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Is There a Best Approach for Play Therapy with Traumatized Kids? · 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 to elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play.
• 0:23
  I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives.
• 0:33
  So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families.
• 0:49
  Hey there.
• 0:50
  Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 0:55
  And I wanna talk about, um, a topic that I think comes up a lot.
• 1:03
  I think, I think more that I notice some things happening in the play therapy community as I talk to people, when people schedule with me to talk about whether or not Play Therapy Academy is a good fit for them or, or in my trainings or just, or things that come up in, in the Play Therapy Academy or even Play therapy Elevation Circle.
• 1:35
  So I have two memberships.
• 1:37
  The, I would say the.
• 1:40
  The higher tier, I don't know if that's a great way to say it, but the one that costs more and there's more hands on, there's a lot more hands on.
• 1:52
  And then that's typically for people who really are looking for most people in Play Therapy Academy are, are moving towards their registered play therapy credential through the Association for Play Therapy.
• 2:08
  Not everybody in Play Therapy Academy is doing that.
• 2:12
  Um, and because there's so many awesome things in Play Therapy Academy and it's very limited, like access to that is much more limited.
• 2:23
  I decided to start this other membership.
• 2:27
  Which I'll, I'll you'll be hearing about more soon, that's gonna open up soon for registration.
• 2:34
  Um, that one is a lot more like getting support.
• 2:39
  How do you apply the skills, having community to do that, but you don't necessarily need like the high hands on.
• 2:49
  You just need a place to go to work on your skills and to get support and those kinds of things.
• 2:56
  We're gonna do a book club in that one when I relaunch it in August.
• 3:00
  I'm super excited about that.
• 3:02
  But the things that I hear coming up in these memberships, as well as when I'm talking to people, uh, when I have the video calls with them to see if play Therapy Academy is a good fit.
• 3:15
  There's a lot of.
• 3:18
  Um, trying to mush everything together.
• 3:23
  Like I'm, I'll just read enough books, or I'll just go to enough training or, that's the new thing that I've learned about.
• 3:31
  And so there's this kind of mush thinking, oh, okay, I am right around the corner.
• 3:38
  I'm gonna find this new or best play therapy activity or this play therapy approach that's gonna help me feel confident and stop second guessing myself using play therapy especially when it comes to working with children and adolescents who've experienced trauma.
• 4:02
  And I, that's the wrong way to go about it, I think.
• 4:07
  I think there's another way that's gonna get you better results.
• 4:13
  It's not just like looking for the best approach that's gonna get rid of all my imposter syndrome and make all of the change that I wanna help my clients accomplish in their, in their lives, overcome this negative impact of trauma.
• 4:33
  And so there's a tendency to try to like go down the Pinterest and Etsy rabbit hole of doom.
• 4:43
  I call it just endless, endless internet searching where you're not really coming up with anything.
• 4:51
  Um, and the thing is, I don't think one approach is the only approach.
• 4:59
  Meaning like if you're like, this play therapy model is gonna solve everything.
• 5:06
  And so if you're working with trauma, that has to be this model.
• 5:10
  And if you're using any other model, then you're not doing it right.
• 5:15
  I don't really believe that.
• 5:17
  I, I think there's another way to go about thinking about what's the best way to help my clients heal.
• 5:29
  I think that has to do with the que looking at the question slightly differently.
• 5:35
  Instead of asking yourself what's the best approach or what's the best, um, activity or intervention that I can use to make a difference in the lives of my traumatized clients?
• 5:47
  I think a slightly different way of asking the question that's gonna open up a whole lot more possibilities is how do I help my traumatized clients heal using play therapy?
• 6:07
  So today I wanna talk about some basic components to think about when you're trying to figure out that question of how, how am I gonna help my clients who have experienced trauma?
• 6:22
  What, what is a, what is a way that I can help them heal?
• 6:28
  And so that is what we are talking about today.
• 6:32
  So I would love to know who's here watching on the live stream.
• 6:37
  If you are watching live, I would love to, um, hear from you.
• 6:43
  If you're watching on the replay, I, I join the conversation for the livestream episode, so every Wednesday.
