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How to Get Better Results in Play Therapy Without Doing More · Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

• 0:02
  Cathi Spooner: All right.
• 0:03
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome everybody.
• 0:05
  Cathi Spooner: So I'm gonna go ahead and let me share my screen.
• 0:10
  Cathi Spooner: I'll pull up my, um, slides that way.
• 0:19
  Cathi Spooner: Alright, let me move that out of the way.
• 0:23
  Cathi Spooner: There we go.
• 0:27
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, there, there we go.
• 0:31
  Cathi Spooner: Alrighty.
• 0:32
  Cathi Spooner: So today's webinar we're focusing on how to provide play therapy without second guessing yourself.
• 0:43
  Cathi Spooner: So my hope is by the end of today that you're gonna have kind of a framework that you can use when you're feeling stuck.
• 0:54
  Cathi Spooner: This is basically the framework I use.
• 0:57
  Cathi Spooner: When I get stuck and I've been working in the child and adolescent mental health field for over 30 years now.
• 1:04
  Cathi Spooner: I'm coming round in the corner up to 35 years.
• 1:07
  Cathi Spooner: And this is kind of the lessons learned over the course of my career and what helps us to get back on track.
• 1:18
  Cathi Spooner: So the, the idea is really providing solid play therapy to our clients.
• 1:27
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause we really wanna make a difference in their lives and help them.
• 1:33
  Cathi Spooner: So getting stuck can feel overwhelming and frustrating, and especially when we start second guessing ourselves.
• 1:40
  Cathi Spooner: Plus it's exhausting.
• 1:42
  Cathi Spooner: So that is what we're gonna focus on today.
• 1:48
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:50
  Cathi Spooner: There we go.
• 1:51
  Cathi Spooner: So if you haven't already introduced yourself.
• 1:55
  Cathi Spooner: In the chat, please go ahead and do that.
• 1:58
  Cathi Spooner: It kind of helps to get to see who's here, what population you're working with, do you have a specific play therapy approach that you use?
• 2:10
  Cathi Spooner: Um, what's your biggest struggle using play therapy?
• 2:15
  Cathi Spooner: So go, go ahead and post that in the comments.
• 2:19
  Cathi Spooner: I'll keep letting people in while we're getting started.
• 2:28
  Cathi Spooner: Alrighty, just my disclaimer.
• 2:33
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, just please be advised that the clinical suggestions and recommendations provided during this training are intended.
• 2:41
  Cathi Spooner: As general guidance, each mental health professional and play therapist is responsible for ensuring they practice within the scope of their professional competence and adhere to the laws and regulations of their own jurisdiction.
• 2:56
  Cathi Spooner: Ultimately, any clinical decisions and actions are the respons, are the responsibility of the individual therapist.
• 3:05
  Cathi Spooner: I'm trying to join this thing.
• 3:08
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, somebody, if you could mute, that'd be lovely.
• 3:13
  Cathi Spooner: The advice offered here is for educational purposes and does not replace personalized professional judgment by participating in the training.
• 3:23
  Cathi Spooner: You agree and acknowledge the above.
• 3:25
  Cathi Spooner: So that's my little disclaimer.
• 3:28
  Cathi Spooner: We all feel like we have to do so.
• 3:32
  Cathi Spooner: For this, some of the key takeaways that my hope is that you get by the end of this training, we're gonna spend an hour together.
• 3:42
  Cathi Spooner: I'm gonna go through the three parts of the training.
• 3:45
  Cathi Spooner: At the end, I'm gonna share some information about, uh, play therapy community that I have.
• 3:53
  Cathi Spooner: The o uh, the enrollment is opening up today also.
• 3:59
  Cathi Spooner: Um, at the end we'll give you the free videos for.
• 4:07
  Cathi Spooner: Attachment focused family play therapy, some family play therapy activities.
• 4:11
  Cathi Spooner: There's a whole video series.
• 4:13
  Cathi Spooner: And so by joining us live today, you are going to get that video series of my favorite family play therapy activities.
• 4:22
  Cathi Spooner: So my hope is we do a bit of a mind shift in some areas for things that I see come up a lot.
• 4:31
  Cathi Spooner: I talk to a lot of different play therapists, um, over all around the country, even outside of the us and there are certain things that keep coming up.
• 4:44
  Cathi Spooner: And these are things we also talk a lot about in the consultation programs, memberships.
• 4:51
  Cathi Spooner: That I run.
• 4:52
  Cathi Spooner: And we do have, we have some Play Therapy Academy members attending today, so that's awesome.
• 5:00
  Cathi Spooner: And I'm gonna talk a little bit about my new membership at the End Play Therapy Elevation Circle, where I took all the things that are awesome about Play Therapy Academy to make it more accessible for people that don't need that level of support.
• 5:17
  Cathi Spooner: And they, they want a community of play therapists.
• 5:21
  Cathi Spooner: So we're gonna talk about why these mindsets shifts are important, some things you need to consider, and also what are the benefits of not doing play therapy alone.
• 5:35
  Cathi Spooner: And so for any of these that you resonate with, post in the comments, any of these that you resonate with.
• 5:46
  Cathi Spooner: And if you resonate with more than one, so which of these sound familiar to you?
• 5:51
  Cathi Spooner: You start using play therapy and then somewhere along the process you're not sure what to do in your play therapy sessions, you're not sure if play therapy is even working.
• 6:03
  Cathi Spooner: You feel stuck, especially with the tricky cases and complex family dynamics, which we actually went through of those cases yesterday In Play Therapy academy, our consultation program.
• 6:17
  Cathi Spooner: Um, you start focusing on finding the right activity that's gonna make the difference, but nothing seems to be working.
• 6:25
  Cathi Spooner: Parents are calling you in between sessions, telling you all the things that are going wrong and you feel pressured to fix it fast or you start second guessing.
• 6:35
  Cathi Spooner: Uh.
• 6:36
  Cathi Spooner: That you're even doing a good job, maybe feeling like a failure because nothing seems to be working and you even start to consider your, your professional choices of whether or not you're cut out to be a play therapist.
• 6:52
  Cathi Spooner: So go ahead and post those in the comments.
• 6:55
  Cathi Spooner: Which of those one and three?
• 6:59
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 6:59
  Cathi Spooner: I, I, I think five.
• 7:01
  Cathi Spooner: Definitely five.
• 7:04
  Cathi Spooner: Yes.
• 7:04
  Cathi Spooner: We hear that a lot.
• 7:05
  Cathi Spooner: Calling between sessions.
• 7:08
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, number two, never Sure.
• 7:10
  Cathi Spooner: Until a week or two later.
• 7:11
  Cathi Spooner: If one I'm doing is work a little bit of po impossible.
• 7:15
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, they're watching it.
• 7:17
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, they just made it up the beach.
• 7:19
  Cathi Spooner: Oops.
• 7:19
  Cathi Spooner: Somebody doesn't have their microphone muted.
• 7:24
  Cathi Spooner: So if you guys could just make sure you're muted, that would be lovely.
• 7:28
  Cathi Spooner: Okay.
• 7:29
  Cathi Spooner: Um.
• 7:31
  Cathi Spooner: So all of the, I would agree.
• 7:34
  Cathi Spooner: I've, I, Tracy, I have felt all of these at certain times along the way.
• 7:39
  Cathi Spooner: And I'll be honest, some of these, I still feel sometimes when I get a tricky case, I, I feel stuck, which is, um, something, I think even seasoned play therapists, we struggle with some of these.
• 7:56
  Cathi Spooner: And so the thing is, I hear this all the time, I know it's true for me, that we beca for us, being a play therapist isn't just a job.
• 8:08
  Cathi Spooner: Most of us feel like it's a deep calling and we want to make a difference in the lives of children and their families.
• 8:16
  Cathi Spooner: And in order to do that, we need to be able to figure out how to stay in this in the long haul.
• 8:24
  Cathi Spooner: We talk about this all the time in Elevation Circle when we meet for consultation calls.
• 8:30
  Cathi Spooner: And also we talk about this a lot in Play Therapy Academy, which is, this is hard work.
• 8:37
  Cathi Spooner: Day after day after day, you hold hard stories.
• 8:41
  Cathi Spooner: You go from session to session to session, holding hard stories, working with different clients, some of them easier than others, but this is hard work that we do and it's, it's meaningful work.
• 8:58
  Cathi Spooner: We can try to make a big stop next.
• 8:59
  Cathi Spooner: And so I wanna start out with a case study.
• 9:03
  Cathi Spooner: I figured this would be a re, you know, we love case studies in talking about clients, so I was thinking.
• 9:09
  Cathi Spooner: How, how can we like make this real?
• 9:12
  Cathi Spooner: And so I don't know how many of you guys have had a version of a five-year-old Sam, but it seems like these are most of my caseload more often than not.
• 9:25
  Cathi Spooner: So think about this, you get a phone call from a parent and or a, uh, or a caregiver because maybe they're not living with parents.
• 9:36
  Cathi Spooner: The child is not living with parents.
