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Play Therapy with Parents | 5 Essential Tips for Family Play Therapy Sessions · 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 everybody.
• 0:49
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy, and today we're gonna focus on five signs that you may be accidentally sabotaging progress in play therapy.
• 1:07
  Cathi Spooner: So if you find yourself.
• 1:09
  Cathi Spooner: Not knowing if play therapy is working.
• 1:12
  Cathi Spooner: Maybe you feel like it's working in the sessions, but it's not, but parents are telling you it's not working at home and you're getting all those midweek, frantic phone calls from parents telling you everything that is not going well in the play therapy sessions.
• 1:33
  Cathi Spooner: That might be a sign.
• 1:36
  Cathi Spooner: That there's a better way to do things and there's, you might actually be missing something.
• 1:44
  Cathi Spooner: So that is what we are gonna talk about today.
• 1:48
  Cathi Spooner: I'm gonna, I'm gonna go over five signs that might be an indication that you might be missing something or that you might accidentally be sabotaging.
• 2:05
  Cathi Spooner: Progress in play therapy.
• 2:08
  Cathi Spooner: I find this happened a lot, and in fact, to be honest, a lot of these things that I'm gonna go over today, I actually experienced early on and I, I kind of banging my head against the wall thinking, what the heck am I missing?
• 2:24
  Cathi Spooner: Now, we all, we all have those clients where things go smoothly.
• 2:29
  Cathi Spooner: The, the sessions are going great.
• 2:32
  Cathi Spooner: But maybe you have those clients that are a little more challenging and you keep thinking, I know I'm missing something.
• 2:40
  Cathi Spooner: What is going on here?
• 2:42
  Cathi Spooner: Might even be able, uh, be creating some disconnect between you and parents.
• 2:48
  Cathi Spooner: I've had that happen too.
• 2:50
  Cathi Spooner: It was so frustrating not understanding what was going on.
• 2:56
  Cathi Spooner: When clients were telling me one thing, and this sometimes.
• 3:01
  Cathi Spooner: With, um, adolescents as well.
• 3:05
  Cathi Spooner: Clients were telling me one thing and it's not going well, and they're telling me all the things that are going on, and parents are like, what are you doing in there?
• 3:14
  Cathi Spooner: Are you making things worse in there?
• 3:16
  Cathi Spooner: Because they don't see it at home?
• 3:18
  Cathi Spooner: And in my mind I'm like, what is the disconnect here?
• 3:22
  Cathi Spooner: Because I cannot figure this out.
• 3:26
  Cathi Spooner: Until eventually we did.
• 3:29
  Cathi Spooner: And, um, but it can slow progress down.
• 3:33
  Cathi Spooner: It can leave you feeling like you're not doing a good job.
• 3:37
  Cathi Spooner: Second guessing yourself, frustrated, feeling overwhelmed.
• 3:43
  Cathi Spooner: Activating your imposter syndrome, thinking that you must be the worst play therapist on the planet and any day, day Now parents are gonna figure it out and pull their client from play therapy, which means you would've been an epic failure.
• 4:02
  Cathi Spooner: And the likelihood that this is true is very, very slim.
• 4:06
  Cathi Spooner: So that is what we are gonna talk about today.
• 4:09
  Cathi Spooner: I'm gonna.
• 4:10
  Cathi Spooner: Go over five signs that you may be accidentally sabotaging your play therapy session, and then what to do about it.
• 4:20
  Cathi Spooner: How can you move forward and be much more effective because that's what matters, right?
• 4:28
  Cathi Spooner: That's why we got into this profession, because we want to make a difference in the lives of children and their families.
• 4:36
  Cathi Spooner: I would include their families.
• 4:38
  Cathi Spooner: I am a firm believer.
• 4:40
  Cathi Spooner: I have been saying this for decades, mostly in my head, but sometimes I say it outside my head.
• 4:49
  Cathi Spooner: I am a firm believer that if we really want to help communities heal, we need to.
• 5:00
  Cathi Spooner: Change families, one family at a time, that that communities are only as strong as the families within that community.
• 5:12
  Cathi Spooner: And the more and more I stay in this.
• 5:17
  Cathi Spooner: Profession of mental health and play therapy, child and adolescent mental health.
• 5:22
  Cathi Spooner: And the more and the, and the older I get, I've, I've been alive many decades now and in the mental health field, several decades, and my working hypothesis has always been that, that families are as strong.
