Las Vegas Play Therapy Symposium - Meet our speakers
Robyn Gobbel, MSW
Robyn Gobbel has 20 years of practice as a family and child therapist, specializing in complex trauma, attachment, and adoption. While she is no longer practicing as a therapist, Robyn’s diverse clinical practice and training creates the foundation of her work and includes EMDR (including EMDR adapted for children with attachment trauma), Somatic Experiencing, Theraplay, Trust Based Relational Intervention®, The Alert Program® and Yogapeutics Aerial Yoga Level 1 Teacher Training. Robyn has expertise in the field of relational neuroscience, including interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory and polyvagal theory. Robyn consults, teaches, and trains extensively throughout the US. She previously served as an instructor for the Foundations of Interpersonal Neurobiology Certificate Program at Portland Community College as well as with the Adoptive & Foster Family Therapy Post-Graduate Certificate Program. Robyn has served on the working board of the Global Association for Interpersonal Neurobiology Studies (GAINS). Robyn is the host of The Baffling Behavior Show podcast and the author of Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors: Brain-Body-Sensory Strategies that Really Work (Jessica Kingsley Publishers).
Rose LaPiere, LPC, RPT-S™, ACS
Rose LaPiere is a therapist, writer, educator, and EMDR Consultant with over two decades of experience supporting children and families. She is a Theraplay® informed practitioner, Synergetic Play Therapist®, and Raising Kids with Big Baffling Behaviors Advanced Practitioner and Coach. Rose co-teaches with Robyn Gobbel the child therapy workshop “Therapy with Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors”and provides consultation to therapists around the world.
Presenters: Robyn Gobbel, MSW & Rose LaPiere, LPC, RPT-S™, ACS
Presentation: Invited Into Their Story: Receiving the Wisdom Offered by Play Therapy Clients
Description: What if the goal of play therapy isn’t for our clients to trust us, but for us to trust them? To hear and believe the stories they offer, especially the ones that transcend words. Our clients are already telling us exactly what they need us to know; our work is to hear and believe them.
As clinicians, this shifts our role toward cultivating presence and connection within ourselves so we can truly meet our clients in the stories they share. From that grounded place, we’re better able to reflect back their truest selves and trust that they are on the healing path meant for them, having the experience that is possible for them in that moment.
In this Symposium kick-off keynote, we (Robyn and Rose) will share some of the most powerful and profound wisdom our clients have taught us; those moments that reshaped how we listen, how we trust, and how we accompany. We’ll also invite you to reflect on the teachings your own clients have offered you, and how those moments continue to guide your presence, your work, and your heart.
Objectives:
- Identify at least three ways that play therapy clients communicate their needs through nonverbal or symbolic play.
- Explain the role of trust in the therapeutic relationship and how trusting the play therapy client’s process can support clinical outcomes.
- Analyze the bidirectional exchange of information and meaning between play therapy clients and play Therapists to inform clinical decision-making.
Lisa Dion is an international teacher, creator of Synergetic Play Therapy, founder and President of the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute, co-founder of the Synergetic Education Institute, creator of the Business of Therapy and host of the Lessons from the Playroom podcast. She is the author of Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity and is the 2015 recipient of the Association for Play Therapy’s Professional Education and Training Award of Excellence.
www.synergeticplaytherapy.com, www.lisa-dion.com
Milagros (Mili) Sarmiento-Shoemaker, LPC, RPT-S™
Milagros (Mili) Sarmiento-Shoemaker is a bilingual (Spanish-English) psychotherapist, teacher, and supervisor born in Argentina and based in Colorado. With deep curiosity about human psychology, relationships, and child development, she integrates systemic, somatic, and experiential approaches to support healing across cultures and generations.
Mili is a Certified Synergetic Play Therapy® Supervisor and Supervisor Trainer, Certified Gestalt Therapist, and Certified Family Constellations Facilitator. Mili teaches for Gestalt of the Rockies and focuses on intergenerational trauma, blending modalities such as SPT, Gestalt, EMDR, and Family Constellations to help clients and professionals connect, heal, and thrive.
