Latest / The Play Therapy Circle / Episode 7- Understanding the Child's World Through Play
Transcript
- 0:00Hi there and welcome to the Play Therapy Circle.
- 0:04Before we begin, Please note this podcast is for
- 0:07informational and educational purposes only.
- 0:10It does not provide therapeutic advice and listening does not
- 0:14create a client therapist relationship.
- 0:17All views expressed are my own and any case example shared have
- 0:21been de identified to protect privacy.
- 0:24If you're seeking personal support, please reach out to a
- 0:27qualified mental health professional in your area.
- 0:33Hi and welcome to an episode of The Play Therapy Circle.
- 0:38I'm Kylie Ellison, a therapist, clinical supervisor and play
- 0:42therapy trainer and I'm so grateful you're here.
- 0:45This podcast is a space for thoughtful, soulful
- 0:49conversations about child centred therapy, play based work
- 0:53and what it means to show up with presence and compassion
- 0:57both for our clients and for ourselves.
- 1:00Whether you're a seasoned play therapist, a student just
- 1:03starting out, or someone deeply passionate about working with
- 1:07children, you belong here. Welcome everyone to another
- 1:14episode of The Play Therapy Circle.
- 1:16I'm your host, Kylie Ellison, and I am so glad you are here.
- 1:21Welcome to episode 7, you guys 7.
- 1:25For all of you that have been following along from the start,
- 1:28thank you. I always give a shout out at
- 1:30beginning to all our supporters, to all of our new followers on
- 1:34Instagram and everyone listening at home, thank you so much for
- 1:38following along. We have, as I said in the last
- 1:40episode, so many topics to cover in the weeks ahead.
- 1:45So guys, I'm want to share with you growth because I'm actually
- 1:49recording this on the weekend ahead of time.
- 1:53Who even am I? This is crazy.
- 1:55I am not this organised normally in my world.
- 1:58We are about to head into National Sports Aerobics Week
- 2:03here in the Ellison family household.
- 2:04So I know I am going to be super busy next week.
- 2:08So I will be sharing on Instagram a day in the life of
- 2:12the juggle of being a play therapist, supervisor and mum.
- 2:16Stay tuned for that. But I wanted to make sure I got
- 2:19this episode out because I'm super excited about this one.
- 2:22So before I get into the content, I hope you all are
- 2:25having a great week wherever you are in the world.
- 2:27Here in Brisbane, in Queensland, we are celebrating the last week
- 2:32of winter, which is crazy. We're about to head into almost
- 2:36September and the start of spring.
- 2:38I have no idea where this year has gone.
- 2:41Oh my goodness. I hope that all of the episodes
- 2:44so far have been helpful and useful.
- 2:46That's always my goal. But today's episode is
- 2:49particularly special for me and in recognising our incredible
- 2:54Play Therapy Circle community, I want to invite in those that
- 2:58aren't just play therapists, but all of our listeners who might
- 3:01be parents, caregivers, people working in the education space,
- 3:05in the childcare space, community services space, anyone
- 3:09who has the privilege and the honour of working with kids.
- 3:12This episode is also for you because I want to talk today
- 3:17about understanding the child's world through play.
- 3:21And I always say when I am sharing training with others who
- 3:26are learning to be CCPT practitioners that I always say
- 3:30you will never look at play the same way after you have learnt
- 3:34CCPT. And I stand by that.
- 3:37I think that it offers an incredible insight into what
- 3:41children are trying to communicate without using words.
- 3:46So this is really powerful and an incredible skill that we
- 3:50develop as CCPT practitioners. And as Gary Landreth always
- 3:54says, we shouldn't be holding those skills just within the
- 3:57playroom. We should be sharing it with
- 3:59everyone in our community. And so I share this with you in
- 4:03living that tenant and that commitment to CCPT by doing this
- 4:08podcast. So hopefully I will reach and be
- 4:10able to share this with more people as part of my work as a
- 4:14CCPT practitioner. So today we're going to dive
- 4:17into how play gives us a window into children's worlds and
- 4:22particularly their inner world, and how we use CCPT to
- 4:26understand what they're trying to tell us without any
- 4:29communication via words. So this is definitely, as I
- 4:32said, a skill that we learn, but we also really hold true to the
- 4:36idea that children will tell us in their way in their time.
