Latest / Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence / What’s the Role of Parents in Play Therapy?

Transcript

What’s the Role of Parents in Play Therapy? · Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

• 0:02
  Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 0:04
  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.
• 0:17
  To elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play.
• 0:23
  I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives.
• 0:33
  So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families.
• 0:47
  Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 0:52
  Today I wanna talk a little bit about parents and the role of parents.
• 0:58
  So, so today though, I did want to focus a little bit on sharing some of my thoughts and some experience and maybe some tips to think about when you're working with parents.
• 1:15
  And the role of parents.
• 1:17
  So we're looking at today, I wanna kind of focus a little bit on on case conceptualization when it comes to parents.
• 1:25
  So your case conceptualization.
• 1:28
  If you've listened to any of my past episodes, I've talked about that pretty extensively in the past.
• 1:34
  If you wanna take a deeper dive into that, then most definitely go and listen to some of my previous episodes.
• 1:43
  This one specifically when you're talking about case conceptualization about parents and the role of parents in the treatment process for play therapy, and why is that important?
• 1:56
  So case conceptualization is your um, going through, asking all of the questions, frequency, intensity, and duration, and getting a sense of what's going on with your clients and what is it that's activating these symptoms and these issues in their lives.
• 2:17
  What are the roots of it?
• 2:19
  And then also what are the patterns in the child's life that includes attachment, relationship patterns, family system, relationship patterns, what's going on in their environment outside of the home, like typically at school, maybe other areas in the child's life.
• 2:41
  What is going on in these areas?
• 2:44
  What are the patterns that are supporting and maintaining the issue that's activating these symptoms.
• 2:53
  So if we're looking at that from a case conceptualization standpoint, then we're also looking at what is the role of parents in play therapy?
• 3:04
  And we know from decades of research with attachment theory that parents are the attachment figures.
• 3:16
  If they're, if, if, children are not living with their birth parents, they're living with their adopted parents.
• 3:23
  If they're not living with, or they may be, um, not living with parents or adopted parents, and they might be living with other family members for a variety of different reasons.
• 3:36
  So whoever, when I say parents, I'm referring to whoever is in that caregiving role.
• 3:43
  Who's ever in that parent role for the child.
• 3:48
  And so, um, that's, that's, we know that parents have a key role in the child's ability to develop resilience as well as the formation of a healthy self-concept.
• 4:08
  So that identity formation is also tied to those attachment relationships.
• 4:15
  So as play therapists, we have a really important role to play in supporting children, supporting parents, supporting families.
• 4:27
  I was listening to one of my favorite kind of business podcast and I'm gonna say something that may make some people, uh, disagree.
• 4:39
  Some people may disagree with what I'm about to say.
• 4:42
  I'm gonna hope I'm saying in a way that communicates clearly my intention here.
• 4:49
  Um, so some of you may know if you've been listening to some of my previous podcasts, even way back then.
• 4:57
  I got started in education.
• 4:59
  Uh, my, I got my bachelor's degree way back in the 1980s teaching children in special education.
• 5:08
  So the population of children that I worked with in a self-contained classroom of, we had a maximum of 12 kids per class, which for the record that that was a lot of kids.
• 5:24
  When you're dealing with behavior and emotional issues for children who can't maintain functioning in a, in a general education classroom.
• 5:34
  12. 12 kids was a lot.
• 5:37
  Um, and we had a full-time aide and we had school psychologists, school social worker, principal behavior, like we had a whole self-contained elementary school for children who were experiencing emotional and behavioral problems to the extent that they couldn't uh, maintain stable functioning in a regular classroom.
• 5:59
  So I've been in education and I remember feeling like there were so many things we had to do to support children.
• 6:12
  Now, my, my role was a little unique in that I was supposed to be helping with their social, emotional, behavioral, behavioral things in order to teach them.
• 6:22
  But we weren't, we, it was more so they could be educated.
• 6:26
  But one of the things that I hear often is school should be doing more for social emotional functioning of children.