Presenters: Lisa Dion, LPC, RPT-S™ & Milagros (Mili) Sarmiento-Shoemaker, LPC, RPT-S™
Presentation: Wisdom in the Here and Now in Play Therapy: Self, Relationships, and the Body in Clinical Practice
Description: Wisdom in the Here and Now in Play Therapy: Self, Relationships, and the Body in Clinical Practice invites play therapists to deepen their capacity to bring present-moment awareness into therapeutic work. Drawing from Gestalt theory, Synergetic Play Therapy, and Interpersonal Neurobiology, this workshop emphasizes the ability to attach and attune to self as a foundation for working with the information that arises in the play therapist’s own body and within the space between therapist and child. Participants will explore how cultivating presence supports regulation, expands resilience, and facilitates deeper healing in the therapeutic relationship. The workshop highlights: “The moment itself holds all the information that you need in order to facilitate the process; the real question is whether or not you are present enough to listen.- Lisa Dion”
Objectives:
- Describe how Gestalt theory, Synergetic Play Therapy, and Interpersonal Neurobiology inform present-moment clinical practice in play therapy.
- Identify ways to attune to self in a play therapy session in order to notice and work with the information arising in the play therapist’s body.
- Demonstrate strategies for tracking and regulating the nervous system within the therapeutic process during a play therapy session.
- Apply present-moment awareness to strengthen the relational space between play therapist and child during a play therapy session.
- Explore how cultivating self-attunement enhances a play therapist’s ability to co-regulate with the child and support healing in play therapy.
- Engage in experiential exercises that help play therapists identify and reflect on what interferes with their ability to stay present in the therapeutic moment during play therapy sessions.
Marshall Lyles, LPC-S, LMFT-S, RPT-S™, RST-C/T™
Marshall Lyles has over 20 years of practice in family and play therapy. Drawing on lessons learned from working with attachment trauma in a variety of mental health settings, Marshall regularly teaches about sandtray therapy, other expressive modalities such as poetry, and attachment-informed family work around the globe. In addition to co-authoring the book Advanced Sandtray Therapy: Digging Deeper into Clinical Practice, he has contributed multiple chapters and articles to publications. You can connect with him at www.marshalllyles.com
Janet Nordine, MS, LMFT-S, RPT-S™, RST™
Janet Nordine is one of the few Registered Play Therapist Supervisors™ (RPT-S) in private practice in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a Gestalt Play Therapist, a Certified Synergetic Play Therapist, and a faculty member at the West Coast Institute for Gestalt Play Therapy with Children and Adolescents. Janet is also an adoption-competent and compassionate therapist with lived experience as a person who is adopted.
With hundreds of hours of specialized training and clinical experience, Janet has honed a unique skill set that allows her to connect with children through their natural language of play. Her approach helps children express their inner worlds, emotions, and needs in a safe and supportive space. She views each child and adult as a delight and works to make them feel safe, seen, and heard in every session. Janet also works with adults who have experienced trauma, attachment wounding, and life struggles.
Abby Esquivel, LCSW RPT-S ACS EMDRIA Approved Consultant™
Abby (she/her/ella) is a bicultural therapist and mother, passionate about providing care to the Latinx community. Of Mexican and Lipan Apache descent, she honors her roots by integrating cultural and ancestral wisdom into her therapeutic work. Abby has fifteen years of experience supporting women and children survivors of trauma, toxic stress, and attachment injuries. She is deeply committed to using an intergenerational lens, with a particular interest in how epigenetics shapes the transmission of resilience and trauma. Her greatest passion lies in training other therapists to recognize the impact of lineage and ancestry in the healing process. When not working, you can find Abby hiking, reading a good book, writing, or tending to her garden.
Presentation: Listening to Ancestral Wisdom as a Guide in Play Therapy Practice
Description: This workshop invites play therapists to explore how ancestral wisdom — the stories, practices, and quiet inheritances carried across generations — can deepen our capacity to care for play therapy clients through thoughtfully playful practices. Through reflective exercises, experiential activities, and culturally grounded discussion, participants will examine how their own lineages shape their therapeutic presence, attunement, and understanding of safety.
Together, we will consider how ancestral knowledge can support clinicians in recognizing themes of resilience, identity, protection, and belonging as they emerge in playful and expressive means. Participants will learn ways to ethically and sensitively integrate ancestral awareness into treatment planning, case conceptualization, and person-of-the-play-therapist work, while honoring the diverse cultural backgrounds of the families they serve.
