Latest / The Play Therapy Circle / Episode 27- When doubting the effectiveness of CCPT slowly enters the Playroom: Staying true to our CCPT framework

Transcript

Episode 27- When doubting the effectiveness of CCPT slowly enters the Playroom: Staying true to our CCPT framework · The Play Therapy Circle

• 0:00
  Hi there and welcome to the Play Therapy Circle.
• 0:04
  Before we begin, Please note this podcast is for
• 0:07
  informational and educational purposes only.
• 0:10
  It does not provide therapeutic advice and listening does not
• 0:14
  create a client therapist relationship.
• 0:17
  All views expressed are my own and any case example shared have
• 0:21
  been de identified to protect privacy.
• 0:24
  If you're seeking personal support, please reach out to a
• 0:27
  qualified mental health professional in your area.
• 0:33
  Hi and welcome to an episode of The Play Therapy Circle.
• 0:38
  I'm Kylie Ellison, a therapist, clinical supervisor and play
• 0:42
  therapy trainer and I'm so grateful you're here.
• 0:45
  This podcast is a space for thoughtful, soulful
• 0:49
  conversations about child centred therapy, play based work
• 0:53
  and what it means to show up with presence and compassion,
• 0:57
  both for our clients and for ourselves.
• 1:00
  Whether you're a season play therapist, a student just
• 1:03
  starting out, or someone deeply passionate about working with
• 1:07
  children, you belong here. Hi everyone, and welcome back to
• 1:15
  the Play Therapy Circle podcast. I'm your host, Kylie Ellison,
• 1:19
  and I am so glad you are here. Hey everyone, happy Thursday.
• 1:26
  Oh my goodness. We release episodes on a Friday,
• 1:30
  so it is 630 on a Thursday night.
• 1:33
  For those of you watching on YouTube, you will see that I'm
• 1:37
  in my car when I talk about New Year's resolutions and I'm
• 1:43
  getting very authentic and congruent with each of you.
• 1:47
  My plan was to genuinely have a better work life balance and it
• 1:54
  is the 15th of July. This is the first week back at
• 1:57
  work and I'm recording a podcast in my car.
• 2:01
  Where am I, do you ask? And for those of you watching,
• 2:04
  might look a little strange that I'm in a car.
• 2:06
  I am outside my daughter's sports aerobics practise.
• 2:09
  Yep, that's it. That's the juggle of I am
• 2:14
  running out of time to record because we drop on a Friday and
• 2:19
  it's Thursday night. So I have a very understanding
• 2:22
  Shaz who will be editing this afterwards to get it out on
• 2:26
  time. But I've been teaching, coming
• 2:30
  to confession, I have been teaching this week.
• 2:32
  So I wonder if I can lean into that excuse.
• 2:35
  But I promise you guys, this is going to get better.
• 2:38
  I swear that both of these episodes so far have been on
• 2:41
  location, one in Begara, now in Brisbane outside of sports
• 2:48
  aerobics. Love that for me.
• 2:50
  Love that for me. How are you all doing?
• 2:52
  Like truly, how is everyone thriving, not surviving in 2026?
• 2:58
  I think I said to you guys in last week's episode as well, my
• 3:01
  daughter corrected me that that's not the correct.
• 3:05
  What do you call it? Like rhyming for 2026.
• 3:09
  I forget what she said. I'm gonna ask her and tell you
• 3:12
  guys next time. But it's something around doing
• 3:15
  well. 2026, I don't know. I don't know.
• 3:19
  Are we doing well? I am, as I said, it's 6:30 at
• 3:22
  night in Brisbane in summer and so I am quickly losing light as
• 3:28
  well, which is just fantastic. So I am on the light schedule
• 3:33
  that I really need to keep this to 30 minutes because I may soon
• 3:36
  be talking to you in the dark. It's also my car beeping in the
• 3:39
  background for anyone who's heard me.
• 3:40
  So like when I tell you the juggle is real, the juggle is
• 3:43
  freaking real. OK, I probably had a plan of a
• 3:49
  topic that I might have mentioned last week and in true
• 3:51
  style I've changed it. That's also how this goes.
• 3:55
  I have had, I truly feel it is an honour and a privilege to
• 4:00
  connect with anyone that I get to serve in my training that
• 4:05
  Ioffer in child centre play therapy.
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  So I have been doing one of our workshops in our clinical
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  programme this week and I just love it, I really truly do.
