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How Do Play Therapists Understand Themes in Play Therapy? · Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

• 0:01
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy, a weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists.
• 0:11
  Cathi Spooner: to provide exceptional play therapy services.
• 0:14
  Cathi Spooner: We'll explore all things play therapy 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.
• 0:43
  Cathi Spooner: Good morning.
• 0:48
  Cathi Spooner: Today I want to talk about can you actually recognize themes in play therapy?
• 0:55
  Cathi Spooner: There was a study that was conducted back in 2021.
• 0:59
  Cathi Spooner: So I wanted to talk a little bit about that and its relevance to play therapists.
• 1:06
  Cathi Spooner: And as a play therapist, I always like to stay up to date on what's going on in the play therapy arena and make sure what I'm talking about at least is relevant to what we're finding out from research.
• 1:25
  Cathi Spooner: And one of the things that I found over the last 15 years supervising play therapists or child and adolescent therapists who want to learn play therapy, and I struggled with it myself, I think it's part of the learning process to recognize themes and understand what themes mean and use my clinical decision making about what to do with these themes.
• 1:55
  Cathi Spooner: So, Several years ago, I, I started to wonder about themes and how do you really recognize themes?
• 2:07
  Cathi Spooner: And where did this come from?
• 2:09
  Cathi Spooner: And so recently when I was thinking about some topics for this weekly live stream, I thought, ah, themes, that's something all play therapists want to learn about.
• 2:23
  Cathi Spooner: It's something we all struggle with and in Play Therapy Academy, this is something that we work on week after week after week.
• 2:33
  Cathi Spooner: We look at themes within the context of a theoretical model in the play therapy session.
• 2:39
  Cathi Spooner: We use the time to take a look at specifically what we're seeing in the play therapy sessions that will support the themes that we've learned.
• 2:53
  Cathi Spooner: And so I thought to myself, well, I, I wonder where these themes come from.
• 2:59
  Cathi Spooner: And this was, again, recently thinking about themes and thinking to myself, well, you know, we go to trainings and we, we hear that themes are a thing.
• 3:09
  Cathi Spooner: And how do we really know?
• 3:12
  Cathi Spooner: I remember once, uh.
• 3:15
  Cathi Spooner: Hearing a judge, this was some court testimony being given by a play therapist, and a play therapist was describing what play behaviors she had seen in the play therapy sessions that supported her clinical assessment of the skills, and it was a custody case.
• 3:36
  Cathi Spooner: And I remember, I remember hearing the judge say, well, my kids play that way.
• 3:41
  Cathi Spooner: So.
• 3:41
  Cathi Spooner: How does that mean what you're saying?
• 3:43
  Cathi Spooner: Essentially, that's my paraphrase.
• 3:46
  Cathi Spooner: And I remember thinking, well, if you're not a play therapist, that's an excellent question.
• 3:52
  Cathi Spooner: And as a play therapist, it's still an excellent question.
• 3:57
  Cathi Spooner: So where do we get this idea of themes and play and, and what they actually mean?
• 4:03
  Cathi Spooner: And do they even really show up in the playroom?
• 4:08
  Cathi Spooner: So that's where I began my I call it going down my research rabbit hole, take a deep dive into what the research says, and then I come up with what I find.
• 4:20
  Cathi Spooner: And that's what I want to talk about today.
• 4:22
  Cathi Spooner: I want to talk about a research article that I found that assessed whether or not play themes can be assessed in play therapy sessions using a standardized tool.
• 4:37
  Cathi Spooner: And in my mind, if you assess themes, in play therapy sessions using a standardized tool, then that meant, well, they probably do exist.
• 4:50
  Cathi Spooner: And then how do we make sense of those?
• 4:53
  Cathi Spooner: And is that grounded in anything?
• 4:56
  Cathi Spooner: And so that, that's what I want to talk about today.
• 4:59
  Cathi Spooner: There was an article I posted, the article, it was a research article, it was called, Can children's play themes be assessed to inform play therapy practice?
• 5:13
  Cathi Spooner: And this was, Uh, a research article that was done by Bridget Sarah, Judy Parson, Kate Renshaw and Karen Stagnetti and out of the, uh, Deakin University in Australia.
