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Stop Guessing: 3 Keys to Decode Behavior 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.
• 0:49
  Hey there.
• 0:50
  Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy, where we talk about all things play therapy.
• 0:57
  Today, I wanna talk about something if, that we've all experienced.
• 1:04
  If you haven't experienced it, it's most likely, uh, probably because you're new and you haven't had it happen yet, but I've yet to meet anybody, myself included, who has not had these things happen.
• 1:19
  For example, have you ever had a six-year-old kicking and screaming in the lobby, and the parent is looking at you like, "Do something.
• 1:27
  I don't know what to do." Parents don't know what to do.
• 1:32
  They feel like failures.
• 1:34
  And you're, a- and maybe this child is even new to you, so you don't know.
• 1:41
  Or maybe you've conducted a family play therapy session where in the middle of the session your client has a complete and utter meltdown, kicking and screaming, and you're kind of looking, thinking to yourself, "Oh, no.
• 1:59
  What do I do?" Or maybe your little cherubic seven-year-old, you're doing a family play therapy session, and maybe they let loose a string of curse words that would make anybody blush.
• 2:15
  These are all… And, uh, and I'll be honest, when I talk about family play therapy, because I, I have, uh, an attachment-based play therapy, uh, attachment-based family play therapy model that I teach people And when I talk about family play therapy sessions, this is one of the things that comes up.
• 2:36
  What do I do if somebody gets dysregulated?
• 2:40
  Which is a real concern, and that's gonna happen whether you're doing a family play therapy session or not, in my experience.
• 2:49
  It might get activated more in a family play therapy session, depending on the family dynamics.
• 2:56
  The reality is we deal with children who get extremely dysregulated.
• 3:05
  They are in distress.
• 3:07
  Their caregivers, parents, are in distress.
• 3:12
  Possibly teachers are in distress if it's happening at school, and they're all looking at you as the play therapist with the expertise to help this child.
• 3:25
  They're all looking at you for help, and you are trying to figure it out yourself, to be honest.
• 3:34
  So, um, here's the thing that I've learned in my 30-plus years in the child and adolescent mental health field, is that it doesn't mean you failed as a play therapist.
• 3:51
  Doesn't mean you failed as a parent either necessarily, and it's data.
• 3:59
  It's information.
• 4:00
  It's information that we use as play therapists in our clinical case conceptualization.
• 4:10
  We do that at the beginning, and we're gonna do that throughout the play therapy process, and your case conceptualization is going to be based on your theoretical models.
• 4:22
  Even when you're using an integrative play therapy approach, you're using specific theoretical models in that integrated approach.
• 4:33
  So in this live stream episode, or if you're listening to the podcast, or maybe you're watching the live stream replay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna break down that three-part framework to talk about how do you, um, how do you figure out what is going on in the play therapy, what is going on with the, in the session, or what is going on at home?
• 4:56
  'Cause you might be getting those phone calls in between those therapy sessions from parents who are letting you know what's going on, and things aren't going well.
• 5:08
  So what this, this episode I'm gonna break down a three-part kind of, kind of framework that you need to think about in order to help to shift what's going on and help your client, I would say even their parents, help, help them get the support that they need and help to shift what's going on for healing So if that is you and you are watching live on the live stream, I would love to know who's here.
• 5:42
  So go ahead and post your name in the comments.
• 5:46
  What population are you working with?
• 5:50
  Where are you working?
• 5:52
  Um, have you had this happen before?
• 5:55
  What are some things that you've done or learned from this data along the way?
• 6:02
  Feel free to join in the conversation.
• 6:05
  If you're watching the replay, p- post in the comments this episode.
• 6:10
  These weekly live stream episodes automatically, um, pop- convert, populate into a replay on, um, whatever platform you're watching it on, either LinkedIn or YouTube, which is where I go live.
• 6:30
  If you're watching the replay, feel free to, uh, join the conversation.
• 6:37
  Post in the comments.
• 6:38
  If you're listening to the podcast on Next Level Play Therapy podcast, then feel free to reach out to me on Instagram, connect with me, send me a message.
• 6:52
  Also, feel free to email me and let me know your questions or what you've learned along the way.
• 6:59
  I'd love to hear from you.