• 6:36
  And I don't disagree with that.
• 6:38
  However, I feel like it misses the mark in some ways that what we really need to be doing is supporting parents and helping parents navigate challenging situations so that parents can be those therapeutic agents of change, not the school like we can support in some ways, but parents are the ones who are gonna be with them.
• 7:04
  And in my mind we, we serve children best if we support parents and not expect the schools to be teaching all of the things.
• 7:18
  Like the comment that I heard, which I don't necessarily disagree, and I understand the intent and the place in which the comment was coming from, but the comment was, well, why aren't schools teaching emotional intelligence?
• 7:30
  Why aren't schools teaching children these things?
• 7:34
  And my thought was, well, that's what they learn in their families.
• 7:39
  That's what they learn from parents.
• 7:41
  We.
• 7:42
  We should be supporting parents to help teach their children these things and not expecting the school to do that.
• 7:50
  And again, I'm not saying that the school doesn't have a role and we can provide mental health services in the schools to support children.
• 7:59
  What I'm saying is we miss the mark if we don't look at parents as being the primary focus for support to help their children make the changes.
• 8:15
  And that's, that's kind of what we're talking about today, that I wanna go over some tips and strategies to really focus on supporting families.
• 8:27
  Supporting our clients in their families.
• 8:30
  So just one more clarification that I wanna make before I get started.
• 8:34
  'cause I wanna be really as clear as possible on this topic.
• 8:39
  Um, so from, from an Association for Play Therapy standpoint and their best practices.
• 8:49
  Um, from like those of us who are, have the credential of registered play therapist through the Association for Play Therapy.
• 8:59
  From a best practice standpoint, the Association for Play Therapy identifies the child as the client, not the family, as the client, not the parents, as the client.
• 9:12
  The Association for Play Therapy identifies the child as the client.
• 9:18
  That being said, we still are working with parents to and, and families that child's family to, to help get the family system in a healthier place to help parents learn some skills so that they can support their child the way that they want to as a parent.
• 9:43
  Parenting's hard man.
• 9:45
  I, I had, I, my husband and I raised two neurodiverse kids.
• 9:51
  We came from different backgrounds that weren't the most optimal, so we wanted to do things different and, and it was hard man, learning new things.
• 10:01
  So I have a lot of compassion for parents and again, there are things we can't tolerate and definitely need to change, but I think we need to support parents and I and I, I get how hard that is.
• 10:17
  So today I wanna talk about, um, kind of talk about that a little bit and, and go over like three things to think about in order to really most effectively support your client by helping parents and helping to support family systems in the service of supporting your client.
• 10:44
  So yes, the child is a client and we work with parents to help them learn the most effective strategies to help their children.
• 10:53
  So supporting parents ends up supporting the client, supporting parents, and the child's family ends up supporting the child.
• 11:02
  Ultimately, when all things work well together, that's the goal.
• 11:07
  So first thing, oh, I forgot to say this.
• 11:10
  For those of you who are watching live I the live stream.
• 11:16
  I would love to know who's here.
• 11:18
  If you're watching on Instagram, hey there, watching live, I would love to know who's here.
• 11:24
  Post your comments, uh, post in the comments.
• 11:27
  Also, if you're watching on LinkedIn and if you're watching live on YouTube.
• 11:35
  Uh, post your name in the comments.
• 11:37
  I would love to know who's here, where you work, what population you work with, what are your strategies that you're working with parents?
• 11:46
  What are your kind of struggles.
• 11:49
  If you're watching the replay, please feel free to comment as well.
• 11:55
  And those of you who are listening on the podcast, we now have a feature that you can send a message, which is pretty cool.
• 12:04
  It's brand new, so if any of you wanna test it out, you're listen to the podcast.
• 12:09
  I would love some practice learning how that feature works.
• 12:12
  I was really excited when they, the podcast platform that I use, um.
• 12:19
  Uh, now allows direct comments, but send me a comment, questions.
