This page presents brief biographies of the people who often lead workshops
for the Family Enhancement & Play Therapy Center, Inc. All of them
consistently receive training participant ratings of “outstanding.”
Risë VanFleet, Ph.D., RPT-S
| Dr. Risë VanFleet is the Founder and President of the Family Enhancement & Play Therapy Center, Inc. in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, an organization specializing in the training and supervision of child, family, and play therapy professionals as well as the provision of mental health services for children and families. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and The Pennsylvania State University. A licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania, Dr. VanFleet is also a certified Filial Therapy therapist, supervisor, and instructor, and a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor. She specializes in strengthening family relationships through play, and has subspecialties in chronic medical illness, disaster mental health, child/family trauma and attachment interventions using play therapy and filial therapy, and the use of canines in play therapy.
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 Risë VanFleet, Ph.D., RPT-S, Founder and President of the Family Enhancement & Play Therapy Center, Inc. |
She is the author of Filial
Therapy: Strengthening Parent-Child Relationships Through Play,
A Parent’s Handbook of Filial Play Therapy,
coeditor with Dr. Louise Guerney of the Casebook of Filial Therapy,
and author/photographer of The Faces of Play. Another
book, Canines in Play Therapy (working title) is
expected in 2007. Her materials have been used by professionals and families
in over 40 countries, and her writings have been or are being translated into
Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Romanian, and Spanish. She is featured
on three best-selling play therapy video workshops: Child-Centered
Play Therapy, Overcoming Resistance: Engaging Parents
in Play Therapy, and Introduction to Filial Play
Therapy. She is featured with Dr. Heidi Kaduson on the forthcoming
video workshop, Play Therapy for Traumatic Events.
Dr. VanFleet has been honored with the inaugural Bernard G. and Louise F.
Guerney Award for Outstanding Contributions to Practice and Training in Filial
Therapy (The Association for Filial and Relationship Enhancement Methods)
and the Play Therapy Professional Education and Training Award (The Association
for Play Therapy). She is a cofounder of the International Collaborative on
Play Therapy and a Past President/Board Chair of the Association for Play
Therapy. She is also involved in the research and use of animals in play therapy,
and uses one of her dogs as a play therapy dog. She is an Approved Evaluator
for the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen Program ®. In
addition to her work in the play/family therapy field, Dr. VanFleet is President
of VanFleet Associates, an organizational development and training firm, an
accomplished pianist, and an award-winning nature photographer specializing
in Alaskan wildlife.
Cynthia Caparosa-Sniscak, M.Ps.Sc., LPC, RPT-S
| Cynthia Caparosa Sniscak, M.Ps.Sc., LPC, is the President/Director and Senior Clinician of the Beech Street Program, LLC, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (Pennsylvania), a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, and Certified Filial Therapist-Instructor. She is also an Instructor with the Family Enhancement & Play Therapy Center, Inc. Ms. Sniscak specializes in the use of play therapy, filial therapy, parent consultation, behavior management, and other interventions with children and families with a wide range of problems. She has many years of experience with school problems, anxiety, depression, divorce-related difficulties, oppositional behavior and other behavior problems, and AD/HD. Cindy has also worked extensively with children who have experienced medical problems, trauma, abuse, or attachment difficulties. She works closely with parents throughout the therapy process, and coordinates her work with foster placement, adoption, child protective, medical, educational, and mental health organizations. |
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Ms. Sniscak also provides training for
child-related community organizations, and has been a featured speaker at
state, national, and international conferences. She is an accomplished
potter who incorporates her artistic talents and skills with her child/family
therapy work. Cindy is a Board Member of the Pennsylvania Association
for Play Therapy and serves as its conference chair. She is the author
of a number of chapters and articles on play therapy.
Information about her Beech Street Program, an independent practice in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, can be found on this website on the ‘Parents’ Pages.’
Heidi Kaduson, Ph.D., RPT-S
| Dr. Heidi Kaduson is a psychologist in private practice in Monroe Township, New Jersey. She is also a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor. She has lectured throughout the world on play therapy techniques and on the assessment and treatment of children. She has trained thousands of professionals in the short-term treatment of children with many different types of difficulties. Dr. Kaduson earned a doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and has conducted research on the effectiveness of diverse treatment approaches for children with ADHD. She is Co-Director of the Play Therapy Training Institute and coordinates its extensive summer and winter play therapy seminars that are attended by an international audience of mental health professionals.Dr. Kaduson has served as Membership President and Board Member of the Association for Play Therapy, and as Past President of the New Jersey Association for Play Therapy. She is a popular keynote speaker and trainer at state, national, and international conferences. |  |
Dr. Kaduson has published widely in the
play therapy field. She is coeditor of The Quotable Play Therapist and
author/editor of books entitled The Playing Cure, 101 Favorite Play Therapy
Techniques (3 volumes), Short-Term Play Therapy Interventions with Children,
and coauthor of Play Therapy for Traumatic Events. She is featured on
the best-selling video workshop: Play Therapy for Children with ADHD,
and will be releasing another video soon.
Her website is located at www.ptti.org.
