Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

How Does Consultation Improve Play Therapist Growth?

• Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S • Episode 105

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If you’re a mental health professional, including play therapy, we’ve all heard this said and probably even said it ourselves:


consultation is a clinical and ethical part of providing effective play therapy (and therapy in general).


Truthfully – I have mixed feelings about this statement.


From a clinical and ethical standpoint, consultation is an important part of providing quality mental health services to our clients, including play therapy.


I’m a firm believer in getting support to help me ensure my clients are getting the best counseling experience possible, especially when I’m stuck.


So, why the mixed feelings?  I’m glad you asked.  


I think sometimes consultation can be poor quality, one more task to an already full schedule, and/or provided in a punitive way that results in play therapists feeling unsupported and burned out.


Thinking about this topic got me wondering what the research says about the benefits of consultation for play therapists, and what makes consultation effective.


That got me exploring the internet to see what I could find.


I found some interesting research articles discussing not only the benefits of consultation for mental health professionals (no-brainer there), and what makes consultation effective.


If you’re curious about how play therapy consultation can be beneficial and not just another box to check for your already busy schedule, join me for this free weekly podcast episode!


I’ll discuss what the research says about making consultation effective based on two studies and why it’s so important to have these elements.


I’ll share my insights for play therapists and how we can use this information to help our young clients and their families heal.

Join me and the conversation!  

Citations for articles discussed during this episode:

Beidas, R. S., Edmunds, J. M., Cannuscia, C. C., Gallagher, M., Downey, M. M., and Kendall, P. C. (2013). Therapists’ perspectives on the effective elements of consultation following training. Admin Policy Mental Health, 40(6), 507-517. Doi.10.1007?s10488-013-0475-7

Mui, A. S., Joseph, A., Hakim, E., Cox, E. D., and Greenwald, E. (2022). Peer consultation: An enriching necessity rather than a luxury for psychologists during and beyond the pandemic. Journal of Health Service Psychology, 48, 13-19. doi.10.1007/s42843-021-0005-3



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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.

