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How to Tell If Play Therapy Is Working by These 5 Signs · Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

• 0:02
  Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 0:04
  A weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services.
• 0:14
  We'll explore all things play therapy to elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play.
• 0:23
  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
  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.
• 0:49
  Hey there.
• 0:49
  Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy, and today we're gonna talk about progress and how to tell if there's progress.
• 1:01
  So if you're a play therapist, the likelihood you've had this happen is pretty high.
• 1:08
  So.
• 1:10
  So let me know in the chat if you have ever experienced this, raise your virtual hand, so to speak.
• 1:16
  Let me know.
• 1:18
  Ever leave your playroom thinking to yourself, Ugh, I don't know if this is working.
• 1:27
  I don't know if I know what I'm doing.
• 1:30
  Nothing.
• 1:31
  Nothing seems to be helping.
• 1:34
  I. I must be doing this wrong, like they're not making progress.
• 1:40
  You're getting phone calls in between sessions.
• 1:43
  Sometimes maybe with parents who are frustrated or or wanting things to go faster.
• 1:54
  And you start to second guess yourself.
• 1:58
  Is it really working?
• 1:59
  Do I know what I'm doing?
• 2:01
  Is my client making any progress?
• 2:04
  These are things that, that we talk about all lot in Play Therapy Academy, so I figured if we were talking about it in Play Therapy Academy then probably others of you were experiencing this as well.
• 2:24
  So I thought this would be a great topic for today's episode.
• 2:30
  And that is how to tell if your client is making any progress.
• 2:36
  And here's a thing, like play therapy is, well, let me back that up.
• 2:42
  So the, the, like, the analogy that I use is for adult therapy, right?
• 2:49
  You can ask your client, you, you chat with them, you, they're giving you insights most of the time, and not always though, but you can have that interaction.
• 3:04
  You can have that verbal discussion about progress and what that looks like and what's different.
• 3:10
  In play therapy.
• 3:11
  It's a little different, especially when you're working with younger kids.
• 3:16
  The younger the child, the more you're gonna have to rely on looking at what's going on in the session and what are they communicating through their play.
• 3:28
  And that's, that's a huge difference between talk therapy and play therapy and play therapy is an expressive arts modality.
• 3:42
  So we're, excuse me, we're looking at how children are communicating symbolically through their play.
• 3:51
  How are they communicating through their behavior and some other things.
• 3:56
  And so it's I always say when you're a play therapist, you're listening deeply to their play.
• 4:02
  In the same way.
• 4:03
  If you're an adult therapist, you're listening deeply to what your clients are saying.
• 4:07
  How are they saying it?
• 4:09
  Their body language, and those kinds of things.
• 4:12
  For play therapists, we're looking at, play.
• 4:16
  What are they communicating symbolically?
• 4:18
  How are they interacting with you?
• 4:21
  What are they saying during their play?
• 4:24
  These are all things that we look for when we're looking at themes.
• 4:29
  And these are also some of the things, there's more, and we're gonna talk about that today.
• 4:35
  There's more things that you can look at other than their play therapy themes.
• 4:40
  And I, I find this is a topic where, where play therapists struggle figuring out, we've all, we've all struggled with this.
• 4:52
  Like nobody is immune from struggling from this.
• 4:55
  So if you are struggling with this, know that you're not alone.
• 5:00
  And to me, this, this is something that we talk a lot about in Play Therapy Academy, which is um, my online group program.
• 5:10
  The nice thing about doing this in a community, having a community is that you can look at, like, we'll look at video sessions and get a sense of what's going on and can see those subtle changes.
• 5:28
  We'll look at themes and we'll kind of see how they're doing and are they making progress?
• 5:33
  Is play therapy working and those kinds of things.
• 5:36
  So to me, this is one of those things why it's helpful to have a community of support when you are struggling with the question of, is this really working?
• 5:49
  Am I making a difference?
• 5:52
  Am I helping this client?
• 5:54
  That's, that's one way that can, having a community of support can be really helpful to do that.
• 6:04
  So let's, let's talk about how do you tell if play therapy is working?
• 6:11
  How do you, how can you tell if your sessions are, are even productive?