• 6:51
  I do a live stream episode on LinkedIn and YouTube, and then if I don't have a guest, then I will also simultaneously stream into Instagram, which is why I go back and forth looking at the different, um, screens to talk to the different audiences.
• 7:13
  Um.
• 7:16
  So if you're, if you're watching the live stream or maybe you're watching the replay, I would still love to know who's here.
• 7:23
  Post your name in the comments, where are you from?
• 7:27
  What population are you working with?
• 7:29
  Are you using a, a specific play therapy approach?
• 7:34
  I'd love to know what you are doing and how you are helping your traumatized clients heal, or what questions do you have about working with children and adolescents who've experienced trauma using play therapy?
• 7:51
  For those of you listening on the podcast, welcome, welcome.
• 7:56
  Feel free to hop over to my Instagram that's at Renewing Hearts training.
• 8:01
  That's my Instagram channel.
• 8:03
  Um, or hop over to YouTube.
• 8:06
  That's where the videos are on the live, on the live section, or if you're watching on Instagram, you're probably watching looking in my grid.
• 8:16
  But if you're listening in the podcast, just feel free to message me.
• 8:20
  I love to hear from people.
• 8:21
  I love kind of nerdy that way.
• 8:23
  Even if you're on LinkedIn, I love chatting with people, so feel free to message me.
• 8:31
  So let's get started for today.
• 8:34
  So to me, when you're thinking about working with children with trauma, there are some specific things that you want to think about in terms of how to help them.
• 8:48
  And I think everything starts from a really firm foundation.
• 8:54
  I always like using the analogy of, of building a house, right?
• 8:59
  If you're building a house, your house is a structure built on a solid foundation.
• 9:06
  And if anybody who has ever owned a house or if you watched any, you know, home remodeling shows, then you know, if your foundation is cracked, then it will not hold the structure of the house.
• 9:22
  So you.
• 9:23
  Need a very firm foundation in order to sus support the structure.
• 9:29
  And that's true for all therapy, and it's true for play therapy that you need a strong foundation.
• 9:37
  And so that foundation is the way in which you conceptualize what's going on with your clients and the approach that you're gonna take.
• 9:49
  And so that's what we're talking about today to, the first thing to think about when you're building your firm foundation is how are you defining trauma?
• 10:01
  That's key, right?
• 10:03
  And so the way that I think about trauma is that it's an experience in the nervous system that sets in motion, um, how your brain and your body are making sense of what happened, and then how are they dealing with that experience?
• 10:25
  And a tr a traumatic experience is gonna be, there are some similarities across all people.
• 10:33
  Then we also take into consideration that each person who's experienced a traumatic event is going to experience it in a unique way.
• 10:43
  So you can have the same people in the same family who've all experienced a traumatic event.
• 10:51
  They're all gonna experience it slightly different.
• 10:55
  And what can be considered traumatic for one person may not be as traumatic for another person.
• 11:04
  And there are a lot of, there are a lot of factors that will influence all of that.
• 11:09
  The basic thing for a traumatic experience though is that there was a, um, o it overwhelmed your nervous system and your ability to feel safe and your ability to feel connected to others that, that you felt like there was a danger and that some really bad thing could happen to you or a loved one if it happened to a loved one, that it's gonna impact you as well.
• 11:43
  Right?
• 11:43
  And that it would be this overwhelming, painful experience that would cause significant harm to you.
• 11:52
  And, and this is your perception of it could be based on, um, it could be real.
• 12:01
  And or it can be perceived.
• 12:04
  So you're, and all of that's gonna alter your nervous system.
• 12:09
  There was a really good, I, I would say one of my favorite, um, quotes about defining trauma comes from a book by Bonnie Badnock.
• 12:22
  It's called The Heart of Trauma.
• 12:24
  Healing the embodied brain in the context of relationships.
• 12:29
  So those of you watching on the video, I'm, I'm showing the book this, um, Bonnie Badnock also published one of my favorite books called The Brainwise Therapist.
• 12:42
  She published that one in 2008, and then 2018 she published this one, which was really good.
