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What to Do If Play Therapy Progress is Stalled · Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

• 0:02
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 0:04
  Cathi Spooner: A weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services.
• 0:14
  Cathi Spooner: We'll explore all things play therapy to elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play.
• 0:23
  Cathi Spooner: I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives.
• 0:33
  Cathi Spooner: So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families.
• 0:47
  Cathi Spooner: Hey there.
• 0:48
  Cathi Spooner: Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy, and today we are gonna talk about what are some things that you can do, or one thing in particular today about what you can do if it feels like play therapy is stalling out or you're not getting any progress being made and, and you check in with parents and they, they tell you that they're doing the things that you've recommended, but it doesn't make any difference.
• 1:23
  Cathi Spooner: Nothing seems to be working.
• 1:26
  Cathi Spooner: All of the things that tend to happen that make you feel like you are not helping your clients and you can't figure out why.
• 1:39
  Cathi Spooner: And that's what we are gonna talk about today.
• 1:42
  Cathi Spooner: So today's topic is what to do if play therapy progress is stalled.
• 1:50
  Cathi Spooner: Okay, so full disclosure here, I can already feel my brain being a little wonky.
• 1:56
  Cathi Spooner: So yesterday my husband and I got back from, I think we have five days, I think five or six, maybe five days in Glacier National Park in um Northwest Montana.
• 2:11
  Cathi Spooner: So, so beautiful.
• 2:14
  Cathi Spooner: I'm a little, uh, travel weary today.
• 2:19
  Cathi Spooner: And if you have never had a chance, if you're a nature lover like me and you need to be in the trees and you love the sound of babbling brooks as you hike along the path.
• 2:32
  Cathi Spooner: Glacier National Park was so awesome.
• 2:36
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so yeah, we got back yesterday.
• 2:39
  Cathi Spooner: It was a really awesome trip.
• 2:42
  Cathi Spooner: And I am, today's my first day back to work actually trying to fix my camera for Instagram over here.
• 2:52
  Cathi Spooner: Alrighty.
• 2:53
  Cathi Spooner: So.
• 2:55
  Cathi Spooner: I, how many of you, if you are watching live, or maybe you're watching on the replay, or maybe you are listening to the podcast episode, how many of you have had this happen where you are getting those frantic phone calls, you're getting the text messages, all the things that aren't going right when you meet with parents they tell you they're doing the things and nothing's working.
• 3:26
  Cathi Spooner: Their child is usually, this is the, the, this is the one that has happened to me so many times.
• 3:31
  Cathi Spooner: I, I have lost count.
• 3:33
  Cathi Spooner: It happens so many times.
• 3:36
  Cathi Spooner: It doesn't matter if you're new to play therapy, you're kind of have some years under your belt or maybe like me, you've been doing this for a few decades, a seasoned play therapist.
• 3:50
  Cathi Spooner: We all have this happen where you are, you are getting the information from parents that it's not working, their child is still having meltdowns and everything you've suggested basically doesn't work.
• 4:06
  Cathi Spooner: And you feel the pressure in your chest or maybe you have a headache.
• 4:12
  Cathi Spooner: I feel it in my chest and or my neck, or I'm like, oh my gosh, it's not working.
• 4:17
  Cathi Spooner: How do I help?
• 4:19
  Cathi Spooner: I can see the concern and the worry on parents' face and their frustration and they're just really worried about their child and nothing seems to be working.
• 4:30
  Cathi Spooner: And you feel the weight of responsibility on your shoulders to get this fixed fast.
• 4:40
  Cathi Spooner: If that is you, raise your virtual hand.
• 4:44
  Cathi Spooner: Post in the comments.
• 4:45
  Cathi Spooner: Send me a message on Instagram because we have all had this happen.
• 4:52
  Cathi Spooner: It's one of the things that we talk about a lot Play Therapy Academy and also my new, um, membership for play therapist called Play Therapy Elevation Circle.
• 5:05
  Cathi Spooner: In fact, we're probably gonna be talking about this topic on Saturday when we have our Elevation Circle consultation, our masterminds meeting.
