Latest / The Play Therapy Circle / Episode 32- They're Just Playing! What's Really Happening in the Playroom

Transcript

Episode 32- They're Just Playing! What's Really Happening in the Playroom · The Play Therapy Circle

0:02
Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Play Therapy Circle podcast.
0:06
I'm your host, Kylie Ellison, and I am so glad you are here.
0:12
Happy Valentine's Day, you guys. I am recording this on
0:16
Valentine's Day because I have a busy week ahead and I was
0:21
slightly concerned I would not get to a podcast episode this
0:25
week. So I am recording on the weekend
0:28
and being organised. So look at me go, how are you
0:32
all doing? How's everyone's week been?
0:35
How is it the middle of February?
0:36
I know I say this every week but I'm like truly like what is
0:39
happening? How has your week been?
0:42
I have a really important episode that I wanted to record
0:47
today. And you guys know, and I feel
0:49
like it's probably something that I should order as a bit of
0:52
a disclaimer at this point that I'm often drawn to and LED to
0:57
topics that are relevant in what's going on in our community
1:03
in just general culture or if it's something that is related
1:09
to practise and development. So I wanted to have a very
1:16
important episode recording today.
1:19
And this was actually on my agenda of topics that I was
1:22
going to talk about this year anyway, but it has definitely
1:28
been fast tracked. And I think that when we have
1:33
sometimes these topics come to mind for me, it's so important
1:37
that I have that opportunity to kind of process it, talk it
1:42
through. And I wanted to offer in our
1:45
circle community that space to begin the conversation around
1:50
when we receive criticism or we are met with questions around
2:00
how can it just be anything more than play.
2:04
So this is an episode for anyone who has in their careers
2:10
currently previously anticipating in the future, they
2:12
may have to provide, I guess, a justification for how child
2:17
centre play therapy works to provide a rationale for
2:22
potentially concerns that you might have that you're raising
2:26
with professionals. This is the episode for you.
2:29
And this comes from lived experience as well.
2:33
Certainly over 10 years I have been met with this curiosity
2:40
even more so more confusion and not understanding how child
2:49
centre play therapy can help children to process their
2:51
experiences and potentially discuss and talk through trauma
2:55
experiences without using words. So I, I recently had an
3:01
interaction in this space and it really got me thinking because
3:06
in that conversation there was definitely confusion around
3:13
they're not being necessarily any verbal communication that it
3:18
was just in the sequences of play that I was seeing that I
3:22
was raising concerns. And so I realised that it's
3:25
something we often navigate. And so I felt this might be a
3:29
really relevant topic for a lot of people in this space.
3:32
But I also want to offer this episode to any members of the
3:37
community, whether that's parents, whether that's
3:40
caregivers, whether that's professionals in the space,
3:45
government or non government. This is an episode for you to
3:49
hopefully help you to understand and really, I guess kind of get
3:54
a better picture of how child centre play therapy allows
3:58
children to be able to process the things that they are
4:01
struggling with or dealing with in a way that works for them.
4:05
And that our job as child centre play therapists in our training,
4:08
qualifications and registration provides us that opportunity to
4:12
be able to have that integrity of practise, to be able to
4:20
provide that feedback and that assessment to those relevant.
4:25
So this is really going to be about talking through, I guess,
4:30
how children communicate through play, why we don't always get a
4:34
verbal disclosure from children when they're talking about
4:37
potential harm, what trauma play looks like in the playroom and
4:41
how we might explain this to other professionals.
4:43
So I'm certainly going to give kind of anecdotes along the way
4:48
because I came across some that I just loved.
4:51
And so the first one I wanted to share is that if we only listen
4:54
for words, we miss what children are already telling us.
4:59
If we only listen for words, we miss what children are already
5:03
telling us. So let's talk a little bit about
5:06
why children don't disclose in words.
5:08
And I really want to come from multiple lenses when we are
5:12
talking about this because it's really important to give
5:15
confidence in whoever we are speaking to that there is an
5:19
evidence base, there is a theory base and that in our jobs as
5:24
qualified child centre play therapists that we receive that
5:28
adequate training and professional development in this
5:30
space to be able to do our jobs. So I really want to talk about
5:33
how children don't experience trauma in very neat kind of
5:37
chronological experiences. It's stored in the body, in
5:41
sensations, emotional States and fragments, right?