• 12:47
  So I'm gonna read the quote to you, and this is from her book, the Heart of Trauma Healing The Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships, and this is on page 23, she says, an experience of fear and or pain that doesn't have the support it needs to be digested and integrated into the flow of our developing brains.
• 13:15
  This definition encourages us to look into the neural and interpersonal aspects of the experience for an understanding of how we became, how we become traumatized, rather than toward the nature of the experience in itself, or a list of symptoms we might consider the embedding of trauma to be a rupture in the inherent process of neural integration for a ongoing experience with healing arising through the initiation of an experience of repair so that the journey toward integration can follow its natural course.
• 13:58
  I love that definition because it looks at the impact of trauma relationally.
• 14:08
  I love that she says an experience of fear or pain that doesn't have the support it needs to be digested and integrated into the flow of our developing brains.
• 14:20
  So think about children and the impact of trauma on their developing brain.
• 14:28
  So they're not yet adults, their brains and their neurocircuitry is developing beginning in utero and into early ado, um, mid to late adulthood even even longer even sometimes when you think about neuroplasticity and all of those things.
• 14:52
  My mouth didn't work when I said that, so it was neuroplasticity.
• 14:57
  Um, so if you think about the impact of trauma on children in adolescent.
• 15:03
  In my mind, you naturally have to consider the developing brain and the impact of trauma at various stages of impact, as well as how those attachment experiences influence the impact of trauma.
• 15:26
  And to me, that also gives a sense of hope that relationally, we can help to repair that impact of trauma.
• 15:37
  Which to me is one of the huge reasons that I, I wrote my book and developed this model of attachment focused family play therapy.
• 15:51
  So again, I'm showing this book.
• 15:53
  If you're watching in the video, you can see, you can see my book published by Rutledge.
• 15:58
  Um, the, the book is, so I use my attachment focus family play therapy model for lots of presenting concerns.
• 16:08
  I wrote the book because I use it a lot, um, with children who've experienced trauma because I wanna help them heal relationally.
• 16:20
  I wanna help repair that attachment relationship that got damaged.
• 16:26
  Even if the, let's say the caregiver didn't, um, caused the trauma, they're still, that relationship is still impacted by the trauma.
• 16:40
  Can children use their, their caregivers, their parents, for support to help heal from that trauma?
• 16:49
  And as play therapists, we know that is golden if parents, caregivers can be involved to help in that healing process and we can, we can do some healing or do some repair for that attachment relationship.
• 17:07
  So, so defining trauma, we're looking at as an experience that impacts our neuro system and our neural development and that neural integration and impacts that felt sense of safety and ability to connect and use others for support.
• 17:31
  So when we're ex that, and that's gonna make a difference because I just, um, went through defining trauma.
• 17:40
  So now if we're, we're using a play therapy approach, we're also thinking about how are we defining or how are we explaining the symptoms, right?
• 17:54
  So I just define trauma, which also kinda lays the foundation for how are we defining trauma, which means now am I, how am I explaining the symptoms of what's going on that parents are bringing their children to you in the in play therapy for healing?
• 18:16
  And this is your, this is your case conceptualization.
• 18:20
  That's a fancy term for basically how are you explaining these symptoms.
• 18:25
  Like what are the roots underneath these symptoms that are causing this problem, and what are the patterns that are happening?
• 18:35
  So if you think about that definition by, uh, Bonnie Badnock.
• 18:42
  What she's looking at, she's making sense of the symptoms based on, um, neuroscience and that neuro circuitry and the impact of integration, neural integration and how all of that is going to impact that child and, and that is the root of these symptoms.
• 19:07
  And so your Play therapy model is going to influence how you explain the symptoms from that traumatic event.
• 19:18
  So even when you're using an integrative play therapy model, you are still looking at the theoretical models and how that model would explain the, the symptoms that you're, you're the symptoms the parents are saying are going on, or that the child is telling you, or the ones that you're observing.
• 19:40
  Your, your, your integrated model is gonna be influenced by the pl, the models that you're integrating.
• 19:47
  So integration, an integrated abr uh, play therapy model means you're blending two or more theoretical models.
