12/06/2025
Proud to be an Instructor
FILIAL THERAPY TRAINING!!! Come join one of our Dr. Rise VanFleet certified instructors for a 4 day comprehensive training in a theoretically integrative, child-centered, attachment focused approach!!! Dr. VanFleet studied directly under the Guerneys, founders of Filial Therapy, serving as their teaching assistant. She has been practicing Filial Therapy and training others in it with fidelity to the Guerneys' model for over 40 years. The Filial Therapy client is the relationship that exists between a child and their caregiver(s). One of the aims of Filial Therapy is to help caregivers understand their children better, increasing positive patterns of interaction overall, which leads to increased feelings of security in the child. Filial Therapy is listed as an evidence-based practice with just a few of the most important studies being:
Guerney, B., Jr. (1964). Filial therapy: Description and rationale. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 28(4), 304–310. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0041340;
VanFleet, R., Ryan, S. D., & Smith, S. K. (2005). Filial therapy: A critical review. In L. A. Reddy, T. M. Files-Hall, & C. E. Schaefer (Eds.), Empirically based play interventions for children (pp. 241–264). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/11086-012
Topham, G. L., Wampler, K. S., Titus, G., & Rolling, E. (2011). Predicting parent and child outcomes of a filial therapy program. International Journal of Play Therapy, 20(2), 79–93. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023261
VanFleet, R. (2012). Communication and Connection: Filial Therapy with Families of Children With ASD. In L. Gallo- Lopez& L.C Rubin (Eds.), Play -Based Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Routledge.
Come join us and learn to play the Guerney way!!