Wendy Caplin, Ph.D., RPT-S
| Dr. Caplin has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Temple University. She is a Licensed Psychologist (1991) and Registered Play Therapy Supervisor. She has extensive training in Gestalt Therapy for children and adults, Child-Centered Play Therapy, Filial Play Therapy, and Sand Tray Therapy. She has been working with children and families since 1984 in a variety of clinical settings. Dr. Caplin has provided school based services, which included counseling elementary school children and consultation with school personnel. She has worked in a community mental health setting with racially and ethnically diverse children and teenagers. Also, she has worked in a group practice setting with individual adults, families and couples. Her wide range of experiences includes in-patient treatment of adults with chronic mental illness and outpatient hospital work with dialysis patients. Dr. Caplin supervised psychology interns at Norristown State Hospital. She has taught classes for students in the Masters Program at the Counseling Psychology Department, Temple University and undergraduates in the Psychology Department at Ursinus College. |  |
Dr. Caplin has been in private practice
since 1991. She works with adults, children, and teenagers in individual,
couple or family therapy. She specializes in disorders of childhood, parent
education, survivors of neglect, physical and sexual abuse, affective disorders,
treatment of interpersonal problems, chronic long-term illness, and issues
specific to women, lesbians and gay men, adoption and foster care.
Dr. Caplin has presented workshops and provided trainings for clinicians and
mental health providers in various settings including conventions (APA), conferences
(Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children,
Family Institute of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Psychological Association),
agencies, and hospitals on various topics such as working with grieving children,
children in foster care, attachment problems, self-esteem, sandtray therapy
and Filial Therapy.
Dr. Caplin has extensive training in play therapy through the Family Enhancement
and Play Therapy Center (Dr. Risë VanFleet), the Center for Relationship
Enhancement (Dr. Barry Ginsberg), the Violet Oaklander Institute in California,
and the Family and Play Therapy Center of Philadelphia (Dottie Higgins Klein).
Dr. Caplin is the co-founder of a private group practice, Cresheim Valley
Psych Associates. She also provides treatment to children who have been sexually
abused through a DHS contract with Spring Garden Psychological Associates.
She is a consultant to Children’s Crisis Treatment Center in Philadelphia
and co-leads Filial Program Groups for child abuse prevention – funded
through the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, the Parenting Collaborative.
Barry Ginsberg, Ph.D., RPT-S
Barry G. Ginsberg, Ph.D. has practiced child and family psychology for more than 30 years. He is the Executive Director of the Center of Relationship Enhancement, an education and training center; and Ginsberg Associates, a child and family psychology practice in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.For six years, Dr. Ginsberg hosted a twice-weekly Cable TV program on parenting and was a contributor to a column on parenting in the local newspaper. He chairs the Parenting & Family Committee of the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce. He has conducted many parenting seminars and trained thousands of parents. Dr. Ginsberg has presented workshops and training programs to professionals on parenting, parent-child relationships, couple and family relationships, filial therapy, parent-adolescent relationship development, and relationship enhancement therapy/education throughout the U.S. and Canada. |
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Dr. Ginsberg is the author of 50 Wonderful Ways to Be a Single Parent Family (New Harbinger Press, 2003) and Relationship Enhancement Family Therapy (John Wiley & Sons, 1997; Relationship Enhancement Press, 2004). His numerous publications, which have appeared in many professional journals, academic press, newspapers and popular magazines, emphasize clinical and preventive interventions with children, couples and families, and parenting.
Dr. Ginsberg is a fellow of the American
Psychological Association and the Pennsylvania Psychological Association,
Diplomat in Family Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology,
Diplomat, Academy of Family Psychology, Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor
of the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy, Diplomat, Academy
of Family Therapy, Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, and a Nationally
Certified School Psychologist.
His website is located at www.relationshipenhancement.com.
Karen Pernet, LCSW, RPT-S
Karen Pernet received her
MSS in clinical social work from Bryn Mawr College in 1986. She then
completed the three year training program of The Gestalt Therapy Institute
of Philadelphia in 1989 and has had specialized training in sandtray,
play therapy and psychotherapy with children and adolescents. She is
a Board Certified Diplomate, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in CA
and PA and a Registered Play Therapy-Supervisor. Her training for the
latter included ongoing training and supervision in Filial Therapy
with Rise Van Fleet, a three year internship in combined family and
Child Centered Play Therapy, an intensive training with Violet Oaklander
in Gestalt Therapy with children and Sandtray-Worldplay training with
Gisela DeDomenico. |
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She uses Filial Therapy in her practice with a wide
variety of families ranging from those with adjustment problems to foster
and adopted children
and their families to families who are reunifying. She also provides individual
clinical consultation and is an experienced trainer. She is trained in several
body/mind modalities: hypnosis, EMDR and is currently an advanced student
of Somatic Experiencing, “ a naturalistic, short-term approach to the
resolution and healing from trauma developed by Peter Levine.” In addition
she has had another 15 years experience as a social worker and supervisor
in the field of child welfare and child sexual abuse.
Karen Pernet is the co-founder of a private group practice,
Cresheim Valley Psych Associates. She has also provided
treatment to children who have been
sexually abused. She has been a consultant to Children’s Crisis Treatment
Center in Philadelphia and co-led Filial Program Groups for child abuse prevention
and reunifying families where there has been abuse or neglect–funded
through the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, the Parenting Collaborative.
She ran therapy groups with the Philadelphia Sexual Abuse Project from 1988
to 1997 and has worked as a clinician with family service agencies, with an
EAP, and with a group practice.
She relocated to San Francisco, California in 2006. She may be contacted
by e-mail kepernet@yahoo.com or phone
510-923-0520.
Other Presenters
Other highly qualified presenters are used periodically as needed in our training
programs.
www.play-therapy.com
©2007 Family Enhancement and Play Therapy Center.
Photos courtesy Risë VanFleet. All rights reserved.