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Can Play Therapy Work with Teens? · Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

• 0:02
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 0:04
  Cathi Spooner: A weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services.
• 0:14
  Cathi Spooner: We'll explore all things play therapy.
• 0:17
  Cathi Spooner: To elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play.
• 0:23
  Cathi Spooner: I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives.
• 0:33
  Cathi Spooner: So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families.
• 0:47
  Cathi Spooner: Hey there.
• 0:48
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 0:52
  Cathi Spooner: I'm Cathi Spooner.
• 0:54
  Cathi Spooner: I'm a licensed clinical social worker and a registered play therapist coming up on rounding the corner to 35 years in the mental health field.
• 1:05
  Cathi Spooner: And today I wanna talk about something that I think creates a lot of stress for play therapists in particular.
• 1:17
  Cathi Spooner: I would also say this creates a lot of stress for any mental health professional working with adolescents, and that is what do you do when you have a teenage client sitting in your office and they're sitting on the chair or the couch, and they are not saying a word.
• 1:40
  Cathi Spooner: You are trying to engage them, but they are silent or they're giving you one word answers, and then you, you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and possibly wondering if play therapy can actually work or if maybe you're not using play therapy, but you are a. Um, mental health professional working with teens, then maybe you're thinking they're not ready.
• 2:10
  Cathi Spooner: Air quotes ready.
• 2:12
  Cathi Spooner: I heard that one the other, the other day.
• 2:15
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and I'll be honest, in my head I'm like, ah, you're trying to get them to talk about their feelings and it's not working.
• 2:26
  Cathi Spooner: So if that sounds like you, then this episode is for you.
• 2:31
  Cathi Spooner: Today's episode is really about not trying to get your clients to talk about their feelings and why, why that doesn't work.
• 2:44
  Cathi Spooner: So if that sounds like it's interesting for you, then that's what we're gonna talk about today.
• 2:52
  Cathi Spooner: If you're watching the live stream, feel free to join the conversation.
• 2:58
  Cathi Spooner: Let us know where you're from, what population you work with, with, um, with play therapy, or maybe you're using creative arts therapy or another expressive arts modality.
• 3:11
  Cathi Spooner: Pop that in the comments and let's get started for today's.
• 3:16
  Cathi Spooner: So today's topic is can play therapy work with teens.
• 3:21
  Cathi Spooner: This is something that comes up a lot in Play Therapy Academy.
• 3:27
  Cathi Spooner: Which is my online consultation program for child and adolescent therapists who really want to learn the skills to become a play therapist.
• 3:37
  Cathi Spooner: So we get into all the core competencies we get into how do you use a play therapy model and apply it through all the theoretical stages in that model.
• 3:50
  Cathi Spooner: And one of the things that comes up a lot is can play therapy actually work with teenagers?
• 3:59
  Cathi Spooner: Like, how do I use play therapy so it doesn't feel like I'm treating them like little kids or treating them like babies?
• 4:09
  Cathi Spooner: And so that today's episode is dedicated to that because what often happens, and I hear this a lot, is that you have that teenager sitting across from you.
• 4:22
  Cathi Spooner: And they're giving you one word answers or they're, or they're not even saying anything.
• 4:27
  Cathi Spooner: They're just kind of pulling their hoodie over their head, or they're just sitting in the chair looking at you with that blank face, and you're thinking to yourself, oh goodness, what do I do now?
• 4:39
  Cathi Spooner: I can't seem to get this client to talk.
• 4:43
  Cathi Spooner: And so we're gonna talk about the neuroscience of it.
• 4:47
  Cathi Spooner: I'm gonna break it down a little bit and talk about why that happens and what's actually going on with that.
• 4:56
  Cathi Spooner: And then some, some tips about like, what, what's going to work more effectively?
• 5:03
  Cathi Spooner: So the first thing that we're gonna talk about is why play therapists feel stuck when you're using, uh, when you're working with teenagers.
• 5:13
  Cathi Spooner: And so, I know it might feel a little bit uncomfortable what I am about to say.
• 5:18
  Cathi Spooner: It might.
• 5:21
  Cathi Spooner: S sound counterintuitive.