• 4:17
  And I was apologising to them this afternoon because you can
• 4:21
  imagine with me, I am late diagnosed ADHD.
• 4:25
  I talk very fast and especially on things that I am very
• 4:29
  passionate about. And so those poor people have
• 4:32
  had to listen to me talk at quite a fast speed for two days
• 4:36
  now. And I said to them, you guys are
• 4:39
  superheroes generally genuinely superheroes for sitting through
• 4:45
  two days. And they've got one more to go.
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  So I will be connecting with them in the morning at 8:30.
• 4:51
  Yay. So I need to keep to schedule
• 4:54
  because again, the light is fading.
• 4:56
  I want to say hello. I hope you are all well.
• 5:00
  I hope you are all getting back into the playrooms.
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  I have the opportunity to get back into the playroom this
• 5:05
  week, connect with families, connect with new families and I
• 5:09
  just loved it. I really enjoyed the break, it
• 5:13
  was so good for me. I did not realise how burnt out
• 5:18
  I was until you go on holidays, right?
• 5:21
  So I have scheduled holidays in April and June and then again in
• 5:27
  November and that will be much better for me, much, much
• 5:32
  better. I am really trying this year,
• 5:34
  you guys, to have my calendar and my schedule where I have
• 5:39
  breaks and I had a lunch break this week.
• 5:41
  Like things are on the up and up you guys.
• 5:43
  So how are you guys doing getting back into the playroom,
• 5:47
  doing all of the things? I hope that it is all going well
• 5:51
  for you too. I know for our families in our
• 5:54
  community in the Bayside area of Brisbane, we are staring down
• 5:58
  the barrel of returning to school at the end of January.
• 6:02
  So I'm sure it's different, you know, wherever you are.
• 6:05
  So myself and my colleague Eva are definitely bracing ourselves
• 6:09
  for what that is going to look like in the next couple of
• 6:11
  weeks. We are anticipating a lot of
• 6:13
  kiddos that are going to be fairly dysregulated, fairly
• 6:17
  unhappy. And that will be the purpose of
• 6:19
  our work is to help them to process that so that they can
• 6:22
  continue to go to school. So I hope wherever you are
• 6:26
  listening that you are having a great week.
• 6:30
  And if you are still on holidays, I'm super jealous.
• 6:34
  I am super jealous. That would be so fun.
• 6:37
  OK, we need to get into the content.
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  Oh, before I do though, I just wanna say I believe now I think
• 6:44
  it's 37 countries that we are coming to you or or connecting
• 6:49
  with when I say that my vision for our podcast is to reach as
• 6:54
  many people as possible to talk about and spread the good word
• 6:59
  about child centre play therapy. I never thought it would be this
• 7:01
  many people. So I again, am so super, super
• 7:05
  grateful. It is our 10th birthday coming
• 7:08
  up in a couple of weeks. I have been in private practise
• 7:10
  for 10 years, specifically as a child centre play therapist.
• 7:14
  So I'm super proud of that and I can't wait to kind of share our
• 7:19
  birthday celebrations. We've got a few kind of
• 7:22
  giveaways. So if you follow us over on the
• 7:24
  socials, please do and we will continue to share.
• 7:29
  We've got a couple of really big announcements that we are so
• 7:32
  excited to share with you. So that will be happening the
• 7:35
  1st of February. So I can't wait to continue to
• 7:39
  share the Child Centre play therapy love.
• 7:41
  But let's get to the topic of today.
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  And I literally just changed this about 5 minutes before I
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  started because I have a justification, I always do that
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  I have been teaching obviously after over the last couple of
• 7:56
  days. And one of the things that we
• 7:58
  have been mulling over, reflecting on chewing over, you
• 8:04
  know, really kind of getting to the nuts and bolts of is the
• 8:08
  dilemma or the struggle around doing child centred play
• 8:13
  therapy. And I can say this as well as
• 8:15
  somebody, I still feel like I'm very much a novice by the way,
• 8:18
  you guys, I'm 10 years in that there still for me is moments
• 8:25
  where I feel that pull to go back to talk based work.
• 8:30
  So this is the challenge of child centred play therapists is
• 8:36
  to truly embrace the modality in in its whole kind of totality.
• 8:42
  What I have been reflecting on recently and what we were
• 8:45
  talking about today and yesterday is child centre play
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  therapy, as I know I've said to you guys before, is not just an
• 8:51
  intervention with children, it's a way of being.