• 5:40
  Cathi Spooner: I mean, communities are only as strong as the strength of the families in them.
• 5:47
  Cathi Spooner: And the older I get, the more I realize, especially with, with social media and all that, we're finding out about families being burned out, stressed out, overwhelmed.
• 6:02
  Cathi Spooner: And, and so the, the role of social media on anxiety and low self-worth, low self-worth and bullying, and.
• 6:14
  Cathi Spooner: Children just really, really struggling with their mental health.
• 6:19
  Cathi Spooner: I'm a firm believer that families helping children connect and helping to strengthen families is the key.
• 6:29
  Cathi Spooner: And what I find is in the mental health community, and I would say.
• 6:34
  Cathi Spooner: I'll speak really with play therapy, community, child and adolescent community, we tend to use more of an individual lens, an individual approach, meaning we only focus on the child and even, even the Association for play therapy identifies the client.
• 6:57
  Cathi Spooner: As, as the child, as the client.
• 7:01
  Cathi Spooner: But what they'll also say, and I am wholeheartedly a believer in this, is that children exist within families.
• 7:09
  Cathi Spooner: So, so we need to, my my opinion is that we need to consider children in the context of their family and what does that mean, and.
• 7:23
  Cathi Spooner: These five signs that I'm gonna go, that I'm gonna go through.
• 7:28
  Cathi Spooner: Are intended for you to kind of think, oh, I'm experiencing this.
• 7:34
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, maybe I need to look at this a different way.
• 7:36
  Cathi Spooner: So if we're ex, if you are experiencing any of these five signs, I want you to post in the comments which ones write the number in there, which ones you're experiencing or maybe have experienced in the past.
• 7:56
  Cathi Spooner: So think about these things and then I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you some ideas for what to do instead.
• 8:04
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're listening on the live episode, then I would love to know who's here.
• 8:12
  Cathi Spooner: Post your name in the comments.
• 8:15
  Cathi Spooner: What population are you working with?
• 8:18
  Cathi Spooner: Where are you working?
• 8:21
  Cathi Spooner: Um, what play therapy modality that you're using.
• 8:26
  Cathi Spooner: So go ahead and post that in the comments.
• 8:28
  Cathi Spooner: If you're watching live, if you're watching on the replay, I would still love to hear from you.
• 8:34
  Cathi Spooner: I love having conversations with people about play therapies.
• 8:38
  Cathi Spooner: My, I can nerd out on that most of the day.
• 8:41
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so post in the comments, where are you from, what population you're with, you work with, and, um, what plea therapy models.
• 8:51
  Cathi Spooner: Also what number.
• 8:53
  Cathi Spooner: What number sign can you relate to that you have experienced or you are experiencing now?
• 9:02
  Cathi Spooner: And if you're listening on the podcast, I would love to hear from you.
• 9:06
  Cathi Spooner: Pop over to my Instagram channel at Renewing Hearts Training.
• 9:11
  Cathi Spooner: Send me a message, post a comment on the replay.
• 9:15
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause I, I livestream using Streamy Yard on.
• 9:21
  Cathi Spooner: LinkedIn and YouTube, and then I live stream unless I have a guest simultaneously on Instagram.
• 9:29
  Cathi Spooner: So you'll see me kind of going back and forth between camera lenses and those of you watching the replay, including those of you in my Facebook group, join the conversation.
• 9:39
  Cathi Spooner: So let's get started for today.
• 9:43
  Cathi Spooner: Today we are talking about.
• 9:46
  Cathi Spooner: Five signs that you might be accidentally sabotaging your play therapy progress.
• 9:54
  Cathi Spooner: And the five signs are number one, if you find that your inbox or your voicemail.
• 10:04
  Cathi Spooner: Or you're getting along texts from parents or caregivers saying that nothing is working at home.
• 10:13
  Cathi Spooner: They're still experiencing tons of problems even though you might have seen and like in your plea therapy sessions.
• 10:22
  Cathi Spooner: Clients seem to be doing fine.
• 10:25
  Cathi Spooner: So there's a disconnect there.
• 10:27
  Cathi Spooner: Parents are, are calling you, texting you, emailing, you, telling things are all the terrible things that are going wrong and they're, they're worried.
• 10:38
  Cathi Spooner: That's why they're.