• 19:57
  So, for example, maybe your blending interpersonal neurobiology like Bonnie Badnock, and maybe you're also integrating Polyvagal theory in there by Steven Porges, and maybe the model that you're using is your blending, maybe your blending emDR and uh, uh, internal family systems.
• 20:22
  Those are getting blended a lot.
• 20:24
  They're, they're both really good.
• 20:26
  So you can see, because they're both neuroscience based.
• 20:29
  Right?
• 20:30
  And it would make sense blending those together.
• 20:34
  Maybe your blending, um.
• 20:38
  Maybe your blending trauma-focused CBT and interpersonal neurobiology.
• 20:47
  So you're going to use that trauma-focused CBT model, and then you're integrating in some of that, that neuroscience, which is more focusing on the embodied aspects.
• 21:00
  How do we hold trauma in our neuro system?
• 21:05
  And then how does that impact the how, why these symptoms are occurring.
• 21:14
  Right?
• 21:15
  So, um, basically you're thinking about if you're from your play therapy model, you're thinking about how trauma negatively impacts your client's ability to feel safe and their ability to receive support from others.
• 21:35
  Um.
• 21:37
  I, I look at things through, uh, neuroscience and attachment theory lens.
• 21:45
  So I, I look at the work that Daniel Siegel has done and the work of Bonnie Badnock.
• 21:52
  I look at the work of Steven Porges and the work that he's done.
• 21:59
  The foundational model that I was trained in um, years ago was through the, the, uh, national Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children.
• 22:13
  And, and they developed a strategic model called the Structured Sensory Intervention for traumatized children, adolescents and parents.
• 22:24
  Um, SIT CAT for short.
• 22:25
  And then, then I kind of blend.
• 22:27
  I use that as my foundation, and then I blend these other models in with that.
• 22:33
  So that that's going to influence how I make sense of what's going on.
• 22:40
  So you, is there a best play therapy model?
• 22:45
  I don't think so.
• 22:47
  I think that there's a lot of good information.
• 22:53
  I think the key is pick a model, right?
• 22:58
  That, so that brings me to the third point for today, which is choosing your play therapy model.
• 23:06
  Choose a play therapy model.
• 23:08
  Get a foundation for that.
• 23:11
  Before you start like adding other things, because here's what happens when you go from one model to another model.
• 23:20
  It's, I, let's use analogy like my mom.
• 23:26
  My mom loves recipes.
• 23:30
  My mom doesn't really like to cook.
• 23:32
  At least not when she, when we were kids.
• 23:35
  And I get that, you know, like you're super busy and you have like four kids and you're working, your husband's working, you have four kids and they're all really young.
• 23:44
  You just try to get done right.
• 23:46
  But my mom loves collecting recipes.
• 23:51
  She collects so many recipes.
• 23:54
  She would watch the shows.
• 23:58
  The real, the reality is you can collect recipe after recipe, after recipe, after recipe.
• 24:03
  That does not make you a good cook or a great chef.
• 24:09
  In order to become that, you have to learn an approach.
• 24:15
  Uh, and, and typically that means you have a mentor and you have a community of support around you in order to learn that, which to me is why getting into a community, having a kind of a mentor to help, you know, what do you do?
• 24:30
  Like I have this model.
• 24:32
  How the heck do I apply it?
• 24:35
  How the heck does my model help me make sense of what's going on in the playroom?
• 24:42
  And like, how am I gonna help my client because they're doing this?
• 24:48
  So you, you want to pick a play therapy model and you wanna learn it.
• 24:55
  Get into a community, get with the mentor, learn at least a play therapy model to start the foundation of the approach that you're going to use.
• 25:08
  Because, and you wanna choose a play therapy model that aligns with your personal and professional beliefs.
• 25:15
  To me, that's an important piece because it's about how you show up in the playroom with your clients.
• 25:26
  How are and, and you are not gonna show up congruently if you're using a model that you're just like, uh, I hate this, I hate this.
• 25:35
  Which is different than, oh, I wish I was better at this.
• 25:38
  Oh, I'm struggling to use this, but I really believe in this model.
• 25:42
  Those are two different things.