• 5:31
  Cathi Spooner: And it was published in the Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry Journal.
• 5:37
  Cathi Spooner: back in 2021.
• 5:39
  Cathi Spooner: So let's get started for today.
• 5:42
  Cathi Spooner: If you're here, I would love to see who's here joining us live.
• 5:47
  Cathi Spooner: Post your name in the comments.
• 5:49
  Cathi Spooner: Where you're from, what population you have, what are your questions about themes, and what are your thoughts about recognizing themes in the playroom?
• 6:03
  Cathi Spooner: And if you're watching on the replay, welcome! And I would love, go ahead and post your name in the comments.
• 6:10
  Cathi Spooner: If you're watching the replays, I would love to see who's watching the replays, where you're from, what population you work with, what questions you have about recognizing themes.
• 6:23
  Cathi Spooner: So we have Carla from Mexico joining me on Instagram and Sherry, I can see you joining me as well.
• 6:31
  Cathi Spooner: So let's get started.
• 6:32
  Cathi Spooner: So first, Oh, we have another up.
• 6:35
  Cathi Spooner: Good morning, Steph., your faithful followers here.
• 6:39
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome.
• 6:40
  Cathi Spooner: I'm just just starting to wonder where you were, Steph.
• 6:43
  Cathi Spooner: All right.
• 6:43
  Cathi Spooner: So let's get started for today.
• 6:44
  Cathi Spooner: This is a really important topic in play therapy.
• 6:48
  Cathi Spooner: And one of the things I, I really feel like this isn't something we really need to be talking about.
• 6:56
  Cathi Spooner: I remember a while back I was supervising Uh, Child and Adolescent Therapist or not.
• 7:03
  Cathi Spooner: I was doing some consultation.
• 7:05
  Cathi Spooner: Somebody had called me and was asking me a question and this was not somebody trained in play therapy and I was, I was trying to kind of plant some seeds about, really is worth the investment to get trained in play therapy and make sure know what you're doing know what you're doing in play therapy.
• 7:26
  Cathi Spooner: I was trying not to be rude and I'm passionate about making sure that if we're using play therapy that we're grounded in it.
• 7:37
  Cathi Spooner: One of the reasons I'm so passionate about it is because way back in the day I had been introduced to it, uh, play therapy in the 80s when I was a special education teacher and that was one of the catalysts for me getting out of special education and getting into counseling and I remember not being a, once I got my master's degree and got started in the field, I found it really difficult to get play therapy training.
• 8:09
  Cathi Spooner: And so I was doing it without being trained.
• 8:12
  Cathi Spooner: And let me tell you the difference between being trained and not being trained is ginormous.
• 8:20
  Cathi Spooner: And so now I really do recognize the difference in skill and competency when we're not trained, which is one of the reasons I developed Play Therapy Academy, which is my online consultation and training program to teach child and adolescent therapists how to use play therapy.
• 8:41
  Cathi Spooner: So I'll talk a little bit more about that at the end.
• 8:44
  Cathi Spooner: As well as some trainings that I have, but for now, I, one of the things that I recognize, so I'm having this conversation.
• 8:55
  Cathi Spooner: And this person is working with a young child and not trained in play therapy.
• 9:02
  Cathi Spooner: And she says, Oh, well, I'll just get some toys out and they'll just play.
• 9:06
  Cathi Spooner: And I'll figure it out into my head.
• 9:07
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, I went tilt in my head.
• 9:09
  Cathi Spooner: I was like, Oh, that's a bad idea.
• 9:12
  Cathi Spooner: No, no, no.
• 9:13
  Cathi Spooner: And I, I managed to eke out a respectful, well, here's why you want to do it this way.
• 9:20
  Cathi Spooner: And, you know, you really need to be trained.
• 9:23
  Cathi Spooner: So what that highlights for me is really understanding the need to be trained in a theoretical model that determines how you help your client access those therapeutic powers of play and how you make sense of and define the problem, which will then be related to how you are assessing and understanding the themes that are showing up in the playroom.
• 9:55
  Cathi Spooner: So first and foremost, what are play therapy themes?