• 8:55
  Let me say that again, it's not just about an intervention or a
• 8:58
  modality. It's a way of being.
• 9:00
  It is in the language that I use in talking to every person that
• 9:04
  I meet in a day. It's in my philosophy and my
• 9:08
  viewpoint of the world. My belief in the capacity of
• 9:11
  others, if given a supportive space to do so, that they will
• 9:14
  thrive. My belief in that self
• 9:17
  actualization principle that everyone that we connect with,
• 9:21
  that we meet, that we cross paths with has this drive
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  towards being better and doing better.
• 9:28
  Does that always mean, you know, I, I kind of already start to
• 9:31
  think of mind of, you know, say people who are in prison who
• 9:34
  have committed crimes, right. That is obviously a real
• 9:38
  challenge of that, that frame of mind and that reference.
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  Can we see their potential and their opportunity for self
• 9:46
  growth as well? That's like the existential
• 9:48
  questions we're not gonna get into today, but for the purpose
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  of being practitioners. As child and play therapists, we
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  live by and believe in the capacity of others to grow and
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  and reach their full potential. And so that lives with parents,
• 10:08
  that lives with stakeholders, that lives with the children
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  that we work with. We were talking today about
• 10:13
  working with teens, so not just the two to 10 year olds but our
• 10:18
  belief in working with young people as well.
• 10:20
  When I tell you guys that I am so super passionate about
• 10:24
  working using child centre play therapy with teens, I could talk
• 10:27
  about it underwater for days, I'm sure you can only imagine.
• 10:30
  So I will need to make sure I do an episode on that because the
• 10:33
  biggest teachers in my 10 year career have been 16 year olds
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  that I've done child centre play therapy with.
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  That's a whole conversation around developmental versus
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  chronological age and my clinical justification for why I
• 10:46
  did that. But I just want to plant the
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  seed that when we talk about child centre play therapy, and
• 10:53
  for those of you who have done clinical training in this space,
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  you're taught the skills, you're taught the framework, you're
• 10:59
  taught the stages of play and the themes and how to do parent
• 11:02
  consults and all of that good, important work, right?
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  And then you go out into the world and you start seeing
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  clients and that doubt and imposter syndrome starts to
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  creep in. So if you're a beginning play
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  therapist and I'm talking like sense to you right now, like
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  this absolutely resonates. You're not alone.
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  Like I'm literally talking about my own experience as well.
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  So that absolutely is part of the journey.
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  And why I love Child Centre Play Therapy so much is because it is
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  as much a journey of growth and healing and learning and
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  expansion for us as play therapist as it is for the
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  child. Every single child we connect
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  with, as I know I've said to you guys before, teaches me
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  something more about myself in the world and how to be in child
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  centre play therapy. So there is definitely this.
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  I'm not going to call it a pitfall.
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  I want to try and find a better word.
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  And at 6:30 at night, it's probably not a good time to be a
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  thesaurus, but it is something that is very common that happens
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  in the beginning of your journey.
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  And I'm coming to confession to say it's also 10 years down the
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  line, sometimes creeps into me now is when we are working with
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  a client and I'm gonna give a, a fictitious scenario guys, that
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  none of this is relevant to drug cases.
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  But say we're working with a client that we've been working
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  with for a really long time. And we feel like it's a little
• 12:30
  bit like Groundhog Day. We just don't feel like we are
• 12:33
  seeing that progress that maybe stakeholders are expecting of
• 12:37
  us. That is one of those scenarios
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  in real life that ends up being where play therapist may lean
• 12:44
  into more directive approaches or feel like they need to.
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  Or at the very minimum, want to start to say talk to the child
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  or give open ended questions or want to start to unpack maybe
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  topics because there's so much silence and there's so little
• 13:03
  happening in the session that they feel like they need to be
• 13:06
  able to evidence that achieved something in the session, right?
• 13:10
  Why does that happen? Why does that happen?
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  And I guess how can we respond to that and help ensure that our
• 13:20
  practise maintains our commitment and deep abiding
• 13:25
  connection to child centre play therapy?