• 9:38
  Cathi Spooner: And here's what they're telling you.
• 9:40
  Cathi Spooner: They're having outbursts all the time that can last anywhere from 15 minutes to all day long.
• 9:46
  Cathi Spooner: They're yelling, they're saying mean things.
• 9:50
  Cathi Spooner: They're hitting, they're throwing, they're not complying with requests.
• 9:55
  Cathi Spooner: They might be tantruming at school and hitting kids or throwing desks or doing other disruptive things and.
• 10:06
  Cathi Spooner: They get easily frustrated, shutting down, refusing to talk or comply, and then parents don't know what to do.
• 10:14
  Cathi Spooner: Also, teachers don't know what to do.
• 10:17
  Cathi Spooner: So think about this.
• 10:19
  Cathi Spooner: This is the presenting information.
• 10:23
  Cathi Spooner: So based on this post in the chat, what you think is the likely reason, just based on this information alone, because this is the information you've gotten post in the comments, what do you think the diagnosis is?
• 10:39
  Cathi Spooner: Or what do you think is the reason that little, um, 5-year-old Sam is struggling?
• 10:51
  Cathi Spooner: All right, there we go.
• 10:53
  Cathi Spooner: That's 20%.
• 10:54
  Cathi Spooner: Alright, Harper said, lack of resilience.
• 11:00
  Cathi Spooner: Hey Carol.
• 11:01
  Cathi Spooner: Beth, I saw you enter.
• 11:04
  Cathi Spooner: Carol Beth is in play therapy Elevation Circle.
• 11:07
  Cathi Spooner: I actually was in Play Therapy Academy with you, with me.
• 11:12
  Cathi Spooner: Um, Jane says, not enough information.
• 11:17
  Cathi Spooner: Alyssa said, need more one-on-one time with parents.
• 11:23
  Cathi Spooner: She wants to be seen, feel safe.
• 11:25
  Cathi Spooner: Also, not enough information.
• 11:29
  Cathi Spooner: Severe Crohn disease, a history of trauma or abuse potential, A DHD or ODD, but not enough information to confirm.
• 11:40
  Cathi Spooner: Struggles with regulating central nervous system needs more attachment regulation.
• 11:46
  Cathi Spooner: Carol, Betsy.
• 11:47
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 11:48
  Cathi Spooner: Wow.
• 11:48
  Cathi Spooner: Could be many factors including recent loss change, difficulty understanding how to regulate.
• 11:54
  Cathi Spooner: So most of you guys, um, were saying there's not enough information, right.
• 12:02
  Cathi Spooner: So that I would agree, which brings us to the very first thing in the framework that we need to really, um, make sure that we're doing, and that is the fancy word for case conceptualization.
• 12:21
  Cathi Spooner: So without that clarity, we don't really understand what's going on, and if we don't understand what is at the root of the behavior, it's gonna be really challenging to know what to do in the sessions.
• 12:38
  Cathi Spooner: And so.
• 12:39
  Cathi Spooner: Case conceptualization is really a fancy term for using your power of analysis and deduction with the information that you've gathered.
• 12:49
  Cathi Spooner: So at that very first psychosocial assessment meeting, which you are not skipping, you are, you are making sure to do your psychosocial assessment first.
• 13:02
  Cathi Spooner: You're gonna take all of that information and then use it to formulate your initial case conceptualization, or what I also call working hypothesis.
• 13:15
  Cathi Spooner: And then you're gonna use that throughout the process of play therapy and adjust as as needed, as you're gathering more information, as things are getting better.
• 13:27
  Cathi Spooner: But we need to make sure that we're starting out with that initial.
• 13:32
  Cathi Spooner: Case conceptualization.
• 13:34
  Cathi Spooner: And the reason for that is when we skip this part at the beginning, then what ends up happening is it kind of gets derailed.
• 13:47
  Cathi Spooner: There are a lot of reasons that I hear people don't do this first part, and that's because they want to start helping their clients right away to help them feel better.
• 13:59
  Cathi Spooner: They wanna show parents that play therapy is actually working.
• 14:04
  Cathi Spooner: Some don't wanna inconvenience.
• 14:07
  Cathi Spooner: Parents are making them feel uncomfortable by asking a lot of questions, taking up their time.
• 14:13
  Cathi Spooner: Or I've also heard people talking about diagnosis doesn't really matter 'cause it just puts a label on the child that doesn't really help them.
• 14:22
  Cathi Spooner: And while I would agree that diagnosis is not the end all be all, I also don't think we should throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak.
• 14:31
  Cathi Spooner: That there, that it can give us some good information.
• 14:37
  Cathi Spooner: And so is it really true that we're wasting time by skipping that psychosocial and getting right into doing play therapy sessions?
• 14:48
  Cathi Spooner: So even if I, I'm gonna kind of challenge a little bit here with the mindset of, oh, I'm just gonna go ahead and do the first, the play therapy session and that, that way I'll get to know my client better and I won't take up parents' time.
• 15:05
  Cathi Spooner: And we could get started right away.
• 15:08
  Cathi Spooner: But is it really true that not doing that very first cycle assessment is not valuable?
• 15:16
  Cathi Spooner: And I, I, I don't agree with that.
• 15:20
  Cathi Spooner: And here's why.
• 15:22
  Cathi Spooner: If we use the analogy of going to the doctor, if your child was sick, actually the doctor asking you questions and trying to figure out what the issue is, gives you more confidence that the doctor actually understands what's going on before they start prescribing medi medicine.
• 15:46
  Cathi Spooner: If they don't really fully know why, I don't know about you, but when my kids were little, I would ask the doctor like 17,000, especially with my first, like when we went to the doctors all the time, it seemed like, and I found that, um, when the, when the doctors answered my questions, I had more confidence in what was going on, but it also helped me know what I needed to do.
• 16:13
  Cathi Spooner: And so what happens when we don't do that initial assessment and initial case formulation is after the, we do that initial rapport building somewhere in the two to three weeks, six weeks.
• 16:28
  Cathi Spooner: And somewhere after that we begin to get lost.
• 16:33
  Cathi Spooner: And not sure how are we actually integrating the caregivers into the play therapy process 'cause we haven't taken that time to figure out what's going on.
• 16:45
  Cathi Spooner: And where do parents fall in the patterns for why this is happening?
• 16:53
  Cathi Spooner: So there's a, there's a book by Sper and Sperry and they, they talk about case conceptualization and from their book case conceptualization, mastering this competency with ease and confidence.
• 17:08
  Cathi Spooner: There's a quote that I really.
• 17:10
  Cathi Spooner: Like that, I think kind of sums it up, which is two of the most common concerns that trainees have in working with clients are reflected in the questions, what do I say and what do I do?
• 17:22
  Cathi Spooner: While logical, these questions can quickly get trainees lost and off track, which is common when trainees lack an accurate co cognitive map to guide them to dis, to develop accurate cognitive maps to guide the treatment process, or I would say case conceptualization.
• 17:43
  Cathi Spooner: Trainees must first become competent at focusing, which means knowing where to focus one's attention when listening and observing.
• 17:52
  Cathi Spooner: One of the most useful questions that trainees can ask themselves and their supervisor is, what should I be noticing and listening for when I talk to clients?
• 18:05
  Cathi Spooner: There was also, uh, uh.
• 18:08
  Cathi Spooner: An article in the Psychotherapy Network, and they were, they were doing a larger study and where they were considering the idea of burnout.
• 18:21
  Cathi Spooner: And so, um, Scott Miller and Mark h Hubble talk to, they wanted to talk to the, the experts in the field of psychotherapy, and they were, they were addressing the issue of burnout.
• 18:38
  Cathi Spooner: What I found interesting when I was reading this was that it, it looked at burnout a different way.
• 18:46
  Cathi Spooner: And so what they found was with a focus on, with these masters, what they did was they, from day one began to concept, they did their initial case conceptualization, and then from there they used that to get a sense of whatever theoretical model they were using.
• 19:08
  Cathi Spooner: What is that gonna look like from beginning of treatment to end of treatment?
• 19:12
  Cathi Spooner: And what is it gonna take to, for this client based on what's going on?
• 19:18
  Cathi Spooner: And what we've considered is the underlying root of the problem.
• 19:22
  Cathi Spooner: What is it gonna take to help that client get better?
• 19:25
  Cathi Spooner: And when they took that framework from day one, what they found was that, um, with this focus on outcomes, 50% client improvement and there was a 50% less dropout rate.
• 19:44
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and so the, so the idea is really getting a sense from the beginning of what's really going on and what needs to help move the needle for this client resulted in less clients dropping out and 50% of them getting better.
• 20:04
  Cathi Spooner: There was a quote in the article.
• 20:07
  Cathi Spooner: Um, that I thought was in interesting in interview after interview, the field's most effective clinicians place the outcome of treatment above involvement with clients as their chief consideration, the focus of their work and professional identity.
• 20:28
  Cathi Spooner: This isn't to say they don't care about their clients.