• 10:01
  Cathi Spooner: So play therapy themes are essentially the way in which children use the play therapy process to work through what's going on.
• 10:13
  Cathi Spooner: And these are the themes that show up in the playroom through their play behaviors, what they say, what they do that give you an understanding of the clinical issues that they're working through.
• 10:27
  Cathi Spooner: So just like in grownup therapy, we use talking to get a sense of we're trained to listen to what's being communicated in the session through the words.
• 10:40
  Cathi Spooner: In play therapy, we learn to observe and listen and tune in to what's being communicated through children's play.
• 10:52
  Cathi Spooner: So these are play therapy themes can be expressed through behavior and emotions in the playroom.
• 11:00
  Cathi Spooner: And it's, it's essentially what the children are working through regarding their social and emotional and psychological issues that they're struggling with.
• 11:13
  Cathi Spooner: These will show up in the play because children use play to communicate what's going on.
• 11:20
  Cathi Spooner: They use play to, to kind of explore and make sense of things in their lives, try out new things, learn new skills.
• 11:31
  Cathi Spooner: So let me check in.
• 11:32
  Cathi Spooner: We have a few more comments.
• 11:35
  Cathi Spooner: Quite a few people checked in.
• 11:37
  Cathi Spooner: Jamie Spence from Reno.
• 11:40
  Cathi Spooner: Hey, Jamie.
• 11:41
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome.
• 11:42
  Cathi Spooner: Oh, Jasmine.
• 11:43
  Cathi Spooner: Sorry.
• 11:44
  Cathi Spooner: I pronounced I was getting two people at one time.
• 11:47
  Cathi Spooner: So we have Jamie Smith from Lakeland and Jasmine Spence from Reno.
• 11:53
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome.
• 11:54
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome, Jasmine.
• 11:55
  Cathi Spooner: It was nice meeting you at the, uh, I met Jasmine at the, uh, Association for Play Therapy Conference a couple weeks ago.
• 12:04
  Cathi Spooner: So it was really nice meeting you.
• 12:06
  Cathi Spooner: And welcome.
• 12:07
  Cathi Spooner: So we have Megan Mitchell from Washington, D.
• 12:11
  Cathi Spooner: C.
• 12:11
  Cathi Spooner: Curious how we can do this, discuss themes with parents.
• 12:15
  Cathi Spooner: That is such a good point.
• 12:18
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and welcome So I live in Southern Nevada now, but I am from the Washington DC area.
• 12:25
  Cathi Spooner: Most of my life I lived out there in Prince William County in Virginia.
• 12:30
  Cathi Spooner: If you know where that is.
• 12:31
  Cathi Spooner: So we have Carmen Smith from Central Florida, student intern, learning all the things.
• 12:37
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome.
• 12:38
  Cathi Spooner: Good for you.
• 12:39
  Cathi Spooner: I work with children.
• 12:41
  Cathi Spooner: And getting trained in play therapy.
• 12:43
  Cathi Spooner: That is awesome.
• 12:45
  Cathi Spooner: Carmen, welcome.
• 12:47
  Cathi Spooner: And then we have, I am gonna apologize because I'm probably not gonna pronounce your name right.
• 12:56
  Cathi Spooner: I think it's important to make sure we learn how to say people's names.
• 13:00
  Cathi Spooner: I'm going to say Slyjana Peric from London, UK.
• 13:06
  Cathi Spooner: And then Jasmine says, what is the best way to describe the interpretation of themes to parrots and how to document those themes in notes?
• 13:17
  Cathi Spooner: So Jasmine, that is one of the reasons I went down this rabbit hole to begin with, with play therapy themes.
• 13:25
  Cathi Spooner: Which is, I'm in the process of creating a new course, the next course in my Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Excellence series, and that is, uh, I'm hoping it'll, well, not hoping, this course will be out next week by mid December.
• 13:43
  Cathi Spooner: And one of the things that's important is being able to be proficient understanding and recognizing play therapy themes because we can use them in our progress notes.
• 13:55
  Cathi Spooner: In fact, I think they're an important part of our progress note writing.
• 14:00
  Cathi Spooner: So that is an excellent question.
