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Congruence & Co-Regulation in Play Therapy · Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

• 0:02
  Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy, 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.
• 0:47
  Hey there.
• 0:48
  Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy, and today we're gonna talk about two things that I haven't really seen go together.
• 1:00
  In my mind, they go together, and so I thought I would bring these two together, these two concepts together to, and then talk about how that therapeutic use of self in the playroom, and how we use that therapeutic use of self for co-regulation is a really important part of the play therapy process.
• 1:26
  And so these concepts of co- congruence and co-regulation are the two concepts that I wanna bring together, and then talk about w- how does that apply for play therapists in the playroom?
• 1:42
  And so if you're joining me live today, I would love to know who's here.
• 1:48
  Post your name in the comments, what population you work with, where you work.
• 1:54
  Um, how do you conceptualize this idea of co-regulation, this concept of congruence?
• 2:04
  And post it in the comments.
• 2:06
  If you're watching the replay, join the conversation, post in the comments.
• 2:11
  If you're listening on the podcast episode, feel free to send me an email, send me your thoughts, or pop over to Instagram and follow me at Renewing Hearts Play Ther- uh, Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training.
• 2:27
  I think it's Renewing Hearts Training.
• 2:29
  I think that's what it is.
• 2:31
  Anyway, um, and send me a message.
• 2:35
  So if you find this information useful, please feel free to share it across your social media platforms, share it with a colleague, have more discussions.
• 2:46
  I hope it j- kind of activates some discussions in your play therapy community.
• 2:53
  And also, if you're watching on YouTube, feel free to click that Subscribe button and hit that notification bell so that you get notified every time I go live.
• 3:06
  I go live every week at 7:00 AM Pacific Time.
• 3:09
  I'm here on the West Coast.
• 3:11
  So what does it really mean to that whole concept of therapeutic use of self, and why is it important?
• 3:23
  And today, I wanna go kind of, go a little bit deeper, not, not necessarily superficial.
• 3:32
  I wanna dive a little bit into the, this concept of neuro- uh, nervous system.
• 3:39
  I've been talking about this for the last couple of episodes.
• 3:44
  So if you're interested in this topic, I would highly encourage you to go back and either watch those previous episodes, you can pop over and do that on my YouTube channel.
• 3:56
  Just click on the Live tab and you'll see all the replays, or listen to the previous podcasts.
• 4:03
  I have talked about this idea of congruence in previous episodes, and in fact, in one of the previous episodes, I went through and kinda talked about this article by Ray, Jane, and Stoolmaker that was published in 2024 called A Way of Being in the Playroom: Experience-Expression Congruence Model.
• 4:28
  It's in the International Journal of Play Therapy.
• 4:32
  So those of you who are Association for Play Therapy members, you may wanna pull out your 2014, uh, journal.
• 4:42
  S- and so I talked about this a little bit more.
• 4:45
  They, it- it's, it's a little more than 10 years old, but it's still really good information.
• 4:51
  What I liked about the article was that they introduced a model to help access and maintain congruence, and so they talked about their article.
• 5:01
  I mean, they talked about their model in the article.
• 5:06
  And then the other topic that I've been talking a lot about and recently, and really exploring myself, is this whole idea of Lisa Feldman Barrett's theory of constructed emotions, and then this other, that which kind of connects with a larger concept that has been, that I've been exploring.
• 5:33
  It's been around for a while.
• 5:34
  It's not one we talk about much.
• 5:36
  I don't, in the play therapy world, I would say in the mental health field, more people go towards interpersonal neurobiology and polyvagal theory.
• 5:48
  Since that article came out about polyvagal theory, some, some of the researchers kind of taking issue with the theoretical founda- or not theoretical, it's more like they took issue with the science of it.
• 6:08
  And so that got me started on a journey of exploring s- what else is out there and kind of exploring the critiques of those articles.
• 6:19
  There was a- another one about the body keeps score, and is trauma really stored in the body?
• 6:25
  Where is trauma stored?
• 6:27
  Um, which opened up this whole idea of the brain as a predictive, um, machine, so to speak.
• 6:39
  So this idea of predictive coding and predictive coding errors, which led to exploring this concept of homeostasis and allostasis and allostatic load, which I was in a, a, I joined this neuroscience membership where we have this awesome neuroscientist who breaks down and she speaks regular people language for therapists to help bridge that gap between theory and research and practical application, which is what we want, right?