• 20:31
  Cathi Spooner: The tendency to conflate involvement with effectiveness is easy to understand.
• 20:36
  Cathi Spooner: Says psychologist, Darryl Chow.
• 20:39
  Cathi Spooner: Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna kind of.
• 20:43
  Cathi Spooner: Think about that a different way.
• 20:45
  Cathi Spooner: We know therapeutic relationship is important.
• 20:48
  Cathi Spooner: I believe therapeutic relationship is important.
• 20:51
  Cathi Spooner: It is the glue that holds clients in the treatment process.
• 20:57
  Cathi Spooner: I think what they're challenging us to think about is it's not just therapeutic relationship, it's also skill.
• 21:05
  Cathi Spooner: It's also our ability to think about from the get go and, and really develop competency with our case conceptualization skills and how are we using that throughout the treatment process with our decision making.
• 21:23
  Cathi Spooner: So it's not, I think sometimes we put so much focus on the cli, especially in play therapy.
• 21:30
  Cathi Spooner: We'll just follow the, the child and everything will be fine.
• 21:36
  Cathi Spooner: And that doesn't always work out because yes, we want to believe in the child's intrinsic ability to move towards healing and wholeness.
• 21:45
  Cathi Spooner: Given the free and protected space and with structure and some scale in our clinical decision making, we can help guide them because we're gonna, we're gonna know what to do and who needs to be involved in the treatment process.
• 22:02
  Cathi Spooner: And then we can guide them through that from beginning to end.
• 22:08
  Cathi Spooner: And so if we think about five-year-old Sam and his tiny tornado behaviors.
• 22:14
  Cathi Spooner: Some other things to think about as we're thinking about our case conceptualization, we have these presenting symptoms.
• 22:24
  Cathi Spooner: And the other thing is your play therapy theoretical model is gonna influence how you are making sense of what the problem is and why the problem is happening.
• 22:38
  Cathi Spooner: So how does your case, how is your case conceptualization influenced by how are you defining the problem and your play therapy approach?
• 22:49
  Cathi Spooner: So what's at the root of the problem?
• 22:51
  Cathi Spooner: Some of you guys said this in the um, in the chat.
• 22:57
  Cathi Spooner: It could be trauma, it could be attachment disruption due to a high conflict divorce.
• 23:04
  Cathi Spooner: Could be sensory processing issues, could be anxiety, could be a DHD, could be autism, could be any combination of the above.
• 23:14
  Cathi Spooner: And then your play therapy model is gonna influence what that, how you're conceptualizing that.
• 23:26
  Cathi Spooner: So, um, what do, what do we need to do instead of just getting started right away?
• 23:36
  Cathi Spooner: I, I highly recommend making sure don't use that psychosocial assessment as a.
• 23:43
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, check the box.
• 23:45
  Cathi Spooner: I think we gather really important information when we do that.
• 23:50
  Cathi Spooner: We wanna make sure to gather information about frequency, intensity, and duration.
• 23:56
  Cathi Spooner: When we understand how often it happens, how intense is it and how long has it been going on, it helps us to understand the difference between maybe separation anxiety or generalized anxiety.
• 24:12
  Cathi Spooner: Is it depression or is it maybe, um, trauma PTSD?
• 24:21
  Cathi Spooner: Or is it a DHD?
• 24:26
  Cathi Spooner: When did these things start?
• 24:27
  Cathi Spooner: Was there a a shift that happened?
• 24:30
  Cathi Spooner: Has it gotten worse over time?
• 24:32
  Cathi Spooner: What seems to activate it?
• 24:33
  Cathi Spooner: When does it happen?
• 24:34
  Cathi Spooner: When does it not happen?
• 24:36
  Cathi Spooner: We use all of that information to formulate our initial case conceptualization.
• 24:42
  Cathi Spooner: Which is our working hypothesis.
• 24:44
  Cathi Spooner: And then we continue that throughout the treatment process.
• 24:50
  Cathi Spooner: And so that brings us to component number two, which is your play therapy theoretical model.
• 24:59
  Cathi Spooner: I, I think it's incredibly important for us as play therapists to at least learn a play therapy model.
• 25:08
  Cathi Spooner: Just learn at least one to get started.
• 25:10
  Cathi Spooner: You can always add on from there, but your play therapy model influences how you make sense of what the problem is, and then what are you gonna do in each stage of the play therapy process.
• 25:25
  Cathi Spooner: So if you get lost, right, and somewhere in the process you're like, I don't know if this is working.
• 25:33
  Cathi Spooner: I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
• 25:36
  Cathi Spooner: We go back to our case conceptualization, what are the things that are at the root of this and what does my play therapy model say to do in stage one of, let's say Adlerian play therapy?
• 25:49
  Cathi Spooner: What are they supposed to be accomplishing in ad stage one?
• 25:53
  Cathi Spooner: What's the focus of stage two?
• 25:56
  Cathi Spooner: In stage two?
• 25:57
  Cathi Spooner: What am I gonna be working on?
• 25:59
  Cathi Spooner: So if I am using a play therapy model that, um, is di directive as opposed to child-centered play therapy, if I'm using Adlerian play therapy, then I'm gonna be thinking about in this stage of treatment.
• 26:16
  Cathi Spooner: What is it that we're working on that's also gonna gimme an idea of whether or not they're making any progress.
• 26:23
  Cathi Spooner: So your play therapy model is actually like your GPS or your map that helps you navigate through each stage.
• 26:34
  Cathi Spooner: And so what I, what I find happens a lot is that rather than focusing on learning a play therapy model, applying it with fidelity and through each stage of the change process with a variety of different clients, 'cause it's gonna look, look different with different clients, but the fundamental foundation and framework is still gonna be the same.
• 27:02
  Cathi Spooner: What ends up happening is play therapists will go on Pinterest, a Amazon or Etsy, trying to find play therapy activities.
• 27:13
  Cathi Spooner: Focus on getting the right art supplies or toys or games.
• 27:17
  Cathi Spooner: Kind of overfocus on finding the perfect activity and spending hours searching for it without any framework to plug it into or using, saying you use an integrative play therapy approach.
• 27:35
  Cathi Spooner: You attend lots of play therapy trainings.
• 27:37
  Cathi Spooner: I give play therapy trainings all the time, and we have to figure out how are we integrating those?
• 27:46
  Cathi Spooner: What is our approach?
• 27:48
  Cathi Spooner: What does that even mean?
• 27:49
  Cathi Spooner: Being an integrative play therapist, how do I, I, I talked to one person who was, um, considering play Therapy Academy or Elevation Circle, and one of the things I hear all the time.
• 28:04
  Cathi Spooner: Was one of the things that she had said is, I, I've taken all these trainings, these are all really important, but I don't know how to fit 'em all together.
• 28:11
  Cathi Spooner: So now I feel like I'm getting lost because I don't know how these fit together in a cohesive way.
• 28:18
  Cathi Spooner: So I know where I am in the play therapy, which stage of play therapy I'm in, or what stage the child is in.
• 28:29
  Cathi Spooner: And so we end, I call it the spaghetti against the wall method, which is you're just trying anything and everything to see if something actually sticks.
• 28:39
  Cathi Spooner: This is where imposter syndrome comes in.
• 28:42
  Cathi Spooner: Um, you start second guessing yourself and you can't tell if you're making any progress.
• 28:48
  Cathi Spooner: And so if you go back to your play therapy model, it's going, this is what I do.
• 28:55
  Cathi Spooner: I take a step back, I go back to my case conceptualization, I think about my play therapy model.
• 29:01
  Cathi Spooner: That helps me figure out, okay, where are they in the stage process, uh, in the play therapy process?
• 29:08
  Cathi Spooner: Which stage of play therapy are they in?
• 29:10
  Cathi Spooner: Who needs to be involved in play therapy?
• 29:14
  Cathi Spooner: And your, the role of caregivers in treatment for your little client is going to influence how parents are going to be involved.
• 29:27
  Cathi Spooner: One of the things I hear all the time is we're just letting parents in the play therapy room, but we have no plan for them.
• 29:35
  Cathi Spooner: We let them in'cause they want in.
• 29:37
  Cathi Spooner: Well that's fine, but maybe it's not helpful for them to be in there.
• 29:41
  Cathi Spooner: Like, what is their role in the, in the session?
• 29:46
  Cathi Spooner: What is the therapeutic role?
• 29:47
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause it's not to sit in there and watch that is not therapeutic.
• 29:52
  Cathi Spooner: It might be a, it might be a way to help the child.
• 29:58
  Cathi Spooner: Get used to being in play therapy.
• 30:00
  Cathi Spooner: So you might use mommy statue or daddy statue, but that's limited.
• 30:04
  Cathi Spooner: We're only using that in the beginning.
• 30:05
  Cathi Spooner: If you're using child-centered play therapy and the parent is in there, then you're not using child-centered play therapy.
• 30:13
  Cathi Spooner: So our play therapy model is going to influence what you're doing in the sessions.
• 30:21
  Cathi Spooner: Why are you doing it?