• 14:03
  Cathi Spooner: And, uh, discussing themes with parents is, is important as well.
• 14:08
  Cathi Spooner: So those are great points.
• 14:11
  Cathi Spooner: So the next thing is, so, um, so now we know what are play therapy themes.
• 14:20
  Cathi Spooner: So why do they matter?
• 14:22
  Cathi Spooner: What's the big deal about play therapy themes as a play therapist providing play therapy?
• 14:30
  Cathi Spooner: Well, the reason that it's important to really understand play therapy themes is because as a play therapist, we're going to be using those play therapy themes to help us understand what children are working through, what they're trying to make sense of, what skills they're trying to develop, their sense of self, who they are, how are they making sense of what's going on in their lives and how it's impacting them.
• 15:03
  Cathi Spooner: And so as a trained play therapist, we're trained to look for these themes and the themes that we identify are going to be heavily influenced by the play therapy model, that theoretical model that we're using to understand, to understand and help children throughout the change process, get through all of the stages of change.
• 15:32
  Cathi Spooner: To do that, themes will oftentimes give us a sense of where our clients are in the change process.
• 15:41
  Cathi Spooner: So why am I saying oftentimes?
• 15:43
  Cathi Spooner: Because the reality is they do.
• 15:45
  Cathi Spooner: Sometimes we don't always know exactly what they're working through.
• 15:52
  Cathi Spooner: What?
• 15:53
  Cathi Spooner: I said that out loud.
• 15:55
  Cathi Spooner: There's a thing that we say in play therapy and it's trust the process.
• 16:01
  Cathi Spooner: I don't know how many of you have heard that when you're getting trained in play therapy, trust the process.
• 16:06
  Cathi Spooner: I remember my supervisor saying that to me.
• 16:09
  Cathi Spooner: I remembered going to trainings early on in my play therapy, skill development, hearing, trust the process.
• 16:18
  Cathi Spooner: And to be honest, it got me through those awkward stages of learning.
• 16:24
  Cathi Spooner: And even now, sometimes I don't always know in the moment what my clients are working through.
• 16:32
  Cathi Spooner: And sometimes it might take me a session or two or three even to really get, uh, a pretty good sense of what's going on in the playroom.
• 16:43
  Cathi Spooner: So we do need to trust the process.
• 16:47
  Cathi Spooner: And what does that mean?
• 16:49
  Cathi Spooner: Trust the process means that we're going to rely on our theoretical model in play therapy.
• 16:58
  Cathi Spooner: That's going to help our, our child clients access those therapeutic powers of play.
• 17:04
  Cathi Spooner: And I'm going to trust that as I hold that therapeutic space within a strong therapeutic relationship that my, and I'm going to use the model as the model is intended to be used, that my client is going to be able to access and work through whatever it is that they need to work through.
• 17:25
  Cathi Spooner: My role in that is to hold that space and to do my best efforts to apply the theoretical model and then trust that process.
• 17:39
  Cathi Spooner: And through that, I'm going to be recognizing what my clients are communicating in the play therapy session through their themes.
• 17:49
  Cathi Spooner: And I use that information to one, help me get a sense of what they're working on to help me know where they are in the change process based on my theoretical model and the themes.
• 18:04
  Cathi Spooner: So, uh, one of the things that we can do with themes is it gives us a sense of where clients are in the play therapy process.
• 18:13
  Cathi Spooner: And hopefully you are having dedicated time where you are meeting with parents intentionally in a session.
• 18:24
  Cathi Spooner: I, I call them the five minute drive bys, like, like going to the fast food drive through line.
• 18:32
  Cathi Spooner: I really don't find those to be those, you know, I'm check ins at the end of the play therapy session.
• 18:40
  Cathi Spooner: I'm not a huge fan of those.
• 18:41
  Cathi Spooner: I've learned from experience that those really aren't the most effective way to engage parents and have conversations about how their client is doing.
• 18:53
  Cathi Spooner: I don't find it helpful to have those email conversations in between sessions.
• 19:00
  Cathi Spooner: Um, phone calls really do take up a lot of time and to me it's the makings of burnout for play therapists.
• 19:09
  Cathi Spooner: So having those intentional scheduled times where you're meeting with parents, this is where you're going to explain that.