• 6:18
  So if you're watching live today, welcome, and I would love for you to join the conversation.
• 6:26
  Post in the comments where you're from, what population you're working with.
• 6:33
  Join the conversation.
• 6:34
  What are your insights?
• 6:35
  What are some things that you look for?
• 6:38
  If you're watching on the livestream replay, welcome as well.
• 6:43
  A lot of people watch the replays.
• 6:46
  So go ahead and join the conversation, post in the comments and share your insights.
• 6:52
  What are your questions?
• 6:54
  Where are your struggles?
• 6:56
  And for those of you listening on the podcast.
• 7:01
  Feel free to pop over to my Instagram and leave me a message or send me a message.
• 7:08
  Those of you watching the live stream or the replay, feel free to message me.
• 7:12
  I go live on YouTube and LinkedIn every week and Instagram, so,
• 7:21
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: 00 AM Pacific time, you can join in for the live episodes or you can feel free to watch the replay.
• 7:35
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So we have, uh, welcome Brooklyn, New York user.
• 7:40
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I work with eight kids, ages three to eight.
• 7:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Yes.
• 7:44
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And their family.
• 7:44
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So you are definitely gonna have to rely pretty heavily on looking at themes and looking at their play and recognizing progress that way for sure.
• 7:57
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: What modality are you using?
• 7:58
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I'm curious if you're working with children ages three to eight.
• 8:03
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, yeah, anyway.
• 8:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Awesome.
• 8:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Welcome.
• 8:08
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So let's go over.
• 8:12
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So today what I'm gonna talk about is how to tell if play therapy is working by these five signs and these, so I'm gonna go through these kind of quickly because I try to keep this weekly episode.
• 8:28
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So I try to keep it to 30 minutes.
• 8:30
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I never make it to 30 minutes.
• 8:32
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So it's usually more like 40 minutes.
• 8:35
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So these are, so I'm gonna go over these for the next 40 minutes.
• 8:40
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: These really do usually require a little more in depth, but at least this will get you started to kind of think about some things.
• 8:51
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, these, these are things that we spend a lot of time on in Play Therapy Academy, so, um.
• 9:00
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: It does.
• 9:01
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: It does require a little more in depth, but at the same time, I thought it would be useful to share these so that you at least get a sense and you can kind of start thinking about these things and seeing how they show up in your play therapy sessions.
• 9:17
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So Brooklyn user says Child-centered play therapy only for me.
• 9:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I, in my head, I was thinking, oh, she has to use child-centered play therapy with that age group.
• 9:29
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Yep.
• 9:29
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That's kind of my, uh, default mode is child-centered play therapy.
• 9:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I use, especially if I'm working with little kids like that age range you talked about.
• 9:39
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I am strict child-centered play therapy.
• 9:44
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: All righty.
• 9:44
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So what are the five signs to tell if play therapy is working?
• 9:51
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: The first sign is looking at, are they able to regulate more in their, in their sessions?
• 10:01
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So you're looking at increased regulation in their session.
• 10:08
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So.
• 10:09
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Maybe in the beginning they weren't using a lot of words, and now maybe they are interacting with you a little bit more.
• 10:18
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Maybe now they're inviting you into the play and they're, you can tell they're feeling a little more comfortable.
• 10:26
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You might see that maybe where they had trouble transitioning in the session or, or usually transitioning out of the session.
• 10:37
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Maybe that's going a little bit smoother.
• 10:41
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, are they sustaining their play longer?
• 10:45
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: These are usually things that you can tell that in the beginning that they are really starting to feel comfortable in your play therapy sessions.
• 10:56
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Because we know from neuroscience that children need to feel safe in order to engage their social engagement circuits, which means, they can, they need, they need to engage those social engagement circuits in order to engage their play circuits.
• 11:17
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So if they're engaging in play longer, if they're interacting with you a little more, they're sustaining.
• 11:26
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Maybe in the beginning it was like a lot of everything and they were kind of all over the place in the playroom, but now you're seeing them sustain their play for a lot longer, and, um, you can see that they're feeling a little more comfortable with you, then that's a good sign that play therapy is working.