• 30:22
  Cathi Spooner: When are you doing it?
• 30:23
  Cathi Spooner: And who's involved and why are they involved?
• 30:31
  Cathi Spooner: So, um, to really strateg strategically facilitate healing, here's always what I recommend.
• 30:41
  Cathi Spooner: If you don't know what play therapy model that you, if you don't have one, at least a foundational one, start with one at least.
• 30:50
  Cathi Spooner: Um, then figure out what play therapy.
• 30:55
  Cathi Spooner: Theoretical model you align with that aligns with your clinical values and your belief.
• 31:02
  Cathi Spooner: And then start learning how to use that one because it's gonna influence how you explain the problem and the solution.
• 31:10
  Cathi Spooner: And when you're using an integrated approach, what theory models are you actually integrating?
• 31:18
  Cathi Spooner: And how do those models explain the problem and what you're gonna do to fix it?
• 31:25
  Cathi Spooner: So you, and then you're gonna be choosing your play therapy activities based on what your theory model dictates for each stage, based on what the problem is and what are the roots of it, the pattern sustaining it, and what is the role of the parents in that session.
• 31:44
  Cathi Spooner: And so when we think about Sam and we go back to his tiny tornado behaviors.
• 31:53
  Cathi Spooner: How would you, like what theoretical model would you guys use?
• 31:57
  Cathi Spooner: And you can post that in the chat.
• 31:59
  Cathi Spooner: Like what would your theory model be and how is that going to influence how you define the problem?
• 32:07
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're using child-centered play therapy, your going to define the problem in terms of the child needs a better sense of self.
• 32:17
  Cathi Spooner: And when they get, I look at Atta child-centered play therapy, like attachment, like we're helping them develop a secure attachment style and all the resiliency that goes along with that.
• 32:29
  Cathi Spooner: Or are you using Thera play?
• 32:32
  Cathi Spooner: If you're using the play, you've identified that the attachment relationship needs to be repaired, and there's a specific way that you're integrating parents into the play therapy process.
• 32:45
  Cathi Spooner: Or if you're using prescriptive play therapy, you might be teaching coping skills.
• 32:51
  Cathi Spooner: You might be, um, teaching like deep breathing or recognizing negative self-talk, how that influences your emotions.
• 33:04
  Cathi Spooner: You're gonna get a little CBT ish there, so depending on your play therapy model is gonna influence how are you making sense of it and what are you doing in the session?
• 33:18
  Cathi Spooner: All right, let me see if I can pull up your chats.
• 33:21
  Cathi Spooner: It's not, oops, sorry about that.
• 33:23
  Cathi Spooner: Didn't mean to go forward.
• 33:25
  Cathi Spooner: I'm trying to see the chats when I share my screen.
• 33:28
  Cathi Spooner: It's always not always easy to see the chat.
• 33:30
  Cathi Spooner: I'm not seeing it.
• 33:32
  Cathi Spooner: Um, here's the other thing, and I mentioned this before, the glue that holds it all together is a strong therapeutic relationship.
• 33:43
  Cathi Spooner: So even if you are just in the beginning of learning play therapy, oh, there's a chat.
• 33:50
  Cathi Spooner: There it is.
• 33:51
  Cathi Spooner: Um, Aaron says, integrative Adlerian and CCPT attachment needs to be repaired and a sense of security needs to be developed.
• 34:01
  Cathi Spooner: Also, there's something Sam needs to process and his behaviors communication.
• 34:06
  Cathi Spooner: Yes, that was a good one.
• 34:08
  Cathi Spooner: Um, Carol be said, child-centered play therapy And Carol Beth is amazing with child-centered play therapy.
• 34:14
  Cathi Spooner: I've seen.
• 34:15
  Cathi Spooner: Um, yes.
• 34:18
  Cathi Spooner: Um, Jayna said I use a trauma model that is flexibly sequential model.
• 34:25
  Cathi Spooner: My kids don't have trauma.
• 34:27
  Cathi Spooner: I still follow the model except for trauma narrative part.
• 34:31
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, I kind of do something similar with that sometimes too.
• 34:34
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 34:35
  Cathi Spooner: Um, oh, interesting.
• 34:41
  Cathi Spooner: Um, found parents are 70 30.
• 34:45
  Cathi Spooner: Some don't understand why I prefer to meet with them, but others express gratitude for meeting with them before the child in psychoeducation, uh, after psychoeducation.
• 34:56
  Cathi Spooner: And I think that's so true, Alyssa.
• 34:59
  Cathi Spooner: I think in that first session we're also doing psycho education about what play therapy is so that we can set.
• 35:09
  Cathi Spooner: Realistic expectations, but also explain how does this work.
• 35:14
  Cathi Spooner: That's also where you're gonna explain like, how are you responding to phone calls and you're not taking all them in between sessions, but that's a whole other training.
• 35:23
  Cathi Spooner: Um, constrained by insurance.
• 35:25
  Cathi Spooner: Not actually, it's a nine.
• 35:27
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, uh, parent consult.
• 35:29
  Cathi Spooner: It's a family therapy without child present.
• 35:31
  Cathi Spooner: Plus that nine, oh, the first one is a 9 9 0 7 9 1.
• 35:37
  Cathi Spooner: That's assessment.
• 35:38
  Cathi Spooner: It can be just the child, I mean, sorry.
• 35:40
  Cathi Spooner: It can be just the parent when you're doing that because it's a diagnostic psychosocial assessment.
• 35:47
  Cathi Spooner: So you may wanna, uh, you may wanna think, I think there's probably some codes maybe that you're not sure about.
• 35:58
  Cathi Spooner: I was in private practice for 16 years.
• 36:02
  Cathi Spooner: Um.
• 36:05
  Cathi Spooner: Insurance issues due to Rural Health Clinic does the CPT codes.
• 36:11
  Cathi Spooner: Procedure codes are, are set by the federal government, so it might just be some clinic policies.
• 36:19
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so with all of this, the, the Association for Play Therapy defines play therapy as the use of a theoretical model to help children access the therapeutic powers of play within a strong, the, uh, therapeutic relationship.
• 36:40
  Cathi Spooner: So we, your model is going to influence how children access those therapeutic powers of play, and it's all wrapped up in that strong therapeutic relationship.
• 36:55
  Cathi Spooner: And so the third component really has a lot to do with relationship.
• 37:00
  Cathi Spooner: So we, we focus a lot on using a strong therapeutic relationship with clients and I would, I would kind of offer up who are we using support from as play therapists?
• 37:17
  Cathi Spooner: Who are we trusting to guide us and support us and give us ideas and strategies?
• 37:25
  Cathi Spooner: I think a lot of times what I've observed is that we talk a lot about consultation being really important.
• 37:34
  Cathi Spooner: We'll even use the E word, the ethics word, um, but we treat it more like it's a luxury and not a necessity.
• 37:42
  Cathi Spooner: I think there's a lot of reasons for that, some of which is access.
• 37:47
  Cathi Spooner: Um.
• 37:48
  Cathi Spooner: And are we getting the support that we need within a community of like-minded play therapists?
• 37:58
  Cathi Spooner: And so what I find ends up happening because we treat it maybe a little bit more like a luxury than a necessity, we don't really recognize the importance of, uh, peer-based consultation or support and access to exp. I would experiences and resources of colleagues and the collective wisdom and insights of the group.
• 38:23
  Cathi Spooner: I will tell you this, if you ask any of the Play Therapy Academy members here and the Play Therapy Elevation Circle members here, if even if I wasn't around and they, you ask them without me present, they would all say it's the, the group meetings and that consultation where you get.
• 38:43
  Cathi Spooner: Not only my almost 35 years of experience, but you get the collective wisdom of the group.
• 38:49
  Cathi Spooner: And then what ends up happening is this happens every time.
• 38:52
  Cathi Spooner: This is my favorite part about the two memberships.
• 38:56
  Cathi Spooner: And that is like, we'll be talking about a tough case and I'll be honed in usually on attachment and neuroscience things.
• 39:06
  Cathi Spooner: And then somebody else will have some, a question or an insight.
• 39:12
  Cathi Spooner: And then we think about that and that gets us thinking about other things.
• 39:16
  Cathi Spooner: And then that'll give me ideas.
• 39:18
  Cathi Spooner: It'll give other people ideas.
• 39:20
  Cathi Spooner: And the other thing is knowing that you're not alone.
• 39:23
  Cathi Spooner: There are other people who are, are experiencing the same thing.
• 39:28
  Cathi Spooner: So it kind of helps reduce some of that.
• 39:31
  Cathi Spooner: I must be the worst play therapist on the planet.
• 39:34
  Cathi Spooner: Um, I. Because you're probably not the only one that has experienced those things.
• 39:41
  Cathi Spooner: Plus you get ideas for some of your clients.
• 39:45
  Cathi Spooner: And so a, a lot of times also what ends up happening is because we treat it a little bit more like a luxury than a necessity, we end up, um, putting off, joining consultation or a community saying, we're gonna do it later.
