Master Class: Medical Trauma for Play Therapists: A Case of PANS/PANDAS
With Kelly McConnan Wiltshire RPsych, CPT

April 15, 2025 - 9am-12pm MDT
3 hour certificate (Live Webinar Only)
Cost: $180

Working with medical trauma and medically complex children is often intimidating. Yet many play therapists already have children with chronic medical conditions as clients. We often don’t think about the impact of asthma, diabetes, or even a broken bone in terms of children’s interactions in with the medical system. These experiences are often frightening and invasive for children and their families. Additionally, some disorders and illnesses, such as PANS/PANDAS, disrupt the natural developmental sequence of children, leading to gaps in multiple areas of development.

This course seeks to pass along lessons that I learned (many the hard way) as I gained experience in working with a wide range of medical traumas and medically complex kids. I will present a case (or two) of PANS/PANDAS as a way to explore how to work from intake, case conceptualization, treatment planning, family involvement, and the working phases of play therapy using this complex, but often lesser known, set of conditions.

At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

  • Describe situations where medical trauma is more likely to be present
  • Explain developmental impacts that can occur through case examples and knowledge of PANS/PANDAS
  • Prepare intake questions, case conceptualizations and treatment plans that apply developmental principals to support recovery for children with complex medical conditions
  • Discuss considerations and ways to involve families of medically complex children.

This Master Class is presented by Kelly McConnan Wiltshire, a Registered Psychologist and Certified Play Therapist working in private practice in Edmonton, AB. Prior to becoming a psychologist, she worked as a Secondary teacher and school counsellor before completing her Masters of Counselling through the University of Calgary. Although trained as a generalist, Kelly has worked with medically complex children and their families for the past 9 years.