• 7:01
  Also, I get ideas when you guys do that, so helps me see kind of what are the topics of interest to people.
• 7:10
  So it helps me make sure that I can cover those topics as well, so that's another benefit.
• 7:16
  If you're watching on YouTube, feel free to hit that like and just, um, subscribe button and hit the notification so you get notified.
• 7:26
  If you're listening on the podcast, I'd love it if you'd leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
• 7:32
  You can leave a review there.
• 7:34
  Um, kind of helps make sure these get out to other people, too, so that more people have access to the information, and we can connect globally around the world over the internet.
• 7:46
  So here's what we're gonna cover in today's episode.
• 7:52
  We're gonna cover behavior as communication, how we can use a neuroscience lens to figure out what is actually going on with that child because children, children don't really want to be, quote, bad.
• 8:12
  Um, and how are we shifting your way of thinking about what's going on to help get to figuring out moving from why is this behavior happening to What's activating this behavior?
• 8:31
  'Cause that's where the deeper level root is, and with- that's the root that we wanna get to to get that healing.
• 8:41
  We're gonna talk about the role of neuroscience and that predictive processing to better understand the behavior.
• 8:49
  This is where our case conceptualization comes in, because we're using a theoretical lens to make sense of what's going on in the playroom, and then that's gonna influence what we do.
• 9:01
  And what we're gonna do is also we're gonna be talking about co-regulation.
• 9:06
  Children are developing, and they need the adults in their lives to understand co-regulation.
• 9:12
  And as a play therapist, how are you co-regulating that therapeutic process in the sessions, I would say also with parents or caregivers?
• 9:24
  And then we're also gonna talk about what is the r- what is the roadmap.
• 9:28
  So, right, we are, we're understanding theoretically, here's how I'm making sense of what's going on.
• 9:36
  Without the next step, though, it doesn't really do much for a therapist because our job is to actually help facilitate change.
• 9:45
  So how do we take that information, and then what are, what's the important thing to think about to apply it to actually facilitate some of that healing?
• 9:56
  So that is what we are talking about today, and let's get started.
• 10:02
  So today's topic is three key… Stop guessing.
• 10:06
  Three keys to decoding behavior in play therapy The first thing that we wanna think about is behavior gives us clues.
• 10:17
  I remember, I, this is, this is really, really long time ago, um, and I, I had a group practice.
• 10:26
  I can't tell you how many times I would hear screaming and yelling.
• 10:32
  Like, uh, I knew one play therapist was working with a client and there was screaming and yell- I mean, it sounded like somebody was, was like peeling the skin off this child.
• 10:46
  That is how distressed they were in the lobby.
• 10:50
  And I remember that the play therapist and I kinda staffed it and went through the process that I'm about to take you guys through.
• 11:00
  I remember another time I was supervising a student, a master's degree student, and we were… I finally cons- convinced her to do some family play therapy sessions.
• 11:12
  And so I was down the hallway while she was there providing services, 'cause I was on site, and I just re- remember hearing this blood-curdling screams coming from her office.
• 11:23
  And to her credit, um, she navigated that through the end, and then we, we went through this process I'm about to walk you guys through.
• 11:34
  One of the key things here to keep in mind is not doing this alone.
• 11:40
  Like, uh, having a community of play therapist alongside you to, to kind of talk this through with each individual client, I think is really, really key.
• 11:52
  So if you are doing play therapy alone, or you're the only play therapist in your building or your agency, stay tuned to the end 'cause I am gonna give you some information about some of my memberships where you don't have to do it alone.
• 12:09
  So I'll talk a little bit more about those But here's the thing, uh, this, th- because I do a lot of consultation and I have Play Therapy Academy, which is the, the membership where we do the deeper dive, where you're learning play therapy competency skills, how do you do it, how do you apply a model, all of those things.
• 12:32
  And now I have Play Therapy Elevation Circle.
• 12:34
  Enrollment for that just closed last week, but that one is also where we're using consultation, but there's a lot of play therapists out there that are doing play therapy and feeling alone and don't have somebody to help talk them, you know, walk through that case conceptualization and clinical decision-making to come up with a strategy.
