How To Talk to Parents About Difficult Issues in Play Therapy
Send us a textWhen I talk with play therapists about reasons they avoid having difficult conversations with parents/caregivers, here's the most common worry they tell me 👇“What if I say something and they pull their kid from play therapy?”It can feel awful when parents terminate play therapy before real change can happen.We feel like giant failures and then start listing all the ways we failed the child (and ourselves).So, this fear is real. Sometimes parents do pull their child from play therapy prematurely and it does feel awful.Play therapists often avoid hard conversations—like naming the parent’s role in a child’s symptoms—because they don’t want to rupture the relationship or risk the parent pulling their child from play therapy. If we look a little deeper into this fear, what’s really beneath the surface? It’s often rooted in people-pleasing, imposter syndrome, or fear of being seen as “too much” or “not helpful enough.” (Ouch!)So let’s talk about it. Let’s dive right in and have a conversation so you can move beyond your fear and have those hard conversations so your clients can get real healing.Join me for this week's podcast! I’ll share four tips to help you overcome your fear and take charge with compassion and kindness to have difficult conversations and reduce the likelihood parents will pull their child from play therapy.Join my free Facebook Community Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground.Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work. I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills
--------
41:03
--------
41:03
What is Best Practice in Play Therapy Clinical Decision-Making
Send us a textHow does being trained to use a specific play therapy model influence clinical decision-making vs clinical decision-making of child/adolescent therapists using play in therapy? Hmmmmm. What the heck does that question even mean? Essentially clinical decision-making involves our expertise and training in a play therapy model and how play therapists engage in the decision-making process to get excellent treatment results for their clients. Is the clinical decision-making skill level of play therapists who are trained to use specific play therapy models better than child/adolescent therapists not trained who are using play in sessions? A study by Baker-Ericzen, Jenkins, Park, and Garland (2015) explored the quality of clinical decision-making for child/adolescent therapists who were trained in an evidence-based treatment model (EBT) versus therapists who were not. This study, Clinical Decision-Making in Community Children’s Mental Health: Using Innovative Methods to Compare Clinicians With and Without Training in Evidence-Based Treatment, 👇🏼 Had some interesting results. Join me for this week's podcast episode, I’ll discuss the findings of their study and how it relates to play therapy. There are several play therapy models considered to be EBT models, so this study provides some interesting points for child and adolescent therapists to consider when working with children using play. #playtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #sandtraytherapy #renewingheartstraining #renewingheartsconsulting #playtherapist #playtherapyaroundtheworld #internationalplaytherapy #playtherapyworks #playtherapymatters #expressivearts #childtherapy #adolescenttherapy #familytherapy #familyplaytherapy #playtherapytraining #expressiveartstherapytraining #childrensmentalhealth #adolescentmentalhealthJoin my free Facebook Community Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground.Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work. I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills
--------
36:15
--------
36:15
How to Work with Resistance in Play Therapy: 4 Approaches for Reluctant Clients
Send us a textWhat do you do when you keep getting frantic phone calls from caregivers between play therapy sessions telling you all the things going wrong with their child?You feel the weight of these phone calls and the pressure to make everything better- quickly.You’ve tried many times to get these caregivers to schedule an appointment with you but there’s always a reason they can’t meet with you.So, you spend hours writing emails and responding to phone calls with little to no success.Or - what about the client that seems to do the same thing week after week after week in their play therapy sessions? You begin to wonder if play therapy is really working and start to second-guess your clinical decisions about what to do in sessions.You start to research new play therapy activities and frantically try anything you can in play therapy sessions - hoping that something will “work.”Sound familiar? Working with challenging cases in play therapy can leave you feeling defeated, frustrated, and wondering if you’re making the right decisions or making things worse for your clients.If that’s you, then join me for this weekly podcast! I’ll discuss how to engage children and caregivers who are resistant to play therapy. I’ll share insights from neuroscience and attachment theory that provide the keys for engaging even the most challenging clients and their caregivers in play therapy.Join my free Facebook Community Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground.Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work. I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills
--------
42:56
--------
42:56
How to Avoid Burnout and Create Meaningful Change in Play Therapy
