Latest / Play Therapy Podcast: A Master-Class in Child-Centered Play Therapy / 422 | What's Wrong with Our Field?: Universities and Graduate School

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422 | What's Wrong with Our Field?: Universities and Graduate School · Play Therapy Podcast: A Master-Class in Child-Centered Play Therapy

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  You're listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr. Brenna Hicks,
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  your source for centered and focused play therapy coaching.
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  Hi,
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  I'm Dr. Brenna Hicks,
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  The Kid Counselor.
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  This is the Play Therapy Podcast where you get
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  a master class in child-centered play therapy
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  and practical support and application for your
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  work with children and their families.
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  In today's episode,
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  we are continuing with the What's Wrong with our Field series,
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  and we are going to tackle today.
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  University courses
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  on children's therapy.
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  This is a huge issue,
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  y'all,
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  and
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  I see it,
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  I feel it.
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  I,
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  I
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  look at the aftereffect of it every single day.
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  And so,
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  when we think about
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  what
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  we are starting
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  our careers,
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  learning,
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  you know,
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  when we're in grad school,
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  that is the start of our career.
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  We've decided we want to do mental health.
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  So it can be marriage and family,
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  social work,
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  mental health,
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  psychology,
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  whatever.
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  So,
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  we decide that we're going to pursue this path.
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  And
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  we
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  are right in the thick of it in the courses,
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  but
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  we're not learning what we need.
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  And we're not learning how to help kids.
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  So I want to deep dive that and just kind of,
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  you know,
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  process this together because
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  this is a system that needs to change,
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  and I think that we're not talking about this enough,
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  especially those of us that
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  work with children.
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  If you go to grad school and you end up working with an adult,
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  I suspect it wouldn't even be on your radar that
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  you didn't learn anything about helping kids in grad school.
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  You don't need it.
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  But for those of us that work with kids,
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  we need it,
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  and we're not getting it.
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  So I want to dive into that for sure.
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  Quickly,
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  podcast meetups
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  this week,
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  August 4th in Denver,
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  August 6th in Seattle.
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  If you are last-minute people,
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  you better hurry up because you're running out of time,
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  but I'd love to hang out with you.
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  So check the show notes so that you can RSVP for that.
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  OK,
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  so here I'm gonna give my 4.
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  Top
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  issues within the university courses for children's therapy.
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  And not meant to be an exhaustive list by any means,
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  but these are the top 4 issues as I see them.
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  And this is really just to spark some thought and maybe to inspire us to
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  ask for change,
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  you know,
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  squeaky wheel gets the grease.
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  That's an adage on,
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  you know,
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  a lot of
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  scenarios for a reason,
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  because
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  if we don't start advocating
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  for different coursework,
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  if we don't start advocating
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  for
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  the
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  Curricula to change in grad school.
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  It's not going to.
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  So we have to really be vocal about our need for this kind of stuff.
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  So here are my top 4.
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  Let's dive in.
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  The first is,
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  I think generally speaking,
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  most grad school programs.
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  Assume that.
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  Working with children
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  is an afterthought.
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  So let me
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  explain what I mean by that.
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  The programs are geared for working with adults.
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  There's an assumption
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  that if you are going to be a therapist,
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  a counselor,
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  a social worker,
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  a psychologist,
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  you're going to serve an adult population.
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  And if you end up seeing kids,
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  it's kind of like
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  on the periphery,
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  on the side
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  afterthought.
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  Oh yeah,
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  well,
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  you may see a few kids here and there,
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  but like not really.
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  And
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  because of that pervasive belief,
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  It's very easy for the entire coursework
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  to be geared for adults.
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  And that leads me to my second point.
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  It's concerning to me
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  that because
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  Working with children is considered an afterthought in most grad schools.
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  The small amount of information we do learn
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  is generally a modification
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  of adult
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  modalities.
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  That you might be able to use with children.
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  In other words,
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  well,
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  you can do,
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  you know,
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  this form of Gestalt with a child.
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  You can do this form of Adlerian with a child.
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  You can do this form.