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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. Hey there, play therapist. Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy, and today I wanna discuss a topic that we talk about all the time and that whole idea of consultation. And so you've probably said this, I know I have said this, but I feel like we don't really do it that much actually. And this idea of consultation and consultation is an ethical and clinical, um, is ethically and clinically important and we, we need to be doing it and yet we don't. And I thought about my own career over the last, almost 35 years now, um, and the number of time, like, how did I do this 'cause. I talk the talk, but am I walking the walk is the question. And I think I did it in different ways. I did it more formally, I would say, um, sometimes by joining a consultation group, when I owned a group practice, we kind of had that as part of the process. We could kind of grab each other 'cause it was a. Group practice of all play therapists, so we could kind of pull in that somehow. And when I moved to the west coast, it was kind of the thing that I missed a lot.'Cause when we moved to the west coast, from the east coast to the west coast, I was the only person I knew other than my husband and our two kids and our three dogs at the time. Are they technically people? No. Are they emotionally people? Yes. Talking about my dogs. Um, so I thought about, I, I thought about that whole idea of play therapy and community, and I missed that a lot, that I went to a play therapy training and I felt like I had found my people again. Made some connections and i, I also realized that I missed, I kind of feel like consultation is a little bit of teaching, and I love teaching kind of a teacher at heart. I started out my professional career as a teacher and then realized I wanted to do the counseling part, not the teaching part for education. Anyway, I taught kids with emotional problems back in the 1980s. That was a long time ago. And when we moved to the West coast, I realized I really miss this whole thing about community and play therapy specifically.'cause I feel like play therapy is a niche within the mental health community. And when I went to grad school, nobody was talking about play therapy. I found about play therapy because of the school social worker and school psychologist in in the special education, um, school where I worked, and they, they were doing it back in like 1980. What, when was that? Like 1985, maybe 86, something like that. And then I couldn't find it anywhere. So I believe in the power of community, which is why I started a group consultation program called Play Therapy Academy to help people who wanted to achieve their RPT credential. And then what I, I learned out of that is not everybody needs that level, and yet they lack that level, meaning Play Therapy Academy, and yet they lack a sense of community, a sense of where I can go to get support, and that's when I created my new membership Play therapy Elevation Circle. I'll talk more about those at the end if you're interested. Um, today I really wanted to talk about, honestly, some of the things I learned from doing this over the last, oh, I think it's like six years now. Oh, goodness. Might be seven or eight. Um, some of the things I learned. And then what, what does the research say about that?'Cause I was thinking about this topic. We talk about play therapy, consultation all the time, or consultation in general, and yet we're not really doing it that much. And why is that? And I, I feel like we treat it a little bit more like a luxury than a necessity because it's one more thing that we add to our list of things. And as I've talked to people when they schedule their 30 minute meetings with me to see if Play Therapy Academy is a good fit, or now we kind of figure out is play therapy a better fit or is Elevation Circle a better fit? What I'm finding is sometimes people have bad experiences with consultation and supervision, and so I thought about whenever I'm kind of curious about these things, I go down the research rabbit hole, and that is exactly what I did. So I wanna highlight some of the things that research has talked about, and there were two articles there. If you want to find out more about the articles or maybe find them yourself. I did list the articles in the description. So for those of you who are watching the livestream or the livestream replay, you can look in the description. For those of you who are listening to the podcast episode, Next Level Play Therapy podcast episode then it'll also be in the description. And the two articles that I found and I, I figured I would kind of talk about both because there was a lot of overlap and I figured, well, two is better than one when it comes to research and making your point. So that's what I did. So one of the research articles is by joseph, Hakeem, Cox and Greenwald, I hope I said their names right. The, the article is is from the Journal of Health Service Psychology from 2022. It's called Peer Consultation. Enriching necessity rather than a luxury for psychologists during and beyond the pandemic. That one sounded really good. Actually had a lot of good points in there. And then the other article is by Betas, Edmonds, Canuso Gallagher, Downey Kendall, and it's in the admin policy Mental health Journal, and the article is called Therapist Perspectives on the Effective Elements of Consultation Following Training. And that was, so I, these actually had some really good information. The overlap between both the articles is that. Because they talked about, in the article, they, both articles they talked about, um, one of 'em, the one about by Betas, etal, it really talked about like learning. Uh, they talked about evidence-based model. So learning and evidence, evidence-based model through training and really is training enough and what does consultation look like, and if you're using consultation with the training, which I think is a really good idea, which is why I've decided in my, any of the trainings that I do, there is an option to join Elevation Circle because I feel like it's nice to have, get the