• 5:17
  Cathi Spooner: And that is, um, what do you do?
• 5:21
  Cathi Spooner: It feels like it's stalled.
• 5:23
  Cathi Spooner: You're not making any progress.
• 5:25
  Cathi Spooner: What do you do?
• 5:26
  Cathi Spooner: You've gathered all the information from parents.
• 5:31
  Cathi Spooner: Um, you're using all your best strategies, all your best tips, and still feels like nothing is happening.
• 5:43
  Cathi Spooner: And to me, this is the benefit of using family play therapy sessions.
• 5:51
  Cathi Spooner: Because you get to see in real time what's going on.
• 5:56
  Cathi Spooner: So let's, let's talk about that.
• 5:59
  Cathi Spooner: What, what to do play therapy progress is stalled and the thing is what, you've gathered all of the information, but you're relying on secondhand information to get a sense of what's going on.
• 6:15
  Cathi Spooner: Most play therapists use an individual play therapy approach.
• 6:21
  Cathi Spooner: That's typically the way we're trained in graduate school.
• 6:25
  Cathi Spooner: Unless you're a marriage and family therapist, you are probably trained to use an individual lens for working with your clients and then most play therapy session most play therapy training is focused on using an individual play therapy approach.
• 6:47
  Cathi Spooner: Last week I talked about the pros and cons of individual play therapy versus family play therapy.
• 6:56
  Cathi Spooner: So if you were interested in that topic, you probably wanna go back and listen to last week's episode where I kind of go through the pros and cons.
• 7:05
  Cathi Spooner: Today I want to highlight the benefits of using family play therapy sessions.
• 7:13
  Cathi Spooner: So the thing is, the, when, when parents are giving the information to you, they're giving that information to you through their lens of how, sorry, I'm gonna fix my camera here for Instagram.
• 7:31
  Cathi Spooner: Um, they're, they're giving you information through what they understand, their knowledge, their perspective, and it's gonna be, um, limited because who of us really, really, really can give a full accurate picture just from our own individual lens.
• 7:59
  Cathi Spooner: It's hard to do that as the rare person who can be a hundred percent spot on about the big picture and multiple perspectives about what is going on.
• 8:13
  Cathi Spooner: Most, most parents are going to give their information, they're gonna give you a sense of what's going on based on their understanding and, and their knowledge about different factors.
• 8:30
  Cathi Spooner: The reason, the reality is they're coming to you as the play therapist 'cause they don't know what to do.
• 8:37
  Cathi Spooner: They are feeling lost and worried about their child and they don't know what to do.
• 8:44
  Cathi Spooner: They don't really know what might be activating certain things and they might be able to, parents might be able, or caregivers, I say parents and caregiver interchangeably because children don't always live with their parents.
• 9:01
  Cathi Spooner: Um, the children that we see for play therapy.
• 9:06
  Cathi Spooner: So they're, they're gonna be giving that information through their lens, but they don't have the big picture.
• 9:15
  Cathi Spooner: They don't really know everything and you can ask questions about what might be activating the behavior that is of concern.
• 9:26
  Cathi Spooner: That is bringing their, their child into counseling with you.
• 9:32
  Cathi Spooner: But they may not necessarily know all of the things to think about in terms of what might be activating the behavior.
• 9:43
  Cathi Spooner: They're not the experts.
• 9:45
  Cathi Spooner: That's why they're coming to you as the play therapist.
• 9:49
  Cathi Spooner: They're coming to you because you are the expert and they need your help, and I can't tell you how many times.
• 10:00
  Cathi Spooner: I have had parents call, they're frantic.
• 10:04
  Cathi Spooner: They don't know what's going on.
• 10:06
  Cathi Spooner: Nothing seems to be working.
• 10:08
  Cathi Spooner: They, you know, they tell you they're doing all the things that you've recommended and nothing seems to be working and I can't, or, or they're worried about they're worried about the high level conflict going on with the siblings or just in the household.