- 4:41And it's more about understanding what that is for
- 4:44us to then be able to respond rather than trying to fix it.
- 4:48So I want to plant that seed for all of you listening at home
- 4:51that we live in our framework of person centred counselling and
- 4:55approach where we espouse to that self actualization
- 4:59principle that if given the right space, kids will thrive
- 5:03and they will move towards that self actualization goal.
- 5:06However, if they don't necessarily have that space
- 5:09where they're seen and heard that we have this opportunity to
- 5:14shift that and to better understand what they're trying
- 5:16to tell us so that we can help to support them into more of
- 5:20those pro social behaviours. So we live by this principle.
- 5:23So I want to share it all with you now and hopefully give you
- 5:26some insight. So hopefully today's podcast
- 5:29will also plant the seed for the children that you're currently
- 5:32working with or connected with. So this could even be your own
- 5:35child or children within your community.
- 5:38This goes for everyone. I always say now that I do this
- 5:41and obviously have been for the last 10 years, that I will go to
- 5:45children's birthday parties and you just can't Unsee it.
- 5:49Like as soon as you understand what children are communicating
- 5:52through play, you see it everywhere, in the shopping
- 5:55centre, in the parks, at play dates, whatever that looks like.
- 5:59You will be able to have this sense of OK, this is what this
- 6:02child might be trying to communicate without words.
- 6:05And so it's an incredible honour to be able to do this work.
- 6:08What I want to start off by saying, and I want to do a whole
- 6:12podcast on just the state of children's mental health in
- 6:16current times because I think there is so many factors that go
- 6:19into the presentation of kids that we currently see in our
- 6:22practises and in our clinics. But universally, I think what is
- 6:27so important to remind us all is that play is children's
- 6:31universal language. So despite what they are going
- 6:35through, despite where they live, despite the communities
- 6:38they are a part of, they will all use play in those formative
- 6:43years to understand and make sense of their world and to
- 6:46communicate to others. So they use play to express
- 6:50themselves, to express their thoughts and their feelings and
- 6:55their experiences, and they always do.
- 6:58So when I connect with parents, what I often say is I am going
- 7:02to see obviously play in the playroom.
- 7:04That's part of my job, but you will also see a version of the
- 7:09play that I see in some capacity at home.
- 7:12It'll be maybe a slightly different way, but they will
- 7:14still be trying to work through the same issue or problem at
- 7:17home, just with different resources or in a different
- 7:19space. So I'm always encouraging
- 7:22parents and caregivers to to just sit back and observe, not
- 7:26for the purposes of information gathering, that's not the
- 7:29intention, but more around helping to see and hear their
- 7:33child without intervening and without fixing.
- 7:37I think in our current communities, and I can talk to
- 7:41my local community, is that I think that we have parents who
- 7:47are really struggling themselves.
- 7:49And that is absolutely understandable for many reasons.
- 7:53But as a result, I think we have certainly tried to shift as a
- 7:57collective in our parenting towards more of the gentle
- 8:00parenting style to supporting our child to be seen and heard.
- 8:05But as a result, I think a lot of parenting styles have shifted
- 8:09towards helping to fix things for their kids because they want
- 8:13to make sure that they're happy. They want to make sure that
- 8:15their child feels connected with them, that they feel safe and
- 8:18nurtured and loved. And I think all of those are
- 8:21incredibly beautiful and important qualities to have as a
- 8:25parent. But I think conversely, when we
- 8:29dive in quickly or too quickly sometimes to fix things for
- 8:33kids, we miss the messaging behind what they're trying to
- 8:36tell us. So for any of you listening out
- 8:38there, I am a parent myself, so I feel like I can share that we
- 8:43are certainly always ways critiquing ourselves as moms in
- 8:47particular. I know we can always be super
- 8:49critical of ourselves and put a lot of pressure on ourselves to
- 8:52be a great parent. I think that if we can take a
- 8:55little bit of that pressure off and sit in that position of
- 8:59believing in the potential and the capacity of our own kids,
- 9:04and for sometimes them to sit in that struggle to help them to
- 9:08work through and support them regardless will go a long way to
- 9:13helping our kids. So we come from this perspective
- 9:17as CCPT practitioners that play is how children communicate.
- 9:22I always say behaviour is communication.