• 25:44
  So you wanna make sure you are choosing a model that aligns with your personal and professional beliefs and your values.
• 25:54
  Because your play therapy model is gonna influence what do you do in the sessions, how do you show up in the sessions.
• 26:03
  It's gonna define the stages.
• 26:07
  There's most, most models have four stages.
• 26:11
  Um, it's gonna show up like what do you do in stage one?
• 26:17
  What do you do in stage two?
• 26:18
  What do you do in stage three?
• 26:19
  What do you do in stage four?
• 26:21
  What if, what does it look like in stage one?
• 26:24
  What does it look like in stage two?
• 26:27
  And then that's also now you have a framework, kind of like your GPS guiding you what you need to do.
• 26:35
  So if you think about your framework or your model as your, as your GPS, even like usually in the middle phase, even when you like get a little lost and you're not sure what you do, you take a step back and then your GPS system or your play therapy framework get helps to get you back on track.
• 26:59
  It helps you stay focused through the change process.
• 27:05
  This is even true if you're blending play therapy models.
• 27:09
  You're, you're gonna have like what your play therapy models or what your theoretical models say should happen.
• 27:18
  Like what explains how, why the symptoms are happening, and then it's gonna explain what is gonna need to happen for healing to occur using play therapy.
• 27:32
  So it's gonna, the question that gets asked all the time is, how do I make sense of what's going on in my sessions?
• 27:39
  How do I know what play therapy interventions to use?
• 27:44
  But also if you wanna stop, like trying to chase the best play therapy models, I mean, um, activities.
• 27:51
  If you're just coming up with activities and your focus is only on activities, then you've kind of missed the mark because what you really wanna do is focus on what your play therapy model says to do.
• 28:04
  Think about what stage of play therapy you are in, and then what intervention do you need to do in that stage?
• 28:14
  All right, so.
• 28:16
  Full disclosure, some of you, if you've listened to my podcast or live streams in the past, you know I have a dog Luna, hi Luna.
• 28:27
  Hi.
• 28:28
  Hi, babes.
• 28:29
  So Luna just entered like when my husband goes off to work, then he opens the door to let Luna in because if, if he doesn't let Luna in, then she scratches like a maniac on the door and I don't know which is worse scratching on the carpet to get her spot just right on the carpet or scratching on the door.
• 28:53
  Um, as far as sound.
• 28:54
  But anyway, so Luna's in the, in the room, Luna's having a hard morning'cause we're having kind of a rainstorm.
• 29:04
  I live in the desert, so these are few and far between, but for some reason we're having rain, which is very exciting when you live in the desert.
• 29:12
  Um, and so she's a little scared today.
• 29:16
  Luna doesn't like, uh, weather makes her nervous, so we just give her a little more snuggles.
• 29:25
  Um, okay.
• 29:26
  Back on track.
• 29:27
  So now, you know, if you hear some weird digging sounds in the background, then you know it is my dog Luna, who's coming in because she's having a scary morning and she needs, she needs some secure attachment time.
• 29:43
  So if you hear weird digging sounds or weird moaning, it's not, I'm not doing anything.
• 29:48
  There's nothing weird going on in the background.
• 29:51
  It's just my dog, Luna getting settled.
• 29:54
  So, um, kind of back back on track, choosing a play therapy model.
• 30:00
  You, your model is gonna ground you, you, it also is your foundation.
• 30:06
  So, for example, the play therapy model that I learned, which I consider my foundation for which I kind of integrate would be that SIT CAT model, that structured sensory, inter intervention for traumatized children, adolescents, and parents.
• 30:27
  Um, it, it ta I loved it because it took in this, this is probably back in 20 10, 20 11 when I learned it and got certified in it.
• 30:39
  Um, it, it integrated and understood and conceptualized that trauma is experienced implicitly through our senses, so that sensory processing circuitry and that we need to take that into consideration when planning what we're gonna do in the sessions.
• 31:06
  And also understanding how trauma symptoms get activated so that we can help clients understand that and change that, heal from that.
• 31:21
  So the, so choosing a play therapy model to me is really where I would focus.
• 31:30
  If you were, if I were you trying to, that would be my advice.