• 5:23
  Cathi Spooner: My first tip is stop trying to get 'em to talk about their feelings.
• 5:30
  Cathi Spooner: I know you're probably thinking what, what are you talking about?
• 5:34
  Cathi Spooner: We're supposed to get them to talk.
• 5:36
  Cathi Spooner: That's what therapists do.
• 5:38
  Cathi Spooner: We get them to talk, we get them to open up, verbalize what's going on, process a little bit, help them get some insight that's gonna get, give them some understanding of the problem that will lead them to making the change, and that's where the breakthroughs happen.
• 5:58
  Cathi Spooner: And that's not actually happening though.
• 6:01
  Cathi Spooner: In fact, I had this conversation with somebody that I supervise a couple months ago because we were looking at the history of a client and this client had been through two previous therapists and got nowhere.
• 6:18
  Cathi Spooner: One therapist actually said this client's not ready for therapy.
• 6:22
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and discharged them 'cause they weren't doing anything.
• 6:25
  Cathi Spooner: And in my head I'm like, Aw.
• 6:28
  Cathi Spooner: There's another way, and here's what happens.
• 6:31
  Cathi Spooner: What happens when you try to get them to talk, when you try to get them to use insight and use those cognitive areas of their brain, what ends up happening is you sit across from a teenager who's not gonna talk and then you're feeling anxious 'cause you don't know what to do, or you're asking open-ended questions, you're building rapport, you're doing all the right things, and they're giving you one word answers or my favorite, which is, I don't know.
• 7:07
  Cathi Spooner: I don't remember.
• 7:09
  Cathi Spooner: I get that one a lot sometimes I don't remember.
• 7:12
  Cathi Spooner: You know, you know the parent has said to the child with all good intention, make sure you talk to Ms. Cathi about what you did, or make sure you talk to Ms. Cathi about what happened.
• 7:27
  Cathi Spooner: Make sure you tell her this or make sure you tell her that.
• 7:30
  Cathi Spooner: And then they come in and they plop down on your, your couch or your chair and all the signs are I don't wanna do this.
• 7:41
  Cathi Spooner: You kind of sit there watching the clock, feeling like you are failing your client and you're feeling really stuck because you don't know what to do.
• 7:52
  Cathi Spooner: If that's, you know that you are not alone and we have all been there, including me, where I've gone through the internet trying to find all, like any activity that maybe is gonna help my client get this breakthrough to get them talking.
• 8:12
  Cathi Spooner: How can I get them talking about what's going on and talking about their feelings, and does that sound familiar to any of you?
• 8:21
  Cathi Spooner: If you are watching live, then go ahead and post in the comments, yes, or gimme that thumbs up in the comment.
• 8:32
  Cathi Spooner: If you're listening on the replay, feel free to join the conversation post in the comments.
• 8:38
  Cathi Spooner: I'd love to hear from you, or if you're watching on Instagram, feel free to message me or LinkedIn message me.
• 8:49
  Cathi Spooner: But here's the thing that needs to happen.
• 8:52
  Cathi Spooner: This is the mindset shift that we're looking at.
• 8:56
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause I, I get it.
• 8:58
  Cathi Spooner: And we have these conversations in Play Therapy Academy.
• 9:02
  Cathi Spooner: I know we'll be having these conversations in Play Therapy Elevation.
• 9:06
  Cathi Spooner: Circle, which is my online play therapy membership.
• 9:10
  Cathi Spooner: We do consultation in there, but it's more like community sport, um, community support and sharing ideas and staffing cases.
• 9:19
  Cathi Spooner: We do a book club in there as well and give support that way.
• 9:24
  Cathi Spooner: So I know that we go to graduate school and we learn all the talk therapy models when we're working with teens, so we naturally think well, it's a teenager, so I am not gonna use play therapy'cause I don't want them to feel like I'm treating them like a little kid or treating them like a baby.
• 9:48
  Cathi Spooner: So I don't want to insult them 'cause that's not gonna help with therapeutic rapport and building rapport and trust and safety.
• 9:57
  Cathi Spooner: So I'm gonna talk to them.