• 12:23
  I would love to hear your feedback and, uh, let's get started for today.
• 12:29
  Also, for those of you listening, uh, watching on LinkedIn, maybe the live or the replay, feel free to pop over and sign up for my free monthly newsletter.
• 12:40
  I do that as well on LinkedIn.
• 12:43
  So, to get started for today, I think the thing that.
• 12:48
  The thing that we're thinking about today is really what is the role of parents in play therapy?
• 12:55
  I think when when we get clear about that as a play therapist, then we begin to use that in our case formulation to better understand what we need to do and how we need to create and facilitate the change process.
• 13:14
  So in our case, conceptualization, we're also identifying the role of parents for this specific thing that's going on with their child, and then how are we gonna facilitate the change process with that?
• 13:29
  So when you're identifying the role of parents, you are really thinking about what does your play therapy theory model say?
• 13:38
  Right.
• 13:38
  Your theory model is gonna influence the way in which you understand and define what the problem is.
• 13:45
  Your theory model is also going to influence the way in which you conceptualize the role of parents in the change process.
• 13:56
  For example, for child-centered play therapy, the role of parents is important.
• 14:04
  And that's why a Child-Centered Play therapist will meet with parents separately.
• 14:10
  They will meet with parents, but not in the session.
• 14:14
  The parent is not in the session.
• 14:16
  They meet with parents separately for case consultation and do that one-on-one work with parents, so to speak in a separate session.
• 14:26
  Filial therapy or another version of that is child parent relationship therapy.
• 14:34
  So both of those use the child-centered play therapy model, but Filial or Child Parent Relationship therapy will teach parents how to do, basically, we're teaching them the skills of doing child-centered play therapy.
• 14:53
  We're teaching parents those skills and having parents do that work with the children, and there's a structure uh, and a way of doing that.
• 15:04
  The play is going to include the child and the parent with the therapist.
• 15:10
  So one, one parent, one child, and then the therapist is in there and they use an attachment model.
• 15:17
  And there's, there's stages of the change process for Thera Play, there are stages of the change process for FILIAL and CPRT.
• 15:28
  There are stages of the change process for child-centered play therapy.
• 15:33
  If you're using like an Adlerian play therapy or Gestalt play therapy, they will integrate parents into the session.
• 15:42
  So they will conceptualize the role of parents based on that theory model.
• 15:48
  And then they have a way of integrating parents, even family members doing family therapy in using that model.
• 15:57
  So I would say also, if you're using an integrated model then you're still using theory models.
• 16:04
  You've just kind of integrated them together.
• 16:06
  You're still using stages of change.
• 16:11
  You're just using them based on those theoretical models that you've integrated.
• 16:16
  Like I use an attachment and neuroscience.
• 16:19
  That's the, I love that, that lens of looking at things.
• 16:24
  And so when I am working with parents and children and families, that's the lens that I'm using.
• 16:32
  For the little kids, the younger kids, i, I use child-centered play therapy.
• 16:36
  I think that's a really good model to, to work with them.
• 16:41
  And I'll do the consultation with parents in separate sessions.
• 16:45
  The likelihood though, I'm gonna end up getting to attachment focused fam, family play therapy and getting them all into the session together and kind of switch from center play therapy over to attachment focused family play therapy is very high.
• 17:04
  So in that way, when I'm honest with myself, I really am using more of an integrative model overall.
• 17:12
  So the first thing you're looking at though, is how does your theory model identify the role of parents in the change process.
• 17:24
  And if you're getting lost or kind of unsure along the way, it might be because you're not necessarily using a theoretical model, um, to make sense of what's going on and identify the role of parents in the change process.
• 17:46
  That's one of the things that I find happens a lot is people really aren't using a theoretical model.
• 17:54
  They, you know what I, I hear this a lot people say, I'm using child-centered play therapy, and then they, you know, we have a discussion around, what do you mean by that?