• 40:01
  Cathi Spooner: We might join a consultation program or a group in our comp community, but maybe it's not with play therapists.
• 40:08
  Cathi Spooner: So you find yourself really explaining play therapy a lot, um, or you're not really kind of clicking with them or they're not really offering the support that you're looking for, and then you end up missing out on.
• 40:23
  Cathi Spooner: Really fresh ideas and I find what we can accomplish in a group consultation call or group mastermind, we can accomplish so much quicker in one session with I say all our heads together are better than my one head.
• 40:38
  Cathi Spooner: Um, we can get there much quicker.
• 40:42
  Cathi Spooner: And so what ends up happening is then we end up waiting be until we're drowning before we reach out and or maybe we're starting to feel a little bit of burnout.
• 40:52
  Cathi Spooner: We may have some complex cases and they just seem to be getting worse.
• 40:57
  Cathi Spooner: Um, maybe assuming nobody else is gonna understand.
• 41:02
  Cathi Spooner: So then that creates some disconnection and burnout.
• 41:06
  Cathi Spooner: We know when we get isolated, things get worse.
• 41:09
  Cathi Spooner: It's the same for therapists as well.
• 41:12
  Cathi Spooner: Um, when we can share that load with each other.
• 41:16
  Cathi Spooner: Then it feels lighter.
• 41:18
  Cathi Spooner: And if we're looking at this for staying in for the long haul, having that support to be able to do that, I think is really important.
• 41:26
  Cathi Spooner: And the other thing is sometimes we end up just getting surface level growth.
• 41:31
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and not, so we may go to a training and we might learn a thing or two there, but are we really seeing how to apply that more in depth?
• 41:42
  Cathi Spooner: Which is one of the reasons for any of the trainings that I offer now in 2026, um, access to Elevation Circle is gonna be part of that.
• 41:51
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause I wanna continue to support people so that people have a place to, um, process ideas or say, Hey, I tried that way.
• 42:01
  Cathi Spooner: You said it didn't work so well.
• 42:04
  Cathi Spooner: You know, just a place where we don't have to do it alone.
• 42:08
  Cathi Spooner: And so even the research, um, supports the importance of.
• 42:15
  Cathi Spooner: Consultation.
• 42:16
  Cathi Spooner: There was a study by new et al called peer consultation, an enriching necessity rather than a luxury for psychologists during the pandemic and beyond.
• 42:27
  Cathi Spooner: There was a quote in there that I think really summarizes it, which is peer consultation groups can provide opportunities to increase awareness of biases, engage in critical thinking, and reduce shame and isolation that often arise in clinical work.
• 42:46
  Cathi Spooner: I would definitely say this would be true in the um, play Therapy Academy and Elevation Circle, and I think you would probably find the members in those two programs would say the same.
• 43:02
  Cathi Spooner: There was another study by betas et al. That, um, it, that was titled Therapist's Perspectives on Effective Elements of Consultation Following Training.
• 43:15
  Cathi Spooner: And so, um.
• 43:18
  Cathi Spooner: They were looking at in this study, they were looking at a evidence-based treatment, but if you're using it effectively, is the training enough?
• 43:29
  Cathi Spooner: And what they found was no, the training was not enough.
• 43:33
  Cathi Spooner: And when they offered the consultation following it.
• 43:36
  Cathi Spooner: Then the, um, effectiveness of using it and getting better outcomes was greatly improved by consultation.
• 43:46
  Cathi Spooner: But they were also looking at, if we're doing that, then what makes consultation effective were some of the other things that they looked at.
• 43:55
  Cathi Spooner: And I'm gonna read this quote,'cause this to me was one that I think is really, really important and stands out.
• 44:02
  Cathi Spooner: What they found was authenticity was one of the most important things.
• 44:06
  Cathi Spooner: And the quote is, authenticity was maximized when they could bring their own cases to consultation.
• 44:13
  Cathi Spooner: Therapists also appreciated peers experiences, especially if those experiences closely reflected their own clinical challenges and outcomes.
• 44:23
  Cathi Spooner: And I, I would say that is what we're finding as well in, um, plate Therapy Academy and Elevation Circle.
• 44:33
  Cathi Spooner: So what are some tips for maximizing?
• 44:35
  Cathi Spooner: I would definitely say if you are, uh, if you have other play therapists in your community or you can connect with them, I would say connect.
• 44:46
  Cathi Spooner: Set something up regularly to meet with them so you don't have to do it alone.
• 44:51
  Cathi Spooner: Join an online play therapy focus consultation group.
• 44:54
  Cathi Spooner: I'm gonna talk a little bit about the ones that I have to offer or schedule consultation with, uh, an expert in play therapy for specific issues.
• 45:05
  Cathi Spooner: What I find is it definitely maximizes your ability to move forward quicker and feel more confident that you're really getting the best results for your clients.
• 45:19
  Cathi Spooner: And so, just kind of summarizing what we talked about, I love trees, so I use the tree analogy.
• 45:25
  Cathi Spooner: Very at the roots.
• 45:27
  Cathi Spooner: We need our case conceptualization to help us get clear before we can figure out what we're doing.
• 45:33
  Cathi Spooner: We need to understand what it is that's going on and how are we going to integrate caregivers in there.
• 45:42
  Cathi Spooner: Second is your play therapy model.
• 45:45
  Cathi Spooner: That's what guides us through and keeps us on track.
• 45:49
  Cathi Spooner: It is the foundation to helping you figure out what you are going to be doing in the sessions.
• 45:56
  Cathi Spooner: When you're going to be doing it and how you're going to be doing it, it also influences how you're gonna be building that therapeutic rapport.
• 46:06
  Cathi Spooner: What is that actually gonna look like?
• 46:08
  Cathi Spooner: Child-centered play therapy is gonna do it much differently than maybe, um, CBT play, the cognitive behavioral play therapy or prescriptive play therapy.
• 46:21
  Cathi Spooner: And then the third thing is being part of a play therapy community.
• 46:26
  Cathi Spooner: We're coming up, uh, first week in February, we're gonna be celebrating play therapy community as a whole across around the world.
• 46:36
  Cathi Spooner: And because nobody can do this work alone, having support and having support from like-minded play therapists is gonna help you with even your toughest cases, help you stop second guessing yourself all the time and avoid burnout.
• 46:57
  Cathi Spooner: One of the things that I hear all the time when I'm talking to people is I'm the only play therapist where I work.
• 47:03
  Cathi Spooner: And I think children and families need us to develop competence using play therapy, and we need a supportive community where we can grow without feeling overwhelmed, judged and exhausted, trying to figure things out by ourselves.
• 47:24
  Cathi Spooner: And so I think being part of a play therapy community helps to make sure you're not feeling alone, overwhelmed, burned out, stressed out.
• 47:37
  Cathi Spooner: So the uh, I mentioned Play Therapy Academy a few times.
• 47:40
  Cathi Spooner: Also Elevation Circle, and these are just some of the people that have been part of the program as we've gone along.
• 47:48
  Cathi Spooner: I would say one of my favorite things about play therapy.
• 47:53
  Cathi Spooner: Um, consultation and the memberships.
• 47:56
  Cathi Spooner: So I originally started with Play Therapy Academy and what I found was not everybody needed that level of support.
• 48:05
  Cathi Spooner: It's a little higher level of support and not everybody needed that and not everybody was ready for it.
• 48:12
  Cathi Spooner: And so that's when I started Play Therapy Elevation Circle, which took what is working actually some of my favorite parts about Play Therapy Academy, which is the group consultation.
• 48:25
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so that we have that ability to support each other.
• 48:31
  Cathi Spooner: And so the benefits of being in a play therapy academy is that you don't you, you have others helping to make sure that you get a 360 view of the problem.
• 48:44
  Cathi Spooner: Like we, we have personal biases, we get stuck, we get kind of stuck in one way of thinking about it.
• 48:50
  Cathi Spooner: And being part of a community helps us look at other options and other ways of viewing it.
• 48:57
  Cathi Spooner: Also, we get creative ideas for the sessions so that you don't feel like you're stuck.
• 49:02
  Cathi Spooner: I was also say a big one is helping to identify themes in play therapy sessions.
• 49:08
  Cathi Spooner: I find this is a lot of where we kind of second guess ourselves a lot.
• 49:12
  Cathi Spooner: Was that actually what I think it was?
• 49:15
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and also how do I figure out if it's even working and is the client making any progress and.
• 49:26
  Cathi Spooner: How do you, how do you, uh, talk to parents?
• 49:30
  Cathi Spooner: How do you involve parents?
• 49:32
  Cathi Spooner: What happens if something horrendous?
• 49:36
  Cathi Spooner: We have, there are times in, in our consultation meetings, you know, somebody will share a, a challenging conversation they had with parent.
• 49:44
  Cathi Spooner: Janine will recognize, we just did this a, a couple of weeks ago, and I, I would say, one, we, you get support.
• 49:53
  Cathi Spooner: We are all like Pat on the back, but also you get ideas.
• 49:56
  Cathi Spooner: So we're not stuck there.