training and then have a place where you can talk about it some more and talk about how you've implemented it and when you run into some rough patches, 'cause you will, we all run into the rough patches, then you have a place to go with that in a community where you can get support. And so in this Betas article, they talked about learning evidence-based model. And then in their research that they found about this topic, what they found was just, just reading about it or just learning it didn't actually, uh, facilitate effectiveness. And so that's when they were looking at, okay, if we're using consultation to improve using the the model to fidelity. And I would include in there using it effectively. And what do you do when you get lost and overwhelmed and not sure what to do. Then consultation was the recommendation. And so when they were looking at the recommendation, or I used the word recommendation, they didn't use it in there. And the idea of consultation, what would effective consultation look like? So this idea of what does effective consultation look like? What would be effective. And then the second article where they were talking about consultation as a necessity and not a luxury, but also through their research and kind of anecdotally, they had had experiences where it wasn't very effective or maybe it felt more punitive sometimes for people and I know as I've talked to people who have sped scheduled 30 minute video calls with me, I know they've kind of talked about some negative experiences they've had sometimes. So what I thought would be helpful is first talk about what makes, what are, what are, what does a research show. At least in these two articles, what does it show about? What makes consultation effective? And so for those of you providing supervision and consultation, these would be things that would be effective. As well. And then I wanna talk about how do we take this from the wider mental health community of the research into play therapy, specific consultation, and how to get the most benefit supporting. Each other in the play therapy field, what does that look like? What does consultation look like? Even I use this feedback to kind of help make sure from my membership programs, play Therapy Academy and now Play Therapy Elevation Circle, that we're kind of hitting the mark and I was happy to learn that we are hitting the mark. So that was good. Which kind of went along with what people in those programs say, which is yes, they are very helpful. And I would say if you ask anybody in Play Therapy Academy, which is my higher tier, more hands-on, more structured program to learn play therapy and if anybody's interested in pursuing their RPT credential, it would be Play Therapy Academy, not Elevation Circle. Um, one of the things they would say, even if I wasn't around, they would say it's the community. And we, oh my goodness we had that experience in our consultation meeting last Saturday for the Saturday group. Even with all of my experience, one of the members presented a case and we were all like, oh my goodness. That one just is overwhelming. And this would be one of those cases you would be, you would be tempted to just write 'em off and try to get rid of 'em. I mean, if we're being really honest here, that's what we would probably try to do. And what I found to be so amazing, and this to me is community when you have a group community versus kind of individual consultation, which is the power of all of our, I call it all of our brains together, where this person presented their case. I give my feed feedback. And then other people give their feedback and when they give their feedback, that gets me to thinking, gives me some more ideas, which then gives other people more ideas. And then that gives the person presenting ideas. And by the end of it, we actually, I felt like we had something that might actually work to help out. We'll find out. And to me that's, that's what consultation can do. And that's what community can do. So for consultation to be effective, the research in these two articles identified four things. The four things being, it has to be ongoing for it to really, really benefit, not just one off, although, you know, sometimes all we need just to help us get unstuck. If you wanna talk to a consultant. Help get unstuck with that. Probably two times is better than one time and ongoing is what really helps to take your skills to the next level when you have ongoing support. Because then it can help you get, this is my opinion and this is what I've seen. It can get help you get through each stage of the therapy process for play therapy, how do you, how do you facilitate that healing using your specific model through each stage of the play therapy process? And to me, that's where, when it's ongoing, and for different clients, it might look one, one way for one client and another way for another client. So that ongoing element is one of the things that they found to be most effective. The other is that it's relational, uh, because really, really, if we're gonna open up and show our vulnerabilities as play therapists, then we need to feel safe, right? We're human, we say that about our clients, and we need it to be that way for us as well. We need to feel like it's not gonna be punitive or if I say something I'm gonna be judged or if it's, if it's connected to my work and it's evaluative. I mean, there isn't, when you're in that licensing process here in the US there is' evaluative aspect to it. In work there, there is that as well. I mean, that's the role we have as supervisors as, as opposed to consultants. So even in those cases though, we need to make it relational. If we want, if we want people that we're consulting with to open up and help really get down to the nitty gritty about what's going on to help move the needle forward, then they need to feel safe. The other is, um oh. Um, relational, not evaluative, which kind of goes against what I just said, relational. I, I mean, there's an aspect of it that is evaluative, so I might kind of, I don't know how I feel about that. I, um, I think it's both. I probably will think about that a lot more after we end this broadcast today. And those