Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

If Being a Play Therapist Feels Lonely, This Is for You

• Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S • Episode 104

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A New Year Is a Chance to Stop Doing Play Therapy Alone.


A new year begins…
 and for many play therapists, your caseloads are already full.


Same questions about what you should be doing in play therapy sessions to “get it right.”


Same feeling of wishing there was someone who truly understood your play therapy work so you could share ideas and support.


If you ended last year feeling tired, isolated, or second-guessing yourself, this week’s free livestream is for you.


January isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s about deciding what kind of support you want moving forward.


If you’ve ever wished you had:

  • a place to staff play therapy cases without judgment


  • colleagues who speak the language of play therapy


  • support that helps you stay grounded rather than overwhelmed


You’re not alone — and you don’t have to keep carrying this work by yourself.


In this week’s free livestream, we’ll talk honestly about:

  • why isolation is so common for play therapists


  • how community supports confidence and sustainability


  • what it looks like to practice play therapy with ongoing support


Play therapists are relational by nature.


Our work is strongest when we’re supported, connected, and not doing it all alone.


Come start the year supported.


We’ll save you a seat. 💛



Join my free Facebook Community Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground.

Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work.

I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.

Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills

Cathi Spooner:

Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy. A weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services. We'll explore all things play therapy. To elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play. 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. 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. Happy New Year. Welcome. Welcome to 2026. Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy. This week's episode is gonna be talking about why you don't need to do it alone as a play therapist. And, uh, so when I was thinking about topics for the livestream episode, and this is kind of my first week back from taking a two work, two week break just to kinda stand back and rejuvenate, refresh, connect with my people, my family. I was thinking about what would be helpful in 2026. And I'm not a big person to think about goals and you know, the same old, same old kind of to me feels tired. I thought, well, what's really gonna help to start the year out and set the tone if we use it intension about 2026. And the way as play therapists, we want to show up in 2026, what the heck would that look like? And so I thought about the power of community. And what I hear over and over and over and over and over and over and over is so many play therapists feel isolated and alone in their practice, in their agency. And I thought, you know what? One of the things that I have learned through doing Play Therapy Academy which is my online consultation program and which was the catalyst for launching my, my new membership program for those people that didn't need Play Therapy Academy is the idea of community. And let's not feel burned out, overwhelmed, stressed out, and have our imposter syndrome kicking in and ruling the day on more days than we would like it to. And so that to me is the reason for choosing this topic for this month. I'm also gonna be opening up enrollment for Play Therapy Elevation Circle, so I'll talk a little bit more about that if you're interested in that. Play Therapy Academy has openings, so I will talk a little bit about that if you're interested in that. The, the core foundation in my mind about these two memberships gets at the heart of a problem that I see going on in the play therapy space. So I think you could make the case that this is probably something a lot of mental health professionals struggle, struggle with feeling isolated, alone, uh, burned out and overwhelmed. I think in the play therapy C Community, we experience it even more because we're kind of like a little niche. Inside the mental health community, and there are not a lot of play therapy, uh, play therapists compared to the, the number of, I'll say adult mental health professionals, mental health people that focus on working with adults. And so what do we do about that? And what are we gonna do about that in 2026? And that's, that's what I wanted to talk about. So if you have ever felt like you are alone on an island by yourself providing play therapy, you have nobody to talk to who gets it about what play therapy is. Nobody to bounce ideas off of from a play therapy perspective, uh, or expressive arts, or you have a tough case or you've had a tough day and you're trying to figure out what just happened in your play therapy session, who do you go to? What do you do about that? And to me, that brings up the larger, uh, issue of burnout and feeling overwhelmed and getting the support that we need. And so if that's you and you have been struggling with that, then this is the episode for you and this is what we're gonna talk about today for play therapists, feeling isolated and alone. And for many play therapists, you're practicing in, uh, maybe your own private practice or you are