• 10:40
  Cathi Spooner: They're texting you or emailing you or or calling you because they're worried.
• 10:44
  Cathi Spooner: They're worried that things aren't going well, and they're letting you know so you can fix it and you're confused because in the plate therapy sessions, things seem to be going fine, and so now you start feeling pressure.
• 11:00
  Cathi Spooner: To fix it fast and you start feeling responsible that maybe somehow you're failing your clients and parents are gonna pull their client, their child from plate therapy 'cause it's not working and you feel confused about what you're supposed to do because in the plate therapy sessions, things seem to be going fine.
• 11:24
  Cathi Spooner: So that's sign number one.
• 11:27
  Cathi Spooner: If any of you can relate to that.
• 11:30
  Cathi Spooner: Put a one in the comments or message me.
• 11:35
  Cathi Spooner: Um, sign number two.
• 11:39
  Cathi Spooner: Even when you give suggestions to parents for some strategies that they can use at home, they tell you that they've already tried it.
• 11:54
  Cathi Spooner: It doesn't work.
• 11:55
  Cathi Spooner: Or they tell you that strategy doesn't work with their child and it happens and then you keep getting those phone calls.
• 12:03
  Cathi Spooner: So number two, sign number two is when you give parents strategies to use, excuse me, now I have a tickle in my throat.
• 12:17
  Cathi Spooner: Sorry.
• 12:17
  Cathi Spooner: I get a drink of water.
• 12:22
  Cathi Spooner: All righty.
• 12:24
  Cathi Spooner: Sorry about that.
• 12:25
  Cathi Spooner: Now I have a tickle in my throat and I, this makes it hard to talk.
• 12:30
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so parents sign number two is parents are, you're trying to give suggestions, specific suggestions to parents about what to do to make things better and things they can do at home or make suggestions at school.
• 12:47
  Cathi Spooner: They tell you they've already tried it and it doesn't work and it doesn't work for their child.
• 12:52
  Cathi Spooner: So if you can relate to number two, put number two in the comments.
• 12:58
  Cathi Spooner: Number three, you are seeing really good progress.
• 13:04
  Cathi Spooner: Clients are engaging with you.
• 13:08
  Cathi Spooner: They are, um, doing the strategies.
• 13:12
  Cathi Spooner: You have a really good rapport with them.
• 13:17
  Cathi Spooner: And they, they are engaged in the play therapy process.
• 13:21
  Cathi Spooner: You're looking at the themes, everything's to, seems to be going on, I mean, to be going well, and then parents report that those are not getting translated to school or home.
• 13:36
  Cathi Spooner: So this can create a little bit of disconnect between you and parents because then it looks like you somehow have the magic touch and they somehow don't.
• 13:52
  Cathi Spooner: And maybe I, I feel like parents already come with a, a little bit of guilt and a sense of failure.
• 14:01
  Cathi Spooner: A lot of times, not always, but a lot of times they, they feel that sense of they've somehow let their child down and somehow they are failing their child because they haven't been able to figure it out and help their child themselves.
• 14:18
  Cathi Spooner: And so if you seem to be the one who knows how to get it done, but they don't seem to know how to get it done, and somehow you're better than they are.
• 14:29
  Cathi Spooner: That can create a little bit of disconnect.
• 14:32
  Cathi Spooner: But here's also what I'm gonna say.
• 14:34
  Cathi Spooner: This one might be a little ouchie.
• 14:36
  Cathi Spooner: I, I, I only mean it to kind of help maybe shift thinking a little bit.
• 14:44
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and it, it might be that you are focusing so much on your relationship with the client, which is a good thing.
• 14:59
  Cathi Spooner: And if parents don't have those skills, who's going to be the one helping to translate them to home and school?
• 15:12
  Cathi Spooner: And when you are gone, who's going to be helping to?
• 15:17
  Cathi Spooner: Support the changes that have been made.
• 15:21
  Cathi Spooner: And yes, a lot of the change can be made using individual play therapy sessions.
• 15:26
  Cathi Spooner: I'm not saying that they're not helpful.
• 15:29
  Cathi Spooner: What I am saying is maybe there's a bigger picture and it's not all or nothing.
• 15:37
  Cathi Spooner: Maybe it's not all one way individual, or maybe it's not all.
• 15:43
  Cathi Spooner: Another way.
