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, ...
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How To Take a Strategic Approach to Play Therapy with Traumatized Children
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Have you ever wondered which approach works best with children who are traumatized? Or maybe you’ve wondered what techniques are used in trauma therapy? Working with children and adolescents who have experienced trauma requires child and adolescent mental health professionals to understand a variety of factors impacting treatment decision making, e…
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If you’re a play therapist you’ve probably heard of sand tray therapy. Maybe you’re using sand tray therapy now with your child and adolescent clients or maybe you’ve been really curious about it. There’s a lot of confusion about using sand tray in play therapy and that impacts the quality of the experience for your clients. What is sand tray thera…
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How to Engage Reluctant Parents in Play Therapy
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Have you ever felt super frustrated trying to get engagement from parents for their child’s play therapy treatment? Feeling like you are “chasing” parents to get them to schedule an appointment with you to discuss how to help their child make progress in play therapy. Feeling tired and a little burned out responding to phone calls, emails, or texts…
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What Are the Current Trends and Growth in the Field of Play Therapy?
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If you’re in the child and adolescent mental health field then you’ve likely heard of play therapy, but why is it so effective? How is it possible that play therapy has become the go-to treatment approach for children to address their mental health challenges? What is it that sets play therapy apart from other treatment modalities? How has play the…
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What’s the Role of Parents in Play Therapy with Anxious Children?
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In the play therapy profession, the focus is typically on the children and providing play therapy sessions only with the child to facilitate healing. Makes sense when you think about it because parents bring their child to you for help overcoming their mental health challenges. But is it really the most effective way to conceptualize the problem an…
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How to Balance Case Conceptualization, Treatment Planning, and Therapeutic Relationship in Play Therapy
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As a play therapist or child/adolescent therapist, 👇 Have you ever thought there is no way to balance a strong therapeutic relationship with clients and parents with the more clinically technical aspects of case conceptualization and treatment planning? Therapeutic rapport is relational, right?. It’s personal and dynamic. Case conceptualization and…
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How to Work with High Conflict Families in Play Therapy
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If you’re a play therapist then you’ve probably had children from high conflict divorced families on your caseload at some point, or maybe even now. These families can present very challenging issues to navigate in play therapy. If you’ve worked with children in high conflict family systems then you’ve probably felt helpless, frustrated, and overwh…
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How Can the AAI Be Used in Play Therapy to Create Secure Attachments?
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One of the things I regularly hear from play therapists is their frustration knowing what is the most effective way to work with parents in play therapy. This is especially true when working with children in families that are very challenging. Children exist within the context of their families and supporting parents to be the therapeutic agents of…
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How to Set Up Play Therapy for Success
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39:33
From an attachment theory standpoint, structure is an important part of parenting. It helps children understand relationship boundaries, protects them from possible harm, provides a sense of safety and order, and allows them to understand how actions impact them and others. How we provide structure is very important - Not too rigid and not too loos…
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What is Imposter Syndrome in Play Therapy?
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If you’re a play therapist, especially new to play therapy, I’m going to share a secret with you. You may not believe me when I tell you this. If you feel like a fraud using play therapy … If you feel overwhelmed and struggling with thoughts that you suck using play therapy and that your clients are probably suffering because of your incompetence ……
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How to Get Unstuck in Play Therapy
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Have you ever felt like you’re lost and not sure what to do when you’re providing play therapy? Maybe you’ve secretly thought that you aren’t cut out to be a play therapist because you’re terrible at it. At some point in your learning journey to help your clients heal using play therapy, you’ve probably felt lost, overwhelmed, and frustrated. Typic…
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How Do You Know if Play Therapy Works?
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What’s the point of learning to recognize themes in play therapy sessions? Does it really matter? Play therapists often talk about what play themes occurred in their clients’ play therapy sessions. Are play themes even real or are we just making them up to justify that play therapy is actually working? We know that play therapy has become the “go-t…
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How Can Play Therapy Heal Preverbal Trauma?
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Do children who’ve experienced trauma prior to developing language have the capacity to remember what happened to them? Does the traumatic experience go away on its own? I’ve often heard people, including child serving professionals, dismiss the possibility of the negative impact of neglect and early trauma on infants and young children. Especially…
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What Are the Best Play Therapy Techniques for Connection
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Using play therapy effectively requires child and adolescent therapists to know how to use a theoretical play therapy model to access the therapeutic powers of play. When choosing play therapy to facilitate healing, it’s important to consider what your clients need and how you will use play therapy to accomplish that goal. Want some ideas? Join me …
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What are the Therapeutic Powers of Play in Play Therapy?
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Play therapists often talk about the therapeutic powers of play. But what exactly does that mean and why are they so important in play therapy? How do you explain play therapy to others? Actually, knowing the answer to these questions are core competencies for play therapists because 👇 The therapeutic powers of play are what set play therapy apart …
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How to Write Effective Play Therapy Documentation
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Writing play therapy documentation is hands down the least favorite task for play therapists, myself included. It’s overwhelming, confusing, and exhausting. It can feel never ending and burn you out. It’s often avoided altogether, which is never good. Avoiding it just creates more stress because you feel like you’re always behind or worse you get i…
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How to Write Play Therapy Progress Notes
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If you’re a play therapist and you have struggled to write progress notes that make sense without draining your brain, then you are definitely not alone. Maybe you feel confused and overwhelmed about writing play therapy notes because you have no idea what to write that makes sense and doesn’t sound like you just played for an hour with your client…
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Are Open Notes Useful for Play Therapy?