• 7:14
  We wanna know how to use the information to help our clients, and we wanna stay up to date with what the research is currently showing us and updating the, the way that we're thinking.
• 7:29
  So this whole idea of the theory of constructed emotions and how How emotions come to being, so to speak.
• 7:41
  Are they stored in neural circuitry like, uh, Jaak Panksepp proposed?
• 7:48
  Or is it more a theory of constructed mo- emotions more in line with what Feldman, Feldman Barrett is proposing So when I was thinking about what to talk about in terms of this whole idea of the therapeutic use of self, I will, I will tie all of those rabbit holes together right now.
• 8:08
  Um, so this, this is what it's like in my brain.
• 8:11
  I go all these different ways, and then I'm like, okay, let me get back to my main point and, and get some cohesive thinking here.
• 8:19
  Um, and so it brought me back to this idea of this therapeutic use of self, co- um, congruence and co-regulation.
• 8:33
  And how does that work in terms of our own nervous system, our own internal experiences, and how does that influence the way in which we show up in the playroom or in our therapy sessions?
• 8:48
  And the reality is we're human beings, so all of these things are going to happen.
• 8:54
  It's not like we turn off and go into robot mode.
• 8:58
  As my husband said to me years ago when I was struggling and trying to figure out why I was responding.
• 9:05
  And he, he's not a therapist.
• 9:08
  He's very practical, and he, he's like, "Well, you're human, of course, you're gonna feel that way." And I thought, oh, yeah, I guess, true.
• 9:17
  I think therapists, we're so hard on ourselves, and partially'cause we need to be for this concept of congruence that I'm gonna be talking about.
• 9:29
  Um, but also sometimes we're too hard on ourselves, and that to me is where being part of a community of play therapists can be so valuable.
• 9:40
  And I'll talk a little bit about that as we go along this, uh, memberships that I have for play therapy communities.
• 9:49
  Um, and so this whole idea… Uh, so in the, in the description, you'll notice that I, I referenced two articles if you want to go and look at those.
• 10:03
  Today's episode is kinda loosely based on those, but they're really good articles, so I thought I would put the references in the description in case you want to dive a little deeper into these.
• 10:16
  And I'm gonna take… You know, I… So when I read articles, my mind is like, I, I'll kinda wander, and I'll put things together in my head.
• 10:25
  And so that's what this episode is.
• 10:28
  I, I put these together in my head based on the exploration that I've been doing over the last s- several months.
• 10:37
  Uh, and then how I kinda tie this together into this idea of our therapeutic use of self and our own nervous system regulation- And how we're using that.
• 10:51
  So when I think about that, so today's topic is congruence and co-regulation in play therapy.
• 10:59
  And so first we wanna talk about this concept of congruence.
• 11:04
  And when we're talking about congruence, what we're talking about is congruence is matching what you're experiencing internally with what you're expressing externally.
• 11:19
  So not performing calm, not performing warmth and empathy, but being real, showing up authentically in that therapeutic space with intention.
• 11:36
  And so congruence gives you the ability to demonstrate unconditional positive regard because you feel it towards your client internally, and that will be expressed externally based on a lot of factors, which includes you- like, what's going on with your own nervous system.
• 12:02
  And if we're looking at what's going on with your own nervous system and how you're regulating your emotions, then in my mind we're also talking about this whole idea of constructed emotions and what goes on with that.
• 12:17
  Or you could even use a CBT, cognitive behavioral lens with this, or a DBT.
• 12:23
  Like, what, what is going on with my thoughts, my beliefs, what's… And that's gonna influence my emotions, and that's gonna influence my behaviors.
• 12:35
  So if I can't genuinely access unconditional positive regard and empathy internally for my client, how will that actually show up non-verbally and relationally?
• 12:52
  Because if we're talking about that therapeutic use of self, we're talking about the, that relat- that therapeutic relationship as being part of that corrective healing experience for our clients.
• 13:09
  Because they're going to know.
• 13:11
  Kids will know if you're being genuine.
• 13:14
  Teenagers will know if you're being genuine.
• 13:17
  Really attuned clients are gonna know if what you're saying isn't matching what they're experiencing of you in the moment.