• 15:45
  Cathi Spooner: Maybe there's, maybe there's another way to look at this and if you're only doing individual play therapy sessions, then maybe, and parents aren't seeing the changes translated to home or school, then maybe you it, it's a good idea to think about.
• 16:09
  Cathi Spooner: What might help to do things differently?
• 16:12
  Cathi Spooner: What are you missing?
• 16:14
  Cathi Spooner: Because children do need their parents and their caregivers for co-regulation to help them generalize the skills to their everyday living.
• 16:29
  Cathi Spooner: So.
• 16:30
  Cathi Spooner: Number three is you are seeing great progress.
• 16:34
  Cathi Spooner: The clients are doing great with you in the play therapy session, and parents are saying it's not translating at home, which is creating a little bit of a disconnect.
• 16:44
  Cathi Spooner: Sign number four is that maybe you are spending way more time writing progress notes and documentation, and maybe even reports.
• 16:56
  Cathi Spooner: That time you spend there outweighs the time you actually spend interacting with parents or maybe engaging with parents, or even including them in the play therapy sessions to get a better sense of what's going on.
• 17:15
  Cathi Spooner: You can see in real time for yourself what's going on.
• 17:19
  Cathi Spooner: And so number four is maybe you're spending way more time.
• 17:24
  Cathi Spooner: On other things than building that relationship with parents and working with parents, and maybe even including them in the sessions, or maybe even including family members in the sessions.
• 17:40
  Cathi Spooner: And sign number five is that parents are becoming increasingly frustrated.
• 17:50
  Cathi Spooner: That things aren't working, and they're saying things like, well, what are you doing in there?
• 17:56
  Cathi Spooner: Or maybe they're telling, asking you, how is playing actually gonna help?
• 18:03
  Cathi Spooner: Maybe they have said to you, well, my therapist said play therapy's not working.
• 18:09
  Cathi Spooner: Or my pediatrician said, play therapy's not working.
• 18:15
  Cathi Spooner: And my pediatrician said, you, you need behavior management.
• 18:19
  Cathi Spooner: That's what's gonna help these, these behaviors.
• 18:25
  Cathi Spooner: That can be really frustrating as a play therapist.
• 18:33
  Cathi Spooner: Not knowing what to do and feeling like you're getting set up for failure by other professionals, you might even getting a little mad about it.
• 18:44
  Cathi Spooner: I, when that used to happen to me, I used to steam steam about it on my inside and on my outside.
• 18:51
  Cathi Spooner: I would try to put on my best professional.
• 18:55
  Cathi Spooner: My best professional face and voice regulate internally so I could be congruent with what's reflecting on my face and in my voice about professionalism and trying to be supportive and not putting parents in the middle and all, you know, all the things we try to do.
• 19:16
  Cathi Spooner: Um.
• 19:18
  Cathi Spooner: That can be really, really frustrating and it can make you feel like you're kind of set up for a failure and now you don't have that rapport with parents and they're now starting to doubt you and maybe now you are, imposter syndrome has fully gotten activated and you are worried that you might actually be.
• 19:44
  Cathi Spooner: In the wrong profession or thinking you all other play therapists are way better than you and they figured it out and somehow you seem to be the worst play therapist on the planet.
• 19:58
  Cathi Spooner: Here's the thing, the likelihood that is true is very slim.
• 20:06
  Cathi Spooner: The likelihood there's, there's something going on in this disconnect that would be a sign that you need to pay attention to and think about things differently.
• 20:18
  Cathi Spooner: Take a step back and think about things a different way.
• 20:24
  Cathi Spooner: So what can you do instead?
• 20:27
  Cathi Spooner: If you've experienced one or more of any of these signs that you might accidentally be sabotaging your blade therapy sessions, post which numbers you resonate with in the comments, or just make a mental note of it and keep listening.
• 20:47
  Cathi Spooner: So here are some things to do instead.
• 20:51
  Cathi Spooner: I would highly recommend not only relying on parent observations and parents reports, so don't get me wrong.
• 21:01
  Cathi Spooner: I am a firm believer that parents are a very valuable source of information about their children, and they have really great insights into their children.
• 21:18
  Cathi Spooner: Here's the thing, who of us 100% of the time, all the time about everything fully understands what's going on.
• 21:29
  Cathi Spooner: Even as therapists, we don't it for our own things going on in our own lives.
• 21:36
  Cathi Spooner: We can't fully take a, a neutral outside looking at things from a different perspective all of the time.