• 13:28
  That's my question to you all. And it was only because today we
• 13:34
  were watching one of my client examples and I pointed out to
• 13:38
  them in real time where the silences meant that I was doing
• 13:44
  reflecting content statements, I was doing more reflecting
• 13:50
  feelings kind of in a more general sense, and we were
• 13:57
  unpacking. And I think that one of the
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  things that is really important to me as a trainer and as a
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  child centre play therapist is that I am not living the tenants
• 14:08
  of CCPT if I'm not authentic and congruent, right?
• 14:13
  So I could never be a trainer where I'm like, this is how you
• 14:16
  do it and this is absolutely the way of being and you should
• 14:19
  never do anything else. I can't do that because I know
• 14:22
  I'm not the expert when I live in my Rogerian car, Rogerian
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  person centred, humanistic approach to connection that goes
• 14:30
  everywhere, including my connection with students.
• 14:33
  So I very much want to show the good and the mistakes because
• 14:38
  that's actually essential for training and learning and not so
• 14:42
  much I'm, I'm, I'm being over dramatic with mistakes.
• 14:44
  I think it's really around self reflection and me noticing those
• 14:49
  times where I might start to doubt myself and being able to
• 14:54
  demonstrate that to show others when you begin this journey,
• 14:58
  this is normal and natural for you to want to do this.
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  And this is how we respond and keep to our purest CCPT
• 15:06
  protocol. Because I do think that happens
• 15:09
  more often than the therapist would be sort of willing to
• 15:12
  admit. I think it often comes from so
• 15:16
  many different factors, including that feeling, that
• 15:19
  pressure to achieve outcomes for stakeholders, pressures around
• 15:23
  funding, feeling like they need to be able to evidence growth to
• 15:29
  validate and I guess support their intervention continuing.
• 15:35
  There's so many reasons, right? So I want to go through, I
• 15:39
  guess, a bit of information about this because I want to
• 15:43
  normalise it. I want you guys to, in the same
• 15:48
  way that we attest to this in child centre play therapy, in
• 15:51
  our connections with children. I hear you, I see you, I
• 15:54
  understand and I care. It's important for me as a
• 15:57
  podcaster talking about CCPT to live and breathe those tenants
• 16:00
  too and to talk to you guys listening so that you feel that
• 16:05
  experience of CCPT for yourselves as well.
• 16:08
  So let's go through a little bit of content here.
• 16:10
  I've got some dot points. I've got some notes because
• 16:13
  that's important for me. Otherwise I go off in a tangent.
• 16:16
  So what are we talking about here in this dichotomy or this
• 16:20
  dilemma around feeling that stress or feeling that imposter
• 16:25
  syndrome or feeling that sense of doubt when that doubt creeps
• 16:29
  in, what happens to us and why? So in the early stages, as I was
• 16:34
  saying before, you're definitely reliant on those skills, the
• 16:38
  techniques and looking for that observable change.
• 16:41
  So often times beginning play therapists are, are internally
• 16:45
  asking themselves, am I helping? Is this working?
• 16:48
  Like I I just don't know if this is actually landing and
• 16:51
  sometimes find more comfort in that talking and asking
• 16:55
  questions because maybe that's part of your previous framework
• 16:58
  for practise. So it's really about encouraging
• 17:02
  you as a beginning play therapist.
• 17:04
  If that's that meets, you know, kind of where you're at in your
• 17:07
  journey away from doing forward to being with, which is really
• 17:13
  hard. If we have started more of a
• 17:15
  directive approach in previous roles or in previous
• 17:18
  experiences, it's about letting go of some of those visible
• 17:23
  markers of progress and trusting that the relationship and
• 17:27
  emotional safety are the work. Let me say that again.
• 17:32
  It's about trusting that the relationship and emotional
• 17:36
  safety are the work. So when we doubt ourselves in
• 17:41
  times of stress, I'm going to obviously give tips a little bit
• 17:43
  further along, but just to reinforce this, what we've been
• 17:47
  reflecting on this week as a student cohort is how absolutely
• 17:52
  critical and essential that relationship and connection is
• 17:57
  over anything else related to child centre play therapy.
• 18:00
  In my opinion, everything goes back to that relationship, which
• 18:05
  is why we invest that time in the exploratory stage to help
• 18:09
  children to feel that sense of safety and trust so they can
• 18:11
  move into that second stage of play therapy.
• 18:13
  We can't have that or it progress can't happen if we
• 18:17
  don't have that from the beginning.