in private practice. Maybe you are in an agency where you're by yourself and you're the only kid therapist. I remember years ago, so, so if you've listened to any of my previous, you might've heard this story, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell it Dan again 'cause I, I, I think it's really relevant to the conversation that we're having today. And, um, sorry, I, I got so distracted by that person with their comments that, let me get myself focused again. So what I wanted to say is, hello to you guys on Instagram and YouTube, uh, and LinkedIn. I would, I would love to know who's watching as long as you're, that YouTube person is not being appropriate. Oh Lord. Um. Anyways, I'm just gonna ignore 'em. So if you're on YouTube, just don't watch, look at the comments until, until I can get all those deleted. Um, but join the conversation. If you're a play therapist and you're, uh, joining us appropriately. If you're a child and adolescent therapist, what are your experiences as a play therapist in the community? How do you get support? Um, what are some of the struggles that you are experiencing? Because I know you're not alone, and I know that because I talk to people all the time. But I would love to know who's here, posting the comments appropriately, and let's get started for today. Also, sorry, one more thing. If you find the information useful, please feel free to share it across your social media platforms, and if you're following on YouTube as long as you're appropriate, then hit that subscribe button and notification so you don't miss any episodes. All right. First thing that I wanted to talk about today is feeling isolated and not having support. And I remember years ago, this is back in 1992, I had graduated fresh outta graduate school, get excited about my brand new job. Excited to get started. I was gonna start the journey to fulfill my dream of working with children, adolescents, and families, and helping them to heal. And I was being welcomed in as the child and adolescent therapist, and they had a play therapy room. They had a playroom. I was so excited. And then nobody knew how to use it. My, my amazing supervisors, I had some excellent supervisors. It was an awesome program. I learned so much there and I am grateful that for that experience, and at the same time, there wasn't anybody who knew how to use play therapy. They had a playroom, they had the things. But there was nobody who knew how to use play therapy. And I, um, was struggling. I didn't know what to do, so. Uh, to the best of their abilities. My supervisors would just say, you're doing a good job. You know they're kids. You'll figure it out. Here's a worksheet. Have you tried some worksheets? And worksheets don't resonate with me. To be completely honest, I hate worksheets. I, I would rather engage in play because that's the language of children. And so I kind of muddled along feeling, um, like an imposter sometimes doing the best that I can. Learning skills, growing, still feeling useful and helpful. And then long story short, went into private practice. Got into an agency. It was a great experience. They had a playroom. Nobody there knew how to do it either. And so I was muddling along. I even joined a consultation group, uh, when I went out on my own. And because I know being a play therapist and a mental health professional, we need each other. We get ideas from each other, we get support from each other. We grow with each other. I'm, I've always been a firm believer in that. And so I have this amazing group of, of therapists who are. Um, in this consultation group, which I loved and adored and did not want to miss, but they did not know how to work with kids. Some of 'em worked with kids and gave me ideas like, oh, you know, just pull out a game and here's a worksheet you can use, which again, doesn't resonate with me. So here's the thing. That was, that was over 30 years ago and play therapy has grown since then. We that the Association for Play Therapy here in the United States has grown and done a phenomenal job of establishing state branches all over and state branches work on influencing the mental health community about play therapy and bringing awareness and also training and consultation opportunities where you can network and find people to do that. We've come a long way, and yet I still hear people saying to me when I talk to them and I talk to them about, you know, they'll schedule a 30 minute video call with me to find out about Play Therapy Academy, or now we're scheduling 30 minute video calls to see if Play Therapy Academy is a good fit and if not, maybe Elevation Circle is a good fit. And I hear the same thing over and over. And so I know it's still going on. I know a lot of you are feeling like you are the only play therapist in the building that you don't have access to consistent consultation, consistent to supports mentoring or just somebody who gets play therapy, and you just need somebody to say, Hey, I don't know what happened in this session. You know, I think it's this, but you know, can I get your thoughts on that to make sure that I'm on the right track and hey, do you have any ideas or resources for this? And so having a community of play therapists who understand what play therapy is that? Play therapy is using a theoretical model to access the therapeutic powers of play within the context of a strong therapeutic relationship. A, a community where you have a sounding board, you can get different perspectives and emotional support. I can't tell you how many times in Play Therapy