5:45
We know that from our understanding of how memory is
5:47
stored in the formative years of a child.
5:50
So certainly when we're talking about developmental capacity,
5:54
children and especially young children, don't have the
5:57
abstract language to describe complex experiences, especially
6:02
if they involve feelings around fear, helplessness or confusion.
6:07
It's just unrealistic for us to expect that children would be
6:11
able to put words to that. Young children we know from the
6:15
neurobiology, when trauma occurs, the language centre is
6:19
switched off in the brain. So their body and their sensory
6:24
systems is where that information is recorded.
6:27
It's not in that cognitive space.
6:28
So we're not going to be able to get, certainly for kids who've
6:33
experienced trauma in their formative years, the capacity
6:35
for them to be able to recall those experiences in having
6:40
those memories stored in their cognitive brain.
6:42
It, it's, it's not how the neurobiology of children works.
6:46
There is definitely, I think what isn't highlighted or
6:50
recognised enough is that the role of attachment and
6:56
attachment conflicts and loyalty conflicts emerge in this space.
7:01
And I think that that's really important for us to recognise
7:04
for kids that especially for children say in the child
7:08
protection space that they are struggling with that attachment
7:12
loyalty in relation to say family of origin and foster care
7:17
families. So sometimes that child who has
7:21
has has experienced trauma as well also feels this conflict
7:27
with whoever that experience of trauma came from a conflict
7:32
between wanting to love them and also recognising that they were
7:36
the source of pain for them. So there really is a deep
7:40
conflict many times for children around this.
7:43
And that also then has an impact on their capacity to be able to
7:47
use verbal disclosure to be able to provide that information.
7:52
They aren't necessarily always able to recognise harm either.
7:56
I think what over the years of working with children,
8:01
especially in the child protection space, it is really
8:04
tough for kids sometimes to understand when they are in that
8:09
experience of the trauma that in fact it's not normal and it
8:14
becomes a challenge for them in developing and understanding
8:18
outside of that if that's all they've known.
8:21
So again, it may not be something that they correlate
8:25
with being harm because it has been part of their world for so
8:29
long. So recognising sometimes that
8:31
it's difficult for them to identify it as something that's
8:34
traumatic. There is absolutely always at
8:37
play at some level a fear around consequences that that makes
8:42
sense in this space, right? They're not going to want to
8:47
talk about somebody in a way that may have negative outcomes,
8:51
especially if it's somebody that they love.
8:54
There's certainly often times where children are trying to
8:56
protect someone, they're trying to protect themselves, they're
8:59
trying to keep the peace, they're trying to survive.
9:02
So that can often influence children's capacity to then be
9:06
able to talk to and tell some an adult in their world what has
9:11
happened to them or is happening to them.
9:13
So when we're kind of looking at another anecdote to kind of
9:16
explain this, it's really about the fact that silence is not the
9:19
same as safety. It's often the same as survival.
9:23
So we really want to acknowledge, honour and
9:27
recognise that sometimes that silence is really about children
9:32
living in that fight or flight space and really just wanting to
9:35
protect their survival. So it's really important that
9:38
we're kind of looking through that lens as well.
9:40
So I wanna talk a little bit now about what trauma play is and
9:46
what it looks like in terms of child centred play therapy.
9:49
And we we know that there is a lot of research in this space
9:54
around children really, I guess, wanting to play out and make
10:02
sense of their experiences talking about the definition of
10:06
trauma play. We are not saying that every
10:10
intense theme equals calm when certainly making sure that we
10:15
are taking a considered holistic approach to assessing play and
10:19
those sequences of play to ensure that we are able to
10:23
provide a comprehensive understanding and overview of
10:28
why we believe that there has been potential harm in terms of
10:33
the work that we're doing with a child.
10:34
That is really important. We again acknowledge that
10:38
oftentimes we don't get that verbal disclosure in the
10:41
playroom. And so instead it's really
10:44
important that we are able to evidence how we have gone about
10:48
assessing and understanding the play obviously through again our
10:52
training, our qualifications and our registration.
10:54
But it's also very important that we are looking for patterns
10:59
consistently and within a developmental context.
11:04
So I wanna talk a little bit about what that looks like.