• 13:28
  Now, some of that might be their own transference issues, might be something in them that got activated.
• 13:35
  But this whole idea of co-regulation includes the ability for us to understand what is going on in me and what am I experiencing, and so is it- so I can tell the difference of when is it me and when is it my client, or maybe when is it both of us.
• 13:59
  And then we're making decisions about what we're going to do about that in the playroom Just going through some of the comments.
• 14:12
  Whoa.
• 14:13
  Okay.
• 14:14
  All righty.
• 14:16
  Um, so how are we creating that therapeutic space?
• 14:24
  And a large part of that is gonna be influenced by our therapeutic presence.
• 14:32
  So when we're talking about congruence, we're talking about can I access unconditional positive regard and empathy, non-judgmentally, holding space for whatever shows up, which means I have to tap into my own nervous system, and what is going on with that.
• 14:49
  That it's also exhausting to do that day after day after day, session after session after session.
• 14:57
  Some sessions are easier.
• 14:59
  We all have the hard ones, and those, those impact us.
• 15:06
  And so how are we, how are we recognizing what's going on with that, and then managing that?
• 15:14
  And some of that, to me, this is why it's really important to have a play therapy community that you can go to for support, where you feel supported, not judged, where you can be authentic and show up in a way that helps you sort through some of that.
• 15:34
  And because we are play therapists, we understand that language of play therapy.
• 15:39
  We understand the whole privacy and confidentiality.
• 15:43
  Um, not that you're gonna share protected health information, but we, we get the need to hold that conversation very privately, and that we get the whole purpose of consultation, we get the whole purpose of supporting each other with our clients, and the, and the importance of holding privacy for that.
• 16:08
  So this, this idea of using our therapeutic self, tapping into congruence, which the article by Ray, Jain, and Stoolmaker, the 2014 article, kinda walk… They, they, they discuss their model to h- show how to do that.
• 16:28
  Um, if you're interested in that, it was really a, really interesting.
• 16:33
  And but this idea of it's s- hard to do that alone.
• 16:39
  Like, how do we do that alone?
• 16:43
  Where do we take our, ugh- So sometimes we can use that in therapy, right?
• 16:50
  That's an important thing for us.
• 16:52
  But sometimes we just need people to think alongside of us and help us sort out what just happened and give us ideas, and to me, that's a therapeutic community.
• 17:01
  I mean, a, a play therapy community.
• 17:04
  And we do that in Play Therapy Elevation Circle, which is focused more on having a place for people to think alongside, like we're about Play Therapy Elevation Circle, we're going to be having our monthly consultation meeting.
• 17:19
  We also do a book club in there, so w- we just talked about, um, an article about how do you identify play themes, 'cause that one is hard to do alone, especially in the beginning.
• 17:33
  So it's nice to have others to kinda think alongside and help, help you figure out what the play themes are.
• 17:39
  So we don't have to do it alone because the weight of it is really heavy, which is going to influence Your ability to access congruence authentically, to show up authentically in the play therapy session, session after session after session, with unconditional positive regard and empathy.
• 18:02
  And the co-regulation piece comes in because as we're understanding what's going on within us, we are a- and we can stay in a regulated state, then we can help our clients get from a highly activated emotional state to a more regulated state.
• 18:25
  Or from a shutdown state to a more regulated state.
• 18:31
  And then we can also help parents, we can teach parents how to do that.
• 18:37
  And to me, that is very critical work that we teach parents how to do this whole co-regulation thing, which is gonna require them to, to use some self-awareness.
• 18:51
  And so this whole idea of self-awareness means that we are understanding what goes on internally.
• 19:01
  We un- we can recognize when our nervous system is a little activated or maybe shut down.
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  Are we in our window of tolerance within that session?
• 19:16
  And that's gonna require, if we're tapping, that's gonna require us to be self-aware.
• 19:22
  So we need to be aware of what emotions are, we're being experienced.
• 19:27
  We need to understand what are the beliefs that we have going on about the emotions that we're experiencing and, and then what does that mean in terms of our behavior or our ability to, to be congruent with unconditional positive regard.
• 19:46
  So this is where that whole idea of emotions give us a lot of really good information, and we wanna teach this to parents as well.
• 19:58
  So let's say, um, I, I know I'm not the only one that has ever had this happen, right?
