Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence

How to Get Better Results in Play Therapy Without Doing More

• Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S • Episode 106

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What if better results in play therapy didn’t come from more play therapy activities, more games, or more play therapy training — but from clearer thinking?


In this week’s free livestream episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on the real secret sauce: case conceptualization.


Because if you don’t know what’s driving the behavior, how do you decide what to do in play therapy sessions without guessing? 👀


We’ll talk about why your play therapy model actually matters (yep—models aren’t just theory flexes), and how using a play therapy model helps you intentionally access the therapeutic powers of play instead of hoping something sticks.


We’re also naming a hard truth:


Going to play therapy training after training without follow-up or application? That’s how overwhelm happens. Integration is where confidence is built. Application is where deep change lives.


And finally—we get real about something most play therapists feel but don’t always say out loud:
 👉 You’re not meant to do this work alone.


The therapeutic relationship with clients is central—but so is having a play therapy community for support, resources, idea-sharing, and strategic help using your play therapy model in real cases (not just in theory).


If you’ve ever left a play therapy session thinking, “Was that enough?”
 Or wondered, “Am I actually helping?”


Join me for this free weekly podcast and let’s make play therapy feel grounded again.


This week’s episode is for you so you can focus on 👇


Less doing.
More clarity.
Better results. ✨



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:

