VSOF Workshop Series

In the VSOF Workshop Series, VSOF trainers from around the world showcase the ongoing helpfulness and applicability of the Oaklander approach across cultures and with clients of all ages. The series is designed to help practitioners and students from various disciplines (e.g. LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, LEPs, school personnel, etc.) explore the many kinds of helpful approaches, theoretical perspectives, and applicable skills inherent in the Oaklander approach to Gestalt Play Therapy

REGISTRATION OPEN FOR VSOF WORKSHOP #4!

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VSOF Workshop #4

October 3, 2026, 9am-12pm pdt

Cassiana Castro

Founder, Gestalt Workshops Brazil

Registration: $60.00 USD (Scholarships and group rates available upon request. Contact pmortola@lclark.edu)

Bringing Nature Into Therapy With The Oaklander Approach

(Please note: This workshop will highlight the international reach of the Oaklander approach to therapy, being presented via Brazil in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English.)

Workshop Description:

In this workshop, our starting point is reconnecting with nature as a whole greaterthan the sum of its parts, which we ourselves are also a part of. The idea of nature assomething separate from ourselves is one of civilization’s biggest disconnections. 
 
Through experiential activities and discussion, we will explore how working in collaboration with nature can serve as a process of reconnection for children and adolescents, counteracting the powerfully disconnecting forces of technology in which they are immersed and often unprotected. 
 
We will focus on a number of helpful phenomena that I have observed when working with children and adolescents in collaboration with nature, specifically in relation to the Violet Oaklander approach to Gestalt Play Therapy including: 
 
1. Fluidity
2. Collaboration
3. Bond building
4. Temporality
5. Synchronicity
 
Participants will leave the workshop with helpful experiential activities to use in their practice, as well as a conceptual underpinning of how collaborating with nature can benefit our clients. 
 
 

Trazendo a Natureza à Terapia com a Abordagem Oaklander

 
Neste workshop, nosso ponto de partida é o resgate da natureza como um todo maior do que a soma das partes, sendo que nós somos uma delas. A ideia da natureza como algo separado de nós é um dos grandes sequestros da civilização.
 
Através de atividades experienciais e discussões, exploraremos como o trabalho em colaboração com a natureza pode ser usado num processo terapêutico de crianças e adolescentes, contrabalanceando as poderosas forças sequestradoras da tecnologia em que estão imersos e, muitas vezes, desprotegidos.
 
Focaremos em vários fenômenos interessantes que observo ao trabalhar com crianças e adolescentes em contato com a natureza, principalmente em relação à abordagem Violet Oaklander da Gestalt Terapia Lúdica, incluindo:
 
1. Fluidez
2. Colaboração
3. Formação de Vínculo
4. Temporalidade
5. Sincronicidade
 
Os participantes sairão do workshop com atividades experienciais úteis para suas práticas, bem como um realce conceitual de como a colaboração com a natureza pode beneficiar nossos clientes.

Continuing Education Credits:

The Violet Solomon Oaklander Foundation is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT Provider #141473) to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and LEPs. VSOF maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. This online workshop meets the qualifications for 3 hours of continuing education for LMFT’s and LCSW’s as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and 3 hours of continuing education towards certification from the Violet Solomon Oaklander Foundation. This workshop is also approved by the Association for Play Therapists (Approved Provider 21-640) for 3 non-contact hours of continuing education for the APT. Play therapy credit may not be awarded to non-mental health professionals. Workshop completion certificates will be issued when the participant completes the Workshop Assessment and Evaluation form which will be sent to each participant prior to the start of the conference.

Cancellation, Accommodations, and Grievance Policy

Although no refunds can be made in the case of a participant needing to cancel their attendance, video recordings of the workshop can be made available upon request. Participants may request accommodations or provide grievances by emailing vsofcertification@gmail.com.

 

Past VSOF workshops with videos still available

(Contact vsofcertification@gmail.com): 

VSOF Workshop #1
October 4, 2025

How to play the Oaklander way: Six steps to help play become real using puppets and other media

Peter Mortola & Tzveta Misheva-Aleksova

About this Workshop

This three-hour workshop offered by VSOF President Peter Mortola and VSOF Board member Tzveta Misheva-Aleksova is the inaugural event of the new VSOF Workshop Series sponsored by the Violet Solomon Oaklander Foundation. This online workshop (via Zoom) is offered on October 4, 2025, from 9am-12pm pst. The fee of $60.00 USD will benefit the VSOF Scholarship Fund, with discounts available upon request.

