Exploring Psychological Birth Order in Counseling and Therapy

Birth order is often categorized as a simple chronological position. Yet when we look at all the factors which go into determining psychological birth order, we can see that it is more a guided choice. In this exciting and fun workshop, through a combination of theory discussion and experiential activities, we will explore these factors and how we are influenced by them. We will look at the importance of encouragement in determining a child’s psychological birth order choice.

Recognizing a client’s psychological birth order position is a key to deepening the trust required for successfully creating a therapeutic relationship with clients and supporting positive movement in their lives outside the therapy setting. In this workshop we will look at the factors and traits and the common language patterns associated with each position. You will have the opportunity to examine your own psychological birth order and that of your siblings as a way of practicing the tools presented for your work with clients.

This class is taught by expert in psychological birth order, Karen Molan from Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland. She is a Practitioner and Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and holds a certificate in Individual Psychology with Counselling Skills from the Tipperary Institute, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.

While the tools covered in this class can be applied with play therapy clients and their parents, this class is not exclusively a play therapy class and does not count for Association for Play Therapy CEs.

 10 hours of Continuing Education Credits (5 each day)

 League of Extraordinary Adlerian Play Therapists (LEAPT) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7402. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. League of Extraordinary Adlerian Play Therapists (LEAPT) is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

 Agenda

9:00 AM Start

11:15 AM Break 1 (15 mins)

1:00 PM Lunch

1:45 PM Resume Class

3:00 PM End

Learning outcomes:

1. Participants will be able to list and discuss the factors which determine birth order position vs chronological position.

2. Participants will be able to describe the language patterns of the psychological birth order positions.

3. Participants will be able to describe the traits of each psychological birth order position.

4. Participants will be able to explain how to assess a client's psychological birth order position.

5. Participants will be able to assess their own psychological birth order position.

6. Participants will be able to analyze the psychological birth order position(s) of their siblings.

7. Participants will be able to explain how encouragement is the final deciding factor in psychological birth order.

8. Participants will be able to list the 10 key points in a negotiation.

9. Participants will be able to describe the effects of a parents’ own psychological birth order position in relation to discouragement of self and children.

10. Participants will be able to explain how to guide their clients on using undervalued psychological birth order traits and stop overusing unhelpful psychological birth order traits.