- 9:26So we're going to talk soon about what that looks like in
- 9:29terms of different settings, in particular the clinic and play
- 9:31therapy settings. But I really want to emphasise
- 9:34that point first because it's super important that we hold
- 9:37that in mind. If we then look from that, it's
- 9:41important for us as the adults in the child's life to take the
- 9:45opportunity to understand what they're trying to tell us
- 9:48through play rather than asking questions, rather than
- 9:51intervening, rather than trying to fix or find solutions for
- 9:56kids. Can we stop and just be with the
- 10:00child to hear what they're trying to tell us?
- 10:03That's a really hard thing to do, so I just want to plant that
- 10:06seed as well. I'm planting so many seeds
- 10:08today, you guys. So for many children, especially
- 10:11younger kids, play is their communication.
- 10:16So we often say that play therapy for kids is like, what
- 10:19talk paste, excuse me, talk based therapy is for adults.
- 10:24That's how we try sometimes to phrase it to parents and
- 10:27caregivers and stakeholders to understand what play therapy is
- 10:30all about. So if we need to go to a
- 10:33therapist ourselves as an adult and use that talk based
- 10:36approach, maybe that's CBT or another modality.
- 10:41Children also need to do this, but they don't necessarily
- 10:44preference words, they preference play.
- 10:47That's how they communicate, talk through and make sense of
- 10:51the things that are happening to them.
- 10:53So in CCPT, in child centre play therapy, how do we understand
- 10:58what play is all about? South Certainly as a
- 11:01practitioner myself, I hold that space and belief that the child
- 11:06is capable of working through those issues that they're
- 11:10experiencing and developing that self understanding and that
- 11:14growth. That can be really hard as a
- 11:17parent, in particular as an educator, if we work in that
- 11:21space of being required to offer teachings and learnings to kids
- 11:27that we actually flip that idea on its head to say that children
- 11:30actually know what they need to work through.
- 11:33They know what they need to talk about and they know what needs
- 11:35fixing. They just don't have the words
- 11:38to be able to express that. So they'll do that through their
- 11:41behaviour and through their play.
- 11:43I very often have parents that come over the last 10 years to
- 11:47my clinic who will talk about certain traumas that have been
- 11:51experienced in their family background and emphasise the
- 11:56point that the child was not in the room or wasn't aware.
- 11:59And so they don't know what happened.
- 12:01And very quickly in the playroom, through play, not
- 12:05through words but through play, they will play out those trauma
- 12:09experiences very vividly. And I will then go back to the
- 12:13parents and say I think they know more than you anticipate.
- 12:16So I think that when we come from that perspective, I always
- 12:20say kids are so smart. That is like my big catch phrase
- 12:25that I say that they are so much smarter than we give them credit
- 12:28for. So if that is the case, and if
- 12:31they actually hold a lot of information that
- 12:34neurobiologically they haven't quite been able to put context
- 12:38or understanding to, how are they going to do that?
- 12:41If they can't use words to express themselves, they're
- 12:44going to use play. So what is our role as the
- 12:48therapist? It's definitely to create that
- 12:52sense of safety and trust and connection and acceptance.
- 12:57All of those tenants that we've talked about in our beginning
- 13:00podcast episodes that are very much a part of CCPT practise.
- 13:04So that congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regard.
- 13:08So what we often lean into is this idea that through play, the
- 13:13child tells their story in symbolic ways.
- 13:18So this happens on so many different ways and so many
- 13:21different levels. And I've got so many examples
- 13:24that come to mind, so we'll talk that through in a second.
- 13:27But what I want to again emphasise here is that if we
- 13:33shift our understanding or our perspective, that some
- 13:36behaviours, and especially those that say are aggressive, aren't
- 13:40necessarily kids trying to be naughty or bad, but in fact
- 13:45they're trying to express or communicate urgently something
- 13:49that is happening within their inner world that they need to
- 13:52make sense of or they need help with.
- 13:54It helps us to flip that idea of what the play is all about.
- 13:58So I definitely want you guys to be thinking about in the
- 14:02observations of the play if you are working in a clinical
- 14:05practise as a CCPT practitioner, not to immediately go to that
- 14:09lens of symptomology or understanding.