• 31:34
  My advice would be explore a play therapy model, get into a community of support to learn and apply the play therapy model.
• 31:45
  So that means we need to get training.
• 31:48
  It also need means that we need help applying it like we learning, like being a, a master chef, right?
• 31:56
  They're.
• 31:57
  I don't know if any of you follow Gordon Ramsey.
• 31:59
  My husband and I follow Gordon Ramsey.
• 32:02
  We get so stressed out when he starts yelling at people.
• 32:05
  Um, but it is fun to watch the creativity and it's fun to watch people under the mentorship of people who know what they're doing.
• 32:14
  Or, you know, another, um, food network show would be uh, Worst Cooks in America, you see them under the mentorship of somebody who knows what they're doing.
• 32:27
  Their skills really get develop, and when their skills develop, their confidence develop gets better.
• 32:35
  They, they enjoy the process a lot more.
• 32:39
  They don't second guess themselves as much.
• 32:42
  And so to me, one of the, one of the most helpful things I think you can do is learn a play therapy model.
• 32:52
  Learn a theoretical model for play therapy and then learn how to apply it through every step of the change process to help you learn what to do.
• 33:06
  I think that's one of the things that I love so much about Play Therapy Academy and also now I'm super excited about Play Therapy Elevation Circle, um, is the, the community.
• 33:20
  And if you ask anybody in Play Therapy Academy, they will tell you the best thing about Play Therapy Academy is the the community support.
• 33:29
  And my goal is to create that also in Play Therapy Elevation Circle to make it more accessible to more people who want that because there's limits on what I can do with, it's much more, um, limited in size for Play Therapy Academy.
• 33:48
  I have to keep that one small, which is awesome, but then it just means there's a lot of people missing out.
• 33:55
  So that's why I, I, I am creating Play Therapy Elevation Circle.
• 34:00
  Get into a community, get support to learn how to use the model.
• 34:06
  Even for people who have been doing it for a while, like even I, I, to me, it's invigorating to hear the new ideas and hear what people are doing.
• 34:16
  And sometimes people will say things, I'm like, Ooh, where'd you get that resource?
• 34:20
  Or, oh, I wanna know about that.
• 34:23
  That's a good one.
• 34:24
  What a great idea.
• 34:25
  So Eve, I'm, you know, we're always learning.
• 34:28
  We're lifelong learners.
• 34:29
  So that community support, I think is critical.
• 34:33
  So, just kind of a recap for today, the thing that we're, the topic today is, is there a best approach for play therapy with traumatized kids?
• 34:45
  I, I say no.
• 34:48
  I think the first thing that you need to consider is that there are, there, it's not, is there a best way?
• 34:55
  I think the question needs to be shifted to how do we help traumatize children heal?
• 35:01
  Which means that you really wanna think about how your um, defining trauma, how are you understanding the impact of trauma?
• 35:14
  And so I like using like a neuro, like my theoretical underpinnings are neuroscience and attachment.
• 35:23
  And so I use that lens theoretical lens to examine the impact of trauma so that when I am defining trauma.
• 35:36
  I'm defining it as an experience that is overwhelming and threatening to one's life and safety, creating a significant sense of not feeling safe.
• 35:51
  And it alters your nervous system and your hypersensitivity to feelings of threat.
• 36:01
  So that's why I'm defining trauma, which then helps me also explain the symptoms that are occurring for each unique client.
• 36:12
  I'm using that way, that neuroscience and attachment lens to explain why these symptoms are occurring.
• 36:19
  Why this child is having the challenges in their life that they're having and that then that's gonna be influenced by my, my theoretical model, which my foundation would be the um, SIT CAT structured sensory intervention for traumatized children, adolescents and teens.
• 36:42
  And then I also include interpersonal neurobiology, polyvagal theory.
• 36:48
  I'm also, you know, I love using thinking systemically.
• 36:54
  That's kind of my foundation also is to think systemically.
• 36:57
  So I, but I'm also thinking attachment, so I'm.
• 37:01
  I'm including attachment in there, attachment theory and how that's impacted by this traumatic event.