Academy over the last several years, um, you know, somebody has come to one of our meetings where we have a, a private group chat as well, and somebody might, post in there. Hey, this just happened to me. I'm feeling a little deflated right now. Or, my imposter syndrome is in full swing. And then we, you know, we, we give some support and we get it. Like they don't have to explain what play therapy is. They don't have to explain, why they're doing what they're doing in terms of like a play therapy model. And it's not just about pulling out a game or a worksheet, um, that it's about how to access the therapeutic powers of play. When you are in a community of play therapists we already get it, which is why I went to the Association for Play Therapy Conference last October. Um. And I had gone a couple years before that as well. And one of the things that, that I think about going to play therapy training or con play therapy conferences is you find your people. Like the energy at the Association for Play Therapy Conferences is, amazing. Part of it is because we're with our people. We get it. We don't have to explain things. We get ideas. We're in trainings, focused on play therapy. We're getting ideas about play therapy. We're feeling rejuvenated. We have a place where we can go and get ideas and give different perspectives about what might be going on. A play therapy community is where you can get support. Hey, am I on track? Iden, was this like, I think it's this theme. Here's why I think it's this theme. Does that make sense? Do you think it's me? Is my stuff coming through? Or I just had a conversation with somebody yesterday about, you know, trying to figure out, is it me. I know I am a little prone to being reactive with this, so is it me or am I picking up on something? We all need help doing that. And a play therapy community where you feel safe to do that and respected and we get it, can provide so much support. But here's the other thing. It also helps you to avoid burnout, which is another point that we're gonna get to. I'll just go ahead and get to it now. So it helps to avoid burnout, um, and feeling overwhelmed, um, and mental fatigue. Day after day after day, you sit with clients, clients after clients, after clients, after client. We hold hard things. These are hard stories. Being a play therapist is fun though, so we can hold hard stories in a fun way. Um, but it's still a lot of work that we're holding and it's still hard to hear the stories. We meet with parents. We support parents or caregivers. We hear their struggles, we hear their frustrations sometimes with us 'cause they don't think it's going well and they want us to fix it. Right? We have to hold that and see if we can help to shift that, and that's mentally draining. We show up with the therapeutic use of self in our sessions. So if I'm gonna use a little neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology here, I'm gonna talk about our resident circuits. Our resident circuits are us connecting neurobiology to neurobiology. We are experiencing it with our clients when we are fully present in the moment, being that container for our clients and their parents and their families. I do family play therapy, so I am holding family systems. That's how I look at it, and that can be exhausting, especially when maybe your child has been up all night before with nightmares or maybe your whole family has got the flu running through from kid to kid or parent to parent, and you're doing all the things right, or maybe you are having some, um, maybe you're having some of your own personal stressors that are going on. These are, these are the things we still have life going on. It's not like my husband would always remind me, it's not like you're a robot. Of course you're gonna have feelings, which always made me laugh 'cause I was like, leave it to the non-mental health person to speak the, the voice of reason. When I am second guessing myself and I am like all over in my head overthinking things. Right. Leave it to the, leave it to the non-mental health person to speak the voice of truth into my brain and instantly get me to go, oh yeah, it's true. That always makes me laugh when I think about it. Um, anyways, it's true though, right where we, we carry burdens in our neuro system day after day. We have fun doing it sometimes that thinking of that made me laugh so hard. My eyes are watering a little bit. Um. Plus I'm a little ti tired getting started again this morning. Um, but, and in between sessions, how much time do we have to let go of that? Right. We move from session to session. We, we, we invest all of ourselves in this play therapy session. Maybe we have this ro robust, uh, battle, right. With swords or, or maybe where I. We're playing in the restaurant and we're, we're focused on being a good customer, or we're eating the delicious pretend meal that was just made for us, or we're processing trauma. All these things, so in one session, and then we have to shift gears and go to the next session, and maybe they've got something completely different that we're working on there. That's a lot of shifting and we're holding that. That can be really exhausting day after day when you are doing it on your own and feel like you are the only play therapist. And this is where community helps, and I see this all the time in Play Therapy Academy. And now with my new membership as we're getting into full swing and we are having our, our mastermind meetings, our circle meetings co also known as consultation, where it's the group group support where