• 9:59
  Cathi Spooner: I'm gonna revert back to my adult models and use adult talk therapy models.
• 10:07
  Cathi Spooner: And if you are working with a teenager who's really kind of high functioning, intelligent, really solid internal resiliency and a strong sense of self.
• 10:21
  Cathi Spooner: The likelihood that you can get away with that and that'll work is very high.
• 10:27
  Cathi Spooner: And if you're working with adults, usually it works pretty well.
• 10:31
  Cathi Spooner: But I'll be honest, it doesn't always, I've worked with plenty of adults.
• 10:36
  Cathi Spooner: When I asked them about their feelings, they looked at me like, what are you talking about?
• 10:41
  Cathi Spooner: Um, feelings.
• 10:42
  Cathi Spooner: And, or they're like, I don't know.
• 10:45
  Cathi Spooner: And they, they genuinely don't know.
• 10:49
  Cathi Spooner: And I think that's the case for teenagers as well.
• 10:51
  Cathi Spooner: And here's why.
• 10:53
  Cathi Spooner: Teenagers are developmentally in between.
• 10:57
  Cathi Spooner: They're not little kids anymore.
• 11:00
  Cathi Spooner: They're not developmentally, developmentally, they're not adults.
• 11:05
  Cathi Spooner: They're in that in-between transition stage and their brains are still developing.
• 11:12
  Cathi Spooner: We know that the brain develops, right?
• 11:15
  Cathi Spooner: If we use the hand model that we all learned from Daniel Siegel, we learn the hand model.
• 11:22
  Cathi Spooner: We, we, right here at the wrist is our, our brainstem, and then in the middle is our limbic and the, right here where we have the, um, front of our fingers.
• 11:34
  Cathi Spooner: If you're watching on the, on video or, um, then you'll be able to see me doing this.
• 11:41
  Cathi Spooner: If you're listening to the podcast, then this is where when you make a fist and your fingers are overlapping your thumb.
• 11:51
  Cathi Spooner: The fingers part in the front is your prefrontal.
• 11:54
  Cathi Spooner: We know that the brain develops from back to front that those prefrontal cortex areas are the most advanced and they come online later.
• 12:08
  Cathi Spooner: It could be into mid twenties, even late twenties or early thirties sometimes.
• 12:16
  Cathi Spooner: But we're talking about adolescents.
• 12:19
  Cathi Spooner: We're I, I would even say pre-adolescent, like let's say 10, 11, 12 year olds, the tweeners and the, the adolescents.
• 12:31
  Cathi Spooner: 13, 14, 15. 16 and 17, they can access those prefrontal cortex areas a little better, but not always.
• 12:42
  Cathi Spooner: If you've got a child who's got a lot of trauma or they're pretty hefty anxiety or depression, then it's pretty hard for them to access those areas when you're talking about emotional things.
• 12:58
  Cathi Spooner: And so when we're talking about adolescents, we're talking about kids who are in between.
• 13:06
  Cathi Spooner: Human beings who are not quite children and they're not quite adults, and their brain is developing, and those, those cognitive prefrontal cortex areas of the brain where they do their decision making.
• 13:23
  Cathi Spooner: They are GA gaining insight and verbal processing and using those areas to help them regulate their emotions because they can think things through a little bit more.
• 13:38
  Cathi Spooner: Those aren't fully formed yet, and so when they're emotionally overwhelmed, they literally can't access those cognitive areas of their brain that talk therapy requires because they're emotionally overwhelmed.
• 13:57
  Cathi Spooner: So think about it.
• 13:59
  Cathi Spooner: It's kind of so what you're asking them to do when you're asking using talk therapy to get them to talk about their feelings or talk about what happened to them, you're asking them to identify what their feelings are.
• 14:16
  Cathi Spooner: Putting complex emotion words to that, reflecting on the way they feel about it, and then making those connections between emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
• 14:30
  Cathi Spooner: All while their, their emotion, their nervous system is probably in fight or flight or maybe even in shutdown mode because they're overwhelmed and that's why they're going silent.
• 14:46
  Cathi Spooner: That's why they're not talking.
• 14:49
  Cathi Spooner: That's why they're giving one word answers, maybe saying.
