Inviting Our Spirit of Playfulness to Transform Trauma Across the Lifespan

Monica C. Blum, PhD Related seminars and products

Dr. Monica Blum, is a clinical psychologist in private practice with more than 30 years of experience treating trauma across the lifespan. She approaches trauma treatment with a creative, playful, and integrative clinical mindset. Dr. Blum emphasizes deep attunement, the body’s wisdom, and connection through shared humanity, joy, and laughter. She blends relational-experiential, somatic, developmentally sensitive, and systems-oriented therapies and is informed by AEDP, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, psychodrama, Polyvagal Theory, Internal Family Systems, Coherence Therapy, affective neuroscience, FLASH, and EMDR.

Dr. Blum began her career in community mental health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey where she specialized in the treatment of complex trauma with underserved, sexually abused children (ages 18 months and older), their families, and the systems supporting them, including schools, courts, child protective services, and hospitals. During this time, she trained students and colleagues to assess sexual abuse and dissociation, as well as thoughfully differentiate trauma-related conditions from other clinical presentations.

In 1988, Dr. Blum transitioned to private practice, expanding her work to include traumatized adolescents, adults, and older adults. She has guest-lectured and supervised graduate students at Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.

Dr. Blum continues to develop integrative, play-informed approaches that honor each person’s innate capacity to heal and grow. She supports practitioners on the front lines of trauma treatment to revitalize their work. In 2015, she developed the embodied mirroring technique, a relational and somatically informed method that facilitates movement through stuck points in treatment, published in the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. In 2025, Dr. Blum released her book, Inviting the Spirit of Play to Transform Trauma: Healing for All Ages, which synthesizes cutting-edge trauma theory, neuroscience, and playful clinical practice. Her approachable book demonstrates how engaging a playful mindset can accelerate healing and create deep, lasting positive change across the lifespan.

Dr. Blum’s grounding belief —that one’s playful spirit empowers safety, belonging, joy, and thriving to naturally emerge—infuses all her work. She provides training, supervision, and consultation to therapists, healthcare providers, parents, faith communities, organizations, and businesses. She presents nationally on nonverbal and playful approaches to trauma treatment, and on how engaging the spirit of play fosters hope, healing, creativity, productivity, cooperation, and meaningful human connection across settings.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Monica Blum maintains a private practice. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Monica Blum is a member of the Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing International Association, the Mercer County Psychological Association, the New Jersey Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Association.