• 19:17
  Cathi Spooner: And so you can use that to kind of communicate to parents how their child is doing.
• 19:25
  Cathi Spooner: I don't necessarily think you need to go into the themes.
• 19:29
  Cathi Spooner: Parents really want to know more about how you think their child is doing and talk about that and how that is kind of showing up in their everyday lives.
• 19:41
  Cathi Spooner: So if you do it that way, it's been my experience that that's really what parents want to know more about.
• 19:49
  Cathi Spooner: So let me get into the research for today that I wanted to talk about.
• 19:54
  Cathi Spooner: So that's really what are play therapy themes?
• 19:57
  Cathi Spooner: Why do they matter?
• 19:58
  Cathi Spooner: And how can this research be useful to us?
• 20:03
  Cathi Spooner: So this was a research article.
• 20:05
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, this was a research project that was done and the article was published in 2021.
• 20:11
  Cathi Spooner: And what the researchers were looking at is examining if play therapy themes could be identified using a standardized assessment.
• 20:22
  Cathi Spooner: And the assessment tool that they were using is called the Child Initiated Pretend Play Assessment or ChIPPA.
• 20:32
  Cathi Spooner: And this play therapy assessment, pretend play assessment, measures and scores three aspects of children's pretend play.
• 20:42
  Cathi Spooner: It measures and scores elaborateness of the play, use of symbols in play, and assesses if the child can self initiate play ideas.
• 20:56
  Cathi Spooner: And in this research, they, they, the population they, they conducted the research with, was 30 typically developing children between the ages of 5 and 7 years old in Australia.
• 21:10
  Cathi Spooner: And they were observed using this assessment tool for 30 minute play sessions.
• 21:16
  Cathi Spooner: And what they found is that 26 of the 30 typically developing children were able to demonstrate play themes.
• 21:27
  Cathi Spooner: And so, um, they used a model to identify themes based on a previous project that was done by Wilson and Ryan back in 2005.
• 21:42
  Cathi Spooner: And Ron, Wilson and Ryan identified themes in children's play based on Eric Erickson's stages of psychosocial development.
• 21:53
  Cathi Spooner: And I'm going to read a quote.
• 21:55
  Cathi Spooner: They chose Erickson's model as it provides the best general overview of social and emotional development, assuming that each stage of social emotional development has precursors to other stages of development and that this is sufficiently complex and broad enough to encompass typical development yet allow for deviations and arrests.
• 22:21
  Cathi Spooner: So what they, they used these themes identified by Wilson and Ryan to assess if play therapy, if play themes showed up for children and they determined that for four 26 of the 30 children that there were identified themes showing up in the playroom.
• 22:46
  Cathi Spooner: And an interesting thing, I think it's interesting anyway, four of the 30 children who were typically developing, assessed to be typically developing, did not demonstrate themes.
• 23:00
  Cathi Spooner: And so they took a little closer look at that.
• 23:03
  Cathi Spooner: What they hypothesized was for these four children, they weren't able to initiate pretend play.
• 23:10
  Cathi Spooner: So I know sometimes we think about in the playroom, our clients, what, you know, are they actually demonstrating themes in here?
• 23:20
  Cathi Spooner: Something going on in here?
• 23:23
  Cathi Spooner: And what this research tells us is that themes do show up in the playroom.
• 23:28
  Cathi Spooner: Children do demonstrate themes in the playroom.
• 23:33
  Cathi Spooner: And if we're not necessarily seeing any themes, maybe one of the things that we want to look at and explore a little further is what's the reason they may not be developing themes.
• 23:46
  Cathi Spooner: And one of the things that, uh, this research kind of shows is that not, not all children can self initiate pretend play.
• 23:57
  Cathi Spooner: So that might be something to look at what's going on with that client to better understand them and know how to help them with whatever struggles that they're experiencing at the time.
• 24:11
  Cathi Spooner: Um, So that is it for today.
• 24:16
  Cathi Spooner: And let me just do a quick recap for play therapy themes.
• 24:21
  Cathi Spooner: First, what are play therapy themes?
