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Mental health professionals are human beings who bring all of themselves into the counseling process to walk alongside their clients in the healing process.

Humans are prone to biases and imperfection, including those in the mental health field.

Play therapy is no different.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons we tend to be a little neurotic about self-reflection and pondering why we do certain things. 😆

I’ve often said to my husband over the last thirty years in mental health that I’m tired of self-reflecting all the time and that I just want to be in a job where I can feel free to be a butthead –

Not really, (most of the time) because I feel waaaaay too guilty afterward wondering how much I hurt the person who was the recipient of my less than lovely behavior …

and then I spend the next couple of hours self-reflecting on why I behaved the way I did and then I’m emotionally exhausted 🤣 – just keepin’ it real.

Sound familiar? 😵‍💫

On a serious note, though, one of the reasons we’re trained to be self-reflective is so that we reduce the potential for harm to our clients by our own imperfections.

This includes self-reflection about our biases (and yes – we all have them)

What are biases in therapy and why is bias a problem?

How does bias show up in play therapy?

What can we do about our biases in play therapy?

In this week’s podcast episode, I’m discussing what is bias in play therapy and how it negatively impacts successful treatment outcomes if we aren’t willing to dive into shadow (a little Jungian metaphor there 🤓)

Recognizing and naming our biases ensures we can provide quality play therapy services to support children and their families in the healing process in a way that is meaningful for them.


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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

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What are the four basic play therapy skills every play therapist needs to master to competently provide play therapy that gets real results for your clients?

The Association for Play Therapy has identified several play therapy core competencies necessary for becoming a Registered Play Therapist ™

These core competencies identify what skills should be learned as a play therapist.

These skills set play therapists apart from simply pulling out games and art supplies to help your young clients “talk” about what’s bothering them.

These skills require play therapists to be grounded in a theoretical model that dictates how basic play therapy skills are implemented in play therapy sessions.

What are these basic play therapy skills?

Join me on this week’s podcast episode, I’ll discuss what these skills are and how they make a difference in the quality of play therapy services you provide to your clients.

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

Send us a text

What’s the Backbone of Great Play & Expressive Arts Therapy?

Any really great therapist will tell you that one the foundational elements of providing excellent psychotherapy to clients is …

… Clinical Case Conceptualization. Are you having flashbacks to graduate school and rolling your eyes at me as you read this?

Hang in there a minute. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE , LOVE clinical case conceptualization. It's like being a psychotherapy detective (yes, that's my guilty pleasure - watching detective shows). I love a good "who dunnit." As a psychotherapy super sleuth, you go on an investigation to figure out what is going on underneath those symptoms and how to help your clients get better.

Here’s why it’s the backbone… (full disclosure – I’m passionate about this because I see it go wrong so often) it’s the way in which you conceptualize what’s going on with your clients and then formulate a plan to help your clients overcome the problem they were seeking you to help them resolve.

The same is true for play therapy and expressive arts. How you conceptualize the presenting problem determines how you plan to help your client overcome it. So you need to be a good psychotherapy super sleuth!

Join me for this week's podcast episode, I’ll be discussing what is clinical case conceptualization, tips for getting it right, and what happens if you get it wrong so that you can provide excellent play therapy and expressive arts treatment for your clients.

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

Send us a text

What are the clinical tools in your play therapy and expressive arts toolbox and how do you use those tools effectively with your young clients?

Engaging strong clinical decision-making skills when using an integrated approach in play therapy and expressive arts treatment is just as important as if you are applying one specific play therapy theoretical model.

Why?

Theory drives application so you need to understand the theoretical underpinnings of the intervention to effectively and accurately use the intervention to help your young clients.

Clinical decision-making helps you answer these questions:
o Is the model a good fit for my clients?
o How is this model applied in the treatment process and does it vary based on my client’s age and developmental stage?
o How does therapeutic rapport impact the treatment process and how is therapeutic rapport used in this play therapy/expressive arts model?