• 13:01
  So, um, that's what we do in my memberships, and this comes up all the time.
• 13:06
  This is something we talk about all the time, which is why I know it's gonna be relevant for you guys because we talk about it all the time.
• 13:14
  Um, so the first thing that we wanna think about is behavior is data.
• 13:22
  Behavior gives us clues.
• 13:25
  From a, from a play therapy standpoint, what we realize is w- our, our kind of principle, foundational principle way of thinking Is that children who struggle with behavioral issues and emotional meltdowns, they're communicating.
• 13:45
  We know that children deep down do not want to be misbehaving or having these meltdowns.
• 13:54
  I think it's as distressing for kids who are having these meltdowns and feeling out of control.
• 14:01
  I think it's as scary for them as it is for their parents and caregivers, and I would say even teachers or it's at school, the maybe siblings or the other kids around.
• 14:14
  This is, this is not something kids… They don't want to be, quote unquote, "bad." They don't want to misbehave.
• 14:24
  So our foundational belief system is that they don't want to do this.
• 14:30
  So then what do we do?
• 14:33
  Um, well, they want the grownups to help them figure it out so they can help them to regulate those beh- behaviors.
• 14:44
  They kind of want the grownups to figure it out.
• 14:47
  They might not be cuing that way in the moment.
• 14:51
  They might be cursing out their parents in every jam.
• 14:54
  That's in their, in their dysregulated state.
• 14:59
  That's all their fight and flight, possibly even freeze for some kids if they kind of shut down.
• 15:06
  That, that's, that's miscuing that I don't want your help, when in fact, our belief is, because we know this from experience, we know this from our theoretical models, that they do want us.
• 15:20
  So first thing we're doing is shifting our mindset Um, from, from why is this child misbehaving?
• 15:31
  Why is this child being bad?
• 15:33
  Or, or I'm a failure 'cause I didn't figure it out.
• 15:38
  We wanna shift from that to figuring out what's activating what's going on, what's activating the response.
• 15:50
  This allows you to shift into a curiosity mindset, and you're gonna use curiosity to figure out what's at the root of the problem.
• 16:02
  So it's not personal, and we're thinking about it in terms of this is an external response to something going on internally with their emotions, with whatever sensory things are going on, their belief systems.
• 16:19
  And then we're also looking at what are the adult's responses to this, and we're gonna go into that a little bit more in a minute, but that's the other part that we're looking at.
• 16:31
  So first, we're shifting our mindset.
• 16:34
  Behavior gives us clues.
• 16:36
  It doesn't mean you're a failure, it doesn't mean parents necessarily are failures, and it doesn't mean the kid is bad.
• 16:43
  So now the next thing we wanna do is we're looking at what does the neuroscience tell us?
• 16:50
  If we're using a neuroscience and attachment lens, which I think we can apply to pretty much every play therapy, seminal and historical play therapy model.
• 17:03
  Um, but if we're looking at this from a neuroscience standpoint, then what we're looking at predictive processing And what does that mean?
• 17:15
  So we're thinking about the brain as a kind of a predictive meaning-making machine that allocates resources based on where it's predicting there's a need.
• 17:30
  And so when we're thinking about it that way, what the… We're, we're conceptualizing that the brain is taking experiences that have happened in the past, so sensory information is being received, so a lot of the introception is getting activated, the sensory circuits are getting activated, and the brain is gonna make sense of that information.
• 18:00
  And it's part of what's, um, contributing to that meaning making is the brain is gonna think about past experiences.
• 18:09
  So keep in mind, implicit memory doesn't come with conscious, um, ability to recall and explain, so it doesn't have language with it.
• 18:22
  Still memory, still in there.
• 18:25
  And so we're looking at, especially when we're talking about children who are developing, so we're looking at how the brain has made meaning out of past experiences, what's going on in the moment, and also if we're kind of following this idea of, um, the theory of constructed emotions by Lisa Feldman Barrett, then we're also looking at that this idea of the role of culture and the cultural context in which meaning is made about situations, about emotions, and about responses and behaviors, right?
• 19:06
  All of that gets stored away, and the brain uses this information to figure out,"Well, what do I need to do next?" So if we're looking at the, from that standpoint of neuroscience and we're, we're thinking about the brain is making meaning of what's going on and predicting what needs to be happening next.