• 18:19
  So acknowledging the emotional impact when we feel like we're
• 18:23
  not making a difference, when things aren't shifting, when
• 18:25
  there's lots of silences. Acknowledging your discomfort in
• 18:30
  the silence. Who struggles with silence in
• 18:34
  the playroom? I can't see any of you, but I
• 18:38
  imagine some of you are putting your hands up and that is
• 18:41
  completely normal. That is part of your growth and
• 18:45
  change. Growth is uncomfortable.
• 18:48
  It's uncomfortable for kids, it's uncomfortable for us.
• 18:51
  So acknowledging that, reflecting on that and working
• 18:55
  on that, whether that's through clinical supervision or personal
• 18:58
  therapy, is all part of that process.
• 19:01
  So discomfort during silence, doubt when change isn't
• 19:05
  immediately obvious and anxiety about not knowing what comes
• 19:10
  next. Can I say with that final point
• 19:14
  that that really is the ongoing experience of child centre play
• 19:19
  therapy? 10 years down the line, I still
• 19:21
  go into play therapy sessions and think to myself, I have
• 19:25
  absolutely no idea how this is about to go.
• 19:27
  And the reason I say that 10 years down the line is because
• 19:31
  I've had so many clients where I've had expectations of how
• 19:34
  they're going to play and it's completely different when they
• 19:37
  come into the playroom. That goes to for our older
• 19:40
  population of our preteens and our teens where we have an
• 19:43
  expectation or a preconceived idea of how we think they will
• 19:47
  behave and engage in play therapy and then they do
• 19:50
  something very different. So that is a whole other podcast
• 19:54
  for another day for sure. So when we have that experience
• 19:59
  of stress, of doubting ourselves, we revert back to
• 20:02
  what we know. So let's name some of those
• 20:05
  common moments that trigger that shift where we feel like we need
• 20:08
  to go into asking questions or having a conversation with them.
• 20:11
  Extended silences. And again, sometimes if you have
• 20:18
  that opportunity to record your sessions and be able to watch
• 20:21
  them back, and obviously that has ethical protocol around
• 20:24
  undoing that first and foremost. But if you have the opportunity
• 20:28
  to reflect on that with your clinical supervisor, it is handy
• 20:31
  at times because even now kind of reflecting back on some of my
• 20:35
  sessions, I was like, oh, I can see that.
• 20:38
  I started to lean into more of that verbal communication, not
• 20:42
  directing the play or giving, you know, suggestions or
• 20:44
  directives, but more just needing to fill the silence.
• 20:48
  As I was talking about earlier, when silence creeps in,
• 20:51
  especially for our preteens and our teens, when actually that's
• 20:55
  the moment where we need to hold the space and be OK in that
• 20:58
  silence. So for me, it was getting me
• 21:01
  thinking about what was impacting my ability to be able
• 21:06
  to sit in that discomfort of silence.
• 21:08
  So that's my stuff that I need to kind of address and continue
• 21:11
  to work through in supervision. We're also human and so
• 21:15
  generally speaking, I'm really comfortable with silences.
• 21:17
  It doesn't normally bother me, but I think it's something to
• 21:20
  take note of and stay curious about and build that self
• 21:23
  awareness. So when you notice like even the
• 21:26
  opportunity to reflect today with the girls, I was like,
• 21:29
  yeah, I know now that I'm going to be mindful of when I feel
• 21:35
  like I need to feel the silence with communication, taking note
• 21:40
  of me and maybe regulating myself a bit more, just as an
• 21:44
  example. That's just something from my
• 21:45
  perspective. Another common moment is feeling
• 21:49
  unsure about how to support the child to move forward again,
• 21:54
  leaning into maybe some of our previous training and feeling
• 21:56
  like we need to maybe do something different in order to
• 21:59
  shift the child, doubting whether meaningful change is
• 22:03
  happening as well. Something to consider and a fear
• 22:07
  of being ineffective or wasting therapeutic time.
• 22:10
  Who's had those thoughts before? I'm sure those of you listening,
• 22:14
  there would be many of you who would say yes or would be
• 22:16
  nodding right now. A fear of being ineffective or
• 22:19
  wasting therapeutic time. I just want to take a breath
• 22:23
  with that because I have so much empathy for your beginning play
• 22:27
  therapist out there who feel that way because what you do
• 22:30
  matters and the work that you do matters.
• 22:33
  And so let's talk about how to kind of work through that,
• 22:37
  explore what happens internally for you.