11:07
So when we are talking about play and play in the playroom,
11:10
that is happening consistently. So it's not just one time that
11:14
it's happened, it's happening repeatedly over sessions with
11:18
the use of the same resources. And despite a kind of any gaps
11:22
in time, we're seeing that consistency.
11:24
So it's repetitive and it's driven.
11:27
So the same scenario unfolds again and again, often very much
11:32
with little variation involved. That's our first criteria.
11:36
Our second one is that it's often rigid and stuck.
11:40
So the child struggles to shift the storyline.
11:42
There is very little kind of enjoyment in the play.
11:47
It's actually oftentimes in its rigidness, lacking any kind of
11:53
development or shift or change. It can feel definitely very
11:59
intensive as opposed to creative.
12:02
And I think that one of the things that I often acknowledge
12:05
in this space when I'm looking at sequences of play is, is it
12:09
normal for a child to spend that amount of time with that amount
12:13
of focus without shifting or changing for their developmental
12:19
age? And oftentimes it's not.
12:21
Oftentimes what we're seeing in the playroom is very much
12:24
outside what we would expect developmentally to see for a
12:27
child to do and engage. That leads me into high
12:30
intensity. That's the next kind of
12:33
criteria, I guess, that we use in this space to inform our
12:37
assessment around trauma play. So there might be very
12:40
heightened arousal, very intense emotions.
12:43
There might be oftentimes lots of aggression, lots of urgency
12:47
and emotional charge. It's really about what we see in
12:52
child centre play therapy. And Doctor Bruce Lipton talks
12:54
about too, in his research in the Unconscious mind is the fact
12:57
that when children go into play therapy, they really are
13:00
processing their unconscious experiences, which are
13:03
established in that memory space in the first five years of life.
13:07
And so we really are acknowledging that oftentimes
13:09
kids aren't even aware sometimes of the detail and the content
13:13
that's coming out in their play because it's it's subconscious
13:16
for them. So there's lots of oftentimes
13:20
themes of power and control. This is something as play
13:23
therapist we see all the time, but explaining that to
13:27
professionals is really important as well.
13:28
So this is another criteria that we use to understand the
13:32
difference between normal play and something that's
13:34
therapeutic. So there's often at times in
13:37
terms of the type of play and those messages in those plays in
13:42
terms of those themes related to dominance, consequences and
13:46
punishment, rescuing, secrecy, right?
13:51
Which doesn't align with what we would expect developmentally for
13:54
a child to engage in. So again, we get very curious,
13:57
we document and we assess and we look for that repetition across
14:01
sessions to really understand, OK, this is something that a
14:04
child is not only telling us about that they're trying to
14:07
process and make sense of. There's often times in trauma
14:10
play, a lack of resolution. This is really what it's about
14:14
in terms of the difference between a child coming in,
14:17
playing with resources, being at that mastery level, or really
14:21
not showing any kind of indicators of therapeutic
14:23
content when it is just fun and enjoyable and they're able to
14:27
kind of transition in and out without any issues.
14:29
For kids that are playing out trauma, it's very, very
14:32
different. There is definitely a lack of
14:35
resolution. It definitely doesn't feel like
14:38
it's moving forward. There's often struggles around
14:42
trying to find that outcome by role playing, oftentimes
14:48
involving us as the play therapist, but often doing it
14:51
solo as well and not being able to achieve that.
14:55
So what's the difference between trauma play and, say, typical
14:59
play we would see for a child for the developmental age?
15:03
Typical play is flexible, it moves, it adapts.
15:07
Trauma play often feels stuck in survival mode, and we see that
15:13
through the repetition, through the emotional expression,
15:15
through the content in the play. So there's lots of different
15:18
elements and lots of different criteria that we are using to
15:23
better understand that this isn't just typical play.
15:27
Definitely. I want to acknowledge too that
15:29
when it comes to us being child centred play therapist, it's
15:32
absolutely not our job to be diagnosing, diagnosing, sorry,
15:38
just from play alone. And I think that that's really
15:41
important to give that confidence and Peace of Mind to
15:45
parents, caregivers and stakeholders when we're working
15:48
with a child. So we take on board a lot of
15:52
information before we come to a potential hypothesis around
15:56
potential trauma play. So we're taking into account the
16:01
background of the child, their current presenting issues, the
16:04
goals of therapy, feedback from stakeholders, sequences of play.