• 18:05
  Because, and then they tell me they have parents in the sessions and I'm like, well, let's not child-centered play therapy If they're in there.
• 18:14
  There's, you know, your theory model influences a lot of things, including how you do the change process.
• 18:22
  And what I found is when people are struggling with what help, you know, integrating parents or they're feeling challenged or overwhelmed and frustrated when it comes to working with parents, it's typically because they're not necessarily falling the play therapy model.
• 18:41
  So I always say that's the first place to look.
• 18:44
  That might not be it.
• 18:46
  And if you're struggling, I would definitely recommend go back to the basics first.
• 18:52
  What theory model are you using?
• 18:54
  Are you applying the theory model accurately?
• 18:58
  And what does your theory model say about how you're integrating parents in there?
• 19:02
  And what exactly is that gonna look like?
• 19:05
  So the other thing you wanna think about with when you're identifying the role of parents is you're thinking about the role of culture.
• 19:14
  You definitely wanna consider culture of your clients, especially if your clients come from a different culture as you and you wanna think about how that culture I understands and, um, the parenting role from a parenting standpoint and a cultural standpoint.
• 19:36
  What does parenting look like.
• 19:39
  And how can, so all that means looking at some of the resiliency factors of that culture and also maybe where there may be some conflict between the parents' upbringing in a specific culture.
• 19:57
  Maybe where there may be some things that are not so effective, so you may need to work a little bit about with that.
• 20:07
  So the, so thinking about things from an attachment theory lens, parents are the therapeutic agents of change for their child and parents are the therapeutic agents of change in helping develop resiliency and that identity formation for their child.
• 20:31
  So what does that mean therapeutic agent of change?
• 20:36
  The way that I look at it is parents are the therapeutic agents of change for their children.
• 20:45
  So there's a whole discussion around who is the therapeutic agent of change.
• 20:50
  Is it the therapist?
• 20:52
  Or is it the parents?
• 20:55
  Or is it both?
• 20:56
  And I kind of lean with the both.
• 20:58
  Um, and here's what I mean by that.
• 21:02
  PA therapists create that corrective experience through our way of being in the session our way of being, is it gonna be influenced by our, our play therapy model?
• 21:12
  In some ways, and in some ways, there's a universal therapeutic rapport building and therapeutic way of being in a session.
• 21:21
  Um, and that one of those universal things that crosses all theory models is unconditional positive regard and empathy.
• 21:31
  How am I fully present in the moment attuned to my client, helping them experience a felt sense of being seen and heard.
• 21:42
  So as play therapists, we do that with children.
• 21:45
  Here's the thing, I think as play therapists, we also do that with parents so that parents can then be that therapeutic agent of change for their child.
• 21:59
  Outside of the play therapy session, we meet with pa with children like TH 45, maybe 53, 60 minutes a week.
• 22:10
  All the rest of the time, they're with their parents, they're with their family.
• 22:15
  What does that look like for the child?
• 22:17
  If we can support parents to become the therapeutic agents of change for their children, then that's way more impactful than my 1 45 to 60 minute time with that child a week.
• 22:36
  Not to minimize the, the benefit of that time weekly with the child in the therapy session.
• 22:45
  That's still important.
• 22:47
  What I'm suggesting is we take a little shift and think about parents as a therapeutic agents of change, who can have way more impact across the board, across the child's lifespan.
• 23:02
  If we begin to help parents become that therapeutic agent of change for their child, and what exactly does that look like?
• 23:12
  Because we know that children are wired for connection and their parents or those acting in that parenting role, are there attachment figures and play a really critical role in shaping their emotional and neurological development.
• 23:32
  And so by, by integrating parents and figuring out how we're going to integrate them as the therapeutic agents of change for their children in the change process, we're helping parents have that foundational capability with their children to promote healing, healing and resilience, and positive identity formation.