• 22:39
  So silence is interpreted as something missing.
• 22:42
  Uncertainty is experienced as a problem to solve, and directive
• 22:46
  strategies feel reassuring and familiar.
• 22:49
  So let's kind of reframe this a little bit.
• 22:52
  So leaning in directive approaches is often about
• 22:56
  therapeutic therapist reassurance.
• 23:00
  Questioning and guiding can be attempts to confirm competence.
• 23:05
  Oh, there we go. So why do we question?
• 23:09
  And why can questioning undermine the work that we do?
• 23:15
  So I really gently want to unpack this because I definitely
• 23:19
  want to acknowledge that we would have some incredibly
• 23:24
  amazing directive play therapists in our play therapy
• 23:27
  circle community. And you are all welcome.
• 23:30
  You're all welcome. Because at the end of the day,
• 23:33
  we all are connected and driven by wanting to serve the children
• 23:38
  and families in our community, regardless of our approach.
• 23:41
  So I just want to acknowledge that straight up.
• 23:44
  But for us CCPT practitioners who want to stay aligned to our
• 23:49
  modality and our practise, what might be some of these questions
• 23:54
  that we're communicating to the child, what they might be about?
• 23:57
  Is it our adult therapist agenda?
• 24:04
  Is it, I don't know, we need to think about that.
• 24:07
  Is it evaluation or expectations that we have of how the child
• 24:12
  should behave, engage or progress?
• 24:16
  And it's a shift of power away from the child.
• 24:21
  So in contrast, because if we're using questions to communicate
• 24:25
  with children, it's an adult agenda, it's evaluating and it's
• 24:29
  a shift of power away in CCPT, the child takes the lead.
• 24:35
  Meaning emerges through play, not explanation, right?
• 24:41
  And the relationship over insight.
• 24:45
  So it all comes back to the relationship and the healing
• 24:48
  power of the relationship as being at the core of the work
• 24:51
  that we do. So I want to clarify that if you
• 24:54
  feel like you're leaning into questions, which we all do at
• 24:58
  some point in our careers. So we all most likely have an
• 25:03
  experience that we can share in that space.
• 25:07
  It's not bad. It's not a bad thing if you feel
• 25:10
  yourself leaning into that. It's just misused under stress.
• 25:16
  It's just often that we're leaning into that because we
• 25:18
  feel out of our comfort zone. So we know developmentally that
• 25:23
  children want to use symbolism to communicate and that
• 25:26
  verbalization or asking children to verbalise can often interrupt
• 25:31
  that integration of what we are trying to achieve in the
• 25:34
  playroom. So these are all of the things
• 25:37
  of, I guess, how questioning can impact the work that we do.
• 25:42
  And so I want to share with you before we finish up because I'm
• 25:46
  actually losing light, you guys, if anyone is watching me on
• 25:49
  YouTube, you've probably noticed it's getting darker.
• 25:51
  Love that for me. And I literally have about 15
• 25:54
  minutes before my daughter's finished.
• 25:55
  Love that even more for me. OK, so why is it more important
• 25:59
  than ever to stay true to the modality?
• 26:02
  I want to name the paradox for you all.
• 26:05
  The more distressed the child is, or the more uncomfortable
• 26:09
  the we feel, or the more out of our comfort zone we feel, the
• 26:12
  more we want to direct and have control back.
• 26:15
  Because being not in the lead, not in control can sometimes be
• 26:19
  that anxiety provoking for us as adults.
• 26:22
  And the more distressed or challenging the child is, the
• 26:25
  more they need that non directive space.
• 26:29
  So we want to really re anchor into CCPT foundations.
• 26:34
  The therapeutic relationship is the intervention.
• 26:38
  I feel like I've said that before, but I'm going to say it
• 26:40
  again just to really kind of reinforce that the therapeutic
• 26:45
  relationship is the intervention.
• 26:48
  And I think that that's often the challenge.
• 26:51
  I'm thinking of some of the conversations that I've had
• 26:52
  today and really that a cultural shift away from we need to be
• 27:00
  imparting knowledge, skills, information, psycho education
• 27:04
  strategies, suggestions to develop skills for kids.
• 27:08
  That's that's what they need. Because historically in
• 27:12
  therapeutic interventions it's been more talk based or
• 27:15
  directive. What we are coming to understand
• 27:19
  and learn is that first and foremost is that relationship
• 27:23
  first before anything else, and then really leaning into that
• 27:28
  relationship and that connection and that safety and that trust
• 27:32
  to help children to unpack the things that they need to through
• 27:35
  play rather than them needing to talk about it.