• 20:06
  This, this is a thing.
• 20:08
  We, we also talk about this in my memberships,'cause it's a, it's a space to be able to do that.
• 20:16
  Let's say I'm in a play therapy session and I just have this whole sense of, "I really don't like this client. I don't know why I don't like this client, but something about this client just irritates me." Right?
• 20:33
  So if that's how I'm feeling in the session, I'm not tapping into unconditional positive regard and empathy so that can show up in the playroom, right?
• 20:46
  So my role then is what is going on?
• 20:50
  Sometimes I, I don't always figure that out in the session.
• 20:53
  A lot of times I have to figure that out later, and that to me is where, uh, some support can come in handy, having a group where you can process that.
• 21:03
  So in the moment, I'm just g- gonna recognize, okay, well, I'm not in congruence with unconditional positive regard right now, so I need to set that aside.
• 21:13
  There's some good information going on there, so this is my beliefs.
• 21:18
  I'm not telling myself that I'm a bad person for having these feelings.
• 21:23
  I'm, I'm experiencing some negative emotions which are tied to beliefs of, "I don't really like this kid. I don't know why." And that's gonna influence how I respond to him.
• 21:38
  So in the moment what I'm not doing is saying,"Oh my gosh, I'm a bad play therapist," right?
• 21:44
  Negative cognitions which are gonna come with more negative emotions, probably shame and guilt and feeling bad and all the things, and then we can go to our, um, our whole beating ourselves up.
• 22:01
  We don't wanna do that in the session, and we wanna shift our belief system also.
• 22:07
  Like, huh, this is interesting.
• 22:10
  Shift it more to curiosity.
• 22:13
  Like, "Hmm, this is interesting.
• 22:13
  What is this? I don't really know what this is." I'll figure that out later.
• 22:21
  For right now, this is a kid, and kids are awesome.
• 22:26
  They're always awesome.
• 22:28
  And probably something is going on that I'm picking up on something, like maybe this is how others feel about this kid, which is probably why this kid doesn't have very many friends.
• 22:41
  So I can use that later.
• 22:43
  I can figure that out later, but for right now, this kid needs me to show up in a way that's gonna help facilitate some healing.
• 22:53
  And so I also have to be open to that moment to moment experience in the playroom, recognizing my emotions r- uh, and figuring out what's going on with that in terms of, huh, something's going on, but I can figure that out later.
• 23:11
  And then we're gonna recognize the… So what that requires is recognizing the difference between maybe what's my client's internal responses and maybe what are my own internal responses,'cause it might be both.
• 23:29
  We might be just be kind of activating things in each other because it's a relationship.
• 23:35
  It's a professional relationship, it's a therapeutic relationship, and it's a relationship and as therapists we use that therapeutic relationship to create that corrective healing experience as well as to co-regulate in the session.
• 23:55
  Because if I'm, if I'm feeling a little activated by something going on, then my ability to, if I start going outside my window of tolerance, then that's gonna influence my ability to co-regulate my client.
• 24:11
  And so my ability to be self-aware and then take the steps needed in order to get back into a regulated state is a really important part of that therapeutic use of self.
• 24:25
  And we're teaching this, and we're modeling this to c- to parents.
• 24:30
  We have to be aware of our own regulated state and be able to access congruence in order to effectively co-regulate.
• 24:44
  That's how I think about it And so, like, here's, here's an example of what that would look like in the playroom or in the play therapy process.
• 24:55
  Let's say you have, uh, a client who struggles with really big emotions.
• 25:02
  And let's say they're just having a really bad day.
• 25:05
  They come and the, the parent actually gets them to the office while they're having big emotions, and you're like,"Good job," 'cause sometimes they would just not do it, give up, and, and go home.
• 25:18
  And I always tell parents, just, "If you can get them here, get them here, and we'll figure it out together." And so let's say they do.
• 25:25
  They get their child to your office, and their child is in your lobby not having a good day, and they're mad.
• 25:34
  And let's say they're starting to do a little swearing, and hopefully nobody else is in your waiting room.
• 25:41
  If they are, you can take them to another office to do some, some things privately.
• 25:47
  And let's say maybe they're knocking things over, kind of, you know, really big emotions.
• 25:55
  I look at that as a therapeutic opportunity to co-regulate.