• 24:24
  Cathi Spooner: They're essentially how children, so children use play to understand what's going on in their lives, to make sense of things that are happening to them, explore their world, try out new skills.
• 24:38
  Cathi Spooner: And in play therapy, children access the therapeutic aspects of play for healing.
• 24:46
  Cathi Spooner: And themes are a way that children demonstrate through behavior, statements made, emotions manifested, their interactions with the toys, their interactions with you, give a sense of what exactly are they working through.
• 25:04
  Cathi Spooner: What exactly are they trying to make sense of?
• 25:07
  Cathi Spooner: What exactly are they exploring?
• 25:09
  Cathi Spooner: What skills are they trying out so that they can heal?
• 25:13
  Cathi Spooner: And play therapists use this information to get a sense of what is going on with your client and where they are in the change process based on your theoretical model.
• 25:27
  Cathi Spooner: So it gives us really good information once we're trained to know what to look for and get a sense of what it means.
• 25:37
  Cathi Spooner: And again, one of the things that we're always keeping in mind as trained play therapists We're looking at themes over time from session to session.
• 25:49
  Cathi Spooner: We don't really look at one thing in one session and decide, Oh, Eureka, I've solved the mystery.
• 25:58
  Cathi Spooner: While it might give you a good idea of what they're working on in that particular moment.
• 26:05
  Cathi Spooner: One of the things that will, demonstrate more support with that is how you see that change over time, hopefully change with how children work through whatever it is that they're needing to work through and make sense of.
• 26:21
  Cathi Spooner: So identifying play behaviors is actually a core competency, play themes and play behaviors to understand how children are using the therapeutic powers of play for healing.
• 26:36
  Cathi Spooner: And in my mind, this is where consultation or supervision is key in addition to getting good training is because you, you want to be able to, in play therapy academy, I'm always encouraging the therapists in play therapy academy to, to use video.
• 26:57
  Cathi Spooner: I need permission.
• 26:58
  Cathi Spooner: They need the permission from parents and guardians.
• 27:01
  Cathi Spooner: The videos are the best way to really learn in real time what's going on.
• 27:08
  Cathi Spooner: And in Play Therapy Academy, you have my 30 years experience working with children, adolescents, and families, but you also have the collective brilliance, I say, that's what I call it, of the other members of the group.
• 27:23
  Cathi Spooner: And that can help you really hone your skill on not only using Play Therapy model, also learning how to recognize themes and using a model in order to recognize those themes.
• 27:40
  Cathi Spooner: And so when we're understanding themes, I think it's our understanding play therapy.
• 27:45
  Cathi Spooner: And in this case, we're talking about play themes.
• 27:49
  Cathi Spooner: If I always like to go back and look at what the research is telling us to have that kind of, you know, inform our practice of play therapy as well as help us understand how children are using play therapy to help them heal.
• 28:07
  Cathi Spooner: And in this research that was done back in 2021, it does help us understand that yes, children do demonstrate themes in their play.
• 28:21
  Cathi Spooner: And in this case, with this particular research study, they looked at 30 children and 26 out of the 30 using that standardized assessment were able to recognized that these, these children were demonstrating themes in their play.
• 28:40
  Cathi Spooner: And of the 34 children did not demonstrate themes as assessed by this tool, the ChIPPA, Child Initiated Pretend Play Assessment.
• 28:54
  Cathi Spooner: And so what they hypothesized was these children that did not demonstrate themes were not able to see self initiate pretend play, which is another thing we want to make sure to look at in the playroom.
• 29:10
  Cathi Spooner: And it is interesting to know that there are tools out there that we can be trained in that can give us a sense of what themes are being demonstrated in the play session.
• 29:23
  Cathi Spooner: They used a specific model to recognize the themes and that was themes.
• 29:30
  Cathi Spooner: developed and identified by Wilson and Ray.
• 29:34
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're interested in the, that research article, I posted the citation for the article in the description for this episode.
• 29:46
  Cathi Spooner: So you can go and check it out for yourself and see what, what other nuggets of gold you can glean from that research.
• 29:55
  Cathi Spooner: So let me just tell you a little bit about Play Therapy Academy.