of you listening to the uh, podcast. I, I do think when it's relational, but it's a professional relationship. There are boundaries around it, but I think it's that idea of that we show up as human beings, and I think that creates safety when we can do that. And so that's the third thing that needs to be safe and not performative. We're not gonna get anywhere if it's just superficial, in my opinion. And when I, when I facilitate in, uh, Play Therapy Academy and Elevation Circle, we do real. Um, and I, we, it, it, we make it a safe place. That being said, there are certain things that, you know, kind of, we do have boundaries around those. That's important. And it needs to be safe though. Those other things that I'm kind of hinting at, those are more, um, those don't happen very often. I think they're more rare, and most of the time creating that sense of safety is really important. And then the, the fourth thing that was identified is using real cases, not just. Case, you know, like hypotheticals or even when we, I, I notice this too, even in Play Therapy Academy, when people are presenting their case and we're staffing a specific case, I always give the option of maybe you don't have a case, but maybe you have some a question more general in nature that covers quite a few clients. Even when we do more of the hypotheticals, then we always get down into a client and it, um, and so that's what it was saying with the consultation to be effective. That it, the real cases really, how do you apply this information in real cases to help move that needle forward for healing and getting the best results that you can for your clients. And so with that, how does this help play therapists. How does consultation help play therapists? I feel like play therapy adds a another layer of complexity that these studies don't necessarily talk about that, but they kind of quietly validate, and that is that ability to to create a safe space for, for it to be relational with people who understand play therapy. That's the key. How, because how, how many of you probably listening have, have met with, uh, a supervisor and they weren't a child and adolescent therapist and they didn't know much about play therapy, and I'm not saying they can't be good. I had some awesome supervisors and they didn't know about play therapy, which is why I felt lost half the time, way early in my career. But they didn't know about play therapy. And so usually you would try to staff your case and they would they might be able to help out with parents, but as far as what you were doing in the play therapy session with your client, they didn't really have any knowledge or expertise in that area. And so I can't tell you how many times I heard, oh, you're doing a good job. They're playing. It'll be fine. You know, you can always use worksheets. I hate worksheets. So I feel like in consultation for play therapy, you really need to connect with play therapists and um. That, that to me is what will make it more beneficial. And then if you're using that consultation to help you figure out what to do in your sessions moment by moment by moment, then having somebody or having a community specifically geared towards play therapists is really what's gonna be beneficial. Because play therapy isn't linear. Kids don't follow agendas, and so consultation in play therapy is gonna help you decide when to follow the play, when maybe to gently structure what's going on in the playroom or how are you co-regulating in the playroom. What is figuring out, how do I apply what the treatment goals are? What is that gonna look like in the play therapy session? And so that is gonna help you use play therapy more intentionally. Apply your play therapy model with more intention and probably a little more to fidelity when you get stuck so that you don't do the activity hopping from just kind of pulling out, trying to figure out any activity that's gonna help and move the needle. So you're, you know, like I, I call it, throwing the, the throwing the spaghetti against the wall and hoping something sticks method, which never really works. You end up feeling lost and overwhelmed and confused, and then your imposter syndrome kicks in. And if things don't go well, you start second guessing whether or not you're cut out to be a play therapist. And this is where consultation can help with that. Get back on track and so that you're not symptom chasing, you're not looking strictly at the symptom. Consultation can help you get at the roots of what's going on because that's gonna move the needle more. And s be more intentional about what's going on, what stage of play therapy you're in. What will you do in this stage of play therapy using this play therapy model so that what you're doing is gonna be more effective, or it's gonna land better. So to speak and consultation can also help you stay regulated yourself, get the support that you need. This is hard work that we do. We meet with clients day after day, hour after hour, after hour, and some of them are harder than others, and so getting the support that you need in order to stay regulated and supported yourself is gonna help you avoid burnout, feeling overwhelmed and confused, like you got no creativity left, and like you got no energy, and you start dreading. And maybe you start kind of second guessing yourself that maybe you're not cut out to this, right? So the bottom line is that, consultation can help play therapists stop second guessing and start practicing with intention. So that is it for today. Um, I just wanna do a little recap and then I'll talk a little bit more about Elevation Circle Play Therapy Elevation Circle, which is my online play therapy membership. And that I, that's gonna be opening up soon. I also have a free webinar coming up, so if you're interested in that to help you figure out. So we only covered one part of what I feel like is an important framework. If you wanna stop second guessing yourself, every clinical decision that you're making, and feel like you're being more effective. In the free webinar, I'm gonna talk about three parts, this idea of community being one of 'em. So if you're interested in the free webinar, I'll talk to you a