The Ethics of It All: Are You Really an Expert?

Date: Saturday September 12, 2026 

CE: 3.0 Live Webinar Hours Via Secure Zoom Platform

CE Certificate Included in Cost

Registration:

Early bird rate: $99 through August 31, 2026
Regular rate: $125

Bonuses:

• Competence Self-Audit – A fillable caseload-mapping grid with quarterly re-assessment prompt.
• “Edges” Decision Guide – A one-page flow for when you hit your competence edge.

A 3-Hour Virtual, Experiential Play Therapy Ethics Training

Description

Most ethics trainings teach the floor: the rules that keep a play therapist out of a board complaint. This one asks a harder question, and it asks participants to answer it with their hands rather than only their heads. Many in our field treat credentials as proof of expertise, yet a license only permits practice and a certification only documents completed training. Neither guarantees competence with the child in the playroom. This training examines the ethical territory between what we are permitted to do and what we are genuinely competent to do, and it does so inside play therapy practice, where the vulnerability of child clients and the interpretive nature of play-based work raise the stakes of that gap.

Because ethics content is most easily absorbed as something that applies to other clinicians, this play therapy training is built on experiential and expressive learning rather than lecture. Participants engage a brick-based building process, delivered through the presenter’s Brick Magic® play therapy approach and grounded in LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method, to externalize and examine the edges of their own competence, and an expressive art process to surface the assumptions they carry into play-based work. Both activities move the central question of the title from the abstract to the personal, where it does the most good.

Participants will work through three areas where the distance between credential and competence does the most ethical damage in play therapy. The first is cultural humility as a standing ethical obligation rather than an optional skill, including how cultural misattunement in play-based assessment and intervention becomes an ethical concern in its own right. The second is the distinction between mandatory and aspirational ethics, and what each one asks of a play therapist beyond staying out of trouble. The third is the recognition of one’s own competence edges, along with the ethical responses required when those edges are reached: consultation, referral, supervision, and additional training. Throughout, ethical play therapy practice is framed not as a list of prohibitions but as an ongoing, self-questioning discipline in which expertise is continually earned rather than conferred by years in the field or letters after a name.

 

Delivery is fully virtual and experiential. Participants must bring their own LEGO® bricks and basic art supplies (a supply list is provided at registration), consistent with the standard requirement for all online LSP-based trainings.

 

This training is designed for RPTs, RPT-Ss, mental health professionals, and supervisees who integrate play therapy into their work with children and families.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to:

1. Differentiate scope of practice from scope of competence as they apply to play therapy, and identify at least three indicators that a clinician may be practicing beyond demonstrated competence.
2. Analyze the difference between mandatory (enforceable) and aspirational ethical standards, and describe how each shapes clinical decision-making in the playroom.
3. Construct a brick-based model that represents the edge of one’s own play therapy competence and what lies beyond it, and interpret that edge as an ethical, not merely a professional, boundary.
4. Represent, through an expressive art process, the assumptions one carries into play-based work, and explain how cultural misattunement in play-based assessment and intervention functions as an ethical concern rather than a matter of style.
5. Formulate an ethically grounded response, drawing on consultation, referral, supervision, or additional play therapy training, for situations in which a clinician reaches the edge of their competence.

 

Time	Agenda
8:55 – 9:00	Welcome, housekeeping, presenter disclosures, materials check (bricks and art supplies), overview of objectives.
9:00 – 9:45	The Expert Illusion. Brief LSP skills warm-up (etiquette build) to establish the method; guided build prompt with debrief surfacing how we construct expertise as a finished destination. Content: credential vs. competence; scope of practice vs. scope of competence; the self-assessment problem and why seasoned clinicians are not exempt.
9:45 – 10:30	Mandatory vs. Aspirational Ethics in the Playroom. The enforceable floor vs. the aspirational ceiling and what each demands of a play therapist; facilitated case discussion locating real play therapy dilemmas along that spectrum.
10:30 – 10:45	Break
10:45 – 11:15	Cultural Humility as an Ethical Obligation (Expressive Art). Two-panel art process. Debrief focuses on the gap between the two panels, which is where cultural humility does its work. When we misread a child’s world, that is a competence problem, not just a difference in style.
11:15 12:15	Knowing Your Edges, and What You Do When You Hit Them (LSP). Guided build of one’s competence and its edge, then a build of what lives just past that edge; small-group sharing; content on consultation, referral, supervision, and additional training as the true markers of expertise; closing commitment build
12:05 – 12:15	Q & A. Ask Away.

*Agenda is subject to change.

 

Presenter: Althea T. Simpson, MSW, LCSW, RPT-S™, CISM

Althea brings over 20 years of experience in research, diagnosis, and treatment across the mental health field. She specializes in guiding individuals and families toward resilience after trauma, moving from Hurt to Healing. Certified in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method and the Playmobil pro Pro.Play method, she integrates both with play therapy. Althea trains mental health professionals, educators, and community leaders on trauma impact and responsive treatment approaches.

Unicorn Life Training is a subsidiary of Brighter Day Therapeutic Solutions, PLLC. All Unicorn Life Training live interactive webinars are held in Eastern Time.

 

The Unicorn Life Training environment aims to:

1. Provide a non-judgmental, empathetic atmosphere where participants feel comfortable sharing and exploring.
2. Use active listening and reflective responses to validate participants’ experiences and feelings.
3. Remain attentive to the potential for re-traumatization, offering support and adapting activities to each participant’s comfort level.
4. Encourage creativity. There is no wrong way to use the materials; the focus is on the process and the story behind the creation.

 

Access to Course and Materials: A link to the live webinar will be emailed after registration. Course materials will be available for download in your participant account 24 hours before the training begins.

Continuing Education

3.0 Non-Contact CE hours sponsored by Unicorn Life Training, APT Approved Provider #18-532. Play therapy CE hours are available to mental health professionals and graduate students enrolled in a mental health program.

Unicorn Life Training, #2031, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Unicorn Life Training maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive 3.0 continuing education credits. ACE provider approval period: 01/24/2026 to 01/24/2029.

Live webinars are limited to 50 attendees. We ask that participants be visibly present with their full name displayed for the entire webinar and must sign in and out of the chat so attendance can be recorded. To receive a CE certificate, participants must complete a training evaluation and pass the post-test with a score of 80% or higher. The post-test may be retaken as many times as needed to pass.

 

Copyright © 2026

© Unicorn Life Training, a subsidiary of Brighter Day Therapeutic Solutions, PLLC. All rights reserved. This course and its materials are protected by copyright. Any reproduction, distribution, recording, or use beyond the registered participant’s personal use is prohibited without written permission.

 

Reasonable Accommodations: If you require an accommodation to participate fully in this training, please email [email protected] at least five business days before the training date so we can make arrangements.

 

Recording Notice: Live sessions are not recorded, so participants can engage freely during the experiential segments without appearing in a recording. A separately produced recording of the training content is available to registrants who are unable to attend live and carries 3.0 non-contact CE hours. To receive CE credit for the recorded version, participants must complete the training evaluation and pass the post-test with a score of 80% or higher.

 

Refund Policy: All registrations are final and non-refundable. Registrants who are unable to attend the live webinar will receive access to the recording.

 

Financial Disclosure: Althea T. Simpson, LCSW, RPT-S, is the owner of Unicorn Life Training, a subsidiary of Brighter Day Therapeutic Solutions, PLLC, and receives compensation from registration fees for this training. There are no other relevant financial relationships to disclose. There are no relevant non-financial relationships to disclose.

 

Grievance Policy: Grievances may be submitted by email to [email protected]. A member of the grievance committee will respond within 72 hours to work toward a resolution.