Description
Death and dying are among the most sensitive and emotionally charged themes that can emerge in play therapy. While often considered an “adult” topic, children may explore death frequently through their play—sometimes in direct relation to bereavement, but just as often as a symbolic expression of change, fear, curiosity, separation, or developmental understanding. These moments can evoke strong emotional responses in therapists, including the instinct to protect, avoid, or redirect the play.
This Continuing Professional Development (CPD) webinar offers a gentle and reflective space to consider how death and dying appear in the playroom and how therapists can respond with presence, compassion, and clinical confidence. The session will explore how children engage with themes of mortality across developmental stages, including through symbolic, repetitive, and imaginative play. Participants will consider how death-related themes may arise even in the absence of direct loss, and how they can reflect broader emotional and relational experiences.
The training will also focus on the therapist’s internal responses to this work, including feelings of discomfort, helplessness, or sadness, and how these can be acknowledged and held without withdrawing from the child’s process. Emphasis will be placed on maintaining therapeutic grounding while offering a safe, containing space for exploration of grief, loss, and existential themes. Participants will reflect on how to hold this work when systems, families, or wider environments may feel less able to engage with it, and how the playroom can become a uniquely supportive space for meaning-making.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this webinar participants will be able to:
Consider the emotional, developmental, and ethical dimensions of working with death and dying in play therapy.
Understand how children may explore death symbolically, developmentally, and through imaginative play.
Recognise the presence of death-related themes even when there is no direct bereavement history.
Reflect on personal emotional responses to death-related play and how these may influence therapeutic presence.
Develop confidence in remaining present, grounded, and attuned when working with grief and loss themes.
Explore therapeutic approaches for supporting children’s expression and processing of death-related experiences.
Understand the importance of the playroom as a safe space for exploring universal existential themes.
Consider how to hold death-related work sensitively when wider systems may struggle to do so.
Strengthen capacity to offer containment, meaning-making, and emotional support in the face of loss.
Why Attend?
Themes of death and dying can feel daunting for even the most experienced practitioners, yet they are an important part of children’s emotional and developmental landscape. When approached with care and attunement, the playroom can offer a vital space for children to explore questions of loss, fear, change, and continuity in ways that support healing and understanding.
This webinar provides a reflective and supportive environment for practitioners to deepen their confidence in working with these themes, helping them stay present with children’s experiences while maintaining emotional safety and professional grounding.