• 14:53
  Cathi Spooner: I don't know.
• 14:54
  Cathi Spooner: Or my favorite, which is, I don't remember.
• 14:58
  Cathi Spooner: Um, maybe it's not that they're being resistant or, um, challenging or what's my other resistant is my favorite.
• 15:12
  Cathi Spooner: Not really.
• 15:13
  Cathi Spooner: I actually kind of banned that word.
• 15:16
  Cathi Spooner: For myself, if, um, I banned it and then I, anybody I supervise, I always encourage them to ban that word resistant.
• 15:25
  Cathi Spooner: I like the word reluctant because I reluctant to me is a little more, um, descriptive of what's actually going on in this session.
• 15:38
  Cathi Spooner: And what I mean by that is.
• 15:41
  Cathi Spooner: They're reluctant because they don't feel safe or they don't know how, or they're not quite ready because they're overloaded by what's going on emotionally for them.
• 15:52
  Cathi Spooner: I can't tell you how many times over the last, almost 35 years, definitely 30 plus years, I've had, um, a reluctant adolescent sitting in my office.
• 16:09
  Cathi Spooner: And they're kind of shut down.
• 16:12
  Cathi Spooner: And I just focus on being with them.
• 16:17
  Cathi Spooner: I just don't try to get them to talk about their feelings.
• 16:23
  Cathi Spooner: And what I'll do is I'll shift my mindset to conceptualizing what is going on in that moment, in a way that, um, like the way that I conceptualize it is they're not feeling safe.
• 16:37
  Cathi Spooner: Something is going on, they're overloaded.
• 16:41
  Cathi Spooner: So then my, my thoughts shift to if I try to get them to talk, if I stick with tra strictly talk therapy right now that I'm not gonna get anywhere.
• 16:57
  Cathi Spooner: They're gonna shut down even more.
• 16:59
  Cathi Spooner: They are not going to experience my office as a safe place because their nervous system is gonna be overloaded and they're gonna be in what I call danger, danger Will Robinson Mode.
• 17:12
  Cathi Spooner: Any of you?
• 17:14
  Cathi Spooner: What was, oh, now I can't remember the name of that space.
• 17:17
  Cathi Spooner: Oh goodness.
• 17:18
  Cathi Spooner: What was the name of that show?
• 17:20
  Cathi Spooner: They, they did a remake a little while ago now, and it's gonna come back to me after I'm like, later on in the day.
• 17:28
  Cathi Spooner: It's an old show with the robber, uh, with the robot and it was a, the Robinson family, and they went in this space.
• 17:37
  Cathi Spooner: I don't know you guys post that on there.
• 17:39
  Cathi Spooner: You remember the show.
• 17:40
  Cathi Spooner: And I did a remake probably back in like 2017, I think.
• 17:45
  Cathi Spooner: Not as it was.
• 17:46
  Cathi Spooner: Okay.
• 17:47
  Cathi Spooner: Not too bad.
• 17:48
  Cathi Spooner: I watched it.
• 17:49
  Cathi Spooner: I enjoyed it.
• 17:50
  Cathi Spooner: Anyway, danger, danger.
• 17:52
  Cathi Spooner: Will Robinson danger, danger, and the robot would like kind of freak out a little bit?
• 17:56
  Cathi Spooner: Well, that's the brain shutting down because it's an overload mode.
• 18:01
  Cathi Spooner: And the harder we push, the more overwhelmed that they're gonna feel and they're, they're gonna shut down even more.
• 18:08
  Cathi Spooner: And now I'm gonna have to do a lot of repair work to create a safety to help them actually feel safe and not make it worse.
• 18:20
  Cathi Spooner: So what do we do instead?
• 18:23
  Cathi Spooner: One is stop getting, trying to get them to talk about their feelings and give them way to express what's going on inside.
• 18:33
  Cathi Spooner: Express their feelings.
• 18:35
  Cathi Spooner: I love using expressive arts with adolescents.
• 18:42
  Cathi Spooner: And truth be told I love using expressive arts with adults, especially adults who've experienced a lot of trauma because we know socially and emotionally trauma is gonna, um, delay that healthy social emotional growth.