• 37:09
  But also, um, I love inner, inner, um, internal family systems and I kind of conceptualize internal family systems as if you think about interpersonal neurobiology and the role of, daniel Siegel calls the energy, the flow of energy and information.
• 37:31
  So the way that I kind of look at that, we want to gain integration and trauma will impact and, and negatively impact that integration process.
• 37:45
  So it's like these pockets of ugh, stored away implicitly and embodied within that nervous system.
• 37:56
  So I, I think inter interpersonal, not not interpersonal, neurobiology.
• 38:03
  Internal family systems is a great way to conceptualize and make something concrete to help move towards integration, neural integration.
• 38:15
  So the thing is, when you're thinking, you're using your theoretical model and that's gonna influence how you make sense of the problems that are happening and the patterns that are sustaining it.
• 38:29
  And then you're gonna choose a, a play therapy or a theoretical model that aligns with your personal values, your professional values.
• 38:40
  You're gonna learn how to apply that theoretical model.
• 38:44
  Even an integrative play therapy model is going to integrate theory model.
• 38:49
  So you wanna think about that, and that's gonna show you, that's gonna be your GPS through that change process.
• 38:59
  So that is it for today.
• 39:02
  I did wanna tell you, I have a training coming up.
• 39:06
  It's, uh, um, not coming up.
• 39:09
  I, I did a training back in May that was a live um, an in-person training and, uh, there were so many people asking for it that I decided, um, to release it as a recorded version.
• 39:24
  So that is now available, which to me is nice for people who maybe live outside of the US and you're in a different time zone, or maybe you didn't have the ability to take the, um, live or in-person version.
• 39:42
  So healing trauma through play therapy, using a neuroscience and attachment approach is really how I walk you through, um, conceptualizing neuroscience and attachment aspects of the impact of trauma, so that you use that information when you're considering what are you gonna do in each stage of the change process?
• 40:06
  So I walk you through a play therapy model grounded in neuroscience and attachment theory.
• 40:12
  All the ones I just told you, all those theory models I just told you I use.
• 40:17
  Um, and then we, I show you different interventions to use in each one.
• 40:22
  And because I believe in the value of community.
• 40:26
  I'm the, I'm always a big believer that we learn, um, having help to apply the model is really important.
• 40:34
  So there's a, there's bonus if you, if you purchase the training before, I think the, the deadline is gonna be July 12th at midnight.
• 40:50
  If you purchase it before July 12th, then you're gonna get two free months of Play Therapy Elevation Circle.
• 40:58
  I. Right now the only way to get in Elevation Circle is if you buy, if you register for one of my courses, it's gonna open up again in in August.
• 41:09
  But I wanted to make it available for people who are taking the training.
• 41:14
  So if you purchase healing trauma through play therapy a neuroscience and attachment approach before July 12th, then you will get access.
• 41:24
  One, you get a reduced price.
• 41:26
  So it's only gonna be.
• 41:27
  Um, it'll be $30 off, it'll be$157, and you get two months, uh, play therapy elevation circle.
• 41:39
  So you'll want to hop on that soon.
• 41:43
  If you're interested in the training, you can pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com.
• 41:51
  That's Renewing Hearts Play therapy training.
• 41:55
  RH Play therapy training.com.
• 41:58
  Pop over to the courses page and you'll wanna register before July 12th in order to take advantage of the um, discounted price, as well as have two free months of Play therapy Elevation Circle.
• 42:16
  All right, so that is it for today, and I will, and also, you could probably find the links for this.
• 42:25
  If you're on LinkedIn and YouTube, you can find the links for this in the comments.
• 42:31
  If you're watching on Instagram, you could probably click on my bio and I'll take you over to my website or just pop over to my website at rh play therapy training com on the courses page, and I will see you next week.
• 42:47
  Bye for now.
• 42:51
  Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy.
• 42:55
  I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families feel.
• 43:04
  If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 43:10
  Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
• 43:16
  Remember, play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth.
• 43:20
  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.
• 43:32
  If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episodes.
• 43:37
  I'd love to hear from you.
• 43:39
  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.
• 43:51
  Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy.
• 43:55
  Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.