• 10:26
  Cathi Spooner: Everybody seems to be arguing all the time, not treating each other well.
• 10:32
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and so they're worried.
• 10:34
  Cathi Spooner: And the, some of the benefits of using family play therapy is you get to see in real time what are the interaction patterns.
• 10:48
  Cathi Spooner: I can't tell you how many times I have had over the last couple, several decades actually.
• 10:58
  Cathi Spooner: Parents are concerned about their child.
• 11:01
  Cathi Spooner: They.
• 11:02
  Cathi Spooner: I do, I, I usually start out with individual play therapy sessions.
• 11:08
  Cathi Spooner: I'll usually do that for at least the first 90 days.
• 11:11
  Cathi Spooner: Sometimes a little longer, but at some point in time I'm usually using family play therapy sessions and I, depending on what's going on, I may use it right from the start, which I've done as well.
• 11:25
  Cathi Spooner: Or I may try to build up that relationship with the child, get a sense of what's going on while building that relationship with parents before I actually do the family play therapy sessions.
• 11:39
  Cathi Spooner: And I can't tell you how many times I have had this happen where I do the family play therapy sessions and I get a much clearer understanding of what is going on.
• 11:57
  Cathi Spooner: I can see some of the hesitancy in the interactions or maybe missed cues or I see strengths, I'll see that the siblings actually do like each other, even though they might not always be behaving that way.
• 12:17
  Cathi Spooner: And then I get to see also how parents or caregivers are helping children navigate through that.
• 12:25
  Cathi Spooner: And some of the dynamics that can't be explained, they, they're better observed with your, with your knowledge where the lens in which you are looking through and understanding these relationship interaction patterns.
• 12:47
  Cathi Spooner: Time after time, after time, I have seen where I have young little preschoolers and early, early, um, childhood interactions where I can see the attachment issues and when we've worked on the attachment issues and parents have learned some skills that they can practice in the play therapy sessions.
• 13:21
  Cathi Spooner: Then I begin to see that shift, and parents also begin feeling more confident.
• 13:29
  Cathi Spooner: They begin to have hope.
• 13:31
  Cathi Spooner: They see the relationship with their child improving, and as that improves, they see the behaviors improving.
• 13:40
  Cathi Spooner: And parents have a better ability to know what to do when their child has the problematic behaviors that are are going on.
• 13:52
  Cathi Spooner: And that even with the older kids, parents and siblings have an opportunity to talk about what's been going on, to talk about the trauma and as a family to work through those the impact on their relationships and that sense of safety and the meaning they make about themselves and others, and relationships.
• 14:20
  Cathi Spooner: You can see how they are working through that using those family play therapy sessions.
• 14:29
  Cathi Spooner: So the, the benefit of family play therapy is that as a trained play therapy professional, you can see in real time, what are those patterns that parents haven't recognized?
• 14:47
  Cathi Spooner: Because they're not trained like you are.
• 14:51
  Cathi Spooner: You have the ability to help family members develop much stronger relationship attachment patterns, which has long lasting influence, I think, um, because they, they're now shifting the way in which they make sense of relationships, how, how you work through relationship issues and how that influences the beliefs that you have about yourself, the belief that you have about others, the beliefs that you have about relationships.
• 15:29
  Cathi Spooner: These are all of the things that I think that whole concept of mentalization helps to give a sense of what's going on with your client.
• 15:41
  Cathi Spooner: And the other thing is you, you help, you can, as a play therapist, what you're doing is you are helping family members access those therapeutic powers of play for healing so that those therapeutic powers of play can help shift those interaction relationship patterns, those dynamics within the family system, those can help, you can help to shift those while you're also using those therapeutic powers of play to teach new skills to help children use their parents and their siblings for support.
• 16:25
  Cathi Spooner: I've had, I've done every kind of family play therapy sessions you can probably think of.
• 16:33
  Cathi Spooner: Um.
• 16:35
  Cathi Spooner: Doing family play therapy sessions just with siblings to strengthen sibling relationships.