• 27:37
  And we as the literature evidences have successful
• 27:41
  outcomes or statistically significant outcomes.
• 27:44
  I was reading a out to the the students today, a 2010 study by
• 27:49
  Cochrane Atal who did a study with young boys in the education
• 27:56
  space and provided child centre play therapy as an intervention
• 28:02
  alongside. So they had obviously two
• 28:03
  groups, a talk based therapy group and a child centre play
• 28:06
  therapy group and they found that kids were more responsive
• 28:13
  to child centre play therapy obviously, but even more so,
• 28:17
  they were able to achieve those therapeutic outcomes.
• 28:19
  They were more open to suggestions and feedback once
• 28:23
  that therapeutic alliance had been built through child centre
• 28:26
  play therapy. And now I hope I've quoted that
• 28:28
  right because I want to make sure that I've got that correct.
• 28:30
  But essentially, in essence, what it was saying is that child
• 28:33
  centre play therapy was found to be more effective in helping
• 28:38
  children to address some of the things that they needed to
• 28:41
  address, but it wasn't using directive talk based
• 28:46
  interventions of asking questions, giving
• 28:48
  psychoeducation, giving strategies.
• 28:50
  So the research is starting to catch up with us in terms of
• 28:53
  what we've known as child centre play therapy since the 40s.
• 28:56
  That that relationship is absolutely key.
• 28:59
  So I wanna talk about therapist courage, OK.
• 29:03
  And I wanna give you that permission to stay with the
• 29:07
  uncertainty. Oh, that is hard.
• 29:11
  When I say that we as play therapists, grow as human beings
• 29:15
  in this process by doing this modality, I'm not kidding.
• 29:19
  I'm not kidding. Staying with uncertainty, how
• 29:22
  hard is that? But how rewarding is it if we
• 29:26
  make it out the other side, trusting the process?
• 29:29
  You guys, I say it like every time, but I mean it.
• 29:33
  I truly, truly mean it. And the more kids you can build
• 29:38
  in your catalogue, in your mind of those experiences of success
• 29:45
  in child centre play therapy, the more confident you build in
• 29:49
  understanding that trusting the process is the way it truly is
• 29:53
  and allowing the child's pace because they know what they need
• 29:57
  to talk about in their time, in their way.
• 29:59
  They know that schedule more than us.
• 30:01
  The restraint that you have in sticking with child centre play
• 30:04
  therapy over wanting to move into those more talk based
• 30:08
  approaches is not passivity, it's clinical integrity because
• 30:13
  we are staying true to the modality.
• 30:17
  OK, I want to summarise my key points because I'm at half an
• 30:21
  hour and there are parents that are now starting to arrive to
• 30:25
  pick up their children in like 10 minutes time and I'm starting
• 30:27
  to get looks and I love that for me that I'm being judged.
• 30:31
  Guys, when I tell you the commitment to the cause of
• 30:36
  getting these podcasts out every week, you guys, I am committed.
• 30:41
  I am committed, I'm committed. OK, take your message.
• 30:43
  Let's summarise what am I talking about here.
• 30:46
  Reverting to talk therapy is a sign of stress, not
• 30:49
  incompetence. You guys.
• 30:51
  It's not incompetence. You're not doing a bad job.
• 30:53
  You're actually caring about staying true to the modality.
• 30:57
  So it actually shows a lot of integrity.
• 31:00
  Awareness is the first step. As I said earlier, reviewing my
• 31:03
  video and noticing that with the students today, I was like,
• 31:07
  cool, I know now I'm going to keep more aware of that in
• 31:11
  sessions. I'm going to be noticing that
• 31:13
  and really working towards regulation instead of jumping to
• 31:17
  wanting to feel the silence with talking.
• 31:20
  Staying true to CCPT is the hardest and most powerful when
• 31:25
  it feels the least comfortable. Let me say that again.
• 31:30
  Staying true to CCPT is the hardest and most powerful when
• 31:35
  it feels the least comfortable. OK, We want to encourage
• 31:39
  listeners and I want to encourage you and everyone
• 31:43
  watching and listening to Access Clinical Supervision.