• 11:50
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That's, that they're feeling safe in the session and that, um, they're gonna be able to use the play therapy process in order to facilitate change because they have to be, feel safe in order to play, in order to eng engage, access those therapeutic powers of play, then they're gonna have to access those play circuits.
• 12:17
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Here's the other thing you want to think about is your play therapy model is going to influence how you're, makes making sense of what's going on in the sessions and if they're progressing through each stage.
• 12:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So for example, child-centered play therapy is, it's got four stages and you are going to be noticing certain things going on in each stage in order to tell if they're progressing through each stage of the play therapy process.
• 12:52
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So like in Adlerian play therapy, that's gonna look a little different.
• 12:56
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: In Gestalt play therapy that's gonna look a little different.
• 12:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So your play therapy model is definitely going to influence how are you making sense of what's going on in the sessions?
• 13:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And if they're making any progress.
• 13:10
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: It's also gonna influence how you're making sense of the themes in their play therapy sessions as well.
• 13:18
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So there's some, there's some general themes across all play therapy models like control, nurture, uh, um, aggression.
• 13:31
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Regardless of your play therapy model, these are gonna be themes that you're gonna be seeing, but your play therapy model is gonna influence how are you making sense of what those mean and how are you making sense of what that means in terms of where they are in the play therapy change process?
• 13:49
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Which brings me to the next.
• 13:52
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Number two, how do you make sense uh, how do you recognize if there's any change?
• 13:58
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And that's is looking at their play themes.
• 14:01
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This one's a little harder.
• 14:03
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This one takes a little more time usually.
• 14:06
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, so here, when you're looking at play themes, you are making sense of what they're communicating to you through their play.
• 14:16
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And how does that change throughout the change, uh, how does that change over time through each stage of the play therapy process?
• 14:26
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So, for example, in the beginning, we typically see children are a little more superficial in their play, not really.
• 14:37
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um.
• 14:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Getting too much, uh, too much into the deeper levels of what's going on.
• 14:45
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Sometimes you'll have kids that'll come in and do it right away.
• 14:49
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, and then you're, you're, you're saying this as a kid who is ready to go, feels comfortable getting started and play therapy would definitely be working, at least in the beginning because they've gotten started and you're, and you're noticing starting to play things out through their, you're, you're, um, understanding what they're communicating through their play right away, so then you can, that would be progress, right?
• 15:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They're getting started.
• 15:23
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: At least they're getting started right away, right in the beginning phase.
• 15:27
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Or it might be that maybe in the, at first maybe the play was a little chaotic or, or rigid and they kind of held you at arm's length, then that would be some progress and, and now they're inviting you into the play.
• 15:45
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Or maybe if you're looking at the themes of aggression, right?
• 15:49
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Maybe in the beginning of the play, girls, I, I'm gonna make a general statement and it's, it's gender based, it's general, and there's truth to it.
• 16:02
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: There are differences in females and males, and there are differences typically in the way they play in the playroom.
• 16:10
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That has been my experience and one of one, one of the things that I've noticed is aggression themes look a little different oftentimes in girls than it does in boys.
• 16:25
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Like for example, one of the, one of the themes that you may see for aggression in girls is maybe there, I, I used to see this all the time.
• 16:37
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So in the dollhouse there would be people and there would be arguing and conflict.
• 16:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Maybe something was so, you know, one person in the family or friend or neighbor was doing something wrong.
• 16:49
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And the other fam, you know, the other people in the, in the play were mad or somebody was in trouble or not doing things.
• 16:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then some change over time.
• 17:02
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You might see where now they're beginning to work things out.
• 17:06
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Now you could see where family members are communicating or maybe family members or are working on getting needs met or, or neighbors or workers.
• 17:18
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You may see the introduction of maybe, um, like a wizard who's coming to make things better, better.
• 17:27
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Or you may see things like, um, like um, a doctor gets introduced or a fire and rescue comes, somebody's hurt, and now fire and rescue is coming to help that family member or that person who's hurt in the dollhouse.
• 17:47
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And so.
• 17:50
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Another way aggression may show up and you would see some subtle changes in the play, is that maybe in the beginning there would be these epic battle scenes.
• 18:03
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And there would be the good guys fighting the bad guys.
