About the Course
This training provides clinical mental health professionals with a comprehensive framework for integrating neurobiologically-informed attachment theory into playful interventions with young children (“littles”). The curriculum is deeply grounded in the foundational attachment research of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, emphasizing the biological necessity of a secure base and safe haven for healthy development. By bridging these classic models with Daniel Siegel’s interpersonal neurobiology and Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, the course explores how neuroception—the nervous system’s subconscious evaluation of safety—functions as the gatekeeper for therapeutic progress.
Participants will examine how trauma disrupts adaptive neural networks and shifts a child’s internal working model from one of safety to one of survival. Attendees will learn to move beyond interpreting difficult behaviors as intentional choices, instead viewing them through the lens of the stress response system (Social Engagement, Mobilization, and Immobilization).
Moving beyond traditional behavioral interventions, this course teaches clinicians how to apply the '4 S's' (Seen, Safe, Soothed, and Secure) through specialized play-based rituals. Clinicians will learn to utilize externalization techniques, such as the 'Monster' metaphor, and sensory-rich interventions like the 'Nest' to help children reprocess traumatic memories within their window of tolerance. The training culminates in practical, transition-focused strategies that empower both the therapist and the caregiver to maintain a felt sense of safety and support the child’s regulation across multiple environments
Your Instructors
Lindy Swimm, LCSW
Thistle Newcomb, LPC
Lindy has over thirty years’ experience working with individuals, adolescents, children, and families. She specializes in attachment and trauma modalities that are well researched in their effectiveness to treat and mitigate mental health concerns. An Integrative Child-Parent approach is available for Attachment and Trauma needs for families and children. Also, individualized expressive therapy interventions such as art, sand tray, play therapy, and music are incorporated into therapy sessions. Lindy is a certified EMDR therapist. EMDR treatment is a highly effective treatment offered to assist in resolving complex conditions such as developmental trauma, PTSD, complicated grief and loss, and foster care and adoption issues. Specialties include relational problems, grief, and loss, treating victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, family therapy, dissociative behaviors in children and adolescents, families in the foster care system, and pre and post-adoption support services.
Thistle Newcomb has been working with families in the mental health field since 1996 and has specifically focused on children, adolescents, and families. She has extensive experience in settings including residential crisis shelter, domestic foster care/adoption social services, intensive in-home counseling, outpatient private practice, supervision of LPC Residents, and a trainer/presenter to the community. Thistle is trained in several modalities such as EMDR, trauma, Parts Work, Somatic Interventions, and is well versed in Complex Developmental Trauma for clients aged infants to grandparents. Specific interests include emotional regulation, resolving trauma, grief/loss, family dynamics, the impact of trauma on developing brains, and stress reduction. Thistle is a Licensed Professional Counselor, an EMDRIA Approved Basic Trainer, an EMDR Approved Consultant, and has been certified as an Expert Witness in Trauma in the 16th District Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court system in Virginia. She has conducted multiple trainings on a variety of trauma treatment focused topics for audiences ranging from beginners to advanced.
In addition to being a founding partner of Riverbend Counseling Group, Thistle is also a Trainer and LPC Resident Supervisor at Riverbend Integrative Trauma Treatment.