• 19:30
  And that behavior, that information gives you data as the play therapist.
• 19:38
  S- Something happened, here's the response . And now, right now in the moment, we're gonna work on co-regulation, getting, getting that child to a more regulated state so that when appropriate, you can s- at a later time, figure out what just happened.
• 20:01
  And when you're figuring out what ha- what's happened, then you're figuring out What occurred and the meaning made of it.
• 20:12
  So, so for example, let's say, this, this happens all the time.
• 20:17
  So let's say, um, there's a, a new child, and let's say there's a five-year-old child,'cause this happens a lot.
• 20:29
  There's a five-year-old child, and now they've met you maybe the first or second time, and they are screaming and yelling because they don't wanna go with you, and they're having a massive meltdown in the lobby with everyone around.
• 20:45
  And the parent is looking at you like, "Oh my gosh," but there's probably a little part of them that's glad you get to see it so that you know they're not making things up or exaggerating.
• 20:59
  So there's … And we can support parents with that,'cause now we're, we're really understanding, right?
• 21:05
  It's more data, and some of that data is also now helping to build therapeutic rapport, hopefully with that, with that caregiver.
• 21:15
  We're also looking at what is the meaning the child has made, right?
• 21:20
  So probably in that moment, we are assessing for some reason threat circuits got activated, and this one won't be h- you know, most of us could probably figure this one out easily, which is, well, that child doesn't know me.
• 21:39
  So they know their parent, so separating from the parent feels scary.
• 21:45
  We don't know why that's happening in the moment, meaning that m- uh, some of the patterns sustaining it, what's going on with the child in the moment, but we know in that moment That that child needs to feel safe.
• 22:01
  And so what do we need to do in order to help that child feel safe?
• 22:05
  And you're gonna make decisions based on that.
• 22:08
  Might be that you're spending some time out in the lobby, or maybe you can take them to… That, that one really only works if nobody else is in the lobby.
• 22:19
  Otherwise, it's better to kind of for the child and the parent to go to a- another kind of private space.
• 22:26
  It might be, like here's another thing that we've done.
• 22:29
  The therapist at the next session, because it happened again, went… The parent and the play therapist went, decided to, they coordinated and they decided that the therapist would meet the child outside, and that they would just hang out outside.
• 22:46
  They didn't even come into the building yet.
• 22:48
  Because what is the meaning that the child is making of going into the building?
• 22:52
  So we're, we're making these different decisions.
• 22:56
  In family play therapy sessions, we're looking at… In this, uh, this one example, what we figured out, we… This was a child who has a lot of power and control issues.
• 23:07
  So what we figured out Based on what I kind of, kind of breaking down the, the play therapy session and what, what happens, what was said, what was done, what was the response, what family members responded, what we realized was, because n- the, the student and I had… We tried out an activity.
• 23:31
  We thought, "Oh, let's give her some control," because she wants power and control, right?
• 23:36
  That would make sense.
• 23:37
  Give her, give her some control.
• 23:39
  So in the play therapy session, the therapist allowed her to choose.
• 23:44
  Well, that didn't go very well, and that child had a massive, massive meltdown, screaming and yelling.
• 23:52
  I mean, that girl had some lungs.
• 23:54
  And, um, later, after the session, what the th- the student and I kind of put our heads together and figured out what was going on, what we realized was, here was a child who wanted power and control, however, when given that level of ability to make decisions, what we figured out was that was too overwhelming for that child.
• 24:20
  So in my mind, we're not… This isn't a failure, this is data.
• 24:26
  We just used that to figure out, okay, now we, we better understand this child and what's going on.
• 24:35
  So we figured out some strategies, um, to help parents do a little more leading and co-regulating in that session, and things went better after that.
• 24:49
  So it's not, it's not failure, it's data, and if we're looking at it from a neuroscience and attachment lens, and we're thinking about the brain as a predictive processing machine to allocate resources and what needs to happen, like fight, flight or flee.
• 25:08
  A f- well, fight, flight or freeze.
• 25:12
  My mouth is not working.
• 25:14
  Then we can figure out what to do next.