• 26:03
  I'm gonna co-regulate parent so parent can co-regulate child, and I'm gonna hold space for both.
• 26:12
  But my focus is really in that moment helping parent to get… stay regulated so parent can in that moment do that co-regulating with their, with their client.
• 26:27
  And what we're doing in the play therapy process in those parent-only sessions is I'm teaching them how to do that.
• 26:35
  I'm teaching them what co-regulation means.
• 26:38
  I'm teaching them to be self-aware.
• 26:40
  I'm teaching them how to tap into an internally regulated state, checking what their emotions are, what are the beliefs that are going on, and how that influences behavior so they can get into a congruent state of empathy and Unconditional positive regard for their child.
• 27:05
  It doesn't mean we don't set limits.
• 27:06
  We do.
• 27:07
  We're gonna do that through the co-regulation process.
• 27:11
  We can figure out later what needs to be happening, like what activated it.
• 27:16
  We don't have to figure that out in the moment.
• 27:19
  In the moment, the only thing that we're doing is co-regulating.
• 27:24
  And if it takes the whole entire 45-minute session or 53-minute session to do that, you have just been therapeutically responding to what's going on, and you have been using that opportunity to help parents learn more skills in that session.
• 27:46
  Let's see.
• 27:47
  We have some comments here, but I don't… Nope, nope, uh, not gonna read any of them because they are not making any sense.
• 27:55
  Okay.
• 27:56
  Um, so that whole idea of self-awareness is really, really important.
• 28:02
  For those of you l- listening to the podcast, um, sometimes people will comment during the live stream, so I'll, I'll go over to those to see if there's any comments in there.
• 28:13
  But a lot of times on YouTube, there's some r- weird things that go on YouTube, and they are not very helpful, but at least the ones today are not rude, so that's always a plus.
• 28:28
  So, uh, just so you know, if you're listening on the podcast, that what… That's what that is.
• 28:33
  Um, so back, back to the third point that I wanna make for today, and that is this idea of we have to take care of ourselves Uh, burnout is real.
• 28:46
  It's also I, you know, not to use the E word, ethics.
• 28:50
  Burnout is also an ethics issue, too.
• 28:53
  I don't… I, I think when we say that, there tends to be a lot of, like, shame and judgment that gets attached to that.
• 29:00
  I don't mean it that way, and I, I hope we can think of that differently, this whole idea of ethics that, I mean, we could, we could… Oh my gosh, this whole idea of ethics can be so judgmental, but it's not.
• 29:16
  I, I mean, I think it might be helpful to think about it a different way.
• 29:20
  So if we're thinking about, um, taking care of ourselves, it's important, and it's important because it impacts the way in which we show up in the therapeutic session.
• 29:35
  But here's the thing.
• 29:36
  We have families.
• 29:38
  We have families of our own.
• 29:40
  Most of us have kids of our own.
• 29:42
  Mine are grown now.
• 29:44
  But I remember thinking when I was ch-… I mean, sometimes it's just a lot going on, and I remember thinking, "I'm so stressed out. There's so many things." I… And I show up sometimes better for my clients than I do for my own kids, and I would feel so guilty about that, and it was true.
• 30:09
  It felt that way because I didn't always have much left over, and I felt really bad about that.
• 30:14
  Thankfully, I do have a really good relationship with my kids and my husband.
• 30:19
  We, you know, we, we do our work, too, and real life, right?
• 30:24
  And we want to be able to balance that.
• 30:29
  To me, this is why I think community is so, so important and having a support system because we cannot do this work alone.
• 30:40
  I found it really helpful to have people to talk to, uh, especially when I was really, really struggling, and then I had somebody to share the therapy load, so to speak, meaning, uh, like, I had colleagues that I went to, and we… They helped me work things out, or I could just vent to a friend about life, right?
• 31:03
  It was stressful.
• 31:05
  And that's kind of taking care of ourselves so that we can show up the way that we need to show up for our clients as well as our own family and our own re- personal relationships.
• 31:19
  And so we always use that, this analogy of the airplane, right?
• 31:24
  We use this with parents.
• 31:26
  So they do their self-care But are we doing it with ourselves is the question we need to ask.
• 31:35
  I personally have been horrible about doing my own self-care, and that, that I have been working on that to do better about my own self-care.