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If you’re a mental health professional in the United States, you might have heard about the CURES Act. It’s created quite a buzz in the mental health community. Maybe you’ve heard of Open Notes. Essentially the discussion about progress notes in the medical community, including the mental health community, revolves around clients’ access to their m…
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What Does Case Conceptualization Have to Do with Play Therapy Themes?
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Play therapists place a lot of emphasis on recognizing themes in play therapy sessions. Why? Because understanding play behaviors and recognizing what clients are communicating in their play is critical to help them in the healing process. Here’s where case conceptualization is often overlooked when making sense of what’s going on in play therapy f…
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What’s the Best Way to Identify Themes in Play Therapy Sessions?
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Have you ever struggled to figure out what exactly your clients are communicating during their play therapy sessions? Whether you’re a new play therapist or a seasoned play therapist, identifying themes can be challenging. Learning to recognize themes in your clients’ play therapy sessions is a great way to understand what they are communicating th…
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Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Play Therapy Progress Notes
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There is a lot of terrible information being shared in the mental health community about writing progress notes. Some information is based on fear, some information is based on misunderstanding about progress notes, and some information is based on minimizing the importance of progress notes. (Ouch!) 😲 Over the last 30+ years in the mental health f…
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How to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed Providing Play Therapy
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What’s the secret to success using play therapy like a pro? Any new play therapist will tell you that the thing that drives them to learn new things 👇 is their desire to make a difference in the lives of children. Over the last 15 years supervising new play therapists, I’ve witnessed four things that are 🔑for your success using play therapy so you …
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How to Engage Challenging Children in Play Therapy
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If you’re a child/adolescent mental health professional, then you probably have children and adolescents on your caseload who are reluctant to engage in therapy. These children can be overwhelming and frustrating, even for seasoned therapists. What can you do to engage them in sessions so you can help them? Knowing how to use play therapy strategie…
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How To Recognize Clinically Relevant Themes in Play Therapy Sessions
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How do I know what’s happening in my clients’ play therapy sessions? How do I know what’s important to notice and what’s not important in play therapy sessions? How do I know what my clients’ behaviors in play therapy sessions mean? These are often the questions asked by new play therapists. Anyone new to play therapy will have asked these question…
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How Do Play Therapists Understand Themes in Play Therapy?
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One of the biggest struggles for play therapists is understanding and recognizing themes in play therapy. Play therapists use themes in play therapy sessions to help them understand what’s going on with their clients and how they are progressing in play therapy. But, I’ve always wondered who decided what themes represent or how we recognize them in…
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Why Does Congruence Matter in Play Therapy?
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What can neuroscience tell us about creating a strong therapeutic relationship that allows our clients to feel safe during the change process? 🤔 Congruence in play therapy is the ability to align our internal experiences with our external expressions of unconditional positive regard and empathy. Our resonance circuits, as termed by Daniel Siegel in…
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What Are Barriers for Congruence in Play Therapy?
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Congruence is such a nice sounding therapy word when thinking about how to be the best version of yourself in play therapy sessions. (I have visions of unicorns and happily ever after music playing in my head 🦄 🎶) Sounds so easy, right? But it’s easier said than done. No one can be 100% congruent with their clients (or their kids, or their partners…
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What are the Benefits of Formal Assessment in Play Therapy?
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Have you ever had a client that just didn’t seem to make any progress in play therapy even with all your best efforts? What can you do to figure out what’s going on with your clients? Assessment is one of the core competencies in play therapy. There are some forms of assessment we can do as child/adolescent therapists, and some types of assessment …
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How to Use Congruence Effectively in Play Therapy
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Fundamental to the therapeutic process is a strong therapeutic relationship. This requires the ability to understand congruence and how to use congruence as part of your therapeutic use of self in sessions. This is also true in play therapy. In fact, therapeutic use of self and congruence in play therapy are core competency skills in play therapy. …
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3 Misconceptions About Using Expressive Arts with Teens in Play Therapy
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Adolescents have their own unique needs in the treatment process. Play therapists often struggle with knowing how to help their adolescent clients access the therapeutic powers of play for healing. Using expressive arts with adolescents provides an excellent way to help them process and explore painful emotions and experiences. But, many therapists…
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How to Use Play Therapy with Traumatized Children and Teens
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What mistakes in play therapy with traumatized children and teens are critical to avoid? No one wants to provide terrible play therapy services. I’ve never heard a play therapist say - “I’m okay with providing mediocre play therapy services to my clients, especially clients with traumatic experiences.” That would be terrible, right?! And yet, somet…
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How to Use Play Therapy to Address Alexithymia with Traumatized Children and Teens
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Have you heard of a condition called alexithymia? Probably not because most mental health professionals are not familiar with this term. I wasn’t until I came across the term while looking at research about trauma. What does alexithymia have to do with trauma and working with children and teens in play therapy? That’s an excellent question! Alexith…
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How to Use Play Therapy with Adolescents
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Have you ever had an adolescent client sitting across from you during therapy sessions who was not opening up despite all your best rapport building efforts? They sit there across from you slumped in their chair (maybe hood on their head) or looking at you with a blank face? It can be challenging working with youth who can’t (or won’t) open up and …
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