- 14:13I guess that superficial level of that behaviour presentation,
- 14:16say a child that's resisting to go into the therapy room and
- 14:20we're seeing an escalation in that transition into the
- 14:23playroom. Not seeing that necessarily as
- 14:26them digging the heels in and being stubborn, but potentially
- 14:29there being something underneath an unmet need, a heightened
- 14:34emotion, a particular issue for them that they are in fact
- 14:38struggling with. So if we look at it from that
- 14:41lens, for a child that is struggling to say, transition
- 14:44into a playroom and separate from mum or dad, it may actually
- 14:48be that they are deeply concerned, especially if there's
- 14:51been a trauma background. They're deeply concerned about
- 14:53the well well being of their parent that's in the waiting
- 14:56room and they actually don't want to separate because if they
- 14:59don't have eyes on their parent and they're not sure what will
- 15:02happen if they're not around. So that takes a very different
- 15:06lens to that behaviour if we're looking at what is the child
- 15:10trying to communicate and being resistant to separate from that
- 15:14parent. And there's lots and lots of
- 15:15different reasons, guys. I'm just giving one.
- 15:18It is absolutely going to be child dependent in terms of the
- 15:21history, presenting issues, diagnosis, goals of therapy.
- 15:24There's so many elements guys. I'm just trying to keep this as
- 15:27basic as I can to try and reach as many people as I can in this
- 15:30space. So definitely taking a minute to
- 15:35look at the behaviour, but then what might be underneath that
- 15:39behaviour? What might be the unmet need or
- 15:41the issue or problem or situation or feeling that the
- 15:45child is trying to communicate to us sometimes very urgently?
- 15:49So what do we see emerging in play when we start to understand
- 15:55the child's world? And I do want to give you
- 15:58obviously different perspectives in terms of holistically my
- 16:02clients, not one client in particular and certainly not
- 16:06anything in relation to direct therapy work or client work I've
- 16:09done. But I want to talk holistically
- 16:11across the 10 years what I have seen in terms of those different
- 16:15types of play. So we can see this in many
- 16:19different ways. What I say when I am supporting
- 16:22beginning play therapists, especially when they begin to
- 16:26connect with a family or a child and in the beginning sessions
- 16:30they observe the child to use say shop, the role play of shop.
- 16:35So very generally topic here. So what we understand in our
- 16:40approach, especially in those beginning sessions in that
- 16:43exploratory stage, is this idea that children want to understand
- 16:49the nature of the relationship with us.
- 16:51They want to know that we are somebody safe, trusting that can
- 16:56hold space for them to be able to provide that sense of empathy
- 17:00and acceptance that maybe they haven't had in experiences with
- 17:04other adults in their life. So we really work hard to build
- 17:08that relationship. And we talked a couple of
- 17:10episodes ago about the importance of the relationship
- 17:14between the therapist and the child.
- 17:16That is super, super important. But what that means is that
- 17:20children will sometimes use play to assess that, to understand
- 17:24that. And what I always say is
- 17:26children don't come in with an agenda in play therapy.
- 17:30They don't sit in the car on the way when they're being driven to
- 17:32the clinic and say, I'm going to tick this theme and maybe I'll
- 17:35throw in this one as well. They don't come in with a
- 17:38cognitive conscious awareness of what they're going to do.
- 17:41But what is incredible about this work is generally speaking,
- 17:45most kids do the same thing. So when they are exploring and
- 17:50understanding that trust and safety, we see some fairly
- 17:54consistent role plays that emerge and one of them is shop.
- 17:58So we could look at shop superficially and say, OK, this
- 18:03child really enjoys playing shop with me.
- 18:06This is something that they quite to do and they knew how to
- 18:10do it. That could be at a very
- 18:12superficial level how we could look at that play.
- 18:14What I want to encourage beginning play therapist to
- 18:17consider is this idea of it not necessarily just being about
- 18:21shop, but what the child is trying to do is engage in a
- 18:25relational experience where there is back and forth and
- 18:30transactions involved. When we start to dig a little
- 18:33deeper and looking at that play, what children are doing is
- 18:38essentially from an attachment theory perspective, starting to
- 18:42understand that back and forth experience of a relationship
- 18:46with another. There is this experience of
- 18:49buying something, say we're the therapist and where the shop,
- 18:52that shop person, we're buying stuff at the shop and the client
- 18:56is the shop keeper. There's this interaction where
- 18:59we are buying things and giving it to the child.