• 18:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then somewhere in the play, the bad guys switch.
• 18:11
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And so maybe there aren't bad guys anymore.
• 18:14
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then just everybody is fighting, but there's not necessarily good guys or bad guys in the play.
• 18:21
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then at some point, maybe you see another shift where maybe for the people who were dying in the battle, maybe now there's a, there's a, uh, a rescue character coming in, like a doctor coming in, and now they're doing some medical work to help that character heal.
• 18:46
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And maybe the character's not healing anymore.
• 18:48
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I mean, uh, dying anymore.
• 18:50
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Maybe they're living.
• 18:51
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then at some point, maybe the two sides figure out that they don't need to fight anymore.
• 18:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then they may go off and do a different play focused on different things.
• 19:04
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So if you're looking at the themes in the play, what you're looking at are subtle shifts in the play, and you may see them play out the same theme, over and over for several weeks in a row.
• 19:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then you may see some subtle shifts with that.
• 19:27
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Like for example, this is, um, like, uh, how many have you guys had this happen to, do you Right?
• 19:35
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So I have a lot of sand tray miniatures in my play therapy room.
• 19:41
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This was years ago.
• 19:42
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This is probably 20 years ago now, or maybe 15, that the like tons of sand tray miniatures and I like the little gems 'cause you could get the different little colors.
• 19:53
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And so you have kids who come in and they dump all the gems in the sand tray.
• 20:02
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: All of 'em.
• 20:03
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Like I've had kids years ago when I had, uh, a private practice and I, they would, I had more than one sand tray that was available they would have like three san trays and dump all the gems in all the trays.
• 20:20
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And in my head I would be thinking, Ugh, I have to clean that up later.
• 20:25
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And I have a session right after this.
• 20:28
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, but I thought, oh, well trust the process.
• 20:31
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Right.
• 20:32
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Anyways, this, this would go on for weeks with some kids.
• 20:36
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then you slowly see that they're not using all of the gems, that maybe it's a little more organized in their play, and now you start seeing containers for the gems.
• 20:52
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They're in containers.
• 20:53
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They're not just all over the place.
• 20:55
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So now we're taking some of that chaos and we're containing it and getting it organized a little bit more.
• 21:03
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then maybe shifts into, maybe they're not using all of the gems now they're using the sand tray and they're creating scenes.
• 21:11
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: But maybe there's a lot of conflict in the scenes.
• 21:15
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, or there's a like a ton of sand tray miniatures in there.
• 21:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Tons.
• 21:23
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: But when you look a little closer, you may see that there's some organization in that chaos.
• 21:31
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So you're kind, and then you're kind of seeing how that progresses over time.
• 21:35
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Do you see more organization?
• 21:37
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Do you see more containment?
• 21:40
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So this to me, this is one of the things where learning how to recognize themes can be very helpful while you're, if you, you know, if you're still kind of new to this.
• 21:52
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Then you're probably gonna wanna just notice when you see any shifts, notice the subtle shifts.
• 22:02
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You notice what they're using differently.
• 22:04
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Notice what they're using and what they're not using in their play, and how are they using things differently.
• 22:13
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: These are some of the, the nuances of what children do with their play that give you an indication that it's actually working.
• 22:26
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I can't tell you how many times in Play Therapy Academy, when we do the, um, like in play Therapy Academy, everybody does a, a presentation.
• 22:37
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: We have two people presenting a case every, every time we meet.
• 22:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And one of the things that comes up over and over is, I don't even think this is working.
• 22:48
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then as a group, we take a look at what's going on in there.
• 22:53
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And what we find is when we're looking at the, the photos or we're looking at the video, all of which is kept private, we're maintaining, um, privacy and protection.
• 23:08
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: When we look at things though, what we find is there are a lot of really deep things going on in there.
• 23:15
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And so we learn how to recognize what's going on and then getting a lot of feedback about different themes and different things that are observed in the play, in the play process and learning how to look deeply.
• 23:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I guess, to me that's the biggest thing when you're talking about play therapy sessions, is learning how to look deeply, learning how to listen deeply to symbolically what's represented in the play therapy session, and then what you're looking at is over time, what shifts are you seeing?