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  I had
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  a therapist
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  very freshly out of grad school
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  that sat down with
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  a nine year old boy.
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  And suggested that he do empty chair technique.
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  To say to his dad what he would say if his dad was in front of him,
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  and he was 9.
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  Uh no
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  This person learned about empty chair technique in grad school,
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  so
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  that
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  made sense
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  because
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  kid didn't want to see his dad,
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  couldn't talk to his dad,
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  was having all kinds of problems with his dad.
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  Well,
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  why don't you imagine your dad sitting in the chair and you can
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  tell your dad anything that you would want to say to him.
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  It's a modification of an adult therapeutic modality,
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  and that's often what
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  we
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  are left with.
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  It's an afterthought in the curriculum and therefore we get,
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  well,
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  you could kind of do that with that kind of kid,
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  with that kind of situation.
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  Those are not
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  pediatric interventions.
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  They're not supported or validated
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  for working with children.
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  Which brings me to my 3rd point.
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  If
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  there was any coursework
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  on working with children.
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  Some programs do have one class.
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  Out of all of the classes,
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  some have 1
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  on children.
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  It's usually child and adolescent actually.
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  Child and adolescent development,
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  child and adolescent therapy.
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  It's usually kind of like a catch-all for 18 and under.
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  If there is a course
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  for younger children.
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  Under adulthood
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  You're going to get exposure to all.
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  In other words
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  Well,
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  let's talk about this and this and this and this and this.
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  These are all the ways that you can
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  work with children.
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  You can do this intervention and this activity
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  and this approach
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  and this model,
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  and this,
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  and
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  so
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  when we get exposure to all.
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  It just leaves everything confused and muddy.
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  Because
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  I know a little bit of a whole bunch of things,
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  but I have no idea meaningfully what to do
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  when
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  I sit down in front of
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  a kid.
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  And
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  you certainly aren't going to sit down in front of that kid in a playroom.
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  I can guarantee you that.
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  So,
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  not only do you not have
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  the toys,
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  That would allow for you to do play therapy,
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  but you also have no clue what you're supposed to do
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  with that child when they sit down in front of you
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  because you got exposed to 16 or 17 different options,
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  but
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  what framework do you have for any of it?
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  You don't.
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  And
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  the other option,
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  which I think,
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  I don't know if it's better or worse,
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  to be honest with you,
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  I was going to say it's kind of tragic,
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  but
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  I don't,
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  I don't know where I land on this.
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  I,
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  I think there's pros and cons
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  to
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  both options,
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  but
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  the fourth option is
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  you literally get nothing whatsoever in the way of kids.
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  They don't mention kids.
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  They don't blink at kids.
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  They don't even acknowledge that there are clients who are children.
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  It's not even acknowledged or a part of
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  anything that you study your entire grad school.
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  So
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  Here's what happens,
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  regardless of which of those 4,
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  those are the most common,
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  and I,
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  I told you that's not a comprehensive list,
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  but
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  those are the most 4
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  of what happens in grad school programs.
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  I have created grad school
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  programs.
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  I have taught grad school programs.
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  I have been exposed to so many students' grad school programs.
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  These are the four most common scenarios.
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  Well,
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  here are the outcomes of those four,
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  regardless of
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  which of those might be true for you.
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  We graduate
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  from our programs.
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  We get our first job
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  and it can be any environment.
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  It can be agency,
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  mental health center,
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  group practice,
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  private practice,
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  you name it.
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  You start in the field.
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  And there's a hierarchy.
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  In our field.
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  So
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  the longer you've been somewhere,
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  you have a higher.
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  Clout
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  And
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  higher level.
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  So you get different clients,
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  you get better clients,
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  you get to decide
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  certain things.
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  So,
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  low man on the totem pole,
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  fresh out of grad school,
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  unlicensed.
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  You get assigned the clients that no one else wants.
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  And who do you think are the clients that no one else wants?
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  When you are fresh out of school
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  and you know you're gonna get the castoffs,
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  what do you think the population of those castoffs are most of the time?
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  I heard y'all screaming at kids.
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  Yes,
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  100%.