- 19:02The child might scan those items, they might ring it up on
- 19:05the cash register, They might ask us for money, we hand the
- 19:08money over, they might give us some change.
- 19:11There is a back and forth to and fro between ourselves and the
- 19:15child where they're using in real time through play to
- 19:20establish are we somebody that's going to respond to them?
- 19:23Are we going to meet them where they're at and are we going to
- 19:26engage with them in a way, way that's reciprocal, respectful,
- 19:30connected, all of those beautiful qualities of CCPT?
- 19:34So there's often this need if they have had anxious
- 19:38attachments outside of play therapy, where they may need to
- 19:41do this repeatedly until they feel that sense of safety and
- 19:45trust. So it might be 1 role play of
- 19:48shop, It might be 10 role plays of shop.
- 19:51Again, children don't come with an agenda and a timeline, which
- 19:54is really hard when we're trying to explain that to stakeholders,
- 19:56right? But this is the incredible thing
- 19:59about children is they know how much time they need.
- 20:02So shop and that role play of shop is a really kind of basic
- 20:06example of how that works, where children are not just playing
- 20:09with a cash register, but there is a deeper unpacking and
- 20:13understanding of a relationship with another.
- 20:16That's one example. I've got so many guys so I'm
- 20:18going to try and do another one. So one of those things that we
- 20:21see when kids progress in their therapy work, so this is more
- 20:25maybe halfway through therapy or 3/4 of the way through therapy.
- 20:28It can be at any stage. Is this role play around hide
- 20:33and seek for any of you play therapist out there listening at
- 20:38home who have seen a child engage in hide and seek?
- 20:42If we were to just look at that superficially at the surface
- 20:47level of that play, we might say that they have played hide and
- 20:51seek before that they know how that goes and they like it and
- 20:56it's something they want to do with us.
- 20:57Again, that's awesome and that is certainly part of that
- 21:00observation, but as a CCPT practitioner, we take that a
- 21:04little bit deeper. So what we do is to understand
- 21:08what is going on when we are doing that hide and seek role
- 21:12play is there's so many different variables to this.
- 21:14And we will talk about this in later podcasts.
- 21:16But the idea of them engaging in this role play again, where they
- 21:22are hiding and they're getting us to find them certainly
- 21:25relates oftentimes to this unpacking and exploration,
- 21:30again, of that attachment relationship between ourselves
- 21:34and the child. But more importantly, their
- 21:37experiences, again, outside of play therapy and making sense of
- 21:41what it feels like to be constantly found.
- 21:44So there's this idea of, again, that experience of attachment
- 21:49relationships with others where people might go away and come
- 21:53back, go away and come back. We understand from attachment
- 21:57theory that certainly goes into establishing that secure
- 22:01attachment base. When children are in those
- 22:03formative years, if they haven't experienced that in their lives,
- 22:08they may need to play that out over and over until again,
- 22:14neurobiologically, they understand.
- 22:16Or the therapist is somebody who's not going to leave and
- 22:20never come back. So again, I'm planting this seed
- 22:25guys. And I'm really simplifying this
- 22:26because there's so much I could talk about in terms of hide and
- 22:28seek, which I won't because I have to be on a time frame here,
- 22:31you guys, to make it easy for you guys to digest this
- 22:34information. What I want to, again, plant the
- 22:36seed. If you are seeing children in
- 22:38your life right now who are engaging in hide and seek, it
- 22:42might be worth taking a second to just observe that play,
- 22:46engage in it. Obviously we want to play with
- 22:48the child but observe it rather than treating it at that
- 22:53superficial level because very often in the playroom there is
- 22:58other parts to that play that they are trying to unpack and
- 23:01make sense of. We have so many different
- 23:04elements in the playroom where this looks and arises.
- 23:07We obviously have SAN tray and there's often SAN tray work that
- 23:11children do that is very symbolic that help children to
- 23:14unpack their experiences and how they're doing.
- 23:18I've had many different San trays over the years in my
- 23:21playroom where oftentimes kids will use resources to talk about
- 23:26their experience again with others or just their
- 23:29understanding of their world and helping us to symbolically
- 23:33understand can be really useful. Art is another one where we
- 23:37certainly see that expression of that inner world.
- 23:40And so again, we hold very firmly in CPT that are, but any
- 23:45kind of drawings is very much an insight into that child's world.
- 23:50So we don't do things like hang them up on the wall.