• 19:03
  Cathi Spooner: So let's say I have an adult who experienced a lot of trauma in their early childhood.
• 19:10
  Cathi Spooner: And then maybe they had a stint with some substance misuse.
• 19:17
  Cathi Spooner: I know that's gonna shut down growth, even social emotional growth even more.
• 19:22
  Cathi Spooner: And so expressive arts can be a really effective way to bypass the cognitive areas of the brain, or I would even say bypass, trying to help them access explicit memories or explicit experiences before they're able to, and we can go right to those implicit experiences, those experiences stored away without language or those experiences that they can't quite access because they're, they're behind the wall, uh, you know, their defense wall, like back here.
• 20:04
  Cathi Spooner: I have to keep this really, really safe, and I don't want anybody coming near it.
• 20:10
  Cathi Spooner: So if we're thinking a little IFS here, internal family systems, we would say those protectors are alive and active, trying to protect those exiles and not able to really get to those exiles yet.
• 20:25
  Cathi Spooner: So, so expressive arts can be a way to do that.
• 20:32
  Cathi Spooner: Um, the tr there was a trauma model that I learned way, way back in the day, um, called, um, structured century intervention for children, adolescents, and parents for traumatized children, adolescents and parents.
• 20:49
  Cathi Spooner: What I liked about this model, it was developed by, um, Steel and Rader.
• 20:56
  Cathi Spooner: And one of the things William Steele talked about was this concept of, he, I think it's a term he coined, which wa I is Synchron, um, iconic synchronization.
• 21:12
  Cathi Spooner: And the way he de de, um, described that is that there are things we can't really access through those cognitive areas of our brain.
• 21:24
  Cathi Spooner: Yet if we, if we give those things symbolic representation.
• 21:31
  Cathi Spooner: So if we use some expressive arts modalities, like this is my, my addition to what he said.
• 21:40
  Cathi Spooner: So if we use clay, if we use art, if we use movement, if we use poetry.
• 21:49
  Cathi Spooner: We give what's going on symbolic form.
• 21:53
  Cathi Spooner: We don't have to label it yet.
• 21:55
  Cathi Spooner: We don't have to describe it with those cognitive areas of our brain.
• 22:00
  Cathi Spooner: We're simply giving expression through, so we're giving it symbolic form and then now it's externalized in symbolic form and now that it's out there like in the sand tray, I can't tell you how many times this has happened.
• 22:18
  Cathi Spooner: I'll just say, Hey, what would that, you know, represent?
• 22:24
  Cathi Spooner: What would that look like if you used the miniatures as many as view, and you put those in the sand tray?
• 22:33
  Cathi Spooner: Doesn't always, um, make sense why you feel drawn to a particular miniature just kind of go with it.
• 22:42
  Cathi Spooner: We'll see what happens, and I promise you it'll all be fine.
• 22:47
  Cathi Spooner: However it ends up being is exactly how it ends up being.
• 22:51
  Cathi Spooner: So we'll do that.
• 22:52
  Cathi Spooner: They'll put them into the sand tray.
• 22:56
  Cathi Spooner: When I've done this with adults, we are always getting the Kleenex box.
• 23:00
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause if they're feeling stuck and they're like, I don't know.
• 23:03
  Cathi Spooner: And they're, they just can't access it.
• 23:05
  Cathi Spooner: And the more you try, the worse it is for them.
• 23:08
  Cathi Spooner: They get more overloaded.
• 23:10
  Cathi Spooner: Then we go to the sandbox, or we use art, or we use some other kind of modality, uh, expressive modality, and then they put it in symbolic form, and now it's externalized.
• 23:22
  Cathi Spooner: So if it's the sand tray, it's out there in the sand tray.
• 23:26
  Cathi Spooner: And now, so we're accessing first and foremost those implicit avenues through the right brain creatively.
• 23:38
  Cathi Spooner: And then now they're out there in the sand Tray, and now we have the ability to, to put words to it, to access the cognitive areas to explore it and make sense of it.
• 23:55
  Cathi Spooner: Some kids though, just the very act of using those expressive modalities, that to me, that's how we help them access those therapeutic powers of play.