• 16:42
  Cathi Spooner: There is, um, a lot of missed opportunities I think when we don't as play therapists consider the importance of sibling relationships and helping to strengthen those sibling relationships.
• 17:03
  Cathi Spooner: In addition to the parent-child relationship, it's imp I, you know, it's, I think it's important to, to build a parent-child relationship, but I also think it's important to take a look at what's going on in those sibling relationships.
• 17:20
  Cathi Spooner: And I've, I've facilitated family play therapy sessions with siblings and observed that there's actually some strengths there.
• 17:33
  Cathi Spooner: And siblings actually do care about each other.
• 17:37
  Cathi Spooner: When parents are worried that they don't, uh, do they need to learn how to work through conflict a little more effectively?
• 17:43
  Cathi Spooner: Yes.
• 17:44
  Cathi Spooner: And you can help parents, uh, you can, you can help parents, so then parents can help their kids navigate through that.
• 17:54
  Cathi Spooner: And you, as the play therapist can model what that looks like in those play therapy sessions.
• 18:02
  Cathi Spooner: Um, I have used family play therapy sessions with divorced families.
• 18:09
  Cathi Spooner: Usually, um, one parent that parent in one household.
• 18:15
  Cathi Spooner: We do family play therapy sessions with them.
• 18:18
  Cathi Spooner: Parent in the other, or parent and stepparents in the other household, we do family play therapy sessions with them.
• 18:27
  Cathi Spooner: I have facilitate used family play therapy sessions to help estranged children and parents repair, repair those relationships when there's been divorce and some of those relationship patterns have been negatively influenced.
• 18:50
  Cathi Spooner: I have used family play therapy sessions to help parents and their children heal after that has been traumatic experiences.
• 19:02
  Cathi Spooner: Those can be really, really powerful ways to help families heal.
• 19:08
  Cathi Spooner: And so to me, I think if you're finding that your play, the individual play therapy sessions are getting stalled out and you don't seem to be making any progress, I would suggest you may want to consider using family play therapy.
• 19:29
  Cathi Spooner: And if you're going to use family play therapy, then I highly recommend using a framework.
• 19:36
  Cathi Spooner: Be intentional about the play therapy sessions when you're adding families, parents, siblings.
• 19:47
  Cathi Spooner: It's not just an individual play therapy session plus an extra person or two.
• 19:54
  Cathi Spooner: When you're using a family play therapy approach, you really need to fundamentally kind of shift your way of thinking about how those are done.
• 20:06
  Cathi Spooner: And to do that you really need a play therapy framework to guide you through each stage of the play therapy process.
• 20:16
  Cathi Spooner: So I, I created a play, the, a family play therapy model years and years ago because I, I needed a way to structure, the family play therapy sessions, and I like using a neuroscience and attachment lens.
• 20:36
  Cathi Spooner: So I needed, I needed a model that was flexible enough to adjust to the individual needs of what, uh, of the family and what, and who needs to be in the sessions.
• 20:49
  Cathi Spooner: And I, I also wanted to conceptualize what that was gonna look like using a neuroscience and attachment lens.
• 21:00
  Cathi Spooner: And integrate that with a family systems lens.
• 21:04
  Cathi Spooner: Family systems theory is my default mode.
• 21:07
  Cathi Spooner: That's how I was trained in grad school.
• 21:10
  Cathi Spooner: Um, and I've, I've just always been a big believer in that.
• 21:17
  Cathi Spooner: So I wanted a model to do that.
• 21:19
  Cathi Spooner: So actually I have a book if you're interested.
• 21:22
  Cathi Spooner: It's called Attachment Focused Family Play Therapy.
• 21:26
  Cathi Spooner: This one is really focused on, this one is an intervention for children and adolescents after trauma.
• 21:33
  Cathi Spooner: You can get it anywhere you buy books.
• 21:35
  Cathi Spooner: But I also have a training that I have coming up in November that I'm gonna talk a little bit more about using this attachment focused family play therapy model.