• 24:04
  Even at an, you know, if your client's five, think about the, the impact of helping your client who's five, experience their parent as a therapeutic agent of change to develop resilience and positive identity formation, and maybe even create, do you have an 8-year-old or a 10-year-old client or an adolescent client that still have that corrective experience during childhood with their parents promote secure attachments that can change the trajectory of those relationships moving forward throughout their lives.
• 24:45
  So I, I look at parents as the therapeutic agents of change, who can learn co-regulation, who can help to co-regulate their children, to advocate for their child's needs at the school, help to coordinate and um, collaborate with the school staff if their child's struggling at school, and put some of that co-regulation experiences in place for children outside of the therapy session and help develop that neuro system children are, are gonna need throughout their life, life's lifetime to, I mean, we need co-reg.
• 25:33
  We need to regulate emotions in relationships.
• 25:35
  We need to deal with challenging situations in life.
• 25:39
  Nobody's exempt from challenging situations.
• 25:42
  If we can help parents support their children to develop that ability to navigate challenging situations, staying, staying regulated, laying down those neuro pathways for for that emotion regulation circuitry in children, foster a sense of safety and trust within those really primary relationships, which then fosters a positive sense of self.
• 26:13
  That's.
• 26:14
  That's the role of parents as the therapeutic agent of change for their children.
• 26:19
  We also know that the brain develops through relationship and co-regulation from parents, and it helps them to learn to manage those intense emotions.
• 26:31
  And so in the therapy space, we can provide that support to parents to help them understand and respond to their children in more effective ways.
• 26:42
  And then the child's brain begins to form those healthier, healthier neural pathways and supports the ability for emotional stability and that behavioral change.
• 26:55
  So if we can integrate parents as those therapeutic agents of change, then parents are also going to be.
• 27:05
  Modeling some of these things to their children in the home and supporting their child's growth outside of the therapy sessions.
• 27:16
  If we can help parents learn some strategies, more often than not, we're not expecting anybody to be perfect.
• 27:23
  Lord knows I'm not perfect.
• 27:25
  Um, and parent.
• 27:27
  It's not possible.
• 27:28
  We need to be good enough, more often than not, right.
• 27:32
  And what exactly is that gonna look like?
• 27:34
  So helping parents.
• 27:37
  L, learn what that looks like, how you know, how do you set limits, but also be attuned because children need limits, they need structure, and they need to feel seen and heard by their parents.
• 27:52
  So that's that attuned and empa empathic responses from parents that that also supports the progress that children are making in therapy.
• 28:03
  So to me that's that whole concept of helping parents become the therapeutic agents of change and how are you doing that?
• 28:11
  And one of the things in the, in the parenting course that I created, which is called Getting Grounded Partnering with Parents in Play Therapy I, I go through a whole, that whole neuroscience and attachment theoretical foundation because if you are conceptualizing what's going on with your client and what are the patterns sustaining it?
• 28:38
  You're gonna be using your theoretical model.
• 28:40
  So I, I, I walk through from an attachment and neuroscience standpoint what that looks like.
• 28:47
  So when you're identifying and coming up with, um, activities or different things to do with your clients and your kind of basing that on, how are you understanding the problem and what needs to change?
• 29:00
  That's based on your theory model.
• 29:01
  So really I walk you through that, and especially when you're working with challenging parents using an attachment and neuroscience lens, I.
• 29:11
  I found to be a really, really, really helpful, and so in the course, I put a whole module in there about some tips and strategies and some things to think about and how to identify maybe some things that might be going on that are barriers and how to navigate around those, as well as like walking through a whole bunch of other things.
• 29:35
  So a lot of what I'm talking about here, i, I go into a much deeper, I take a much deeper dive in the course to kind of help give you that foundation and that framework in order to work, work from there.
• 29:51
  So the third thing leads to, so you're looking at your, your theoretical model, your play therapy model.
• 30:01
  You are conceptualizing parents as the therapeutic agents of change.
• 30:05
  Which brings us to the third thing for today's episode, which is defining your expectations for parents' role in the play therapy change process, and then communicating that to them.