• 24:11
  Cathi Spooner: So from a play therapy standpoint, the way that the Association for Play Therapy defines play therapy, which I love their definition, I use it all the time, is we use a theoretical model to help clients access the therapeutic powers of play within a strong therapeutic relationship.
• 24:33
  Cathi Spooner: So that's the safe container, right?
• 24:35
  Cathi Spooner: That therapeutic relationship, expressive arts, we.
• 24:40
  Cathi Spooner: We can help them access those therapeutic powers of play of self-expression or access to the unconscious or what I 'cause.
• 24:51
  Cathi Spooner: I love using a neuroscience and attachment lens theoretical framework.
• 24:56
  Cathi Spooner: I would say access to the implicit experiences.
• 25:01
  Cathi Spooner: We can do indirect teaching, we can do direct teaching, we can work on.
• 25:09
  Cathi Spooner: Um, kind of titrating anxiety, like titrated exposure to the feared thing, and then use symbolic representation to do that.
• 25:24
  Cathi Spooner: So.
• 25:26
  Cathi Spooner: What I love about expressive arts is that it can bypass those cognitive areas where they get stuck and give them a safer way to access what's going on because they're using different parts of their brain and.
• 25:45
  Cathi Spooner: They're accessing those therapeutic powers of play.
• 25:49
  Cathi Spooner: And from a play therapy standpoint, it's not the talking that actually does the healing as much as it is that process.
• 26:00
  Cathi Spooner: Using those ex um, those therapeutic powers of play to make sense of things and figure out what they need to do with that, they will naturally do that in a way that is healing for them, given that free and protected space.
• 26:18
  Cathi Spooner: And so that's when the healing happens and that's how we, I can't tell you how many times I have seen this happen, and I have, I have talked this through with some reluctant play therapist or even maybe not necessarily play therapist.
• 26:37
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause I work in a variety of capacities.
• 26:39
  Cathi Spooner: And so they're, they're looking at me like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:42
  Cathi Spooner: I don't think this is right.
• 26:44
  Cathi Spooner: Like this, this client is like resistant to therapy or the other term we use all the time, which is they're not ready for therapy'cause they're not talking.
• 27:01
  Cathi Spooner: Well this.
• 27:03
  Cathi Spooner: Bypassing that, um, requirement to access areas of the brain, they're not able to access and given them another way to do that, opens up a door for them to be able to engage.
• 27:21
  Cathi Spooner: And I have seen that happen over and over and over and over.
• 27:27
  Cathi Spooner: And I have seen teenagers, I would even say adults be very successful doing this.
• 27:35
  Cathi Spooner: I once worked with a therapist I was supervising, she was working with, uh, like a, a preteen with selective mutism.
• 27:48
  Cathi Spooner: I think she worked with this client for about a year and every week this client would do sand Tray and would give one word answers for almost a year, every single week.
• 28:05
  Cathi Spooner: And this client came every single week.
• 28:09
  Cathi Spooner: And then when we went in and looked at the sand tray and we were looking at themes in the sand tray and making sense of those.
• 28:18
  Cathi Spooner: This, this child was going deep.
• 28:21
  Cathi Spooner: This child used that, those therapeutic powers of play for healing without talking it through.
• 28:30
  Cathi Spooner: But you could see over time what was going on symbolically, and you could see that this client was going deep and reports from parents verified the changes that were happening in the child's life outside of the play therapy process.
• 28:50
  Cathi Spooner: So I'm a firm com uh, firm believer that we need to stop trying to make preteens and teenagers talk about their feelings.
• 29:01
  Cathi Spooner: They're not ready to do it.
• 29:03
  Cathi Spooner: It's because they're overloaded and we can actually make it worse by trying to get them to do something they are not developmentally ready or emotionally ready to do.
• 29:18
  Cathi Spooner: And there is another way to go about doing that, and that is using the therapeutic powers of play and accessing those therapeutic powers of play with expressive arts activities.
• 29:33
  Cathi Spooner: And to do that, we really need to use a framework.
• 29:37
  Cathi Spooner: So otherwise you just get into what I call the spaghetti against the wall uh, method where you're just like, you're not really grounded in a theoretical framework and you are just kind of trying this, that and the other.