• 31:45
  So we use this analogy of the airplane and the oxygen and what, and the, and when… If you've ever ridden on an airplane, you know the flight attendants will say if, you know, if those oxygen masks drop down, make sure you put oxygen on yourself first to get oxygen for yourself before you give oxygen for your child.
• 32:08
  Because if you pass out or you don't have the ability because you haven't filled up with oxygen yourself, then you're not gonna be able to help your child or the person next to you.
• 32:23
  You have to be able to fill up with oxygen, take care of yourself in order to help others.
• 32:32
  I always say you have to fill up your own well.
• 32:35
  You can't give what you don't possess.
• 32:38
  If your well is empty, you got nothing to give.
• 32:43
  And so we're healers.
• 32:45
  We use that therapeutic self, which means we have to fill up.
• 32:50
  And so what does that look like for you?
• 32:55
  Some of that is if you get triggered in a session, figuring out what that is outside of the session might be… This is one of the things we do in pl- um, Play Therapy Academy and Play Therapy Elevation Circle.
• 33:08
  Elevation Circle is more of my general play therapy community where, um, it's a place where you can come and take your questions, get ideas, get support, have people to think alongside you so that you don't have to do it alone.
• 33:27
  Play Therapy Academy is the same.
• 33:29
  I took all the awesome things about Play Therapy Academy and made them a little more accessible for people that did not need the l- level of skill depth, skill building depth that Play Therapy Academy provides.
• 33:46
  So in Play Therapy Academy, we're gonna help you learn how to use your Play Therapy model from session to session to session through each stage of the Play Therapy process.
• 33:58
  We're gonna help you figure out what to do in sessions, how to do it, and that includes having a group of like-minded people who are not judging you, who are helping you figure out what just happened in that session, how are you using your Play Therapy model, and what would that look like with this client at this stage of the Play Therapy process.
• 34:23
  You're gonna learn how to do your case conceptualization in there.
• 34:28
  And the thing is, and then how to apply the Play Therapy model.
• 34:32
  And the thing is, um, you don't have to do it alone That's one of the things that I love about Play Therapy Academy and Play Therapy Elevation Circle, is seeing the support that people get through the power of being connected with other play therapists who get it non-judgmentally.
• 34:55
  So, um, having access to a play therapy community or play therapy colleagues is, uh, in, in a non-judgmental space where you can feel safe to explore your internal responses and the information that you get from that to better understand your clients, as well as figure out what strategies that you can use to help them.
• 35:22
  So if you have colleagues that you go to, or maybe you are in counseling and you can do that with your own counselor, or maybe you're part of a play therapy community, um, like Elevation Circle or our skill building, but it's still a community, uh, Play Therapy Academy.
• 35:44
  So that is it for today.
• 35:46
  I'm just gonna kinda do a quick recap of what we talked about.
• 35:51
  Today's topic is congruence and co-regulation in play therapy, and we're talking about congruence in the playroom.
• 36:02
  What- the way that I think about this is that therapeutic use of self in the play therapy process, and this requires us to think about the way in which we're showing up in the playroom by our presence, our ability to be attuned.
• 36:22
  And congruence is that concept that causes us to un- uh, kind of examine our own internal responses and our own nervous system, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors, and how that shows up.
• 36:38
  Can we, can we authentically, um, be congruent with unconditional positive regard?
• 36:47
  That's going to influence co-regulation, because if we can show up authentically, stay in our window of tolerance in that congruent state, then we can co-regulate our clients when they're experiencing emotions outside of their windows of tolerance where they are struggling To do that means that we really need to be able to be self-aware.
• 37:18
  Uh, are you, are you able to recognize your own internal states, uh, which are tied with beliefs and emotions and influences behavior?
• 37:29
  And then we're also helping parents to learn how to do that as we are able to do this with parents.
• 37:38
  Can we show up congruent with unconditional positive regard in those parent co- uh, parent-only sessions so that they feel seen, heard, understood, and, and safe to be able to do the work that we're gonna challenge them, therapeutically challenge them to do with their own client… uh, with their own children, and help them to do that.
• 38:05
  But they need to trust us in order to do that.
• 38:09
  And then the ability to do these things is, is based upon our own ability to do some self-care, taking care of yourself.
• 38:21
  How are you getting support?