• 49:58
  Cathi Spooner: And maybe it's a way to move things forward.
• 50:00
  Cathi Spooner: Maybe not, but maybe it is.
• 50:02
  Cathi Spooner: But you know, you don't have to do it alone.
• 50:06
  Cathi Spooner: And that results in not feeling isolated and alone.
• 50:10
  Cathi Spooner: And so for those of you that are interested, I do have, um, elevation Circle.
• 50:16
  Cathi Spooner: Enrollment is open starting today.
• 50:19
  Cathi Spooner: It's gonna close.
• 50:21
  Cathi Spooner: It's, um, like I said, elevation Circle was really designed to provide support for play therapists, a place to come and staff cases, a place to get ideas, a place to share ideas.
• 50:38
  Cathi Spooner: And really, I think the acronym of Circle for me kind of summarizes the whole thing, which is a place to connect, inspire, reflect, collaborate, learn, and elevate each other.
• 50:53
  Cathi Spooner: And so if you're interested in Play Therapy, elevation Circle, we, we meet once a month for the Circle Mastermind meetings.
• 51:02
  Cathi Spooner: This is where, and it's for, we have seasoned play therapists in there.
• 51:07
  Cathi Spooner: We have brand new play therapists in there.
• 51:10
  Cathi Spooner: We have anywhere in between, um.
• 51:15
  Cathi Spooner: This is a little bit different from Play Therapy Academy in that we kind of, uh, this is more like we're coming together for mastermind meetings to put our heads together.
• 51:25
  Cathi Spooner: We also have a monthly book club meeting, which I am super excited about.
• 51:30
  Cathi Spooner: We are reading, um, being a Brainwise Therapist by Bonnie Bag Knot.
• 51:35
  Cathi Spooner: So we, we read a couple chapters and we come together and discuss so that we have the application and then how do we use that information.
• 51:44
  Cathi Spooner: For the work we're doing with play therapy, there's resources in there.
• 51:49
  Cathi Spooner: There's a com community group chat.
• 51:51
  Cathi Spooner: So when we're not having the meetings, if you need support or wanna share ideas or you have a question or you had a bad day, or you had an awesome win, that would be the place to share it.
• 52:04
  Cathi Spooner: So we have, that's available all the time.
• 52:07
  Cathi Spooner: Also, um, if you're a member of Elevation Circle, then you get a discount on any of the trainings that I do while you're an active member.
• 52:18
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, play Therapy Elevation Circle, so a 20% discount.
• 52:22
  Cathi Spooner: There's also a monthly newsletter in there with, um, some tips and strategies about what's going on.
• 52:32
  Cathi Spooner: And so if, um, some questions that get asked a lot about Elevation Circle is how does it work?
• 52:40
  Cathi Spooner: So it's online.
• 52:42
  Cathi Spooner: And you stay as long as you want.
• 52:44
  Cathi Spooner: You can cancel any time.
• 52:45
  Cathi Spooner: There are different options.
• 52:47
  Cathi Spooner: So you can pay monthly, it's $47 a month, or you can pay quarterly, and then it ends up being $37 a month.
• 52:57
  Cathi Spooner: We meet, um, we meet inside of a, uh, it's called Circle is the platform, so it's easy to use.
• 53:06
  Cathi Spooner: We can schedule meetings in there, different things.
• 53:09
  Cathi Spooner: My, my ultimate goal is that, um, we'll have maybe meetings where people who want to take their child-centered play therapy skills deeper, or maybe they really want to get support for using Adlerian play therapy, that community members would be able to meet and give each other support in addition to some of our other meetings as well.
• 53:35
  Cathi Spooner: So, um, so the other question is, how are you gonna, for those of you who attended live today, we have, um, you're gonna be getting the, uh, video series.
• 53:49
  Cathi Spooner: These are my favorite things to do when I'm using attachment focused family play therapy, which was my play therapy model for family play therapy.
• 54:00
  Cathi Spooner: Um, these were my favorite activities, so that should be, I think may, can you put that link?
• 54:10
  Cathi Spooner: I, in the, I'm trying to get my chat to come back.
• 54:16
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, may if you could put that in the chat, the link to download.
• 54:21
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, there it is.
• 54:22
  Cathi Spooner: I stay long enough.
• 54:24
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 54:24
  Cathi Spooner: Okay.
• 54:25
  Cathi Spooner: So, um, if you want to have more information about.
• 54:32
  Cathi Spooner: Circle.
• 54:32
  Cathi Spooner: I'm happy to stay on and answer any questions that you have.
• 54:37
  Cathi Spooner: Registration is open today.
• 54:39
  Cathi Spooner: It's going to close on January.
• 54:41
  Cathi Spooner: I'm only letting 10 people in.
• 54:44
  Cathi Spooner: I I really, I launched Elevation Circle less than a year ago, so we're really focusing on creating that sense of community and connection.
• 54:57
  Cathi Spooner: So right now we're still building that and creating that connection.
• 55:03
  Cathi Spooner: And so to do that, I wanna make sure that the people in there getting, getting what they need from there.
• 55:09
  Cathi Spooner: And so we're only, we're only opening up enrollment for 10 people who are interested in joining the community and being part of the community and supporting each other and sharing ideas.
• 55:22
  Cathi Spooner: Registration is gonna close on January.
• 55:25
  Cathi Spooner: For those of you who joined before January 31st.
• 55:30
  Cathi Spooner: You are gonna get a free 30 minute consultation call with me.
• 55:37
  Cathi Spooner: And so you'll get additional support that way.
• 55:40
  Cathi Spooner: We have a welcome party where we're going to kind of show you around the platform.
• 55:45
  Cathi Spooner: How does all of that work?
• 55:48
  Cathi Spooner: Um, Sandy asks, when did the meetings take place?
• 55:50
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, that's a great question.
• 55:52
  Cathi Spooner: So, um, unlike Play Therapy Academy, an Elevation Circle, the meetings are recorded.
• 55:58
  Cathi Spooner: So for those people who can attend, they're gonna attend live.
• 56:02
  Cathi Spooner: But if for whatever reason, if you can't make it, the meetings are recorded.
• 56:08
  Cathi Spooner: I try to vary the day and time just to accommodate different people's schedules.
• 56:17
  Cathi Spooner: Um, right now what seems to be working most of the time is either Monday evening or Saturday morning, we're trying out, like this time.
• 56:30
  Cathi Spooner: On Sundays as well.
• 56:32
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so we're trying out different things for when we meet and for those people who can't attend, you can watch the, the replay, including the, the book club meetings.
• 56:46
  Cathi Spooner: So, um, Michelle asked, how do you register for oh, play Therapy Academy?
• 56:52
  Cathi Spooner: So Play Therapy Academy is a different one.
• 56:55
  Cathi Spooner: If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, I do have some openings for that.
• 57:00
  Cathi Spooner: So what I would suggest you do is to hop over to my website on the consultation page, you'll see Play Therapy Academy.
• 57:10
  Cathi Spooner: Schedule a 30 minute video with me, uh, video call to see if it's a good fit for you.
• 57:17
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and, and play Therapy Elevation.
• 57:21
  Cathi Spooner: Circle that one you, the registration is open for Elevation Circle.
• 57:27
  Cathi Spooner: Through January 31st through the end of the week, um, when daytime, day and time of week.
• 57:38
  Cathi Spooner: Any other, any other questions?
• 57:40
  Cathi Spooner: Feel free to unmute yourself if you have questions.
• 57:42
  Cathi Spooner: I'm happy to answer any of those.
• 57:45
  Cathi Spooner: My, my goal for Play Therapy Elevation Circle is really creating a sense of community, but also supporting each other to do this hard work and do it well.
• 57:57
  Cathi Spooner: And I think in order to do that, what I found is we need support in order to do that.
• 58:04
  Cathi Spooner: I mean, we could join, there are plenty of free Facebook groups, uh, where you can ask questions, but it's not the same, uh, in my opinion as having a call where we're interacting with each other, asking questions, and, and really connecting with each other in that way.
• 58:26
  Cathi Spooner: All right.
• 58:27
  Cathi Spooner: Any other?
• 58:30
  Cathi Spooner: All righty.
• 58:31
  Cathi Spooner: So Michelle, did you re recommend doing both Academy and the Circle?
• 58:34
  Cathi Spooner: I do not.
• 58:35
  Cathi Spooner: And here's why I say that.
• 58:38
  Cathi Spooner: Um, because you'll get everything you need in Play Therapy Academy.
• 58:45
  Cathi Spooner: It, um, that one is a little more focused on getting your RPT credential.
• 58:50
  Cathi Spooner: Play Therapy Academy is.
• 58:52
  Cathi Spooner: So, it's very structured and um, it meets the requirements for the Association for Play Therapy.
• 59:03
  Cathi Spooner: If you're looking for support, that's what the circle is gonna be.
• 59:08
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause I kind of took that consultation piece and put that in Elevation Circle.
• 59:15
  Cathi Spooner: So we have, we have the ability to get support with ideas, figure out where you're stuck.