What happens if you don’t apply strong clinical decision-making skills?

Tune in to this podcast episode, I'll discuss the role of clinical decision-making using the “tools” in your “toolbox.”

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

Send us a text

Does sand tray therapy in play therapy work?

What’s the difference between sandplay therapy and sand tray therapy?

Aren’t they the same thing?

Words matter when thinking about what you do in play therapy and communicating to others what you’re doing.

After all, can you clearly communicate to others if you don’t really understand the difference and feel confident that what you’re doing works?

When I’m pondering these things and trying to get answers for myself so I can confidently communicate about play therapy, including use of the sand tray in play therapy, I like to go to the research to get answers.

So, that’s what I did and I found this great study that discusses whether or not sand play therapy is effective to address mental health issues.

Interested to learn more about the differences between sand tray therapy and sandplay therapy and whether sandplay therapy works?

Join me for this free weekly podcast, I’ll discuss the differences between sand tray therapy and sandplay therapy for play therapists and why it’s important to know the difference.

I’ll also discuss a recent study to examine whether or not sandplay therapy is effective and how this information can be useful to play therapists.

Here’s the citation for the article if you want more information:

Wiersma, J. K., Freedle, L. R., McRoberts, R., and Solberg, K. B. (2022). A meta-analysis of sandplay therapy treatment outcomes. International Journal of Play Therapy, 31(4), 197-215. doi.10.1037/pla0000180

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

Send us a text

Children feel grief deeply and their grieving process looks different depending on a variety of factors, including their age and developmental level.

How can play therapists help children navigate their grief in a way that is unique to their developmental needs in treatment?

Play therapy has become the “go-to” approach to help children heal.

This includes using play therapy to help children cope with their grief.

What are things play therapists can do to help bereaved children heal?

That’s what my guest, Liana Lowenstein, and I will be discussing in this episode.

Liana is an accomplished author of several play therapy books, including her two books focused on helping play therapists work with bereaved children: Creative Interventions for Bereaved Children, 2nd Ed, and Cory Helps Kids Cope with Grief.

Join me for this free weekly Podcast, Liana and I will be discussing how to recognize grief and children and play therapy strategies to help them cope with grief.

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

Send us a text

What’s the best way to make the biggest and most long-lasting impact using play therapy?

After all, that’s the goal of play therapy - to make a lasting difference in the lives of children.

The question we need to consider is - who is the therapeutic agent of change for the child?

Play therapist or parents?

You can make the case that both are therapeutic agents of change in their own way.

Play therapists create a strong relationship with children to help them overcome the challenges they’re experiencing currently.

If you want to make the biggest and most long-lasting impact using play therapy then you’ll want to consider how you can engage parents as the therapeutic agents of change for their children.

After all, parents are in the lives of your clients much longer than you are in their lives.

To help parents become the therapeutic agents of change for their children using play therapy, you need to figure out what is the role of parents in play therapy and why does it matter?

I’ll discuss the role of parents and how to maximize their role using play therapy to get the best results for your young clients.

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

Send us a text

Usually when I suggest play therapists use family play therapy sessions, their facial expression says it all.

Anxious, surprised, overwhelmed, and sometimes amused or curious.

It makes sense when you think about it because most play therapy training is focused on individual counseling sessions and very little training is focused on how to integrate parents and family members into the play therapy process for their clients.

I think this is true for mental health treatment in general.

The thing is that children don’t exist in a vacuum and they can’t be their own therapeutic agents of change for healing.

Children and adolescents thrive best when they have secure attachment relationships and strong, healthy family support.

So, why then, do we usually spend most of our learning time ignoring this area of children’s lives in the treatment process?

Family play therapy can be a value “tool” in the “toolbox” of play therapists to facilitate lasting change within the whole family that will support the changes your clients are making.

Join me for this free weekly Podcast, I’ll discuss strategies for using family play therapy with your clients and how your clients can benefit from family play therapy as part of their treatment experience.

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