• 21:45
  Cathi Spooner: Sometimes we need help to look at things a different way, but also to interact with us and get a better sense of us.
• 21:53
  Cathi Spooner: So they might be able to see some of our blind spots.
• 21:57
  Cathi Spooner: Right.
• 21:57
  Cathi Spooner: That's why we go to therapy.
• 21:59
  Cathi Spooner: That's why we talk to our colleagues.
• 22:01
  Cathi Spooner: That's why we get into play therapy communities to get help and support.
• 22:09
  Cathi Spooner: That's why we get into consultation because we, we don't always know everything, so we can't 100%.
• 22:18
  Cathi Spooner: Expect that parents are gonna know one, they're not play therapists, they've not been trained, they haven't been trained in mental health, child and adolescent fa uh, therapy.
• 22:29
  Cathi Spooner: They, unless maybe they are a therapist and even then, who of us fully knows everything, right?
• 22:36
  Cathi Spooner: Because, so nobody can be fully understanding of everything.
• 22:44
  Cathi Spooner: Including getting that information from parents because you're getting the information secondhand, you are getting the information based on parent, uh, the meaning that they make of it.
• 22:59
  Cathi Spooner: You get it based on their perceptions, based on their understanding of the situation.
• 23:08
  Cathi Spooner: You are having to rely on secondhand information rather than being able to see it.
• 23:13
  Cathi Spooner: In real time for yourself and to me, that's where Family Play therapy sessions can be helpful because it allows you to see in real time what is actually going on with your client and what's going on in their relationships at home.
• 23:39
  Cathi Spooner: With family members.
• 23:41
  Cathi Spooner: Um, sometimes play therapists even will go and do observations at school.
• 23:48
  Cathi Spooner: If you're a school-based, the therapist, you might go and observe what's going on in the classroom, right?
• 23:53
  Cathi Spooner: You're gonna go see for yourself if, if the issues are, are more at home and maybe some of the school ones are, are due to issues going on at home.
• 24:09
  Cathi Spooner: Then being able to have all the family members in the session, at least parents and the child or parent and child.
• 24:19
  Cathi Spooner: Then you get to see in real time what are the dynamics, and you get to see the strengths.
• 24:27
  Cathi Spooner: I've had situations sometimes where.
• 24:30
  Cathi Spooner: Um, I'm getting reports about how horrible things are.
• 24:34
  Cathi Spooner: These are really complicated cases.
• 24:36
  Cathi Spooner: A high conflict divorce, maybe child protective services has been involved.
• 24:41
  Cathi Spooner: Maybe there's a guardian ad litem where I'm getting all these reports about like maybe one household is doing all these terrible things and maybe some things have happened, right?
• 24:56
  Cathi Spooner: Things happen.
• 24:58
  Cathi Spooner: Um, families get stressed out, parents get overwhelmed.
• 25:02
  Cathi Spooner: They don't always act in their best selves.
• 25:05
  Cathi Spooner: Sometimes there's a lot more pathology to it than that, but sometimes I've had where I've had the whole family system in there, not, not both sides.
• 25:15
  Cathi Spooner: If it's divorced families, I only do like one parent and children and maybe the other parent and children.
• 25:24
  Cathi Spooner: That's a topic for a whole other.
• 25:27
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, livestream episode or play therapy podcast.
• 25:31
  Cathi Spooner: But for the purposes of today, um, I, when I've been able to see the dynamics myself, I've been able to see some of the strengths.
• 25:41
  Cathi Spooner: I can also see where maybe there might need to some changes made, and that's the other benefit of family play therapy sessions.
• 25:53
  Cathi Spooner: Is that you can help parents practice the skills in the sessions, or maybe you are bringing parents in at the, like maybe the last 15 or 20 minutes of the session, maybe you've taught the child the skill, the first part of the session, and now you're bringing parents in and together, parent and child are practicing the skill.
• 26:17
  Cathi Spooner: So now parent knows what to do.
• 26:20
  Cathi Spooner: At home, or maybe you're using the whole session as a family play therapy session, and you're really working on helping parents develop some attachment based parenting strategies that they can practice using in the session, and you are right there in the session to help them out.
• 26:41
  Cathi Spooner: You are there to model.
• 26:43
  Cathi Spooner: Give some subject.
• 26:45
  Cathi Spooner: My mouth isn't wor working today.
