How it all started
As I reflect on my career, the first experience where I witnessed the therapeutic power of play was September 11, 2001.
The area I live and work in New Jersey is a prominent New York City commuter area. Consequently, my community suffered a staggering number of losses. I remember feeling helpless as the smoldering remains of Ground Zero played on an endless loop on the news while vigils and memorial services were held almost daily. Like most of us, I wanted to do something.
At that time, I was a young and inexperienced play therapist in training when the director of a local art therapy program became aware I was working with children too young for their services. Subsequently, for the next two years, I provided play therapy to a number of children who lost parents and family members that day.
My September 11 work allowed me to bear witness to children using play, their most natural language, to make sense of and cope with the sudden disappearance of the person who made them breakfast, dressed them, took them to preschool, played with them on the living room floor, bathed them, read them stories, and tucked them into bed at night. That work set the tone for my career, as it reinforced my belief in and commitment to early intervention and play therapy.
More About Christian
Christian is a graduate of Seton Hall University and Rutgers University, with degrees in Psychology and Clinical Social Work. He is a New Jersey Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Certified School Social Worker.
In private practice since 2000, Christian worked with a number of children who lost parents and family members on September 11, 2001. His work is cited in the book: Middletown, America: One Town’s Passage from Trauma to Hope, by Gail Sheehy, 2002.
Between 2003 and 2010, Christian was also employed as a play therapist by 180, Turning Lives Around, an agency devoted to serving parents and children exposed to domestic violence.
For almost 20 years, Christian served as a contracted provider with New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency, for whom Christian treated the youngest survivors of physical and sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and trauma.
Christian also served as a Preschool Intervention Specialist for a school district in New Jersey for more than 18 years. His work with teachers and children in the preschool classroom inspired him to publish Universal Play Therapy: A Guide for Supporting Children’s Development.
Currently, Christian maintains a full-time private practice and is committed to sharing what he has learned in his career with Early Childhood Educators and parents through Play to Grow and workshop presenting.
“Today, I’m grateful I’m able to do something. Every day. For a living.”
-Christian Bellissimo
Ways that Christian is ready to provide support
Workshops
Consulting
Play to Grow Course
Universal Play Therapy E-Book
Problem Solving Cards
Play to Grow Community
For Professionals & Schools
For Parents, Guardians & Families
Play Therapy (NJ office)
Play To Grow Course
Universal Play Therapy E-Book
Problem Solving Cards
Play to Grow Community