• 21:47
  Cathi Spooner: And so that's the model that I'm gonna use when I am integrating parents and or siblings in there.
• 21:55
  Cathi Spooner: The reason you want to use a play therapy model is because it helps you.
• 22:02
  Cathi Spooner: Like this model.
• 22:03
  Cathi Spooner: I use a neuroscience and attachment lens with family systems integrated in there, those those theories, and that influences how I make sense of what's creating this problem or what's contributing to the problem or what, what is going on that this problem is happening, and I'm gonna use that theoretical lens to conceptualize and, um, make sense of that.
• 22:32
  Cathi Spooner: And then it's gonna influence what I'm gonna do in the sessions.
• 22:36
  Cathi Spooner: And so having a play therapy framework helps you, uh, that model is gonna help you know what your role is as the play therapist.
• 22:48
  Cathi Spooner: What is parents' role?
• 22:51
  Cathi Spooner: It helps you to figure out what stage of the change process you're in, what's your role and what's parents' role in each one of those stages of change, it's gonna influence what type of intervention, so play therapy activities that you're using in sessions when you are going to use those different sessions so that you use them more strategically instead of kind of throwing your best strategies and hoping something works.
• 23:24
  Cathi Spooner: I call that the spaghetti against the wall.
• 23:26
  Cathi Spooner: So you, it's kind of like throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping something sticks.
• 23:31
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so it, the, using a play therapy model is gonna help you figure all of that out.
• 23:38
  Cathi Spooner: Otherwise you're just kind of adding adding parents or siblings in there without a real plan or without a real structure so that you get the outcomes that you're hoping to have.
• 23:56
  Cathi Spooner: And so that's why I, I like using the attachment focus family play therapy model that I created.
• 24:03
  Cathi Spooner: If you're an Adlerian play therapist, then Adlerian Play Therapy al allows for Adlerian family play therapy sessions.
• 24:13
  Cathi Spooner: If you're a Gestalt play therapist, then Gestalt Play Therapy allows for family therapy sessions, or maybe you use therapy play, or maybe you use Filial or a child parent relationship therapy.
• 24:28
  Cathi Spooner: All of those are models that can at least at the very least, integrate the parent and child depending on what model you're using.
• 24:40
  Cathi Spooner: I liked having a model that I could use, um, either with the parent and the child or have the whole family in there.
• 24:49
  Cathi Spooner: 'cause if you wanna see what's going on and why things are happening the way that they're happening, the likelihood you're gonna get a better sense of that when you get the whole family in there is very high.
• 25:01
  Cathi Spooner: And a lot of times when I, mention too, especially when we're doing consultation and, and I'll mention fa you know, doing some, get all the family members in there, play therapists, usually get that panic look on their face.
• 25:17
  Cathi Spooner: Like what?
• 25:17
  Cathi Spooner: I have to add all of those in there at the same time with all of those different developmental stages, which seems scary and overwhelming.
• 25:26
  Cathi Spooner: Here's the thing though, this is where your fundamental shift in how to facilitate these sessions is going to be influenced by your play therapy model.
• 25:39
  Cathi Spooner: And so you really want to make sure that you have, you're using a play therapy model for family play therapy sessions, and you're not just looking at it as.
• 25:52
  Cathi Spooner: Individual therapy, plus you added an extra person or two in there, you, it's really a, a fundamental shift in the way that you do that.
• 26:03
  Cathi Spooner: And your play therapy model is gonna show you what to do in each stage.
• 26:09
  Cathi Spooner: So that is it for today.
• 26:12
  Cathi Spooner: So today what we, let me do a little recap.
• 26:15
  Cathi Spooner: Today, what we're talking about is what to do if play therapy progress stalls.
• 26:22
  Cathi Spooner: And.
• 26:23
  Cathi Spooner: Um, we looked at, I just realized I didn't, um, ask people to check in and say hi.
• 26:31
  Cathi Spooner: Um, still working on coming off of vacation brain, so if you're watching live, I know I've gone most of the way through and we're doing the recap now, but I would love to know who's here.