Send us a textHave you ever thought to yourself when it’s just you and you’ve had a hard day - “I wish I had someone to help me process what just happened in that play therapy session.”If you’re like most play therapists that I’ve met, you’re probably the only one in your agency or group that works with kids and uses play therapy (or is aspiring to learn play therapy).Being a play therapist can feel lonely and challenging because you don’t have others who “get it” about the benefits of play therapy or who feel confident using play therapy with their young clients.And - what you’re doing matters!Helping children access the therapeutic powers of play is a critical need in the mental health field.Your ability to intervene early in the life of a child to help them overcome the social and emotional difficulties they’re experiencing is important.And you believe strongly in the importance of helping children heal - right?!Being part of a play therapy community of like-minded mental health professionals is not a luxury - it’s a game changer, even for seasoned play therapists!So, if you’ve been feeling like you’re on a play therapy island by yourself and wondering why being part of a play therapy community can make a difference in the quality of your play therapy services, 👇Then join me for this free weekly podcast!I’m going to outline three game changing reasons why being part of a play therapy community can actually help you provide more impactful and lasting healing for your play therapy clients. Who doesn’t want to provide the best possible play therapy services for children, right?! So join me this week and let’s make a difference in the lives of children and their families. Let’s do this! 😍Join my free Facebook Community Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground.Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work. I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills
--------
46:31
--------
46:31
Why Collecting More Play Therapy Activities Is Keeping You Stuck (And What Actually Creates Client Breakthroughs)"
Send us a textIf you’re a play therapist - Do you find yourself doing any of these? 👇 🙄 Constantly searching for new activities online 🙄 Have folders full of saved play therapy interventions 🙄 Still feeling uncertain about client progress 🙄 Wondering why 'perfect' activities aren't creating lasting changeIf you're like most play therapists I know, you probably have folders of saved play therapy activities, Pinterest boards full of ideas, and a bookshelf overflowing with play therapy books. Sound familiar?And you might be thinking that finding the perfect activity is the key to helping your clients make progress. After all, that's what everyone seems to be searching for online, right? And Dr. Google’s new AI feature is amazing! You can get answers to your play therapy questions instantly!But if finding the right activity online or in a play therapy book was the solution then you probably wouldn’t be second-guessing your decisions or feeling like nothing is working.That’s why in this week’s episode, I'm sharing: ✨ The hidden reason why collecting more activities isn't the answer (this might surprise you) ✨ What actually creates breakthrough moments with clients (hint: it's not what most experts tell you) ✨ The key shift that helped our community members stop second-guessing their interventions ✨ A practical framework for building unshakeable clinical confidenceJoin me for this free weekly podcast!Save this post and set a reminder - this is for you if you're ready to move beyond collecting random activities and start creating real transformation for your clients.Drop a '🎯' below if you'll be joining us live!"Join my free Facebook Community Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground.Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work. I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills
About Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence
Join me on Next Level Play Therapy, a podcast for child and adolescent therapists seeking to elevate your play therapy services. Hosted by Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S, at Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training. Each episode delves into the nuances of play therapy, exploring innovative techniques, evidence-based practices, and practical strategies for providing exceptional therapeutic experiences. These engaging discussions cover a wide range of topics, including building rapport with children, how to make sure you get great outcomes for clients, therapeutic toys and tools and strategies to use in sessions, addressing trauma and attachment issues, engaging parents, promoting emotional regulation, and nurturing resilience for children and their families.Whether you're an experienced therapist looking to refine your skills or a novice clinician venturing into the world of play therapy, the Next Level Play Therapy podcast equips you with the knowledge and insights to enhance your play therapy practice. With interviews featuring experts in play therapy, exploration of best practices, discussion of game-changing principles and strategies, this podcast equips you with the tools to unlock the amazing power of play therapy to transform the lives of children, adolescents, and families.Tune in to Next Level Play Therapy and take a journey towards becoming an exceptional play therapist as we navigate the next level strategies that lead to profound healing and growth for children and their families.
Listen to Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence, Gaeilge Weekly and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
Ireland