we have a place to you know, like, am I overthinking this? Or you know, is it me? Am I picking up on something and my resonance circuits are actually working and now, oh, okay, yeah, I can use that information. Now we have a community of support to run that by. To get some feedback, to check out our biases, to get ideas and resources, to get a pat on the back to say, you know what? You're doing a good job. Or maybe a little bit of compassionate challenging, like, Hey, you know, you may wanna think about that a different way or you know, this might be another way to think about that in a safe space where you feel like you don't have to pretend. You can be who you are and get support to do the job that you need to do, and then you can go back to being the play therapist being the support, being the, as I say, the wise Yoda showing up to guide my young padawans through the process and become amazing Jedi warriors, right to, to navigate the world, providing support to parents so they can help their kids navigate the worlds. So being part of a community allows that to happen and being part of a play therapy community specific to play therapy allows you to be part of a community where you don't have to constantly explain and try to get them to understand what you're talking about or silently say in your head, yeah, I'm not using a worksheet or, yeah, I playing games all day long, just doesn't seem to be moving the needle. And I need, I need something with a little more depth understanding how the heck we access these therapeutic powers of play and what the heck does that even look like with this client or with that client, right? These, this is where community can make a different difference. And the other thing is that I find is there is absolutely no way for us to stay current on every little thing going on in the play therapy community. Theoretically, the new thing that's going on, the, the strategy strategy de jour as I would call them, or the new diagnosis de jour, how do I figure out which one's actually accurate so I get a better sense of what are the roots at this problem my client is experiencing. There's no way to be an expert on everything. It's just not possible. And I say that after being in the mental health field for almost coming up on 35 years and being the person in the beginning who wanted to know all the things, it felt like I had to stay up. I had to read all the research. I had to read all the theories. I had to learn this theory or that theory, and I had to be, know what resources were around. It was exhausting. It's not even possible. Here's what I did learn though. Here's the shortcut. Your community. If you access their resources and their knowledge and their expertise, then you can tap into that and use that information to help you kind of fill in the gaps and, um, lean on their strengths to help you grow in those areas. My philosophy is work harder. Uh, look, I got that backwards. Work smarter, not harder. Like is there, uh, uh, easier, faster way to get to this goal that where I'm still gonna get the same benefit, but I don't have to take all this time, energy, and financial resources. Right. Cannot in a, in a, I see this all the time in play therapy community. I see this, this was just at our, um, Elevation Circle meeting last month where we, there were, we had different people with different expertise and we were helping somebody kind of think about things a different way and maybe figure out what we're what was at the root of the problem, and we could use these different expertise and this different knowledge base to figure it out. And that way you have that kind of synergy of knowledge and wisdom and that collective wisdom to get, I would say more well-rounded support for you, and that's gonna benefit your clients because you're gonna take that into the playroom. You're gonna take that into your parent counseling sessions. What parent family counseling. Parent consultation, family counseling without client, present sessions, whatever name you're gonna use for it. You can take that knowledge and. Um, wisdom to help you be a more effective guide for your clients and their parents. And so to me, that's the power of community. We, we can work smarter, not harder. We can have less burnout. We can be more effective guides, more knowledgeable guides. We can be more present with our own families because we have a place to take all this stuff that we're experiencing as play therapists that come up day after day after day after day. We have a place to take that where we can leave it. Then now have space for our own family systems. We can, we can feel less guilty knowing we're not the only ones who feel like, you know what? I feel like I'm giving more time and attention to my clients, and I do my own kids, right? We're not little robots, as my husband would remind me. And so this is the power of community. This is the power of being part of a play therapy community. Where you don't have to do it alone. So if you are tired of doing it alone, if you want consistent support without feeling overwhelmed and burned out, just one more thing that you have to do and be able to get a place where you can have ideas to get more clarity, to build more confidence to have less burnout, then a play therapy community or play therapy support is, is gonna fill that need. And that's why I am, um, happy to announce if you're interested. I do have, I have two options. One is Play Therapy Academy and the other one is. Play Therapy, Elevation Circle, they're a little bit different and they're kind of similar. So