• 23:57
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This is an indication that they are actually engaging in the play process.
• 24:04
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That they are use, accessing those therapeutic powers of play to work through whatever it is that they need to work through.
• 24:15
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And, um, I think this is one of the harder things, especially in the beginning to learn.
• 24:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Here's the thing though, sometimes it's play, like there are times, sometimes even now, I, I don't know what they're doing.
• 24:30
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I'm, it may take like two or three or four sessions for me to figure out what they're doing.
• 24:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: In the meantime, while I'm holding that and trusting the process, what I'm looking at are the details, and I am, I'm looking to see if there are any shifts going on because that tells me two things.
• 24:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: One, it tells me that they are accessing the therapeutic powers of play, and that is key to tell is play therapy actually working?
• 25:08
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You are looking at, are they even engaging in the play process?
• 25:15
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Are they accessing those therapeutic powers of play?
• 25:19
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That's the first thing that you're kind of looking at.
• 25:24
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, and then the other thing is you're looking at how that may shift over time, and it's gonna be very subtle.
• 25:34
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And here's the other thing.
• 25:36
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They may, they may look like they're progressing and making progress.
• 25:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then you'll see some regression when you're looking at your play therapy model and how your child is, your client is progressing using the your play therapy model.
• 25:58
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Are they progressing through the stages?
• 26:00
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You may see sometimes where they feel, they seem like they regress.
• 26:04
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So it's not, it's not a linear line.
• 26:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Sometimes it goes around in circles for a while and, and then you're looking to see if they're looking like they're regressing a little bit, then how are they progressing from there?
• 26:24
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: If they're regressing or, and then are they progressing?
• 26:27
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And here's the other thing.
• 26:28
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I hear this one a lot too.
• 26:30
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They're just concrete.
• 26:31
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They're not doing anything.
• 26:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: It's, it's not working because they're just really concrete and they're not doing anything that looks some symbolic, that, that's my paraphrase.
• 26:46
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: But when we, when we look at what's going on, what you'll notice is this this client might be concrete.
• 26:53
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So then we look at what's the reason for that?
• 26:58
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Is this, if this is a child who is pretty concrete because maybe they have some processing challenges or maybe they're concrete 'cause they don't feel comfortable showing you anything more.
• 27:13
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I can, I can't tell you how many times I have worked with kids who've experienced trauma, especially kids who've gone into foster care and they, they're not feeling safe yet.
• 27:30
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: It doesn't necessarily mean the foster care placement's a bad placement, it just means for whatever reason, and there are tons of different reasons in that situation, that child might not be ready, might not feel safe to open up in the playroom.
• 27:46
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They might not show you in the playroom.
• 27:50
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: There might be other ways that they're demonstrating they're making progress, and we'll talk a little bit about those as well.
• 27:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Another sign that your client is making progress, and this one's a little hard, is that they're testing the relationship a little bit.
• 28:11
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They might do this right away, or most of the time, my experience has been they, once they get to feel comfortable with you, they get comfortable with the space, then they may test the boundaries a little bit.
• 28:27
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They wanna see what, what they can do and what they can't do.
• 28:32
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And so usually that's a sign that they're feeling comfortable.
• 28:37
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, some kids come in right away and test the boundaries.
• 28:40
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I would say more often than not, I see kids test the boundaries when they're feeling, excuse me, when they're feeling a little more comfortable.
• 28:53
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They wanna see how I respond.
• 28:55
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And to me that's progress because now they're feeling comfortable in the play therapy space.
• 29:01
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They're feeling comfortable with me and they're ready to test out some boundaries.
• 29:06
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That gives me some good information.
• 29:09
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That gives me information about what they're probably doing at home, also in other places, and how they respond when limits are maintained.
• 29:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So that I would look at that as progress because they, they trust you enough that they're gonna test the boundaries a little bit.
• 29:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then you're gonna, from an at, if I'm using an attachment lens and I'm gonna see, I'm gonna hold the boundary and then I'm gonna see how we work through that repair process gives you some really good information.
• 29:47
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And that might happen at various times you might have a client who comes in right away and tests boundaries, and then with your, when you're consistent and you're fully present in the moment, accessing congruence with unconditional positive regard and empathy.