16:08
We're looking for transference and countertransference.
16:11
We're looking for those trauma criteria that I just listed
16:14
before in terms of what's present in those sequences of
16:17
play that we're seeing. And, and bringing that all
16:20
together along with our own analysis of our reflections of
16:25
what we're noticing in the playroom helps to build a very
16:28
comprehensive picture here. And I think that's really
16:31
important because we would not be doing our job ethically if we
16:35
just looked at one sequence of play and said, oof.
16:38
I think this is trauma. We absolutely need to look at it
16:41
across sessions, across the continuum of the work that we've
16:44
been doing to be able to come to that conclusion.
16:47
So we do that to make sure that we are able to build that
16:51
credibility of the work in our space.
16:54
So it's very, very important that we are taking the time to
16:56
do that analysis and assessment. So what is play all about and
17:00
play as communication? What does that look like?
17:04
So play is definitely not a break from therapy.
17:07
And play therapy is not a break from therapy.
17:09
It is the therapy. It is how children discuss their
17:13
issues, talk about their feelings, process their feelings
17:16
and process their experiences. So children developmentally will
17:21
want to use symbolic expression over verbal communication.
17:25
So children externalise their internal experiences through
17:29
metaphors. So we very much need to be open
17:35
and curious and understanding of how children externalise their
17:39
internal experiences and how they much more prefer using
17:44
symbolic resources over being able to use, say, verbal
17:49
communication or writing or any of those other mediums.
17:52
They really want to use that symbolism to tell their story.
17:55
It helps to provide that therapeutic distancing from the
17:58
event so that they're not necessary necessarily re
18:02
experiencing the trauma. They're able to get an emotional
18:04
distance from it safely so they can talk through their
18:07
experience. We know that children use
18:10
projection, so being able to use things like dolls or animals or
18:15
superheroes helps them to be able to make sense of their
18:19
experiences where they carry their feelings that children
18:24
can't safely do on their own. So often times when we are
18:27
working with children who have say, been exposed to domestic
18:32
violence, they will often embody in their role plays a superhero
18:37
character, for example. And that often relates to how
18:41
they wished they could have been in that moment of that trauma to
18:44
be able to rescue somebody in their life that was harmed.
18:47
So they they go into the role play to make sense of and to try
18:51
to find a find a resolution where they weren't able to do
18:54
that in real life. So it's incredibly therapeutic.
18:58
We talk about that when we're chatting about or unpacking
19:02
adult counselling, right? Where we might say in talk based
19:07
therapy with adults, if they've ever done role rehearsal before,
19:11
having a conversation with somebody that they knew they had
19:14
to have a difficult conversation with, That's the adult version
19:18
of what children do in play therapy.
19:20
Adults will rehearse and have a bit of an idea of what they
19:23
might say to somebody that they need to have a difficult
19:26
conversation with. But essentially that's play and
19:29
that's certainly using that opportunity to be able to
19:34
project, to understand, to make sense of and to be able to work
19:39
through an issue that they're struggling with as an adult.
19:41
Children do the same. Children do the same.
19:43
So it's also about somatic processing.
19:46
So definitely children are far more action orientated than
19:50
adults and need to move to be able to process and make sense
19:54
of their experiences. So they will absolutely use
19:57
movement, they'll use repetition and they'll use sensory
20:00
engagement to help the nervous system to discharge that stored
20:04
survival energy. It is so therapeutic and
20:08
cathartic for kids to be able to move, to let out those big
20:12
feelings of anger and frustration in order to be able
20:15
to move forward. So it's very important that when
20:19
we're looking at this concept and this topic that as child
20:23
centre play therapists we are and we have a responsibility,
20:28
but in an incredibly important role of advocating for children
20:32
and families. So part of our role is not in
20:36
that advocacy's place to be defensive and not it's certainly
20:41
in that uncertainty part, but through thoughtful translation
20:45
of what we see in the playroom and then want to communicate to
20:48
stakeholders. So one of the ways that we can
20:51
do that to help educate stakeholders in our community is
20:55
very much using language like I'm observing persistent trauma,
20:59
consistent themes in the play that are developmentally
21:03
atypical and warrant further exploration.