little bit more about that as well. And I have openings in Play Therapy Academy right now. And also Elevation Circle is gonna be opening up at the end of the month. I have, uh, enrollment will be opening up. So really what, for today's topic about consultation and what, what makes it important and why, why is it important? Is that really play therapy, being in a community, isn't really about doing more, it's really about taking what you know, taking what you've learned in those trainings and how do you apply that information. Like I, I talked to one person a while back and one of the things that they were struggling with is I've gone to all these trainings. But I don't know how to bring 'em all together. And to me that's where consultation and having a community can help you figure out what is your theoretical framework and how do you take all these things you're learning and put 'em into a cohesive way where you feel like you're being more intentional. So it's not about working harder, it's not about one more thing I have to do, it's about using that time to get there faster and feel supported. Like you're not alone on an island by yourself doing play therapy with nobody else around, and you don't always need another play therapy training. Sometimes you just need a place where you can take what you've learned and figure it out, how do I apply this, that what's the missing piece that I haven't figured out? And you can use community to help you do that. And then what these studies confirm is that play therapy, and those of us who've, we've been doing it for a while, we kind of intuitively know this, and the, the research kind of, not kind of the research validated, at least these two articles validated what we kind of already know deep down, if you've been doing this for a while or maybe you're a supervisor or a play therapy consultant or supervisor, is that really the our competence grows in connection. Connection with other play therapists who get it, other like-minded play therapists who understand the therapeutic powers of play and when you, they understand play so you don't have to explain it over and over and over and over again. Only to have somebody say, oh, you know, use a worksheet. That'll be fine. I don't like worksheets. I mean, I have some, but I. I use them as a kind of stepping stone for more experiential things if I'm being directive, depending on what I'm working on. And then confidence really grows when you have a space where you feel safe and connected to be real, to reflect on what you've been doing, what's going on. Having that, that dedicated time and space where you can take a step back, do a little reflection, and then come back and figure out how to put all the pieces together and that really sustainability, doing this for the long haul is really about being in a community to get the support that you need. So when you're feeling a little burned out and overwhelmed and second guessing yourself and you're thinking maybe you weren't cut out to be a play therapist, you have a community that kind of help you look at things differently, help you get unstuck, help you figure out where you might be missing the mark in a, in a safe way.'Cause we all miss the mark sometimes. Constructive feedback. When you're comfortable with the people can be really useful. And that that's, that's how we move the needle. That's how we move forward. And so when we look at it that way, consultation isn't a luxury. It's really a necessity. It's something that can really help us to, be better therapists to provide better play therapy services to stay in there for the long haul and to not feel like we're doing it alone. So if, if you are interested in being part of a play therapy community, I do have some openings now, if you're, especially if you're interested in your RPT credential. Play Therapy Academy would be the program that you're interested in. And, um, I have openings now, so I'm meeting with people and seeing if it's a good fit for them. Schedule a 30 minute video call with me. Hop over to my website at RH play therapy training.com. That's RH play therapy training.com. Renewing hearts, play Therapy Training, and hop over to the consultation page. You'll see Play Therapy Academy. You'll see Elevation Circle and Play Therapy Academy you'll, when you, you can find out more about it there, schedule a 30 minute video call with me and we'll see if it's a good fit for you. Maybe Elevation Circle is a better fit for you. And Elevation Circle, you, you can get on the wait list for that just to find out when it's open. It doesn't obligate you to anything. You just get notified so you don't miss it. Enrollment for, that's gonna be opening up at the end of the month and so if you don't wanna miss that, then definitely get on the wait list. And I do have, I have, um, because I feel like community is just one part of of the framework that kind of moves the needle. And for those of you interested, we're putting the links in the comments. And um, if you're interested, I have a free webinar coming up. The free webinar is called, how to provide play therapy without second guessing. Every, every clinical decision, even complex cases, I talk about a three part framework that can help you guide that, get, move that needle for you, and it, it's applicable no matter what your play therapy model is. So if you're interested, then registration for that is open. It's gonna be happening on sunday, uh, January 25th in the afternoon for me here in the, uh, west on the West Coast. Sign up, register for the free training, and if you have questions, feel free to message me and check the links in the comments. And I will see you next week. Bye for now. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy. I hope you found the discussion valuable and gain 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 and relationships. If you have any questions or topics, suggestions for future episodes, I'd love to hear from you. Connect with me on social media and visit my website at Renewing Heart's Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources. Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy. Until next time, keep playing, learning and growing.