• 30:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I throw in a little DBT thinking in my head, which is acceptance and change.
• 30:13
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: My client is doing the best they can at any moment in time and they can do better.
• 30:18
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Right.
• 30:20
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So if they're testing the boundaries, that might be a sign that they're making progress.
• 30:25
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Here's the other thing, and uh, ano, the fourth sign that they're making progress will come from parent support.
• 30:35
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I mean parent report or caregivers.
• 30:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So I use caregiver and parents kind of interchangeably.
• 30:44
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This is where you wanna make sure you have a really good relationship with parents.
• 30:49
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So you're gonna wanna make sure that you meet with parents regularly.
• 30:55
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I always recommend that it's not just a five minute check-in at the end, which is in front of the child.
• 31:02
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I'm not a fan of that.
• 31:04
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: If you've listened to any of my previous episodes, then you're, you're aware, I'm, I'm not a fan of that.
• 31:12
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I, I believe you will gain trust better with parents when you meet with them regularly, like once a month without the child present, and you have that time to build rapport with parents, to build trust with parents.
• 31:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: It's also a a dedicated time when you can have conversations about what's going on.
• 31:41
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And you're, you're able to provide support to parents.
• 31:46
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They'll trust if they'll make the changes you're asking them to make if they trust you, which is why you need to have dedicated time to do that.
• 31:54
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: The other thing that for you in terms of figuring out is the child making progress, I found instances where I haven't necessarily seen much in the playroom.
• 32:08
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This is.
• 32:09
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This is usually when I'm working with kids who've experienced a lot of trauma.
• 32:14
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, and the caregivers will report a ton of progress.
• 32:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So for example.
• 32:24
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Like maybe the child isn't really opening up too much in the session, or their play is still pretty safe, I would say.
• 32:35
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Like they're playing out some things.
• 32:37
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They may have some conversations about a feelings or different things like that.
• 32:40
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That would be the older kids.
• 32:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um.
• 32:45
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And when you meet with the caregiver, what you find out is the child is opening up a lot more to the caregiver, opening up about the what they experienced.
• 32:58
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And that caregiver is really good about being safe and being empathic and showing care and support.
• 33:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And so it allows the child to feel safe in their home.
• 33:13
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: The other thing that you wanna make sure that you do is you wanna make sure that don't skip the assessment at the beginning of treatment.
• 33:25
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Don't skip the um, psychosocial assessment in the beginning.
• 33:32
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And when you do that psychosocial assessment, make sure you are asking a lot of questions to understand what is going on with the symptoms.
• 33:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I always say you need to have in your head this term when you're, when you're gathering information about symptoms, frequency, intensity, and duration.
• 33:57
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: How often do they occur occur?
• 33:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: How long do they last, and what's the intensity?
• 34:03
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So when you're having your parent meetings, you're checking in with parents or caregivers, is the frequency of the problematic behavior decreasing?
• 34:18
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Is the intensity of the problematic behavior decreasing?
• 34:24
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Are they able to use their parents more effectively for co-regulation?
• 34:30
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That this is all progress.
• 34:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Are parents able to co-regulate so that their child can use them for that support?
• 34:42
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So.
• 34:44
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: This is a, a really important reason why you wanna make sure that you are meeting with parents because you can get that feedback about progress during your meetings with parents.
• 34:56
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So are, are the children sleeping better?
• 35:00
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Are they less clingy?
• 35:02
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Are they having fewer meltdowns?
• 35:05
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Or, you know, like big behaviors at home or at school?
• 35:12
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: All of these are things that you can use as indication that play therapy is actually working.
• 35:21
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then the fifth thing is that the, uh, a sign that play therapy is working and they're making progress is in the relationship with you.
• 35:36
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, are they making eye contact when maybe they weren't making eye contact before?
• 35:41
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Maybe before they came into the playroom and they sat on the other side of the room and turned their back to you.
• 35:49
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And whispered so that you couldn't hear a word they were saying.
• 35:55
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then slowly, they're not having their back turned to you.
• 35:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And maybe they're still whispering, but now maybe they're letting you get a little closer.