I do have openings in Play Therapy Academy. Uh, um, right now, so Play Therapy Academy, if you're interested in getting, if 2026 is the year that you decide, yep, I wanna get my registered play therapy credential and I want support so that I don't have to do this journey alone and I wanna access some more information along this, um, path of becoming a registered play therapy, a registered play therapist, then Play Therapy Academy is probably a good fit. We meet twice a month, very structured. Um, consultation meetings in order to maximize our time and get the most benefit for you when, but also you not only get my almost 35 years of experience in child and adolescent mental health, you get the collective wisdom and experience of the other Play Therapy Academy of members and Play Therapy Academy is a very small group, so that one's much smaller. There's courses in there, tons of support. Um, if you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, then you're gonna want to go over to my website at rh play therapy training.com. Go over to the supervision page and you'll see Play Therapy Academy gives you more information. But schedule a 30 minute video call with me and we're gonna see if it's a good fit. If it's not a good fit, maybe Elevation Circle is a better fit, or maybe neither is the right time. Well, we won't know that unless you schedule the video call and we can have that conversation about whether or not it's a good fit. This month I'm also excited to, um, to let you know that Elevation Circle, Play Therapy, elevation Circle. I'm gonna open up enrollment for a short period of time at the end of the month. Um, and I'm only letting in a limited number of people because we're still kind of building the community and I wanna make sure that we really have time to connect and have people feel supported in Elevation Circle. Um, this one is not, if you're interested in the RPT credential, elevation Circle is not the one you want. Play Therapy Academy. Elevation Circle came about because as I was talking to people about Play Therapy Academy, what I realized was there were a lot of people that didn't need Play Therapy Academy or they weren't quite ready for Play Therapy Academy, but they still wanted support because they were feeling isolated and alone and they didn't have a community where they could go to to get the help that they needed to be the play therapist that they wanted to be to help their, their clients have that deeper level of healing. So Elevation Circle is more community based. And what I mean by that is that we, we meet once a month for consultation. I call those masterminds'cause we put all our brilliant minds together and provide support, talk about different play therapy topics, um, get ideas, help provide support. And then we also have a monthly book club in there. So we meet once a month for a book club. And the book club discussion is focused on how do we take that information we're learning from this book and apply it in play therapy. And so the book that we're reading is, I think it's. Um, I don't know if it's an oldie, to me, it doesn't feel like it's an oldie, but it was published in 2008, so maybe, um, but I think it is pure gold every page I love. Um, and if you take nothing else away, then reading, being a Brainwise Therapist by Bonnie Badnock, then I would definitely get that book. But that's the book we're reading and then we're um, seeing how are we applying that in the play therapy sessions and our, the work that we're doing. There's some other things in there as well. There's some other things in Play Therapy Academy. You can go over to my website and kind of read more about that. If you're interested in Play therapy Elevation Circle. And that Play Therapy Elevation Circle, I, uh, that one's kind of global. People from all over the world can join that one. Um, so if you're interested in those, then go over to my website at RH Play Therapy Training. Com. If you're interested in Elevation Circle, I would highly recommend getting on the wait list so you can find out when it's gonna be opening up and some other things going on with Play Therapy Elevation Circle, because it's only gonna be open for a short period of time, and I am only letting in a small group of people for this next round of enrollment in Elevation Circle. So, um, if you're interested in those, we're also gonna post comment, uh, post the links in the comments, but definitely head over to my website at rh play therapy training.com. See what's going on over there. There's other resources. I have some trainings coming up, so there's some other things over there as well. And I just wanna end by saying how much I appreciate our play therapy community, how much I appreciate you. Um. And the work that you're doing, and I say, let's let 2026 be the year that you don't do it alone anymore. Like even if you don't do Play Therapy Academy or Elevation Circle, connect with somebody, connect with other play therapists so that you're not feeling alone. All right. And I will see you next week. That is all for today. Bye for now. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy. I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information. Remember. Play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth. 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. If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episode. I'd love to hear from you. 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. Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy. Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.