- 23:53We certainly don't put them on display because we recognise
- 23:57that there is so much therapeutic content that is
- 24:00contained within those drawings that it's so important to us
- 24:04that we protect that from a confidentiality and ethical
- 24:07perspective. It's certainly something that is
- 24:09used in the playroom. And so again, sometimes art can
- 24:12be very symbolic around the things that are going on for
- 24:14that that child in their life. I've given you guys a couple of
- 24:19examples of how that looks in the playroom.
- 24:22I have so many more. But what I guess I wanna say is
- 24:26that as part of my work, what I've learnt over time is the
- 24:32importance of having patience, of really stopping and stopping
- 24:37myself from jumping in to ask questions or to understand what
- 24:41the child is trying to tell me. And that really comes from that
- 24:44perspective of adults being the experts, right?
- 24:48That we need to essentially understand what the child's
- 24:51doing to either teach something to them or fix something for
- 24:55them, or yes, jump in and help solve something for them that
- 25:00they are struggling with themselves.
- 25:02I often say to therapists that becomes so much about our stuff
- 25:07and not about the Childs because here's the great thing about
- 25:10kids is that regardless of whether we understand what
- 25:14they're trying to tell us, they'll keep telling it until we
- 25:17get it. So whether we can jump in first
- 25:21time that we see a play and help them to understand it and show
- 25:24our own understanding or not is not important.
- 25:27At the end of the day, the child will certainly keep playing
- 25:31something out until they've found resolution to it
- 25:34themselves to or they feel like they've had that healing and
- 25:37growth so that they can move on. So we see that in the playroom,
- 25:41but we certainly see that in other settings as well, more
- 25:44broadly in the education and the childcare space where we often
- 25:49see really big behaviours. And I think that there is so
- 25:52many aspects to supporting kids in those larger settings that I
- 25:56would love to do a podcast all about that guy.
- 25:58So I promise that topic will come because I want to see and
- 26:03validate and hear those incredible childcare and
- 26:06education workers in our our broader community.
- 26:09I think certainly think that that becomes really challenging
- 26:12when children are using their play, their behaviour and their
- 26:16play to communicate things that are going on for them when we
- 26:19don't necessarily have that immediate time to hold space to
- 26:22help them feel seen and heard. So I think that anywhere in a
- 26:26child's life, they're going to be using behaviours in a way
- 26:31that talks to what's happening for them and what they're
- 26:33struggling with and what they're experiencing.
- 26:36And it is about us as adults, rather than jumping in and
- 26:40asking questions, taking a minute to stop and observe, and
- 26:43more importantly, to validate feelings.
- 26:45I always say that with anyone I connect with.
- 26:48I really want to encourage anyone connected with children.
- 26:52If we're able to validate and see and hear children's
- 26:56feelings, that is absolutely 100% the first step in helping
- 27:00healing and growth and change. So I can't encourage that
- 27:03enough. Whoever is listening right now,
- 27:06in worst case scenario, in times of stress, we revert back to
- 27:09what we know. If you can, in those moments
- 27:11where you're struggling to stop, to breathe, to take a minute to
- 27:15observe and maybe just go to the feelings to help validate what's
- 27:19going on for that child in the first instance, it may or may
- 27:22not work. But I share that with you as a
- 27:24passionate CCPT practitioner in this space.
- 27:27I think that valuing too, when we're talking about CCPT and its
- 27:32application to the wider community, is this valuing of
- 27:36unconditional positive regard. That is hard when we have a
- 27:42child who is presenting with really high intensity
- 27:47behaviours, for example. It's really tricky and it's
- 27:50difficult for us as adults in that space, but we don't tell
- 27:54the child what it means. We support them to work through
- 27:57it. It's so important that we give
- 27:59them that space to process what's going on for them and
- 28:04even in those alternative spaces, not just in the clinics
- 28:07and in private practise. But if we can hold just a minute
- 28:11of space for a child to be able to feel seen and heard and
- 28:15support them to work through it, it will go a long way in
- 28:18supporting them to feel like they can move towards that self
- 28:21actualization principle. So we accept the child though in
- 28:26terms of that particular value, no matter what they express.
- 28:30So that can be really tricky when we're working in a play
- 28:34therapy space. So to all of my incredible play
- 28:38therapists in our play therapy circle community, and I feel
- 28:41like this needs to be on a T-shirt.