• 26:43
  Cathi Spooner: So, uh, if you're watching on the replay or if you're watching live on Instagram or LinkedIn or YouTube, post your name in the comments where you're from.
• 26:56
  Cathi Spooner: What population do you work with?
• 26:58
  Cathi Spooner: Do you use family play therapy?
• 27:00
  Cathi Spooner: Um, if you do, what model do you use?
• 27:05
  Cathi Spooner: And what questions do you have about using family play therapy with your clients?
• 27:16
  Cathi Spooner: And those of you watching or listening on the podcast, feel free to contact me, uh, over on Instagram.
• 27:25
  Cathi Spooner: My Instagram is at Renewing Hearts Training.
• 27:29
  Cathi Spooner: I would love to hear from people.
• 27:32
  Cathi Spooner: So today.
• 27:33
  Cathi Spooner: Um, so just to recap, what to do if play therapy progress is stalled.
• 27:39
  Cathi Spooner: Really what you're looking at, what we're talking about today is really parents are only gonna provide their perspective because they don't have all of the knowledge.
• 27:51
  Cathi Spooner: So you're not really gonna you're not really gonna see the interaction patterns in real time.
• 27:58
  Cathi Spooner: You're gonna have to rely on secondhand information that's coming from somebody who doesn't really have the knowledge and experience that you have to see the bigger picture.
• 28:13
  Cathi Spooner: Plus the other thing is who of us can really be unbiased all the time?
• 28:20
  Cathi Spooner: Um.
• 28:23
  Cathi Spooner: I mean, none of us, it's always, it's always good to have that perspec, um, professional perspective that kind of helps us see things from, different perspectives to get a better sense of what's going on.
• 28:39
  Cathi Spooner: And if you're only relying on parent self-report, then you're not really gonna get that.
• 28:45
  Cathi Spooner: And so when you get all those frantic phone calls about, or texts or emails, nothing's working, everything's going badly, then you're not really gonna see the interaction patterns in real time unless you get everybody in there.
• 29:01
  Cathi Spooner: And that really is the benefit of uh, including family, family members, and at least parents in the sessions, is that you can see in real time what's going on.
• 29:16
  Cathi Spooner: You can also use those sessions to teach new skills, new way of doing things.
• 29:22
  Cathi Spooner: You can, um, help children develop stronger attachment relationships for their parents.
• 29:30
  Cathi Spooner: You can teach parents how to do co-regulation and what that looks like when you have the whole family in there.
• 29:37
  Cathi Spooner: You can look at those interaction patterns.
• 29:40
  Cathi Spooner: You can teach skills to family members.
• 29:43
  Cathi Spooner: You can help siblings work through things a different way, and also help parents know how to guide their family through challenging times.
• 29:54
  Cathi Spooner: And here's the thing, using an attachment lens, it's about the rupture and repair process, how the, there's always gonna be rupture.
• 30:04
  Cathi Spooner: Nobody gets along all the time, and you can not be in a family and get along 100% of the time every single day of your life.
• 30:14
  Cathi Spooner: It just doesn't happen.
• 30:17
  Cathi Spooner: And we're helping parents be good enough parents.
• 30:20
  Cathi Spooner: We just have to be good enough and helping parents learn how to be that good enough parent who can help to work through those relationship ruptures and be that secure base and strong anchor in the home.
• 30:41
  Cathi Spooner: And help siblings learn those skills as well.
• 30:46
  Cathi Spooner: That's, that's the benefit of getting everyone in the session.
• 30:53
  Cathi Spooner: And when you do that, you really wanna make sure that you have a play therapy model.
• 30:59
  Cathi Spooner: You don't wanna just kind of hodgepodge it together or go kind of like.
• 31:07
  Cathi Spooner: What I call the spaghetti against the wall method, where you're just like adding somebody in there, but you don't have any intention, you don't have a framework that you're using that helps you understand your role, helps parents understand their role, what to do in each stage, what kind of activities would you choose for each stage, and that's the important piece of using FAM play, family Play therapy effectively.