• 25:18
  The, well, the brain is gonna use that information to figure out what to do next.
• 25:22
  We are gonna use that to figure out what we're gonna do next and what needs to happen So in my mind, we hear a lot on social media these days about nervous system, nervous system, and I say nervous system.
• 25:40
  I think one of the things is, that has come up that I've thought was a interesting and valid point about this whole phrase and use of nervous system is I think it simplifies something that's a lot more complex.
• 25:59
  And what I mean by that is if we simply put this down to ner- oh, her nervous system got dysregulated, then that doesn't give you the full picture of what's going on because it doesn't take into consideration when you're kind of conceptualizing, you're going through your clinical case conceptualization or what I call your clinical detective mode.
• 26:27
  You're going into your clinical detective mode, it leaves out this whole predictive processing and, uh, I'm, like this whole theory of constructing emotions is very, very interesting.
• 26:41
  And I think, uh, I think it has for play therapist has a very, very valid role for us to conceptualize that.
• 26:50
  What is, what is going on that has activated these emotions?
• 26:56
  Well, if we think of emotions as constructed experiences based on a predictive brain from experiences and the role of culture in there, the meaning making, then it helps us to really pinpoint where we need to target the change process.
• 27:17
  What do we need to do in the play therapy process?
• 27:21
  So then, so then that also brings us to co-regulation.
• 27:26
  Children are developing.
• 27:29
  Their neurocircuits and their systems are developing, and the younger the child, the less developed that neurocircuitry, and they're taking in all of these experiences and making meaning of them for, for the future, right?
• 27:45
  So I think of play therapy as early intervention to shift some of these things early.
• 27:53
  And the thing is, they need the adults in their lives to help them make sense of those experiences, to be attuned to what's going on, to help them feel seen and safe, and then help them to organize those emotions.
• 28:11
  The co-regulation is essential.
• 28:16
  And so what it is, if we're identifying co-regulation and we're explaining co-regulation to parents and their role as co-regulators with their children, then w- what, the way that I explain that to parents or caregivers is children are developing their capacity for tolerating distress and their ability to regulate their, uh, nervous systems and regulate their own emotion, so to speak.
• 28:54
  So what's that capacity?
• 28:55
  They're building that capacity based on support from caregivers.
• 29:02
  So co-regulation is essentially children get distressed, they get overwhelmed, and they have meltdowns.
• 29:12
  What'll… And then as caregivers or the adults are able to get to, to a regulated state themselves, and I'm not, notice that I'm not saying calm, I'm saying regulated.
• 29:24
  So it, right?
• 29:25
  We're thinking window of tolerance.
• 29:27
  There's a lot of room in there.
• 29:28
  Just stay inside my window of tolerance.
• 29:31
  Regulate in there.
• 29:33
  Um, as I'm able to stay regulated with my child, my child will use that regulated state to help their nervous system get regulated and feel seen and safe.
• 29:50
  Later on, we can figure out what happened.
• 29:53
  In the moment, w- we just ne- that, need them to use our regulated state to get regulated.
• 30:02
  And so here's the thing that we also have to keep in mind, and this is, this is one of the things that I really like about the Circle of Security, um, parenting model, is helping parents understand how to read their child's cues and why that's important and how their regulated state, their child will be able to use that.
• 30:26
  And in order to allow their child to use it, parents have to understand and have awareness of what's going on for them internally with their emotions and their thinking, like their belief systems and all of those.
• 30:42
  And Circle of Security calls it shark music, so I love that.
• 30:46
  Just that idea comes from the Jaws movie, where you don't see the shark first.
• 30:53
  You hear the music, and you've learned because you heard the music at the very beginning of the movie.
• 30:59
  So anytime you hear that movie, I mean, hear that music, right, the brain is making meaning on past experiences and using that information to predict what needs to happen next and where to allocate resources.
• 31:14
  Well, the Jaws music is really scary music for a lot of various reasons, and the brain is gonna make meaning of that danger and kind of activate that.
• 31:24
  But then we kind of have to do some check the facts and remind ourselves, "Wait a minute, it's a movie and it's not real." Although many of us for years afterwards, and I would still say, like, I don't like swimming in the ocean 'cause I don't know what's in there.