• 26:49
  Cathi Spooner: Suggestions is the word I meant to say.
• 26:53
  Cathi Spooner: And by seeing what's going on and understanding the dynamics, you are better able to figure out.
• 27:05
  Cathi Spooner: What play therapy activities or what types of interventions to do in the sessions.
• 27:11
  Cathi Spooner: The thing is though, if you're gonna use a play therapy model that includes if, sorry, if you're gonna.
• 27:19
  Cathi Spooner: If you're gonna include parents or family members in the sessions, don't just do it randomly.
• 27:25
  Cathi Spooner: Just don't do it impulsively, and I've talked about that in other episodes, so you may wanna go back and listen to some of the other episodes, but don't just don't just include them.
• 27:39
  Cathi Spooner: Without a framework.
• 27:41
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're going to be using family play therapy, you wanna make sure you have a play therapy model that you're using that's gonna help you know what to do in session.
• 27:54
  Cathi Spooner: What's the role of the parent?
• 27:56
  Cathi Spooner: What's the role of the play therapist?
• 27:59
  Cathi Spooner: What are you doing in each stage of the treatment process?
• 28:04
  Cathi Spooner: What types of interventions you may want to use at.
• 28:08
  Cathi Spooner: Different stages of the change process.
• 28:13
  Cathi Spooner: If you're interested in learning, uh, a family play therapy model, then stay tuned because I do have a training coming up and I'm gonna talk a little bit about that.
• 28:24
  Cathi Spooner: Just make sure that you are using a, a family play therapy model to help and that's gonna help you be way more effective.
• 28:35
  Cathi Spooner: So that is it for today.
• 28:38
  Cathi Spooner: Let me do a quick recap.
• 28:40
  Cathi Spooner: So today we're talking about five things.
• 28:45
  Cathi Spooner: Five signs that you might be sabotaging, progress in play therapy, and what to do instead.
• 28:53
  Cathi Spooner: And so the five signs.
• 28:55
  Cathi Spooner: Can be an indication that you may not be using the most effective approach to help your clients heal, and some of those signs are that maybe parents are telling you nothing is working.
• 29:08
  Cathi Spooner: You're getting all of the phone calls, emails, and texts.
• 29:13
  Cathi Spooner: Between sessions, nothing's working.
• 29:16
  Cathi Spooner: When you make suggestions, parents tell you they've already tried it and it doesn't work and nothing works.
• 29:23
  Cathi Spooner: The none of these things work for their child.
• 29:26
  Cathi Spooner: Or maybe, maybe your things are going great in your individual play therapy sessions, but there's a disconnect about what's happening at home and parents are reporting that those changes that you are seeing.
• 29:42
  Cathi Spooner: In the playroom, they're not necessarily seeing at home or in school or maybe you spend the amount of time that you spend engaged with parents or maybe families.
• 29:58
  Cathi Spooner: Is so, so much lower than the amount of time you spend in documentation.
• 30:04
  Cathi Spooner: Don't get me wrong, documentation is important.
• 30:07
  Cathi Spooner: You definitely want to do your documentation.
• 30:10
  Cathi Spooner: My point here is.
• 30:13
  Cathi Spooner: If you find yourself spending more time focused on your documentation and your writing in between sessions, and you're not spending the kind of an equal amount of time engaged with family members or parents, it might be a sign if things aren't going well and you're not making progress, that might also be a sign That one's a little more subtle.
• 30:36
  Cathi Spooner: And then finally, if parents start asking you and they're kind of suspicious, what are you doing in those plate therapy sessions?
• 30:43
  Cathi Spooner: Why can't I be in there?
• 30:45
  Cathi Spooner: Nothing's working.
• 30:47
  Cathi Spooner: You know, why?
• 30:49
  Cathi Spooner: Why are you using play therapy?
• 30:51
  Cathi Spooner: How is playing going to help the situation?
• 30:53
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause I'm not seeing any changes.
• 30:55
  Cathi Spooner: Or maybe maybe the parent's therapist told parent that play therapy doesn't work and they should, they should do behavior management or maybe the pediatrician.
• 31:08
  Cathi Spooner: Has told parents, yeah, play therapy doesn't seem like it's working based on what you're telling me.
• 31:13
  Cathi Spooner: And you should probably do behavior management.