• 31:46
  That is absolutely important. Slowing down, maybe that's my
• 31:51
  mantra for 2026. You guys, I'm just having like a
• 31:53
  light bulb moment. Slowing down, maybe that's going
• 31:56
  to be mine, you guys. I'm going to keep you posted on
• 32:02
  how I go with slowing down. I don't know, Rereading the
• 32:07
  principles, going back to basics, going back to our
• 32:09
  tenants of empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive
• 32:12
  regard. And my closing thought to you is
• 32:15
  when in doubt, trust the child, trust yourself and trust the
• 32:19
  process. Hey, I want to thank you guys
• 32:25
  for sticking in there and listening to me today.
• 32:28
  Ramble, right? And look at me go, it's like 31
• 32:31
  minutes. So I've smashed it.
• 32:33
  That's amazing. Can I leave you with some final
• 32:34
  reflections for you to take with you to reflect on in your own
• 32:40
  time? What feelings come up for me
• 32:43
  when a child is highly distressed or a child is silent
• 32:49
  for an extended period of time? What comes up for you?
• 32:53
  How do I know when I've shifted out of trust and in into
• 32:58
  control? So for me, it's starting to fill
• 33:02
  the silence with more communication with more
• 33:04
  reflecting content, reflecting feelings, needing to feel like I
• 33:08
  need to reach out and connect more with the child through more
• 33:11
  of that verbal communication. What is that for you?
• 33:15
  Is it that you start to give them choices of toys because you
• 33:18
  just feel like you need to shift the play or, or what does that
• 33:20
  look like for you and what helps me return to the model?
• 33:27
  So give yourself compassion over self criticism.
• 33:32
  Oh, I needed that today too. That is a nice quote to end it
• 33:37
  with you guys. It's not really quote, it's just
• 33:38
  a thinking, but encouraging you to think about compassion and
• 33:43
  giving yourself compassion over self criticism because we're
• 33:48
  good at that. We know how to do that.
• 33:51
  Hey, thank you so much for sticking with me today.
• 33:54
  I hope that this episode has helped ground you a little bit
• 33:57
  more in your CCTCCPT approach and you are feeling that
• 34:04
  connection to the work that you do.
• 34:05
  Because I know each and everyone of you are doing incredible
• 34:08
  things in the playroom each and every day.
• 34:10
  And we are helping, literally to change the world.
• 34:12
  So I'm so proud of each and everyone of you.
• 34:14
  OK, next week, I don't know what I'm doing.
• 34:19
  I was going to say the topic for next week, but Oh my God, I just
• 34:24
  muted myself. That is like classic, right?
• 34:27
  Just as I'm trying to wrap things up for those of you
• 34:30
  watching on YouTube or watching on video, Yep, I'm in like
• 34:33
  complete darkness. Now when I say the commitment to
• 34:35
  this is real, I'm not even kidding.
• 34:36
  So I'm going to finish up before I go into complete darkness next
• 34:40
  week. I have no idea what the topic is
• 34:42
  going to be, but please, please, please check us out on socials,
• 34:45
  follow us on social media. We have a huge announcement
• 34:49
  coming the beginning of February.
• 34:50
  You don't want to miss. So I want to continue to reach
• 34:54
  you guys to connect with you. I want to be able to hear your
• 34:58
  stories and be able to celebrate and support all of our child
• 35:03
  centre play therapists across the world.
• 35:04
  So check out our socials, the Play Therapy Circle podcast on
• 35:09
  Instagram, TikTok and face this book.
• 35:11
  You can catch us there. Please, please, please look
• 35:14
  after yourself and each other. Give yourself that compassion
• 35:17
  that we all need. That was a beautiful reminder to
• 35:20
  end this episode with. Look after yourselves and each
• 35:22
  other and I will see you guys hopefully in like a proper
• 35:27
  office next week. All right, catch you guys then.
• 35:30
  Bye. Thank you so much for being here
• 35:36
  for another episode of The Play Therapy Circle.
• 35:39
  If anything resonated with you today, I'd love it if you could
• 35:42
  follow the podcast, share it with a colleague, or leave a
• 35:46
  short review. It really helps others find our
• 35:49
  circle. And if you have a topic or
• 35:50
  question you'd love me to explore, I'd love to hear from
• 35:54
  you. This space is for you, and I
• 35:56
  want it to feel like a conversation.
• 35:59
  Until next time, take care of yourself and remember you belong
• 36:04
  here.