• 29:51
  Cathi Spooner: Researching all over the place, trying to figure out a, an, an activity you can use, but it's, there's no there's no real structure or framework to it.
• 30:01
  Cathi Spooner: So oftentimes what will happen is you'll end up feeling lost and not sure what to do.
• 30:06
  Cathi Spooner: And so that's, I do have a training coming up and I'm, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about that if you're interested.
• 30:14
  Cathi Spooner: That's why I created this training play therapy with adolescents using expressive arts.
• 30:20
  Cathi Spooner: And so in this training, I'm gonna kind of walk you through the neuroscience and attachment, interpersonal neurobiology, polyvagal things.
• 30:32
  Cathi Spooner: We're gonna, that's our case, conceptualization.
• 30:35
  Cathi Spooner: That is the lens that we're gonna use to look at it and understand what is going on.
• 30:41
  Cathi Spooner: And then we're going to use an integrated integrative play therapy model grounded in that neuroscience and attachment that interpersonal neurobiology using a framework to help you apply the, not apply, that's not the right word, but using that framework to kind of structure your expressive arts activities and think about what kind of expressive art activities to use.
• 31:13
  Cathi Spooner: When to use them.
• 31:14
  Cathi Spooner: And then we're also, because we're play therapists, we're gonna do a bunch of experiential activities so that you can take this training and use it right away.
• 31:24
  Cathi Spooner: And one of the things that I have committed to in 2026, because I'm a firm believer that the training is good, otherwise I wouldn't do them.
• 31:33
  Cathi Spooner: And I take trainings.
• 31:34
  Cathi Spooner: I'm actually in a training now.
• 31:36
  Cathi Spooner: Um, I decided to just, timing was right.
• 31:40
  Cathi Spooner: Finances were right.
• 31:43
  Cathi Spooner: Everything a aligned with the right people to do it with.
• 31:47
  Cathi Spooner: I am now taking, uh, EMDR training with playful EMDR.
• 31:53
  Cathi Spooner: Shout out to playful EMDR'cause they'll integrate play therapy into it.
• 31:59
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, but it is the MDR model 'cause uh, to me it's important do the gold standard to get it right.
• 32:06
  Cathi Spooner: So, uh, so I, so I'm a believer in training.
• 32:11
  Cathi Spooner: What I'm also a believer in is community, and this is where I see the magic happen in Play Therapy Academy and also now my new membership which is Play therapy Elevation Circle.
• 32:24
  Cathi Spooner: So in Elevation Circle we meet once a month.
• 32:28
  Cathi Spooner: We kind of put our collective heads together, staff cases, talk about specific play therapy topics to stay up to date on things.
• 32:37
  Cathi Spooner: But then we're gonna take that information and how do you apply it.
• 32:41
  Cathi Spooner: We also do a book club in there, staying up to date.
• 32:45
  Cathi Spooner: On, you know, different important things going on in the, in the field.
• 32:53
  Cathi Spooner: So right now we're reading Bonnie Bad Knocks book, being a Brainwise therapist, so applying that interpersonal neurobiology.
• 33:01
  Cathi Spooner: She has a whole chapter on working with teens, using art, using sand tray.
• 33:05
  Cathi Spooner: So I love that about that book.
• 33:07
  Cathi Spooner: So.
• 33:09
  Cathi Spooner: If you, for any of any of you who are new members, not yet members of Elevation Circle, any of you who register and, uh, take the training.
• 33:20
  Cathi Spooner: So like this one is play therapy with adolescents using expressive arts.
• 33:25
  Cathi Spooner: When you register for the training, you are also going to be getting access two months to Elevation Circle.
• 33:34
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and the for free, if you're a new member, it'll be for free.
• 33:38
  Cathi Spooner: The reason is because I wanna be able to help you apply what you've learned ongoing.
• 33:46
  Cathi Spooner: You can stay, you have the option to stay on and stay as long as you want.
• 33:51
  Cathi Spooner: There's no term commitment to that, and you can stay as long as you want after that as well.