• 31:15
  Cathi Spooner: So if any of those things have happened to you, it might be a sign that you might not be using the most effective approach to helping your clients heal and make progress.
• 31:29
  Cathi Spooner: And what I would propose instead is that you may wanna consider family play therapy because.
• 31:37
  Cathi Spooner: That way you can see in real time what's going on in the sessions.
• 31:43
  Cathi Spooner: You can also help p parents practice some of those, um, some of those parenting strategies like co-regulation.
• 31:54
  Cathi Spooner: You can, parents can.
• 31:56
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and children can learn better ways of connecting and building secure relationship and secure attachment.
• 32:04
  Cathi Spooner: And in family play therapy sessions, parents and children can learn the skills and practice those together, together so that parents can make sure those happen outside of the play therapy session where the change really is needed.
• 32:23
  Cathi Spooner: In their everyday lives and that parents are there in their lives knowing how to support their child throughout their lives.
• 32:35
  Cathi Spooner: Parents are gonna be around way longer than we are as play therapists, so my thought is why not support parents and help them become the therapeutic agent of change for healing for their child?
• 32:52
  Cathi Spooner: And that benefits the whole family.
• 32:55
  Cathi Spooner: The whole family gets an opportunity to heal.
• 32:59
  Cathi Spooner: So that is it for today, and that kind of brings me to.
• 33:05
  Cathi Spooner: If you are looking for, um, a play therapy model where you can integrate parents and family members, then I wanna let you know about my training coming up using my attachment focused family play therapy model.
• 33:24
  Cathi Spooner: I also have a book.
• 33:27
  Cathi Spooner: Called attachment focused family play therapy, um, an intervention for children and adolescents after trauma.
• 33:35
  Cathi Spooner: So you might be interested in that as well.
• 33:38
  Cathi Spooner: Um, this one is specifically focused on working with traumatized children and teens.
• 33:44
  Cathi Spooner: However, the play therapy model it, I use it for lots of different presenting issues.
• 33:51
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're interested in.
• 33:54
  Cathi Spooner: Attending or participating in my upcoming training, attachment focused family play therapy, that's gonna give you, uh, a family play therapy framework that you can use.
• 34:07
  Cathi Spooner: The theoretical lens that will be talking about is using an attachment and neuroscience lens.
• 34:16
  Cathi Spooner: So that's your theoretical lens that you are looking at, and we're gonna go through that.
• 34:22
  Cathi Spooner: To help you use that for your case conceptualization about what is going on, how are you making sense of what's going on?
• 34:32
  Cathi Spooner: Because then you're gonna use that information to actually use the uh, play attachment focused family play therapy model in the training.
• 34:42
  Cathi Spooner: I'm gonna go over the stages.
• 34:44
  Cathi Spooner: What is the therapist's play therapist role?
• 34:48
  Cathi Spooner: What's parents' role?
• 34:49
  Cathi Spooner: How do you decide what play therapy strategies to use?
• 34:53
  Cathi Spooner: What are the stages?
• 34:56
  Cathi Spooner: All the things you're gonna practice some activities.
• 34:59
  Cathi Spooner: So the good news is you can attend either virtually.
• 35:05
  Cathi Spooner: There's a virtual option and an in-person option.
• 35:08
  Cathi Spooner: The training is gonna take place on Saturday, November 8th.
• 35:13
  Cathi Spooner: The in-person option is going to be in St. George, Utah.
• 35:18
  Cathi Spooner: It will be so beautiful at that time of year.
• 35:22
  Cathi Spooner: So I would highly recommend if you need some in-person hours or you really want to do some in-person training that you, you, um, join us in St. George, Utah.
• 35:34
  Cathi Spooner: If you're not able to, then I would highly recommend joining us virtually.
• 35:42
  Cathi Spooner: If you have questions about it or I get questions from people living in Australia, feel free to reach out to me.
• 35:49
  Cathi Spooner: There is a recorded version already on my website.
• 35:52
  Cathi Spooner: It's a shorter version, but it does go over all the essentials.
• 35:57
  Cathi Spooner: So if you have questions, feel free to reach out to me If you are living in, uh, the part of the world where it makes even virtual options challenging.
• 36:09
  Cathi Spooner: Then just reach out to me, send me a message.
• 36:11
  Cathi Spooner: I'm happy to answer those.
• 36:13
  Cathi Spooner: I do have another training coming up if you're interested.