21:07
It's a nice way of putting it right where we say that we are
21:10
seeing a type of play and information shared consistently
21:15
and repetitively across sessions that is atypical for the
21:20
developmental stage of the child that I'm working with and that
21:23
from our perspective as child centre play therapist warrants
21:26
further investigation. That's really important and that
21:29
can be maybe language that you might like to use if you are in
21:34
that position where you need to provide information to
21:36
stakeholders. Another way that we can look at
21:39
it and talk through in our documentation in terms of those
21:42
sequences of play and those concerning behaviours that we're
21:46
seeing that may not necessarily explicitly relate to trauma but
21:51
add to a picture of concern for us.
21:53
So there might be some information that you might want
21:55
to have as part of your content that in your documentation.
22:00
So you're going to be describing what you saw in terms of the
22:04
play sequence, describing the frequency, the intensity in
22:07
terms of that transference and counter transference and
22:10
emotional expression. But very much ensuring that we
22:13
are not over interpreting what we're seeing.
22:16
It's very important that we're using all of our tools in our
22:19
toolkit around assessing that play.
22:22
So like I was saying earlier, it's not just about that play
22:25
sequence, but it's looking at the sequences of play that and
22:28
before and after. Looking across sessions, looking
22:31
across the continuum of the work that we've completed, looking at
22:34
and taking into account feedback from stakeholders, feedback from
22:39
parents or caregivers, what we are seeing in terms of our own
22:43
reflections of transference and counter transference in that
22:46
space. Seeking clinical supervision and
22:48
external support to really help us to QA that information and
22:53
that assessment and making sure that we're staying within our
22:56
scope. It is very important as child
22:59
centre play therapist that we know and recognise that we are
23:03
not the investigators when it comes to potential harm
23:06
identified in the playroom. We are absolutely ethically
23:10
required to let those who are responsible for those
23:16
investigations to know these concerns from racist concerns
23:20
with them and that our clinical observations matter.
23:23
It's really, really important. We're certainly balancing
23:26
advocacy with our professionalism but recognising
23:30
that the work that we do is valid.
23:32
It's important, It's evidence based, it's research based, and
23:37
we have that duty of care to be certainly having conversations
23:43
in our clinical supervision seeking clarification and
23:46
support because trauma play is challenging, it's confronting
23:50
sometimes it can be very challenging in terms of
23:53
ambiguity at times, especially as I've, I've kind of been the
23:57
flavour of this conversation around not necessarily having
24:01
any verbal communication to match what we're seeing in the
24:04
playroom. But definitely it is an
24:07
assessment that doesn't happen in isolation.
24:09
And so I want to talk a little bit about ethical cautions and
24:13
complexities in this space because I want to make sure that
24:16
everyone in our circle feels that support around making sure
24:20
that you're protecting your professionalism and
24:23
strengthening your scope of practise.
24:25
So it's it's absolutely essential that we don't over
24:30
pathologize play. We recognise as child centre
24:34
play therapists that children will process and move through
24:37
their experiences, oftentimes even if we don't catch
24:40
everything that they're telling us.
24:42
That's the ambiguity that we live with in child centre play
24:45
therapy when it's play based. So we recognise that it's
24:48
important for us to stay across this information and to be able
24:52
to really understand and recognise the signs that that
24:59
draw our concerns and and mean that we pass on that information
25:02
to the relevant authorities. But not all aggressive or
25:06
intensive play indicates trauma, right?
25:09
So we can have caveats to that. There might be cultural contexts
25:13
that matter, developmental stages that matter in our
25:17
analysis, exposure to media. We know children now more than
25:21
ever have access to online technology and So what part of
25:25
that plays in the playroom in what we are seeing, But more
25:29
most importantly, I guess as that assurance around integrity
25:35
of practise, we are always seeking that clinical
25:39
supervision first and foremost. I absolutely make sure that that
25:43
is a commitment that I adhere to as part of my professional
25:47
conduct, my professional registrations, making sure that
25:51
we are accessing ongoing professional development to
25:53
continue to build and enhance our skills.
25:57
So all of those things help us to be able to have a lens and an
26:03
approach and a framework to practise that is ethically
26:06
sound. It's super, super important.
