systemic level for things like managed care requirements, licensing board candidacy requirements and qualifications, continuing education limitations, and so many more.