• 36:06
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, or maybe at some point they're inviting you into the play.
• 36:11
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So, or, or they're, they're allowing you to witness what is going on.
• 36:20
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And to me, that's the big key when they can, when they can access those therapeutic powers of play, and you start seeing and hearing what, what their play is, what they're saying, how they're playing, what they're doing, what they're not doing.
• 36:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Are they including you?
• 36:40
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Are they not including you?
• 36:42
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: These are some things that you're looking at to get an indication of are, are they feeling safe?
• 36:49
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Which means they can enter into the therapeutic powers of play and they can use that play process.
• 36:57
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Here's another thing that comes up a lot, um, as well, and, and I've, I've had these kids as well, and I think somebody in our, one of the Play Therapy Academy groups meeting called it daycare play.
• 37:13
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And I thought, oh, what an interesting term.
• 37:16
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, I. Basically like they're, they're playing and they're, they're coming in and they're using your therapy office to play and they don't really need, there, there's not really anything that they're working on therapeutically.
• 37:35
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They just like to play'cause kids like to play.
• 37:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Which brings up the question of how do you know when they're ready to finish play.
• 37:44
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: How do you know when they're ready to finish play therapy?
• 37:46
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Like when they're done, especially child-centered play therapy, man, they are all over that.
• 37:52
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They come, I get to be in charge in here.
• 37:56
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I get to do whatever I want in here.
• 37:58
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: There are some ways to manage that, like when you're going through, coming down to termination process, but the question of how do you know if there, if it's working or if they're just playing and using, using your office to, to play or paint or, or paint pretty pictures, right?
• 38:21
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Is it really therapeutic?
• 38:23
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And I think you have to go back to looking at some of the things that we've already talked about, right?
• 38:31
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Which would be maybe you have a child with a ton of anxiety.
• 38:36
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And it took a long time for them to feel comfortable with you and settle into the play therapy process.
• 38:46
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And sometimes the way that I look at that is if they're coming in and they're drawing the pretty pictures and parents are still reporting at home they are having lots of emotional meltdowns or they're super, super clingy and they won't sleep in their own bed, but they're coming in and your session and they're painting pretty pictures.
• 39:13
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: What does that say?
• 39:15
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: It says in the playroom, they feel safe.
• 39:19
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: In the playroom they can do, I mean, think about art.
• 39:23
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: We do coloring all the time, right?
• 39:25
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: For emotion regulation, getting our neurocircuits settled down.
• 39:30
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Painting is a mindful activity.
• 39:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They feel safe coming in, doing something that feels good to their nervous system, and in here they can have unconditional positive regard and empathy and feel successful in here.
• 39:44
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Then we're building up that positive sense of self and giving them a space where they can have some success.
• 39:53
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: We still need to work on those other things, and there are probably a lot of other things that need to be worked on in the home and co-regulation and different things like that.
• 40:04
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And that's why you wanna have the parent sessions.
• 40:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I don't necessarily think that having them come in and just pl just play doesn't necessarily mean that they're not making progress.
• 40:19
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You're gonna be looking at all of these things.
• 40:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You're gonna be looking at your play therapy model.
• 40:25
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: How are you making sense of what is going on in this child's life?
• 40:29
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That initial case conceptualization that you're gonna be using throughout the play therapy process.
• 40:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And you're gonna use that case conceptualization based on your theory model to get a sense of how they're progressing.
• 40:47
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, and what is, what is it that they need.
• 40:51
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You're also looking at that to understand the themes and what's going on in the sessions, and then that'll give you a better sense of, is it really like daycare play or is it really just playing and they're not doing anything therapeutic, so you wanna think about those things as well.
• 41:13
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So, and they're, and they're feeling connected.
• 41:16
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: If the child is feeling comfortable with you in the session, then they're making progress in that way.
• 41:25
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So.
• 41:26
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That is it for today.
• 41:29
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Let me just do a quick recap.
• 41:31
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Today we're talking about how can you tell if play therapy is working by these five signs?
• 41:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: What you're doing is you're, you're looking at the subtle behaviors, what they're saying, how they're playing with the toys, how are they interacting with you.