• 59:23
  Cathi Spooner: So if you do Elevation Circle, if you're, if you want your RPT credential, uh, elevation Circle is not going to meet the criteria for that.
• 59:36
  Cathi Spooner: We don't do CEEs in there.
• 59:39
  Cathi Spooner: It doesn't count for the RPT credential.
• 59:43
  Cathi Spooner: That would be, uh, play Therapy Academy.
• 59:50
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 59:51
  Cathi Spooner: So the book that we're reading is called Being a Brainwise Therapist by Bonnie Badnock.
• 59:59
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so the book is takes, um, Daniel Siegel's Neuro Sequential, not that's Bruce Perry interpersonal neurobiology, so that interpersonal neurobiology.
• 1:00:11
  Cathi Spooner: Theoretical lens.
• 1:00:12
  Cathi Spooner: And then how do you apply that in therapy?
• 1:00:15
  Cathi Spooner: Her focus is predominantly adults.
• 1:00:19
  Cathi Spooner: What I like about her book, though, for play therapists is she has a whole chapter on, uh, using sand play, a whole chapter on using art.
• 1:00:29
  Cathi Spooner: She also has a chapter on working with kids and what would that look like?
• 1:00:34
  Cathi Spooner: So in the first part of the book, she's really talking about that interpersonal neurobiology theoretical lens, and then how, how do we use that in the therapy process?
• 1:00:46
  Cathi Spooner: And then in, in our book club meetings, we're talking about how do we apply that for play therapy?
• 1:00:55
  Cathi Spooner: I am not gonna lie, I get a little nerdy 'cause I love Money Bock's book.
• 1:01:00
  Cathi Spooner: I've probably read it like three times.
• 1:01:03
  Cathi Spooner: It's one of my favorites.
• 1:01:05
  Cathi Spooner: Um, we can, we can get super nerdy in there, but we also like to like, make it practical.
• 1:01:13
  Cathi Spooner: Like how do we use this information and make it applicable for play therapy and book club.
• 1:01:20
  Cathi Spooner: The monthly book club is Play Therapy Elevation Circle.
• 1:01:28
  Cathi Spooner: Alrighty.
• 1:01:30
  Cathi Spooner: Any other, any other questions, feel free to unmute yourself.
• 1:01:36
  Cathi Spooner: I'm happy to answer all of 'em.
• 1:01:37
  Cathi Spooner: You guys have some really great questions in here.
• 1:01:44
  Cathi Spooner: All righty.
• 1:01:45
  Cathi Spooner: I think we covered everything.
• 1:01:51
  Cathi Spooner: All righty.
• 1:01:54
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, Mina says, agree.
• 1:01:56
  Cathi Spooner: I felt isolated in my clinic, and now I feel supported.
• 1:01:59
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, I'm glad, Mina, we love having you in, in our group.
• 1:02:06
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, another barrier is finances.
• 1:02:09
  Cathi Spooner: Yes.
• 1:02:10
  Cathi Spooner: I, I, yeah.
• 1:02:11
  Cathi Spooner: And I tried to make, that's a really good point.
• 1:02:13
  Cathi Spooner: Faith.
• 1:02:14
  Cathi Spooner: I tried to, I, for Elevation Circle, I wanted to make it affordable.
• 1:02:20
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so, so I did, I have, it's 47 a month if you pay monthly, but it's 37 a month, dollars a month if you do the quarterly payment option.
• 1:02:36
  Cathi Spooner: Um, oh, Alyssa said, Kathy, you came to my internship at Oh, Wasatch family.
• 1:02:44
  Cathi Spooner: I remember that.
• 1:02:45
  Cathi Spooner: Did a sand tray training.
• 1:02:47
  Cathi Spooner: That was your first training and Oh, good.
• 1:02:48
  Cathi Spooner: You were hooked.
• 1:02:50
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you for introducing me to the San Tray world.
• 1:02:53
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:02:53
  Cathi Spooner: Plus you have Claire up there too.
• 1:02:56
  Cathi Spooner: Hmm.
• 1:02:56
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:02:57
  Cathi Spooner: I'm very spoiled at that internship with Claire.
• 1:02:59
  Cathi Spooner: I know, right?
• 1:03:00
  Cathi Spooner: You guys have tons of support there.
• 1:03:03
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:03:03
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:03:04
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you.
• 1:03:04
  Cathi Spooner: I appreciate, you know, that training, I was just like, my mind is blown.
• 1:03:08
  Cathi Spooner: I gotta do this.
• 1:03:09
  Cathi Spooner: So I have several different sand trays.
• 1:03:11
  Cathi Spooner: Way too many miniature, so I appreciate, yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:15
  Cathi Spooner: Well I'm actually doing that training again in a two day model in April down in southern Utah.
• 1:03:25
  Cathi Spooner: I, well, I'm glad.
• 1:03:26
  Cathi Spooner: Well, thank you for sharing that.
• 1:03:28
  Cathi Spooner: I'm glad it kind of, you know what, I got hooked on play therapy kind of the same way.
• 1:03:34
  Cathi Spooner: This was like a gazillion years ago.
• 1:03:37
  Cathi Spooner: And I had heard about play therapy when I was a special ed teacher, 'cause the school psychologist.
• 1:03:43
  Cathi Spooner: Um, did a play therapy group.
• 1:03:45
  Cathi Spooner: Like that's a whole story there in and of itself.
• 1:03:48
  Cathi Spooner: But then it took me forever'cause I, I got lic, I, I got into the field when there wasn't any internet.
• 1:03:55
  Cathi Spooner: And then, and then eventually I, I met somebody in my pr uh, practice where I was working at the time of group practice.
• 1:04:04
  Cathi Spooner: And she seemed to know what she was doing 'cause I couldn't find anybody who knew what to do.
• 1:04:09
  Cathi Spooner: Anyway, she convinced me to go to the sand tray training.
• 1:04:13
  Cathi Spooner: It was a three day sand tray training.
• 1:04:14
  Cathi Spooner: It was very expensive at the time.
• 1:04:17
  Cathi Spooner: And I went and I was transformed.
• 1:04:21
  Cathi Spooner: It was, I was hooked.
• 1:04:24
  Cathi Spooner: I fell in love with and got, and that's kind of got me started on in, in play therapy as well.
• 1:04:33
  Cathi Spooner: That's awesome.
• 1:04:35
  Cathi Spooner: Alrighty.
• 1:04:35
  Cathi Spooner: When is the next circle, is the question?
• 1:04:39
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so.
• 1:04:43
  Cathi Spooner: I'm assuming you're talking about the meetings.
• 1:04:45
  Cathi Spooner: So, um, the, the enrollment ends January 31st, so, and I'm only admitting 10 people.
• 1:04:54
  Cathi Spooner: We're only taking 10 people.
• 1:04:56
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're interested, um, then you'll wanna make sure to enroll before January 31st ends to circle meetings.
• 1:05:08
  Cathi Spooner: Is there a theme?
• 1:05:09
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, that's a great question.
• 1:05:10
  Cathi Spooner: Janna or Janna?
• 1:05:12
  Cathi Spooner: Um, is there a theme each month or just discussion cases?
• 1:05:17
  Cathi Spooner: It's both.
• 1:05:18
  Cathi Spooner: Actually.
• 1:05:19
  Cathi Spooner: Like in February, there's another, um, elevation Circle member.
• 1:05:27
  Cathi Spooner: She's an RPTS actually, and she is working on her doctorate.
• 1:05:32
  Cathi Spooner: To, and her theme is her, it's not her doctorate.
• 1:05:36
  Cathi Spooner: She is, she is working on her doctorate, but she's doing, um, capstone instead.
• 1:05:41
  Cathi Spooner: Long story.
• 1:05:42
  Cathi Spooner: And she is doing a lot of research on the effectiveness of family play therapy.
• 1:05:49
  Cathi Spooner: And so because I'm a nerdy pants, I, I wanna know what she's finding out.
• 1:05:54
  Cathi Spooner: Plus, I think it's interesting.
• 1:05:56
  Cathi Spooner: So in, in February, Alexa's gonna talk about what she's finding from the research about family play therapy, and then we'll probably talk about that.
• 1:06:09
  Cathi Spooner: I'll probably talk about attachment focused family play therapy and using a model and things like about that.
• 1:06:16
  Cathi Spooner: That being said, if somebody's got a case and they really want some support, then we just shift gears.
• 1:06:22
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause the ultimate goal is to make sure you get the support that you need.
• 1:06:27
  Cathi Spooner: And so if we shift, then we shift.
• 1:06:31
  Cathi Spooner: There.
• 1:06:32
  Cathi Spooner: So sometimes we have specific themes.
• 1:06:34
  Cathi Spooner: Sometimes it's just presenting cases.
• 1:06:38
  Cathi Spooner: It just really depends on, um, making sure people get what they need.
• 1:06:46
  Cathi Spooner: So when is the next, I think I answered that one, Elizabeth.
• 1:06:50
  Cathi Spooner: I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the next circle.