• 38:23
  Where are you getting support?
• 38:27
  So that is it for today.
• 38:29
  So if you're interested, um, if you're interested in Play Therapy Elevation Circle, in Elevation Circle we do monthly consultation calls.
• 38:39
  We have a monthly book club in there.
• 38:41
  We've started quarterly round table discussions where we take a, a topic and we look at it from different theoretical perspectives, and then talk about from that theoretical s- perspective, what are we gonna do in sessions.
• 38:58
  Um, I do weekly tips in there about different play therapy activities and ideas, and kinda talk through how to use those activities, why you would want to use activities, those different activities just to generate ideas.
• 39:15
  Those are really short.
• 39:16
  I try to keep them to, I try to keep them to 15 minutes.
• 39:19
  Sometimes it's 20, sometimes it's 30, uh, minutes, but it never goes longer than that 'cause I, I want it to be something that you can take away really quick.
• 39:29
  Right now, Play Therapy Elevation Circle enrollment is closed.
• 39:33
  So if you're interested and you're tired of doing play therapy alone, then pop on, uh, get on the wait list.
• 39:41
  We're gonna post a comment, uh, post a link for the wait list in the comments here, or you can pop over to my website at rhplaytherapytraining.com.
• 39:55
  That's Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training dot com.
• 39:59
  Rhplaytherapytraining.com.
• 40:01
  Pop over there.
• 40:02
  On the supervision consultation page you'll see Elevation Circle.
• 40:07
  You'll see some more information about Play Therapy Academy as well, and, um, you can join the wait list for Elevation Circle there.
• 40:17
  If you are wanting to go deeper, if you are ready to start learning how to use play therapy through every stage of the play therapy process, if you are tired of feeling like you are second-guessing yourself and throwing spaghetti against the wall with your play therapy activities hoping something sticks because nothing seems to be working, and your imposter syndrome has totally kicked in and it's telling you lies that maybe you weren't cut out to be a play therapist or maybe you're not very good at this, I would say That you probably just need help to develop the skills and develop those competencies for play therapy so that you can use it confidently and feel like you know what you're doing.
• 41:14
  I would, in my mind, helping, helping play therapists to d- develop the play therapy competence with the, the knowing how to recognize themes, knowing how to apply your specific play therapy model through every stage of the play therapy process, knowing how to recognize what is going on in the playroom, and then using your clinical decision-making process to figure out what to do next.
• 41:43
  Because in Play Therapy Academy, what we're gonna do is you're gonna, you're gonna present your case where you're gonna develop your case conceptualization skills of figuring out what is at the root of the problem and why is it happening and what are the patterns sustaining it, and using that information with your play therapy model to help you figure out what to do in the play therapy sessions.
• 42:10
  And because we use this in a group format, it's a very small group, spots are limited for Play Therapy Academy because I only have spots when they open up because there's a maximum of 10 people in the group, and spots only open up, and I have spots have opened up.
• 42:31
  So if… And I'm gonna be talking more about that in the coming weeks.
• 42:35
  If you're interested in seeing if Play Therapy Academy is a good fit because you are tired of feeling like an imposter and feeling like you're letting your clients down and feeling like you're letting yourself down, then schedule a 30-minute video call with me to see if Play Therapy Academy is a good fit for you.
• 42:57
  Because maybe Elevation Circle is a better fit, and we're not gonna know unless you schedule the call and find out, and we can do that together.
• 43:08
  If it's not a good fit, then we will figure that out.
• 43:11
  If it is a good fit, then we will figure that out.
• 43:15
  So if you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, schedule that 30-minute video call with me.
• 43:22
  We're gonna post the co- uh, links in the comments, so if you're interested, we're posting them here on LinkedIn and YouTube.
• 43:31
  If you're, if you're interested, you can always pop over to my website at rhplaytherapytr- playtherapytraining.com, rhplaytherapytraining.com.
• 43:44
  Schedule a video call, and I will see you next week.
• 43:48
  Bye for now.
• 43:54
  Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 43:58
  I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal.
• 44:07
  If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 44:13
  Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 44:19
  Remember, play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 44:23
  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 and relationships.
• 44:35
  If you have any questions or topic suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you.
• 44:42
  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.
• 44:54
  Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 44:58
  Until next time, keep playing, learning, and growing.