• 30:21
  If you re, and I talked a lot more about this in last week's episode as well, I've talked about this previously.
• 30:29
  I go into a lot more depth kind of walking you through the process of how to do this and what things to think about.
• 30:35
  It's not, what do you think parents will do, it's how are you compute?
• 30:40
  How are you defining your expectations?
• 30:43
  As the, as a mental health professional, you, you know, you're using this attachment and neuroscience theoretical model.
• 30:51
  So based on that, you've identified their role.
• 30:55
  Now you have to identify your expectations and how are you gonna communicate that?
• 31:01
  To do that, first you have to identify your own expectations.
• 31:05
  Um.
• 31:07
  Because if you don't identify your expectations, how are you gonna communicate them?
• 31:13
  And you're gonna get frustrated when things aren't working the way that you think they need to go.
• 31:19
  If you take a step back, though, have you identified your expectations?
• 31:24
  And have you clearly communicated those from that, from the very start?
• 31:30
  Before that very first session, have you com communicated your expectations for parents' involvement in, in the treatment process?
• 31:42
  Because unless you, uh, explain your expectations and why.
• 31:47
  Part of what we're doing is helping parents understand they have a really pivotal role and, and we are here to support them as much as we are to support their child.
• 31:59
  We wanna create that safe space for parents to come and get support.
• 32:05
  And use that support to help their child.
• 32:09
  Parenting is hard.
• 32:11
  Um, especially I, I think parenting is hard now.
• 32:14
  They're so, they get so much information like, do this to be a good parent.
• 32:19
  You have to do this, or you're not a good parent.
• 32:21
  If you do that.
• 32:22
  That's what they hear and it's confusing so much noise coming at them.
• 32:28
  I think you have a, a key role to be able to help them sort through what actually is beneficial and what do they need to let go of, and helping them to develop some skills.
• 32:42
  To do that though, to get their engagement, you have to communicate your expectations about why they're so important.
• 32:51
  And if they want to get this out, this positive outcome for their child, then that means they're going to need to be an active participant.
• 33:01
  And what exactly is that gonna look like?
• 33:04
  Parents don't know.
• 33:05
  You're supposed to be explaining it to them, right?
• 33:08
  They need you to explain to them how they're supposed to be in um, involved and when we don't explain that to them, then it's just as confusing for them that about what they're supposed to be doing.
• 33:23
  You're the expert, they'll be relying on you to do everything.
• 33:26
  So it's important for you to help them understand that you're gonna partner with them, that they have important information they have an important role to collaborate with you as your partner to help their child achieve these positive outcomes that they, that they want their child to have.
• 33:48
  So that is it for today.
• 33:51
  Let me do a quick recap.
• 33:54
  So first is.
• 33:57
  Is the role of parents.
• 33:59
  So if you find yourself getting confused and not sure what you're doing or how to involve parents, it might be because you're not really looking at your play therapy theoretical model to give you some clear guidance on that.
• 34:16
  That would be the first place I would think about.
• 34:20
  So if you're struggling and taking a step back, the first place I would say is go back to basics.
• 34:27
  What is, what is your, what theory model are you using, and what does your theory model say about how parents are going to be involved in the treatment process.
• 34:40
  And the key is parents aren't just observers.
• 34:44
  They are actively important in the change process.
• 34:50
  They are the therapeutic agent of change.
• 34:55
  So that brings me to defining what a therapeutic agent of change is.
• 35:00
  So if you're using an attachment in neuroscience lens, then you are conceptualizing the role of parents as that attachment figure and helping to support and develop a secure attachment between your client and their parents and, and what is that exactly gonna look like?
• 35:28
  So it un, it means understanding that as their attachment figure, this goes beyond that 45 to 53 or 60 minute session.
• 35:42
  Parents have the ability to implement and use that secure attachment relationship for addressing issues as they come up.
• 35:55
  Learning how to co-regulate when their child is struggling with whatever it is they're struggling with.
