Big Behaviors in Small Containers: 131 Trauma-Informed Play Therapy Interventions for Disorders of Dysregulation

When it comes to working with dysregulated children, sometimes the biggest behaviors come in the smallest containers.

From tantrums and defiance to self-injury and withdrawal, even the most skilled professionals find themselves focused on extinguishing the troubling behavior rather than stepping back to ask: What is the underlying emotional need?

In Big Behaviors in Small Containers, you’ll find 131 practical, fun, and ready-to-use play therapy interventions that shift the paradigm around problematic behaviors to allow for therapeutic growth and healing. Based on TraumaPlay®, a treatment approach that prioritizes attachment, co-regulation, and the science of the stress response system, the interventions inside will help kids:

• Develop a sense of safety and security
• Expand their window of tolerance
• Cope adaptively with anger, anxiety, and other strong emotions
• Enhance their emotional literacy
• Strengthen social skills and self-esteem
• Challenge and overcome unhelpful thoughts
• Develop a coherent narrative around trauma and other difficult experiences
• And more!

Whether you’re a therapist, teacher, doctor, caregiver, or trusted grown-up in a child’s life, the tools inside will allow you to become the co-regulating, nurturing, and consistent presence that your “small container” needs to remain grounded in the face of stress, big feelings, and difficult situations.

Paris Goodyear-Brown, PhD, LCSW, RPT-S, is one of the leading experts on the intersection of childhood trauma and play therapy in the world. In her groundbreaking model, TraumaPlay®, she integrates both directive and non-directive approaches to treatment into an umbrella framework that gives clinicians structure to employ evidence-informed interventions with confidence while encouraging creativity and freedom to follow the child’s need all along the way in treatment. She is the clinical director and senior clinician of Nurture House, the executive director of the TraumaPlay Institute, a TedTalk speaker, an adjunct instructor of psychiatric mental health at Vanderbilt University, and a sought-after speaker.