- 28:42You guys for our CCPT guys out there, trust the process.
- 28:47Trust the process. I know, right?
- 28:49I feel every supervisor I have, I say that to them and they're
- 28:52like, I know I'm doing it. What's going on?
- 28:55That's what I say to you. Again, trust the process.
- 28:59So what can we do both as play therapists and those in the
- 29:03community to help support kids and for those of you listening
- 29:07at home? So I want to encourage parents,
- 29:10teachers, caregivers, agency workers, all of those incredible
- 29:14people doing incredible things in that work of supporting
- 29:17children in our community to try to observe without rushing to
- 29:22interpret, observe without rushing to interpret, Or I'd
- 29:29like to add to that, observe without rushing to fix or to
- 29:33question. So what can we do to create
- 29:37that? So creating safe play spaces
- 29:40where kids can just use the resources to play as opposed to
- 29:44having a prescribed structure allowing those freedom in play
- 29:48choices. And like I was just saying,
- 29:50reflecting those feelings is so important.
- 29:53You're feeling really frustrated right now and it's really hard.
- 29:57Those kind of things, those kind of statements really help
- 30:01support kids. We use that CCPT lens in our
- 30:05practise to understanding how we can grow from presence, not
- 30:09control. Big stuff, you guys.
- 30:13Hey, I want to wrap this episode out because we're at 30 minutes,
- 30:17guys. In the beginning, it was short
- 30:19and sweet. I fear as we go through these
- 30:22episodes, they're going to get longer.
- 30:24I'm going to try and keep to my time, you guys, but I hope for
- 30:27all of you listening at home that this has started to plant
- 30:32the seed, as I have throughout this session around listening
- 30:36through play to the child's inner world.
- 30:39So what do we understand as a recap of all of this?
- 30:42Play is children's natural mode of communication, as Gary Lynch
- 30:48would say. Play is their word.
- 30:50Sorry, toys are their words and play is their language.
- 30:54So CCPT and the skills of CCPT provides that environment for
- 30:59understanding. And so through play, we can get
- 31:04an understanding or insight into the child's inner world with
- 31:08respect and acceptance. So what I want to invite you all
- 31:14to reflect on as I wrap up this episode is to think about the
- 31:19last time you observed a child's play.
- 31:22To think about what might they have been telling you, not what
- 31:29you saw them do. Not looking at that superficial
- 31:32level, but what might be the function or the message or the
- 31:36unmet need or the emotions or the experience behind the play?
- 31:42What's under the surface? What are they trying to tell
- 31:45you? And I encourage each of you to
- 31:48do this in your work, in your daily connection with kids, to
- 31:52hear children's stories. So thank you so much for
- 31:57listening today. I appreciate, appreciate
- 32:01wholeheartedly every single member of our Play Therapy
- 32:04Circle community. Please feel free to share with
- 32:08your colleagues, friends, parents, others this podcast to
- 32:11help spread the word about CCPT, how amazing it is and how it can
- 32:17and support the children in your community.
- 32:19Please follow us along on Instagram at the Play Therapy
- 32:22Circle Podcast and please feel free to share our podcast posts
- 32:26as we update. We drop an episode on Friday.
- 32:29Please feel free to reach out to us if you have a topic that you
- 32:33would like us to cover in the future.
- 32:35But thank you so much for being here and being part of the
- 32:38circle. Next week, our episode is going
- 32:41to focus on setting up a CCPT playroom.
- 32:45How cool. So that will be a slightly
- 32:48different topic that we're going to talk about next week, but
- 32:51certainly for beginning play therapists.
- 32:52I hope it will be a helpful resource as I hope all of these
- 32:56episodes are. So thank you so much, everyone
- 32:59go and I will connect with you again soon.
- 33:02Thanks. Bye.
- 33:04Thank you so much for being here for another episode of The Play
- 33:08Therapy Circle. If anything resonated with you
- 33:11today, I'd love it if you could follow the podcast, share it
- 33:15with a colleague, or leave a short review.
- 33:17It really helps others find our circle.
- 33:20And if you have a topic or question you'd love me to
- 33:23explore, I'd love to hear from you.
- 33:26This space is for you, and I want it to feel like a
- 33:29conversation. Until next time, take care of
- 33:32yourself and remember you belong here.