• 36:00
  Maybe emotional meltdowns, maybe they get, um, dysregulated and have like massive meltdowns.
• 36:10
  Or maybe they're super anxious or maybe, maybe they're struggling with grief, how parents have an active role in helping children learn the skills that they need to navigate through that process and through that attachment relationship, we understanding that this impacts brain development, neuro neurocircuitry development, learning to, I always say like lay down that neurocircuitry for emotion regulation and experiencing relationships with important people as safe.
• 36:49
  And how do you navigate different challenges that are gonna support that development of resilience and positive identity formation.
• 37:01
  And then the third thing is, once you've, I identified the role of parents using your play therapy theoretical model, and you're conceptualizing understanding parents as therapeutic agents of change for their children, that the parents have a crucial role in partnering with you in the play therapy process.
• 37:25
  Then you're going to, third thing is really look at your expectations.
• 37:31
  Identify what exactly are your expectations for parents and their role in the change process to help their child heal and overcome whatever it is that they're experiencing.
• 37:45
  Also, how are you communicating that to parents from the very beginning, helping parents to understand their role and explaining what exactly is that gonna look like?
• 37:57
  How does that work when they're working with you?
• 38:01
  So that is it for today.
• 38:04
  Um, if you're interested, I do, today is the first day of my flash sale.
• 38:12
  For Getting Grounded Partnering with parents in Play Therapy.
• 38:16
  It's an online course.
• 38:18
  There are, um, I forgot how many, there's several modules in there.
• 38:23
  It's, it's a pretty comprehensive uh, course I wanted to pack everything in there.
• 38:31
  The nice thing about, uh, the course is because it's modules and everything's prerecorded, you can skip around to modules where like, if you're like, oh, I really need help with this right now, I'm gonna start with this module.
• 38:44
  Or you can start at the beginning and go and, you know, go all the way through.
• 38:49
  Um.
• 38:51
  Which is to me probably the most effective way to do it.
• 38:54
  But you know, if you're struggling with time and you have an issue that's really going on and you wanna start somewhere else, you can do that.
• 39:01
  You can take it into your time zone when it's convenient for you.
• 39:05
  Um, it really is focused on laying out that theoretical foundation for conceptualizing what's going on in the role of parents using a neuroscience and attachment lens.
• 39:22
  I think that's also important'cause when you're deciding what things you need to address.
• 39:28
  What activities or how you're going to address that, you're gonna do that based on how you're conceptualizing the problem from your theory model.
• 39:36
  So this one uses a neuroscience and attachment lens, which to me, crosses over all the theoretical models.
• 39:44
  Like even when I use child-centered play therapy, I look at it through a si uh, neuroscience and attachment lens.
• 39:51
  So when I do the work with parents, that's really the, I'm teaching them about co-regulation.
• 39:58
  I'm teaching them about how they can help their child using co-regulation, teaching them about how to be attuned, how to respond in ways that are helpful.
• 40:09
  Uh, reinforcing they don't have to be perfect, helping to support all of the, the, all the parents in, in the role that they have helping their child.
• 40:23
  So I really lay everything out.
• 40:25
  I even give some tips for working with high conflict divorce parents, some strategies to think about.
• 40:33
  So I really tried to put everything in this course that I've learned over the last almost 35 years at this point.
• 40:41
  If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, then pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com.
• 40:51
  Go on the supervision page.
• 40:53
  I. If you wanna schedule a three 30 minute video with me to see if Play Therapy Academy is a good fit for you, then definitely schedule that video call.
• 41:05
  All right, so I will see you next week.
• 41:08
  Bye for now.
• 41:13
  Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 41:18
  I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal.
• 41:27
  If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 41:33
  Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 41:39
  Remember.
• 41:40
  Play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 41:43
  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.
• 41:54
  If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you.
• 42:01
  Connect with me on social media and visit my website at Renewing Heart's Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources.
• 42:14
  Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 42:18
  Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.