• 33:56
  Cathi Spooner: My hope is that you will stay and will enjoy having you in the membership.
• 34:02
  Cathi Spooner: But the reason for that is I can't do, you know, like how many times?
• 34:06
  Cathi Spooner: So you're like a month after the training, you're like, what did we talk about?
• 34:10
  Cathi Spooner: Or what were some of those things?
• 34:11
  Cathi Spooner: Or you have a client sitting in front of you that's really hard and you're like, ah, I'm not sure what to do.
• 34:18
  Cathi Spooner: Well, to me, having that community of support, those community of play therapists.
• 34:24
  Cathi Spooner: Um, to help work through some of those things, I think really supports you in the work that you are doing.
• 34:32
  Cathi Spooner: And my, my vision, my mission is to help you make a difference in your community using play therapy with children, adolescents, and families.
• 34:45
  Cathi Spooner: So community by community, we can create, um, a better world, right?
• 34:51
  Cathi Spooner: We're only, our communities are only as strong as the families in our, in our community.
• 34:57
  Cathi Spooner: So my goal is to kind of help create healthy communities by helping you and supporting you as a play therapist.
• 35:04
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're interested.
• 35:06
  Cathi Spooner: In that training, it is play therapy with adolescents using expressive arts.
• 35:12
  Cathi Spooner: Then pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com.
• 35:19
  Cathi Spooner: Go over to the training page.
• 35:22
  Cathi Spooner: Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training.
• 35:24
  Cathi Spooner: On the training page, you'll see all my upcoming trainings on there, and the two months of Elevation Circle for new members is available for all of the trainings that I have this year.
• 35:41
  Cathi Spooner: So the, this training is virtual, so you can attend virtually, you can attend in person in beautiful St. George, Utah.
• 35:50
  Cathi Spooner: Or let's say you're in a different time zone and you're like, Cathi, that time zone does not work for me, especially of those of you outside of the US.
• 36:00
  Cathi Spooner: I hear this a lot.
• 36:02
  Cathi Spooner: Um, if you're over there in the, um, in Europe or, or uh, Australia or another country outside of the US.
• 36:13
  Cathi Spooner: The time zone change can be a little brutal, so there will be a recorded version that you can register for.
• 36:20
  Cathi Spooner: The way that recorded version will work is I'm gonna record the training when we're doing it live, and then, uh, once the training is over, we'll break down the video into smaller bite size modules, and about a week after the training ends, then the course will drop into your account and then you can do all the things.
• 36:47
  Cathi Spooner: So if you have questions about it, feel free to message me.
• 36:51
  Cathi Spooner: If you have, look on my website, see what other trainings there are, if there's some other ones you have questions about, feel free to message me.
• 37:00
  Cathi Spooner: If you really want to take your play therapy skills to the next level and you're ready to learn all the competencies and you want a little more than Elevation Circle offers, that would be Play Therapy Academy.
• 37:15
  Cathi Spooner: I do have openings in Play Therapy Academy right now.
• 37:20
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, then schedule a video call with me.
• 37:26
  Cathi Spooner: We'll see if Play Therapy Academy is a good fit for you.
• 37:30
  Cathi Spooner: 'Cause maybe Elevation Circle might be a better fit, but if you're looking to really develop those play therapy competencies to learn how to apply a play therapy model through all the stages and all the things.
• 37:46
  Cathi Spooner: Then schedule a video call with me and we'll see if it's a good fit.
• 37:51
  Cathi Spooner: So that is it for today, and I will see you next week.
• 37:56
  Cathi Spooner: Bye.
• 37:59
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 38:03
  Cathi Spooner: I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families feel.
• 38:13
  Cathi Spooner: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 38:18
  Cathi Spooner: Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 38:24
  Cathi Spooner: Remember.
• 38:25
  Cathi Spooner: Play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 38:29
  Cathi Spooner: Whether you're a new play therapist or experienced, I encourage you to continue your learning journey to unlock the potential of play in your own work in relationships.
• 38:40
  Cathi Spooner: If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you.
• 38:47
  Cathi Spooner: Connect with me on social media and visit my website at Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources.
• 38:59
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 39:03
  Cathi Spooner: Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.