• 1:06:53
  Cathi Spooner: So if you wanna unmute, feel free to do that.
• 1:06:56
  Cathi Spooner: Hi.
• 1:06:56
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, sorry.
• 1:06:57
  Cathi Spooner: I'm just thinking about joining and wondering, um, like when, I know you said they're recorded other 90 minutes, um, I'm just wondering if you have a date and time or not yet.
• 1:07:07
  Cathi Spooner: For February.
• 1:07:09
  Cathi Spooner: Um, in February.
• 1:07:11
  Cathi Spooner: I, I do, I don't remember offhand.
• 1:07:15
  Cathi Spooner: I think, um, I was just looking at it, I think for the book we, we once a month for book club.
• 1:07:22
  Cathi Spooner: Okay.
• 1:07:23
  Cathi Spooner: I think, I think that one's on February 9th.
• 1:07:26
  Cathi Spooner: That might be a, I think that's a Monday.
• 1:07:30
  Cathi Spooner: I have.
• 1:07:31
  Cathi Spooner: And then, um, oh, here we go.
• 1:07:34
  Cathi Spooner: 22nd.
• 1:07:35
  Cathi Spooner: Yes.
• 1:07:35
  Cathi Spooner: 22nd on.
• 1:07:38
  Cathi Spooner: Yes.
• 1:07:38
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, thank you.
• 1:07:39
  Cathi Spooner: Carol.
• 1:07:39
  Cathi Spooner: Beth.
• 1:07:40
  Cathi Spooner: Carol Beth's in Elevation Circle.
• 1:07:42
  Cathi Spooner: Awesome.
• 1:07:43
  Cathi Spooner: Um, yes, February 22nd is the Mastermind.
• 1:07:49
  Cathi Spooner: Okay.
• 1:07:49
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and then we're, I'm doing on the fourth, February 4th in the evening is a kind of a welcome party.
• 1:07:57
  Cathi Spooner: Basically ask all your questions, how do you use the platform showing you around the platform, um, how to connect with other members in the platform.
• 1:08:09
  Cathi Spooner: Carol, Beth, I keep trying to connect you and, um, the other Oregon lady.
• 1:08:18
  Cathi Spooner: Just FYI.
• 1:08:20
  Cathi Spooner: I'll make it happen.
• 1:08:21
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:08:22
  Cathi Spooner: I promise.
• 1:08:22
  Cathi Spooner: I think you guys No, no, no, no pressure.
• 1:08:26
  Cathi Spooner: I just, I no know you are trying to connect with people and she's interested too.
• 1:08:30
  Cathi Spooner: So Yeah.
• 1:08:30
  Cathi Spooner: So showing people around the platform, how do you connect with other members, all that kind of thing.
• 1:08:37
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so I'm, I'm kind of open to what we've kind of decided is Monday evenings kind of work the best for most people.
• 1:08:47
  Cathi Spooner: I'm trying out this time on Sundays, 'cause this was a time members said was useful as well.
• 1:08:55
  Cathi Spooner: We have somebody in the group that's in Australia, so I'm trying to schedule times that will translate into the time zone for Australia as well, which is pretty cool to have my, uh, people globally.
• 1:09:11
  Cathi Spooner: That's pretty cool.
• 1:09:13
  Cathi Spooner: Um, some other questions.
• 1:09:16
  Cathi Spooner: Kathy oth asked how many people are in the group at a time.
• 1:09:21
  Cathi Spooner: So Elevation Circle is, there's not really a limit, um, for the people in Elevation Circle.
• 1:09:31
  Cathi Spooner: That being said, we're a small group right now, and so it can vary depending on people's schedules and, um, what they have going on.
• 1:09:43
  Cathi Spooner: It can vary how many people are in the group at one time.
• 1:09:48
  Cathi Spooner: Um, Elizabeth said yes, thinking, just thinking for planning purposes looks like a, that was me again, I was just wondering when the next, like consultation time was and it sounds like Monday evenings, which I would not be able to do, but Sunday evenings I could do so.
• 1:10:04
  Cathi Spooner: Okay.
• 1:10:05
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:10:05
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, I, right now we're just trying out a bunch of times I've, I've done Saturdays as well, so I'm just really trying to see.
• 1:10:13
  Cathi Spooner: What worked?
• 1:10:14
  Cathi Spooner: I, my guess is we're probably gonna land on either Sunday afternoons or Monday evenings.
• 1:10:24
  Cathi Spooner: Um, but yeah, so feel free to say what works best for you and we are trying to, trying to accommodate people with that.
• 1:10:35
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you.
• 1:10:36
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you, Kathy.
• 1:10:37
  Cathi Spooner: You're welcome.
• 1:10:38
  Cathi Spooner: Thanks for coming.
• 1:10:40
  Cathi Spooner: Yes.
• 1:10:41
  Cathi Spooner: Sundays, Amy said, I, I'm, I'm thinking Sundays are gonna probably be the thing.
• 1:10:46
  Cathi Spooner: Here's the thing.
• 1:10:48
  Cathi Spooner: Okay.
• 1:10:49
  Cathi Spooner: On weekends, I put makeup on for the webinar.
• 1:10:53
  Cathi Spooner: I don't usually wear makeup.
• 1:10:55
  Cathi Spooner: So when we, the, here's how I feel about the meetings, especially on the weekends.
• 1:10:59
  Cathi Spooner: Just show up.
• 1:11:00
  Cathi Spooner: If you haven't showered, just show up.
• 1:11:03
  Cathi Spooner: If you don't like, uh, wearing makeup, just show up.
• 1:11:06
  Cathi Spooner: If you are doing the best you can just to even click on and show up, then show up.
• 1:11:13
  Cathi Spooner: Um, there's no pressure, there's, there's no guilt.
• 1:11:18
  Cathi Spooner: My my goal is for people to feel like this is a place where they can connect and get support.
• 1:11:29
  Cathi Spooner: We are a no judgment zone.
• 1:11:32
  Cathi Spooner: We are, uh, like if you didn't wash your hair show up.
• 1:11:41
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:11:42
  Cathi Spooner: Any other questions?
• 1:11:45
  Cathi Spooner: I think I got most of them.
• 1:11:48
  Cathi Spooner: Let's see.
• 1:11:50
  Cathi Spooner: Alrighty.
• 1:11:52
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, awesome, Elizabeth.
• 1:11:54
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, it would be great to see there on Wednesday.
• 1:11:57
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, if you guys have any questions, you can always reach out to me by email.
• 1:12:04
  Cathi Spooner: Um, if you're having any issues, reach out to me by email.
• 1:12:12
  Cathi Spooner: So, yeah, feel free to reach out any questions and hopefully I will see some of you guys in there and for the Play Therapy Academy people.
• 1:12:24
  Cathi Spooner: Um, yeah, you guys can come to the book clubs also.
• 1:12:30
  Cathi Spooner: So, all righty, that is a wrap for today then.
• 1:12:40
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you guys for coming.
• 1:12:47
  Cathi Spooner: I'll just stay on if anybody else has got any other questions.
• 1:12:54
  Cathi Spooner: Bye.
• 1:12:54
  Cathi Spooner: Carol.
• 1:12:54
  Cathi Spooner: Beth.
• 1:13:00
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, I should, I'm gonna stop sharing so I can see people.
• 1:13:05
  Cathi Spooner: We should have done that.
• 1:13:07
  Cathi Spooner: All righty.
• 1:13:09
  Cathi Spooner: All righty.
• 1:13:18
  Cathi Spooner: I don't know if I have your email address.
• 1:13:21
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, okay.
• 1:13:22
  Cathi Spooner: I will put it, well, did you get, did you get an email Oh, to join the meeting?
• 1:13:29
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:13:30
  Cathi Spooner: Yes.
• 1:13:30
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah, you can reply to that one, but I'll also, so that's it.
• 1:13:33
  Cathi Spooner: Put it, I'll put it in the chat as well.
• 1:13:35
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:13:36
  Cathi Spooner: Okay.
• 1:13:37
  Cathi Spooner: Info at rh play therapy training.com.
• 1:13:47
  Cathi Spooner: There you go.
• 1:13:47
  Cathi Spooner: I put it in the chat as well, and I will just copy that real quick.
• 1:13:52
  Cathi Spooner: Awesome.
• 1:13:53
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you.
• 1:13:55
  Cathi Spooner: Yeah.
• 1:13:56
  Cathi Spooner: And yes, Mina, I have not, I saw your email.
• 1:13:59
  Cathi Spooner: I just haven't had a chance to reply.
• 1:14:01
  Cathi Spooner: So yeah, definitely will stay on and I can give, it's easier to tell you anyway than to.
• 1:14:08
  Cathi Spooner: Kind of put it, put it in there.
• 1:14:16
  Cathi Spooner: So thanks Mina email address.
• 1:14:28
  Cathi Spooner: I think I got all the questions.
• 1:14:33
  Cathi Spooner: All right.
• 1:14:34
  Cathi Spooner: All right.