• 31:42
  So could I attribute some of that to Jaws?
• 31:46
  Probably.
• 31:47
  Um- And the fact that I would see, like, I, I did see a little, it was like a little baby shark coming, swimming towards me when I was fishing in the ocean years ago.
• 31:58
  This was years.
• 31:59
  I was in middle school back then at the beach.
• 32:02
  Anywho, um, so, so one of the things that we need to help caregivers experience, I mean, uh, become aware of is their own shark music.
• 32:16
  And as play therapists, we have to recognize our own shark music, right?
• 32:21
  This is the countertransference thing.
• 32:24
  This is recognizing our, our unconscious bias.
• 32:28
  We're recognizing our belief systems that are getting activated.
• 32:33
  We're also helping parents to do this as well.
• 32:36
  That's going to… So this self-awareness is a key part of the process.
• 32:43
  And then the, the final thing to keep in mind, and this is what takes all of that theory and now we wrap it up in what do we do with it, right?
• 32:52
  Case conceptualization leads to treatment planning, leads to what the heck am I doing in my play therapy sessions?
• 32:59
  This is your play therapy roadmap, which is your play therapy model.
• 33:04
  What play therapy model are you using?
• 33:07
  Even if you're using an integrative play therapy model, because that is going to decide your decisions in what you're gonna do, how you're gonna do it, and when you're gonna do it in your playroom, and how are you going to integrate caregivers in that process.
• 33:28
  So one of the ways is I've been kind of pondering this whole idea.
• 33:32
  I was reading some, um, like a research article recently.
• 33:37
  I, so just a little FYI, um, I, this, the, a big shift for me came when the whole polyvagal thing came out with, um, that article with all the researchers critiquing the, the whole, the polyvagal theory.
• 34:03
  And, uh, as I explored that a little further, I realized, well, some of the things they were critiquing are things that I didn't make sense to me either.
• 34:12
  And I just did it because that was the theory that was being promoted e- especially in the clinical field, and it, it helped to explain so many other things.
• 34:25
  Like before, we didn't have a lot of the good information that we got from polyvagal theory, and Bessel van der Kolk wrote the book, The Body Keeps Score, but that never made sense to me, but there was a lot of good stuff in there that did make sense to me.
• 34:41
  So Matt, what… Th- there were some critiques about the whole body keeps score thing as well And so it began to, uh, I think there were a lot of good things in those theories, so I'm not advocating throwing them all out.
• 34:55
  What I am advocating and is w- I think we need to upgrade or update our understanding, and I, I think some of the information coming out now, some of these other theories provide some really valid information.
• 35:10
  And even though the theory of constructed emotions is not brand new, the book has been out for a, a few, several years, um, hasn't really made it into the play therapy world that I, that I'm aware of.
• 35:25
  But as we think about that, so as I've been pondering that and integrating more of that theoretical understanding of things, so I'm about to give you, like, how… H- here's an example of how I'm kind of applying this to my theory model.
• 35:40
  So child-centered play therapy, right?
• 35:43
  It's not directive.
• 35:44
  It's totally following.
• 35:47
  One of the things I read recently, because there was an article by, um, Lisa Barrett Feldman and another person, I forgot who it is, and I think maybe w- I, I might do, I think I'll do a podcast, um, live stream episode on it 'cause it was really fascinating.
• 36:02
  But they were talking about f- the emotion development in children and kind of using that theory of, of constructed emotions, which for play therapists I think is extremely relevant.
• 36:14
  And one of the things, one of the things that the article identified is the, the role of adults in naming emotions for children, and how that helps with the emotion development.
• 36:32
  And so h- to me, here's how I made sense of that, which is in child-centered play therapy, we're reflecting emotions.
• 36:41
  So that's me helping to label emotions of what's going on in the play process to help children begin to integrate that.
• 36:51
  That also to me is something that when I'm doing family play therapy, attachment focused family play therapy sessions, and I'm using an attachment model, one of the things that I'm helping parents to learn in addition to co-regulation is reflecting the emotions, reading the cues of their child, and teaching parents how to reflect emotions, how to stay internally regulated and be self-aware, read the cues, and then respond to their child in that way.