• 30:00
  Cathi Spooner: If you're interested, if you're a play therapist or you're a child and adolescent therapist and you, you have been wanting, to learn play therapy.
• 30:10
  Cathi Spooner: Then Play Therapy Academy is an online program we have twice monthly online group consultation meetings and we have case presentations.
• 30:21
  Cathi Spooner: So you get dedicated time to present your cases and you can learn from each other, uh, when others are presenting.
• 30:31
  Cathi Spooner: So you get your own dedicated time as well as the ability to learn from others and what they're presenting.
• 30:38
  Cathi Spooner: And then in addition to the play therapy consultation meetings twice a month, we also have courses available in your account, your platform.
• 30:52
  Cathi Spooner: So there are, several courses in there from the getting grounded and play therapy excellence series, getting grounded in play therapy foundations, getting grounded in play therapy case conceptualization, getting grounded in play therapy treatment planning.
• 31:11
  Cathi Spooner: And then next one coming out that'll be available in the, in the play therapy academy is getting grounded in play therapy progress notes.
• 31:19
  Cathi Spooner: And then there'll be some other ones after that.
• 31:22
  Cathi Spooner: For those of you who don't, really need, Oh, let me tell you where you can find that actually.
• 31:28
  Cathi Spooner: So if you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, there'll be some, and you can look in the comments, there'll be links to my website where you can check out more information.
• 31:40
  Cathi Spooner: If you're interested and you want to schedule a free 30 minute video to see how Play Therapy Academy can help you.
• 31:47
  Cathi Spooner: I have a few openings left.
• 31:49
  Cathi Spooner: I have one opening left in my Saturday group and three openings left in my Wednesday group.
• 31:57
  Cathi Spooner: So those are going to fill up fast.
• 31:59
  Cathi Spooner: If you're interested, you probably want to go ahead and schedule a free 30 minute video with me.
• 32:05
  Cathi Spooner: That will be in the comments or you can hop over to my website at rhplaytherapytraining.
• 32:13
  Cathi Spooner: com.
• 32:14
  Cathi Spooner: If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, Check on the supervision page if maybe you don't need the play therapy academy because you're already getting supervision.
• 32:28
  Cathi Spooner: Um, but maybe you're interested in some of the courses.
• 32:31
  Cathi Spooner: I have several courses available that you can just get those.
• 32:35
  Cathi Spooner: I have getting grounded in play therapy treatment planning, getting grounded in play therapy case conceptualization, getting grounded in play therapy foundations, all of those, you can find those over on my website.
• 32:49
  Cathi Spooner: They're self paced.
• 32:50
  Cathi Spooner: You take them in your time zone when it's, when it's convenient for your schedule.
• 32:56
  Cathi Spooner: There are video recorded modules and worksheets and workbooks in there to kind of help you apply the skills that you're learning.
• 33:07
  Cathi Spooner: So let me just take one more look at the comments.
• 33:11
  Cathi Spooner: So we have Facebook user also interning.
• 33:15
  Cathi Spooner: I work with children, child clients with school and with students in school.
• 33:22
  Cathi Spooner: I'm also training in play therapy.
• 33:25
  Cathi Spooner: I live in Long Island, New York.
• 33:27
  Cathi Spooner: Well, welcome.
• 33:28
  Cathi Spooner: It's always exciting to see more and more people getting trained in play therapy.
• 33:34
  Cathi Spooner: I really do think that play therapy has come a long way and now is really recognized as the go to modality to help children heal.
• 33:45
  Cathi Spooner: So that is it for this week and I will see you next time.
• 33:51
  Cathi Spooner: Bye.
• 33:55
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 33:59
  Cathi Spooner: I hope you found the discussion valuable.
• 34:01
  Cathi Spooner: And gain new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal.
• 34:08
  Cathi Spooner: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 34:14
  Cathi Spooner: Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 34:20
  Cathi Spooner: Remember, play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 34:24
  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 and your own work and relationships.
• 34:36
  Cathi Spooner: If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you.
• 34:43
  Cathi Spooner: Connect with me on social media.
• 34:45
  Cathi Spooner: and visit my website at Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources.
• 34:55
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 34:59
  Cathi Spooner: Until next time, keep playing, learning, and growing.