• 31:37
  Cathi Spooner: So if you are interested, that is, uh, I do have a training coming up.
• 31:43
  Cathi Spooner: It's called Attachment Focused Family Play Therapy.
• 31:46
  Cathi Spooner: It is in-person and online.
• 31:50
  Cathi Spooner: So in it, we're gonna go over kind of that theoretical conceptualization using a neuroscience and attachment lens to help understand parents' role and understanding how those implicit experiences influence our lives, and also maybe influencing parenting, um, strategies.
• 32:17
  Cathi Spooner: And you're kind of using that lens of neuroscience and attachment.
• 32:22
  Cathi Spooner: We'll look at co-regulation, we'll look at polyvagal therapy.
• 32:26
  Cathi Spooner: Uh, the polyvagal theory, we'll look at mentalization, which is basically understanding how do you make sense of the intentions and behaviors and values and emotions of others, and then how does that influence your experiences and the meaning that you make of things.
• 32:50
  Cathi Spooner: That's the whole foundation I think of attachment and understanding what's going on with our clients.
• 33:01
  Cathi Spooner: And then I will talk with you, show you like what are you looking for, what are kind of the nuts and bolts of relationship that you're gonna be looking for to kind of get a sense of relationships and know where to strategically target the change process, which is then gonna influence what you do in each stage.
• 33:27
  Cathi Spooner: So we'll go through the stages of the attachment play therapy model.
• 33:32
  Cathi Spooner: What's your role?
• 33:33
  Cathi Spooner: What's parents' role?
• 33:34
  Cathi Spooner: How do you choose interventions?
• 33:36
  Cathi Spooner: We'll also do some experiential activities'cause we're play therapist and we love doing that.
• 33:42
  Cathi Spooner: Lots of group interaction to really kind of do a hands on.
• 33:47
  Cathi Spooner: So this is virtual and in person.
• 33:50
  Cathi Spooner: In person is gonna be in St. George, Utah.
• 33:54
  Cathi Spooner: It'll be November 8th, Saturday, November 8th.
• 33:58
  Cathi Spooner: So St. George, Utah is beautiful that time of year.
• 34:04
  Cathi Spooner: So if you wanna take a little time out and go hang out in nature, then I would say plan a trip to St. George, Utah, and then on Saturday join us for the training if you, uh, it's also available virtually, so you can either register for the virtual option or you register for the in-person option.
• 34:27
  Cathi Spooner: That's gonna be on Saturday, November 8th.
• 34:32
  Cathi Spooner: If you're interested, then pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com.
• 34:40
  Cathi Spooner: That's RH play therapy training.com.
• 34:44
  Cathi Spooner: Renewing Hearts Play Therapy training.
• 34:46
  Cathi Spooner: That's the website.
• 34:47
  Cathi Spooner: Hop over there onto the training page.
• 34:51
  Cathi Spooner: Um, it's called Attachment Focused Family Play therapy.
• 34:56
  Cathi Spooner: We will also post links in the comments.
• 35:00
  Cathi Spooner: So if you have questions about the training, feel free to message me.
• 35:05
  Cathi Spooner: I'd be happy to answer your questions, and I will.
• 35:10
  Cathi Spooner: That's it for today, and I will see you next week.
• 35:13
  Cathi Spooner: Bye.
• 35:18
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 35:22
  Cathi Spooner: I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal.
• 35:32
  Cathi Spooner: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 35:37
  Cathi Spooner: Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 35:43
  Cathi Spooner: Remember.
• 35:44
  Cathi Spooner: Play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 35:48
  Cathi Spooner: Whether you're a new play therapist or experienced, I encourage you to continue your learning journey to unlock the potential of play in your own work in relationships.
• 35:59
  Cathi Spooner: If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episode.
• 36:04
  Cathi Spooner: I'd love to hear from you.
• 36:06
  Cathi Spooner: 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.
• 36:19
  Cathi Spooner: Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 36:22
  Cathi Spooner: Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.