• 37:28
  So in that way, I'm taking that information and that's how I would use it in the play therapy process.
• 37:37
  That would just be one example Depending on your play therapy model, you could apply that different ways as well, but this is how we take theory and now we do the practical application based on our theoretical model.
• 37:51
  So that is it for today.
• 37:54
  Let me just do a quick recap.
• 37:57
  Uh, one, emotional outba- outbursts and meltdowns are communication.
• 38:02
  They provide information.
• 38:05
  Deep down, we know children don't want to misbehave.
• 38:08
  They want a safe and loving connection with their caregivers and their family members, so they have a sense of belonging, and that's also where they learn that secure attachment.
• 38:20
  It's through that repair process, right?
• 38:23
  They… They're in… These family members are important, caregivers are important, so not only for their daily living, but also for that social emotional development.
• 38:35
  And so what we know from neuroscience is simply focusing on the nervous system language misses all the other important aspects of what we need to figure out.
• 38:47
  For example, how has the brain made sense of what's happening, and, um, activating that behavior?
• 38:56
  So what's the meaning that's been made to predict what to do next?
• 39:04
  That, that behavior is data, it's communication, and then we're gonna use our, our clinical process, clinical detective skills to figure that out.
• 39:17
  And we also know that children are developing their capacity for managing big emotions via that neurocircuitry and their development.
• 39:29
  This requires adults to be involved in their lives, to be attuned to their own internal processes getting activated and their belief systems so that they can be attuned and regulated in that moment to help their child experience regulation and the ability to use that caregiver or that play therapist in the session, um, over time,'cause it develops over time.
• 39:59
  So play therapy provides a way for children to be able to use those therapeutic powers of play with an attuned and regulated adult.
• 40:11
  So that is it for today.
• 40:14
  These are just some of the things that we talk about in Play Therapy Elevation Circle and Play Therapy Academy.
• 40:20
  So for example, in this month's consultation call in Play Therapy Elevation Circle, we s- a lot of what we go over is co-regulation with caregivers and adults.
• 40:34
  We just did that in our consultation last weekend, where we, we talked about the role of parents navigating challenging family dynamics and the role of the play therapist in that process, because I'm a firm believer that doing this work alone is really, really hard.
• 40:58
  And also the quality of the services we provide when we don't have the support we need to have people think alongside with us and help us figure these out and come up with different kind of contingencies to, of what, you know, if plan A doesn't work, then you can go to plan B, C, or D, depending on what's needed.
• 41:23
  So, um If you're interested in Play Therapy Elevation Circle, El- El- um, enrollment's closed right now, but you can get on the wait list for when it, and you'll be notified when it opens up again.
• 41:39
  Follow along 'cause I, um, follow the weekly live streams.
• 41:44
  Go subscribe to my podcast or listen to the YouTube channel replays.
• 41:50
  If you're interested in doing a deeper dive where you want to learn the, um, how to apply a therapy- a play therapy model, Play Therapy Academy is, uh, like probably more of a deeper dive k- skill-building, competency-building program.
• 42:12
  It… Seats in there are limited.
• 42:15
  I do have some spots open right now, so if you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, then schedule a 30-minute video call with me.
• 42:23
  We'll put a… You can pop over to my website at rhplaytherapytraining.com.
• 42:29
  That's Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training dot com.
• 42:33
  Go over to the consultation page.
• 42:35
  You'll see Play Therapy Academy and Elevation Circle.
• 42:39
  If you're not sure which one would be a good fit for you, you can always schedule the 30-minute video call.
• 42:46
  We'll put some links in the comments as well, or feel free to reach out and message me.
• 42:52
  Um, so if you're not sure if Elevation Circle is a better fit or if Play Therapy Academy is a better fit, schedule a video call with me, and we will figure out which one will help to get you the support that you need.
• 43:06
  So that is it for today, and I will see you next week.
• 43:12
  Bye for now.
• 43:16
  Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 43:20
  I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal.
• 43:29
  If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 43:35
  Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 43:41
  Remember, play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 43:45
  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.
• 43:57
  If you have any questions or topic suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you.
• 44:04
  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.
• 44:16
  Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 44:20
  Until next time, keep playing, learning, and growing.