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  So,
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  you now
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  have either had
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  absolutely no training in working with kids,
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  you've had a tiny bit of exposure to 100
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  things that you could do and you're just confused.
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  You have been told how to modify adult models
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  or you were kind of
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  Made to believe that you were never going to work with kids anyway.
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  So whatever one of those happens to be real for you,
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  you end up now going.
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  I'm gonna have to sink or swim here.
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  And I'm going to have to figure it out.
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  So you start doing research yourself
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  and you start typing into Google,
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  how do I do therapy with a kid?
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  And you start going,
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  what are empirically supported models for working with kids 14 and under?
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  And
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  is therapy even effective for kids
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  10 and under?
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  And
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  you start doing all these searches and all these seeking of information
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  because
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  you're literally floundering because you have no prep
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  for how to work with kids.
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  And I would assume that's probably how you find a podcast like this.
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  And I would assume that's probably why you
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  go to events
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  like the ones that I'm hosting,
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  and that's probably why you joined the collective.
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  That's probably why you end up in coaching programs,
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  because
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  you are not equipped,
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  not trained,
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  and not taught how to serve children.
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  And so what's wrong with our field?
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  This is what's wrong with our field.
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  Because
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  this is a disservice to
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  Mental health in general,
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  this is a disservice to children.
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  It's a disservice to families,
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  and it's a disservice to us.
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  Because
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  Although 100% I agree,
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  we need to find our
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  theoretical orientation
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  ourselves.
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  That's not a grad program's responsibility.
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  That's not a professor's responsibility.
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  That is your and mine.
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  That is our responsibility.
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  We need to know
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  what theoretical model makes sense for us.
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  So.
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  I mean,
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  I assume you already know that CCPT is it for you or you wouldn't be listening to this,
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  but
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  that is 100% on you to figure it out.
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  So that,
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  that's on our shoulders.
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  But the purpose of being in grad school.
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  is to be trained
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  to serve clients.
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  And when all of the training gears around adults.
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  There's an implied.
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  Agreement
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  that children aren't clients.
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  And
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  All day every day our case load tells us otherwise.
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  In the last 6 years,
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  The therapy rate of minors has skyrocketed.
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  We're dealing with more
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  pediatric mental health crises than ever before
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  in the history of the world.
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  So
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  it's not that there aren't kid clients,
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  it's that we don't know what to do with kid clients.
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  And
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  that's unethical to me.
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  I think it's a huge problem and what's wrong with our field.
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  Grad schools are intended
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  in original form.
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  To expose you,
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  teach you,
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  educate you,
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  and prepare you.
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  And if you left grad school feeling completely
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  uneducated and unprepared and uninformed
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  about how to work with children.
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  That's an issue.
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  So we have to
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  become vocal.
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  We have to go back to our grad programs and give feedback.
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  We need to talk to professors and say,
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  I wonder how much you're teaching how to work with children.
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  I wonder if you're incorporating play therapy into your coursework.
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  I wonder if you're familiar with
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  child-centered play therapy when you're teaching your
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  graduate students.
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  These are conversations that need to be had
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  because it's important.
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  We can't keep cranking out more and more and more therapists all over the world.
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  That have no idea
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  what to do when
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  they show up and their
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  9:00
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  a.m. appointment
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  is a 6 year old.
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  And they have a couch and a chair in their room.
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  What are they supposed to do?
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  They have no idea,
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  and that's not therapy for that kid.
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  So
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  please be encouraged,
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  please find your voice.
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  Please be ready to advocate.
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  And have conversations,
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  start dialogue about making sure
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  that we are training
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  graduate
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  school counselors
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  appropriately,
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  and that means we need play therapy and we need CCPT
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  in standard
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  mental health coursework.
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  That's my hope.
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  So,
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  one conversation at a time,
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  yeah?
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  All right.
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  I love y'all.
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  I hope you have a great week.
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  We'll talk again soon.
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  Bye.
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  Thank you for listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr. Brenna Hicks.
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  For more episodes and resources,
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  please go to www.playtherapypodcast.com.