Conference

The Black Play Therapy® Symposium will offer continuing education credit for the following: 

Unicorn Life Training, #2031, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 01/24/2026 – 01/24/2029. Social workers participating in this symposium will receive up to 12 continuing education credits.

Contact CEs Sponsored by Unicorn Life Training APT Approved Provider 18-532. Play Therapy CEs Available to Mental Health Professionals & Graduate Students in a Mental Health Program.

The 2026 Black Play Therapy Symposium is seeking approval by NBCC for NBCC credit. Unicorn Life Training is solely responsible for all aspects of the program. 

Unicorn Life Training is responsible for this continuing education program for play therapists, social workers, and counselors.  

Continuing education credits are for mental health professionals ONLY! Please check with your licensing board for CE approval requirements.

The Black Play Therapy® Symposium is more than an event; it’s a call to action for mental health professionals toward culturally responsive, healing-centered play therapy and trauma care for the Black community.

The symposium offers a powerful space for learning, reflection, growth, and collaboration as we examine the cognitive biases that drive the criminalization and institutionalization of Black children. Participants will explore how cognitive biases operate as invisible machinery, stealing Black childhoods and perpetuating cycles of harm. This is more than a conference; it is a call to action to disrupt harmful narratives through play therapy practice, honor Black childhood, heal, and reclaim it.

The 2026 Black Play Therapy® Symposium brings together mental health professionals to confront the systemic loss of Black childhood through play therapy-informed clinical practice and advocacy. Through in-depth exploration of the cognitive biases driving the school-to-prison pipeline, this symposium moves beyond awareness to action, equipping participants with play therapy theory, interventions, practical clinical tools, critical insights, and collective support to interrupt bias in their practice, address the realities of criminalization and institutionalization, challenge harmful narratives, and reclaim the joy, safety, and innocence that define childhood.

Sessions emphasize experiential learning through play therapy and expressive modalities. Participants will examine how cognitive biases operate across the school-to-prison pipeline through an interactive panel discussion with licensed play therapy practitioners, expressive activities, and skills-based workshops. These sessions provide actionable play therapy interventions and clinical documentation strategies to interrupt bias at every point of clinical practice while fostering individual skill development and peer support for mental health professionals committed to this work.

We welcome ALL mental health professionals, of every race and background, who are committed to supporting Black children and families through play therapy practice and culturally responsive mental health care.

Join us for the 2026 Black Play Therapy® Symposium, where every session will prepare you to recognize and interrupt the cognitive biases that criminalize Black children through play therapy-informed practice and advocacy, and create the conditions for Black childhood to flourish.

We reserve the right to change sessions, schedule, and speakers. Symposium registrants will be notified immediately of any changes.