Telehealth with Children and Very Young Children

Description

When working with children and very young children via telehealth, you’re not just navigating a screen—you’re navigating their world. For clinicians, the challenge of fostering connection, safety, and therapeutic progress with young clients online can feel overwhelming—especially when trauma, cultural complexity, and limited attention spans come into play.

In this powerful self-study course, you’ll gain strategies for engaging even your youngest clients in meaningful, evidence-based tele-play therapy. You’ll discover practical tools and culturally responsive frameworks that transform telehealth from a limitation into a therapeutic asset.

Dr. Ritchie Rubio, a seasoned clinical child psychologist, expressive arts therapist, and public mental health leader, brings a deep well of expertise to this course. With decades of international experience working with multicultural youth, Dr. Rubio equips clinicians with innovative, real-world strategies for reaching children where they are—developmentally, emotionally, and culturally—through virtual platforms.

Through storytelling, case examples, and actionable resources, Dr. Rubio offers a compelling approach that blends clinical rigor with creative interventions. Grounded in evidence-based practices and informed by the lived experiences of diverse families, his method helps clinicians build trust, regulate emotions, and promote healing via telehealth.

This course explores a wide range of telehealth adaptations and tools for work with children, including video-based interventions, child-parent relationship therapies, sandtray and play therapy, mindfulness, bibliotherapy, digital art therapy, and culturally adapted trauma treatments. It also highlights models like iPCIT, CPP, and SPICC, and emphasizes clinical engagement with caregivers as vital co-facilitators of therapeutic success.

Key Takeaways:

• Developmentally-appropriate frameworks: Learn to apply therapeutic models tailored to the telehealth environment for children and very young children.

• Engaging tele-play tools: Gain confidence in using technology-enhanced play, storytelling, and expressive arts interventions to support behavioral health treatment.

• Culturally responsive practices: Discover how to tailor interventions to BIPOC families with respect, creativity, and clinical excellence.

Why this course?

• Designed by a telehealth expert and child psychologist: Dr. Rubio combines cutting-edge knowledge of trauma-informed care with a global, multicultural lens.

• Practical, evidence-based, and immediately usable: Gain tools you can apply right away to improve clinical outcomes in virtual settings.

• Offered by a trusted leader in CE training: The Telehealth Certification Institute equips healthcare professionals with exceptional continuing education to elevate client care and professional growth.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and describe at least one developmentally-appropriate model for working effectively via telehealth with children who present with behavioral health issues.

• Appraise the applicability of at least two virtual play therapy tools for engaging behavioral health child clients in treatment using evidence-based practices.

• Illustrate at least two ways of using telehealth and tele-play therapy interventions in a culturally responsive manner when working with BIPOC children and their families.

Whether you’re just beginning to navigate child therapy via telehealth or seeking fresh tools to revitalize your practice, this course will provide clarity, confidence, and inspiration. Join us in reimagining what is possible when connection, culture, and compassion meet technology.

Add this course to your cart to develop your skills, boost your confidence, and enhance your impact as a behavioral health professional.

Format and Access

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. It consists of hours of video instruction, a post-test and an evaluation.

Course Details

Availability: 

From the time of registration, you have six months to access the coursework.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructor

About Ritchie Rubio Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Rubio works as a clinical child psychologist, play and expressive arts therapist, researcher-storyteller, program evaluator, statistical consultant, data analyst, telehealth trainer/consultant, and associate professor/lecturer in a variety of clinical and academic settings including public health systems, universities, pediatric hospitals, community mental health settings, schools, and research institutes in three countries: the Philippines, U.S.A., and New Zealand. He moved from the Philippines at the age of 25, completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a Child and Family emphasis from the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) through a Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program (IFP) grant. He is currently the Director of Practice Improvement and Analytics of the Children, Youth, and Families System of Care (CYF-SOC) Behavioral Health Services (BHS) at the San Francisco Department of Public Health in California, USA. In that role, he plans and coordinates a clinical practice improvement and evaluation program focused on identifying best trauma-informed and diversity-responsive practices; and utilizing implementation science to design and strengthen clinical assessment and interventions. He is also an adjunct Associate Professor at the Counseling Psychology programs of the University of San Francisco and the Berkeley Wright Institute. He teaches courses such as Research and Statistics; Crisis and Trauma Counseling; Neuroscience; Child and Adolescent Counseling; Family Violence and Protection; Individual, and Family Development; and Clinical Assessment and Measures. His clinical work was/is primarily with immigrant and multicultural children/youth and their families. He mostly integrates psychodynamic, attachment, family systems, multicultural, expressive arts, play therapy, and CBT orientations.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Credits

Credit Hours:

This course consists of 1.5 continuing education hours of credit.

Play therapy credit available to mental health professionals & graduate students in a mental health program.

Counselors:

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No, 6693.  Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.  Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. 

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Mental Health Counselors. #MHC-0048.

Marriage and Family Therapists: 

Many MFT licensing boards accept our courses or one of the approvals which we have from professional associations.  You can check with your board to determine if your licensing board would accept this course.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0135, effective May 8, 2025.

Social Workers:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, #1609, 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: 05/02/2024 – 05/02/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 1.5 clinical continuing education credits.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers #SW-0435.

Play Therapists:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC has been approved as a continuing education provider by the Association for Play Therapy: APT Approved Provider 21-633. Per the Association for Play Therapy (APT), play therapy training may not be awarded to non-mental health professionals. APT alone holds the right to accept or deny any continuing education training at its discretion. This course qualifies as 1.5 non-contact continuing education Play Therapy credit.

Addiction Professionals:

This course has been approved by Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits, effective 2/9/2022. NAADAC Provider #193104, Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

Psychologists:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0128.

Art Therapists: 

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Creative Arts Therapists #CAT-0093.

Other Professionals:

This course qualifies for 90 minutes of instructional content as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and professional organizations.  Retain your certificate of completion and contact your board or organization for specific filing requirements.

This is a non-interactive, self-study course.

Accommodations and Policies

Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations.

You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
• Cancellation Policy
• Grievance Policy
• Support Options
• Disclosure Statement