Dr. Violet Oaklander had a very particular approach to play in the therapeutic setting. In this three-hour workshop, we will explore and learn six playful steps that Violet tended to use when engaging clients in therapy. We will also make clear how Violet’s approach to play was both similar to and different from other theoretical orientations that use play therapeutically. Although Violet’s six steps to play can be applied to any therapeutic medium (including clay, sand tray, drawing, image cards, etc.) we will be using puppets in this workshop as a specific medium with which to practice applying these six steps. Participants are encouraged to bring puppets of any type that they may have at hand, or to bring simple paper bags that we will help make into puppets during the workshop. Participants will also receive a pre-publication copy of an article by Peter Mortola and Agata Urbanowitz outlining the six-step process including multiple prompts for therapeutic exercises directly quoted from Dr. Oaklander in her demonstrations with children and adults. 

Participants will leave this workshop having gained 1) a richer, more theoretically grounded understanding of the use of play in therapy, 2) a working knowledge of the six steps to playing that Violet tended to use in practice, and 3) practice with a set of specific skills regarding the use of puppets as applied to therapeutic practice.

Workshop Outline

9:00-9:15      Welcome and introductions

9:15-10:15     Facilitating play the Oaklander way: Six steps

10:15-10:30   Break

10:30-11:30   Practicing the six steps with Puppets

11:30-12:00   Discussion and closing

VSOF Workshop #2
February 1, 2026

Helping Children Find Their Joy to Safely Touch Their Pain

Lynn Stadler & Susan Dorn

Workshop Description:

The experience of joy can be an antidote to living with negative introjects, anxiety, and fear. Knowing we can have joy gives us the courage to face the harder parts of being human. Dr. Violet Oaklander explained that children come into therapy for two main reasons: 1) difficulty making good contact with themselves and their environment and 2) a lessened sense of self. Dr. Oaklander emphasized that developing a greater sense of self can happen with play in a safe therapeutic relationship. One way to strengthen our sense of self and increase self-support is to experience emotions, and especially the polarities within the emotional realm. In this three-hour workshop, we will explore the polarities of joy and pain. We will share ways to help children find and own their joyful experiences so they can bear to touch their pain. Using the creative projective process of the Oaklander Model in this workshop, participants will have the opportunity for first-hand experience with making better contact with their joy, so they can better understand how to co-create a similar process with young people. Bring your favorite drawing tools and paper to explore and learn together.

Participants will leave this workshop having gained:

1)Learning about the steps of the Oaklander Model therapeutic process, the role of the therapist, and the sequence of therapeutic play.

2)Experience with the polarities of joy and pain through a creative projective process often present in the Oaklander Model.

3)Increased understanding about how to help children and adolescents become more aware and accepting of their emotions, and develop external support, and ultimately, self-support through this process.

VSOF Workshop #3
June 6, 2026, 10am-1pm pdt

Healing Through Play – Using The Oaklander Model: Part 2 – More Treasures

Karen Fried & Chris McKenna

Registration: $60.00 USD (Scholarships and Group Rates available upon request. Contact pmortola@lclark.edu)

 

Workshop Description:

Karen Fried and Chris McKenna are co-authors of Healing Through Play Guidebooks #1 and #2. Their second guidebook, Healing Through Play – Using The Oaklander Model Part 2 – More Treasures, was released in October of 2025. Please join them on Saturday, June 6, 2026 at 10:0o am – 1:00 pm PDT when they will share their journey reviewing all of Violet Oaklander’s files since her passing in 2021, and how they discovered so many new treasures which they have included in this new guidebook. 

Chris McKenna and Karen Fried will present how Guidebook #2 translates Violet Oaklander’s teachings into practical, experience-based methods for clinical use. This workshop explores how therapists can deepen awareness, strengthen the child’s sense of self, and apply Oaklander principles across treatment phases—from establishing safety in the relationship to termination. Participants will engage in experiential learning and leave with practical tools for applying Oaklander-informed interventions into their work.

Together, we will move through key phases of the work, including:

  • Establishing safety and getting started

  • Using the projective process to deepen awareness and expression

  • Strengthening the child’s sense of self

  • Applications to parents, families, adolescents, groups, and school settings

  • How Violet viewed the termination process

Consistent with the Oaklander Model, the workshop includes experiential components that invite reflection on participants’ own relationship to themselves and the work. Participants will leave with greater clarity, practical interventions, and an embodied understanding of Oaklander-informed tools they can bring directly into their practice.