• 41:49
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You are looking at subtle signs over time to get a sense of is play therapy working?
• 41:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Sometimes the, the changes, the shift are really, really subtle.
• 42:04
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Sometimes they're huge.
• 42:06
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Sometimes it looks like they're not making any progress.
• 42:10
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Oh, you know, they're doing the same thing from session to session session, and then one session you see big, a big shift.
• 42:20
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So the, the key is though, you're, you're knowing what you're looking for, looking for specific signs.
• 42:28
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: The other thing that you're gonna think about is frequency, intensity, and duration of symptoms.
• 42:35
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And is there a reduction in symptoms?
• 42:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: The frequency, intensity, and duration.
• 42:41
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So you're gonna be looking at are they having an increased ability to regulate their emotions, regulate their behavior in sessions.
• 42:51
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Number two is you're looking at, are there subtle changes in the themes in their play over time?
• 42:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Number three is maybe their testing limits.
• 43:01
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Right now, they've gotten to know you and now they wanna see how this really works and, and what's gonna happen if they test limits with you.
• 43:12
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So that could be a sign that they're making progress.
• 43:16
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And then how do they respond?
• 43:19
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Number four is getting feedback from parents.
• 43:21
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: What are parents reporting at home?
• 43:24
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And this is, this is where that initial assessment and gathering information about the problematic things going on, the problematic behaviors that the, is bringing them into treatment.
• 43:39
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You're looking at frequency, intensity, and duration.
• 43:42
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And is there reduction in the frequency, how often something is happening or the intensity maybe, maybe they are having meltdowns at home, five outta seven days.
• 44:00
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And before it was seven hour, seven outta seven days.
• 44:05
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And the outbursts or the dysregulation could happen anywhere from 10 minutes to all day.
• 44:12
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And so maybe it's not all day anymore and maybe it's only five days outta seven.
• 44:17
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So you wanna make sure to gather that information as well.
• 44:20
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: And the fifth thing is.
• 44:22
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Pa um, the child is really able to connect with you and use support with support from you in the session.
• 44:32
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They're inviting you into the play.
• 44:34
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: They're allowing you to be a witness of what is unfolding in the playroom room.
• 44:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So that is it for today.
• 44:46
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I did wanna let you know if you are interested in um, Play Therapy Academy.
• 44:52
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So if you are finding that you are second guessing yourself all of the time, that you're not sure how to tell, if play therapy is working, you're not sure how to apply a play therapy model through all the stages of the play therapy process, you're, you're also interested in it using a neuroscience and attachment lens for that as well.
• 45:18
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Then, um, I do have an opening in, I have one opening right now.
• 45:24
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I might have a couple of more coming up, but right now I do have one opening in Play Therapy Academy.
• 45:31
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I only have openings as people graduate for PLA from Play Therapy Academy or, or they leave for various andary reasons.
• 45:40
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: 'cause life gets a little challenging usually.
• 45:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, if you're interested in seeing if Play Therapy Academy is a good fit for you, then pop over to my website, which is RH play therapy training.com.
• 46:00
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: That's renewing hearts play therapy training.com.
• 46:04
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So RH play therapy training.com.
• 46:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Hop onto the consultation page.
• 46:10
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: You'll see on there there's information about Play Therapy Academy and you can schedule a free 30 minute video call with me.
• 46:20
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: We can talk about, um, whether if play therapy is, is a good fit for you, if it'll meet your needs.
• 46:29
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: So go ahead and, uh, schedule that 30 minute call.
• 46:34
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: There's no obligation.
• 46:36
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: We'll see if it's something that will be useful or not.
• 46:38
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: If it's not, I can recommend something else that might be helpful.
• 46:43
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Um, we're also gonna post the links for my website in the comments as well as a link to schedule that 30 minute video call with me.
• 46:55
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: All right, that is it for today, and I will see you guys next time.
• 46:59
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Bye for now.
• 47:07
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 47:12
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families feel.
• 47:21
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 47:26
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 47:32
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Remember.
• 47:33
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 47:37
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: 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.
• 47:48
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you.
• 47:55
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: 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.
• 48:08
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 48:11
  uh, every Wednesday at 7: Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.