• 36:16
  Cathi Spooner: It's called using a neuroscience and attachment lens with santra in play therapy.
• 36:22
  Cathi Spooner: So that one's only in person.
• 36:24
  Cathi Spooner: We do two days.
• 36:26
  Cathi Spooner: We immerse ourselves in Sant Tray, all things neuroscience and attachment, and how does that work with Sant Tray?
• 36:35
  Cathi Spooner: The other thing I wanna let people know is I have my Plea Therapy Academy program.
• 36:43
  Cathi Spooner: Which was my kind of, I call it my VIP like membership.
• 36:49
  Cathi Spooner: It's very small, small group.
• 36:52
  Cathi Spooner: We do a maximum of 10 people in the program.
• 36:56
  Cathi Spooner: You, we do consultations twice a month.
• 36:59
  Cathi Spooner: Case presentations, getting feedback from me as well as.
• 37:05
  Cathi Spooner: Your colleagues and even those of you who feel like you're new and you don't know anything.
• 37:10
  Cathi Spooner: So you might feel a little intimidated about joining us.
• 37:13
  Cathi Spooner: You know more than you think you do.
• 37:15
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause I have had heard pure gold come out of people who think they're newbies and don't know anything.
• 37:22
  Cathi Spooner: So I do have two openings.
• 37:25
  Cathi Spooner: I might have more, but I have two openings.
• 37:29
  Cathi Spooner: If you have been looking for a way to get more support or maybe you wanna pursue your registered play therapy play therapist credential, then this program will meet the requirements for the registered play therapy credential.
• 37:46
  Cathi Spooner: Some of the requirements, not all of 'em, but some of them, the consultation part, it will supervision.
• 37:52
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're interested in that, also schedule a 30 minute call with me.
• 37:57
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, I'm happy to have a conversation with you if you have been thinking about it.
• 38:01
  Cathi Spooner: If you're not sure, just schedule a virtual call with me for 30 minutes and we'll see if it's a good fit.
• 38:07
  Cathi Spooner: So I'm gonna post all these links in the comments.
• 38:12
  Cathi Spooner: Um, if you have any questions, feel free to message me.
• 38:17
  Cathi Spooner: If you are interested in any of these, you can also pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com.
• 38:27
  Cathi Spooner: That's rh play therapy training.com, and the training that I co have coming up about my attachment focused.
• 38:36
  Cathi Spooner: Family Play Therapy.
• 38:38
  Cathi Spooner: The training is called Attachment Focus, family Play Therapy.
• 38:43
  Cathi Spooner: There's other things on my website.
• 38:45
  Cathi Spooner: Feel free to pop over there, check things out.
• 38:49
  Cathi Spooner: And I am on my way today to the Association for Play Therapy Annual Conference.
• 38:55
  Cathi Spooner: I'm very, very excited.
• 38:57
  Cathi Spooner: So as soon as I pop off here, I'm gonna be heading off to the airport, heading over to Houston.
• 39:03
  Cathi Spooner: And I'm super excited for my training with Dr.
• 39:08
  Cathi Spooner: Anne Ordway from the Association for Family and Conciliation Courts.
• 39:14
  Cathi Spooner: She and I are doing a workshop together, play therapy with children in high conflict families, repairing connections.
• 39:22
  Cathi Spooner: We're really focusing on a, a dynamic.
• 39:27
  Cathi Spooner: Of parent, child, uh, child, parent contact problem, no parent child contact problems.
• 39:35
  Cathi Spooner: I always get those backwards, which is, we used to call it resist refuse.
• 39:40
  Cathi Spooner: It's.
• 39:41
  Cathi Spooner: Kind of a new way of thinking about parental alienation a little bit 'cause that one didn't always fit very well.
• 39:48
  Cathi Spooner: So I'm super excited to be talking about that and I will see you next week.
• 39:55
  Cathi Spooner: Bye for now.
• 40:01
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 40:05
  Cathi Spooner: I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal.
• 40:15
  Cathi Spooner: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 40:20
  Cathi Spooner: Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 40:26
  Cathi Spooner: Remember.
• 40:27
  Cathi Spooner: Play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 40:31
  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.
• 40:42
  Cathi Spooner: If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episode.
• 40:47
  Cathi Spooner: I'd love to hear from you.
• 40:49
  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.
• 41:02
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 41:05
  Cathi Spooner: Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.