This workshop centers the idea that when therapists listen with a sense of timelessness, to the wisdom behind us and head , we strengthen our ability to listen to the clients who come seeking connection, repair, and a sense of home within themselves.
Presenters: Marshall Lyles, LPC-S, LMFT-S, RPT-S™, RST-C/T™, Abby Esquivel, LCSW RPT-S ACS EMDRIA Approved Consultant™ and Janet Nordine, MS, LMFT-S, RPT-S™
Objectives:
- Identify ways ancestral narratives, cultural lineages, and intergenerational strengths can inform a therapist’s presence and attunement in the playroom.
- Describe how ancestral wisdom and culturally rooted practices can support case conceptualization, particularly around themes of safety, identity, and belonging in play therapy.
- Demonstrate reflective skills that help play therapists recognize how their own ancestral stories shape countertransference, intuition, and therapeutic decision making.
- Apply developmentally appropriate play therapy interventions that honor a client’s cultural and familial heritage while maintaining ethical and culturally responsive practice.
- Integrate ancestral awareness into play therapy treatment planning and caregiver collaboration in ways that respect diverse cultural traditions and avoid appropriation.
- Evaluate how ancestral grounding practices can enhance therapist regulation, resilience, and capacity for deep listening within the play therapy relationship.
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Closing Sunday Presentation: Cultivating Our Own Inner Wisdom
Presenter: Janet Nordine, MS, LMFT-S, RPT-S™, RST™
Description: Participants will explore how ongoing Self-awareness and Self-regulation strengthen attunement, deepen presence, and support responsive moment-to-moment decision-making within the play therapy relationship. Grounded in Gestalt Play Therapy theory, this workshop highlights how concepts such as contact, field awareness, and the fluid, evolving nature of the Self naturally unfold in the playroom—guiding clinical choices in ways that honor the child’s process and promote relational safety. Therapists will leave with practical ways to cultivate their own internal wisdom as an essential therapeutic tool, as well as a deeper understanding of their "Self."
Objectives:
1. Identify two ways a play therapist’s Self-awareness and Self-regulation support therapeutic attunement, grounded presence, and responsive moment-to-moment engagement within the play therapy relationship.
2. Describe how core Gestalt Play Therapy concepts—contact, field awareness, and the fluid nature of the Self—emerge through the child’s play process and inform the therapist’s in-the-moment clinical decision making
Linda E. Homeyer, PhD, LPC-S, RPT-S™, RST-C/T™
Dr. Homeyer semi-retired after over 30 years of work as a play therapist, sandtray therapist, and university professor. She continues to write, provide professional consultations and trainings, and plays in the clay in Canyon Lake, Texas.
In addition to keynotes and conference presentations in the United States, Linda continues to enjoy traveling the globe and teaching play therapy, sandtray therapy, and clinical supervision. She has worked in Slovakia, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Taiwan, Denmark, China, Italy, and even on a cruise ship! Her co-authored books include The Guide to Play Therapy Documentation and Parent Consultations (with Mary Bennett); Sandtray Therapy: A Practical Manual (4th ed.) (with Daniel Sweeney); Advanced Sandtray Therapy: Digging Deeper into Clinical Practice (with Marshall Lyles); The Handbook of Group Play Therapy (edited with Daniel Sweeney); Play Therapy in Malaysia (with Andrew Ng) and others; also, numerous book chapters and journal articles. Her work is translated into Turkish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and Spanish.
Linda is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Professional Counseling at Texas State University. The Association for Play Therapy named Linda as a Director Emerita and awarded her their Lifetime Achievement Award.
Title: Wisdom of the Sand Tray: For Ourselves, Play Therapy Clients & Others
Description: Sand, a tray, and miniature figures provide deep insight for the user: self, client, or supervisee. This presentation will explore the impact of our play therapy mentors, life experiences, and those with whom we come into contact (play therapy clients, supervisees, consultees, etc.) as we look toward the future. Of course, will experience hands-in-sand!
Presenter: Linda E. Homeyer, PhD, LPC-S, RPT-S™, RST-C/T™
Objectives:
- Use sand play therapy with supervisees to explore their professional influencers.
- Identify two components of figure-play to assist clients in developing deeper insight into their created sandtray scenes.
- Describe how to develop a personal metaphor.