26:08
So what I want to leave you with, and I hope that this has
26:13
been a helpful episode to really, I guess, give that
26:18
information as a starting point to those in the community or
26:23
even for us as play therapists who maybe have found others
26:28
questioning, I guess what child centre play therapy is and what
26:31
it's all about in, in relation to trauma Play.
26:34
That this is an episode that you might be able to share with
26:37
those members of the community just to make sure that we are
26:42
getting the word out there around the legitimacy and the
26:45
efficacy and the ethical practise that we have as child
26:48
centre play therapist because that's really super important.
26:51
I definitely recognise as part of all of our roles as child
26:55
centre play therapists in our communities, wherever this
26:58
episode finds you within Australia or across the globe,
27:02
that we have that responsibility to be able to share and educate
27:06
with others with compassion, with empathy and with
27:09
unconditional positive regard as well, which is our tenants of
27:12
CCPT, right? To help those in the community
27:16
to better understand what child centre play therapy is all about
27:19
and why it is an effective tool in working the children who've
27:22
experienced trauma. And so I really want to kind of
27:26
end this episode really, I guess reiterating and for those of you
27:31
listening who maybe have struggled in this space either
27:34
previously or currently or have kind of worries if you're a
27:38
beginning play therapist about how you might tackle this in the
27:41
future. If someone says to you, it just
27:44
sounds like they're playing, gently say yes.
27:47
And play is how children tell their stories.
27:51
Play is their natural mode of communication, right?
27:53
So this is how children communicate to us about their
27:57
world, about their feelings, about their experiences, and
28:00
about the issues that they're struggling with.
28:02
I often say that often in the playroom, as you guys would know
28:07
from previous episodes. I've said this before that I
28:11
often say to parents and caregivers, what I'm seeing in
28:13
the playroom you might be seeing as a version in your home, in
28:17
the school, in the kindi, in the community, because play just
28:21
doesn't live just in the playroom.
28:24
Children will be using it everywhere to make sense of
28:26
their experiences. And so we have this
28:29
responsibility to stop and listen and to really understand,
28:33
I guess from that play perspective, what children are
28:36
communicating to us without words.
28:38
So I want to, I guess, leave with some final thoughts and
28:42
reflections in this space and certainly give you that
28:45
invitation for reflection as well.
28:47
But if we were to wait for a perfectly formed sentence around
28:52
their experience of trauma, many children would never be heard.
28:59
I want to invite you to think of the following.
29:02
How do you, as a child centred play therapist, explain trauma
29:07
play? Has some of this information
29:09
that I've shared today been helpful for you?
29:11
Please feel free to kind of go back and listen again if that's
29:15
something you need to be able to get those tools in your toolkit
29:19
to be able to empower you as a child centre play therapist in
29:22
our community. Have you felt misunderstood by
29:26
other professionals in your working role?
29:28
Has that happened for you as well and how have you kind of
29:31
navigated that and what language has helped you to advocate for
29:36
the children you work with in your community?
29:39
I really want to leave you as child centre play therapists
29:43
empowered in this space. So I want to share the final
29:45
thought here around the playroom is not quiet.
29:49
It's actually full of communication in the work that
29:52
we do. We just have to know how to
29:54
listen. So thank you so much for
29:58
listening today. This has been a really, really
30:00
important episode and I really hope that this episode is able
30:04
to reach many people in our community to help educate around
30:08
what child centre play therapy is all about, how it works and
30:12
how it can truly help children who have experienced trauma to
30:16
be able to process their experiences and heal.
30:19
And how our role as child centre play therapists is very
30:23
comprehensive in terms of our assessment and our understanding
30:26
ending of play, to be able to provide that feedback and raise
30:31
those concerns when we have them.
30:32
So I really want to empower all of you listening as our child
30:36
centre play therapist out there in our play therapy circle
30:38
community. You've absolutely got this.
30:41
What you do matters. And I am so grateful for all of
30:45
your support. So thank you so much for
30:48
listening. As always, reach out to us on
30:50
the socials. You'll be able to find us on
30:52
Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Feel free to follow along on our
30:58
social media for all of our updates as we go through this
31:01
year. And I, I am so grateful to each
31:04
and everyone of you for listening today.
31:06
Go well, look after yourselves and each other, and have a
31:09
wonderful weekend. Bye.