All right. Welcome everybody. So I'm gonna go ahead and let me share my screen. I'll pull up my, um, slides that way. Alright, let me move that out of the way. There we go. Oh, there, there we go. Alrighty. So today's webinar we're focusing on how to provide play therapy without second guessing yourself. So my hope is by the end of today that you're gonna have kind of a framework that you can use when you're feeling stuck. This is basically the framework I use. When I get stuck and I've been working in the child and adolescent mental health field for over 30 years now. I'm coming round in the corner up to 35 years. And this is kind of the lessons learned over the course of my career and what helps us to get back on track. So the, the idea is really providing solid play therapy to our clients.'cause we really wanna make a difference in their lives and help them. So getting stuck can feel overwhelming and frustrating, and especially when we start second guessing ourselves. Plus it's exhausting. So that is what we're gonna focus on today. Yeah. There we go. So if you haven't already introduced yourself. In the chat, please go ahead and do that. It kind of helps to get to see who's here, what population you're working with, do you have a specific play therapy approach that you use? Um, what's your biggest struggle using play therapy? So go, go ahead and post that in the comments. I'll keep letting people in while we're getting started. Alrighty, just my disclaimer. Uh, just please be advised that the clinical suggestions and recommendations provided during this training are intended. As general guidance, each mental health professional and play therapist is responsible for ensuring they practice within the scope of their professional competence and adhere to the laws and regulations of their own jurisdiction. Ultimately, any clinical decisions and actions are the respons, are the responsibility of the individual therapist. I'm trying to join this thing. Oh, somebody, if you could mute, that'd be lovely. The advice offered here is for educational purposes and does not replace personalized professional judgment by participating in the training. You agree and acknowledge the above. So that's my little disclaimer. We all feel like we have to do so. For this, some of the key takeaways that my hope is that you get by the end of this training, we're gonna spend an hour together. I'm gonna go through the three parts of the training. At the end, I'm gonna share some information about, uh, play therapy community that I have. The o uh, the enrollment is opening up today also. Um, at the end we'll give you the free videos for. Attachment focused family play therapy, some family play therapy activities. There's a whole video series. And so by joining us live today, you are going to get that video series of my favorite family play therapy activities. So my hope is we do a bit of a mind shift in some areas for things that I see come up a lot. I talk to a lot of different play therapists, um, over all around the country, even outside of the us and there are certain things that keep coming up. And these are things we also talk a lot about in the consultation programs, memberships. That I run. And we do have, we have some Play Therapy Academy members attending today, so that's awesome. And I'm gonna talk a little bit about my new membership at the End Play Therapy Elevation Circle, where I took all the things that are awesome about Play Therapy Academy to make it more accessible for people that don't need that level of support. And they, they want a community of play therapists. So we're gonna talk about why these mindsets shifts are important, some things you need to consider, and also what are the benefits of not doing play therapy alone. And so for any of these that you resonate with, post in the comments, any of these that you resonate with. And if you resonate with more than one, so which of these sound familiar to you? You start using play therapy and then somewhere along the process you're not sure what to do in your play therapy sessions, you're not sure if play therapy is even working. You feel stuck, especially with the tricky cases and complex family dynamics, which we actually went through of those cases yesterday In Play Therapy academy, our consultation program. Um, you start focusing on finding the right activity that's gonna make the difference, but nothing seems to be working. Parents are calling you in between sessions, telling you all the things that are going wrong and you feel pressured to fix it fast or you start second guessing. Uh. That you're even doing a good job, maybe feeling like a failure because nothing seems to be working and you even start to consider your, your professional choices of whether or not you're cut out to be a play therapist. So go ahead and post those in the comments. Which of those one and three? Yeah. I, I, I think five. Definitely five. Yes. We hear that a lot. Calling between sessions. Uh, number two, never Sure. Until a week or two later. If one I'm doing is work a little bit of po impossible. Yeah, they're watching it. Yeah, they just made it up the beach. Oops. Somebody doesn't have their microphone muted. So if you guys could just make sure you're muted, that would be lovely. Okay. Um. So all of the, I would agree. I've, I, Tracy, I have felt all of these at certain times along the way. And I'll be honest, some of these, I still feel sometimes when I get a tricky case, I, I feel stuck, which is, um, something, I think even seasoned play therapists, we struggle with some of these. And so the thing is, I hear this all the time, I know it's true for me, that we beca for us, being a play therapist isn't just a job. Most of us feel like it's a deep calling and we want to make a difference in the lives of children and their families. And in order to do that, we need to be able to figure out how to stay in this in the long haul. We talk about this all the time in Elevation Circle when we meet for consultation calls. And also we talk about this a lot in Play Therapy Academy, which is, this is hard work. Day after day after day, you hold hard stories. You go from session to session to session, holding hard stories, working with different clients, some of them easier than others, but this is hard work that we do and it's, it's meaningful work. We can try to make a big stop next. And so I wanna start out with a case study. I figured this would be a re, you know, we love case studies in talking about clients, so I was thinking. How, how can we like make this real? And so I don't know how many of you guys have had a version of a five-year-old Sam, but it seems like these are most of my caseload more often than not. So think about this, you get a phone call from a parent and or a, uh, or a caregiver because maybe they're not living with parents. The child is not living with parents. And here's what they're telling you. They're having outbursts all the time that can last anywhere from 15 minutes to all day long. They're yelling, they're saying mean things. They're hitting, they're throwing, they're not complying with requests. They might be tantruming at school and hitting kids or throwing desks or doing other disruptive things and. They get easily frustrated, shutting down, refusing to talk or comply, and then parents don't know what to do. Also, teachers don't know what to do. So think about this. This is the presenting information. So based on this post in the chat, what you think is the likely reason, just based on this information alone, because this is the information you've gotten post in the comments, what do you think the diagnosis is? Or what do you think is the reason that little, um, 5-year-old Sam is struggling? All right, there we go. That's 20%. Alright, Harper said, lack of resilience. Hey Carol. Beth, I saw you enter. Carol Beth is in play therapy Elevation Circle. I actually was in Play Therapy Academy with you, with me. Um, Jane says, not enough information. Alyssa said, need more one-on-one time with parents. She wants to be seen, feel safe. Also, not enough information. Severe Crohn disease, a history of trauma or abuse potential, A DHD or ODD, but not enough information to confirm. Struggles with regulating central nervous system needs more attachment regulation. Carol, Betsy. Yeah. Wow. Could be many factors including recent loss change, difficulty understanding how to regulate. So most of you guys, um, were saying there's not enough information, right. So that I would agree, which brings us to the very first thing in the framework that we need to really, um, make sure that we're doing, and that is the fancy word for case conceptualization. So without that clarity, we don't really understand what's going on, and if we don't understand what is at the root of the behavior, it's gonna be really challenging to know what to do in the sessions. And so. Case conceptualization is really a fancy term for using your power of analysis and deduction with the information that you've gathered. So at that very first psychosocial assessment meeting, which you are not skipping, you are, you are making sure to do your psychosocial assessment first. You're gonna take all of that information and then use it to formulate your initial case conceptualization, or what I also call working hypothesis. And then you're gonna use that throughout the process of play therapy and adjust as as needed, as you're gathering more information, as things are getting better. But we need to make sure that we're starting out with that initial. Case conceptualization. And the reason for that is when we skip this part at the beginning, then what ends up happening is it kind of gets derailed. There are a lot of reasons that I hear people don't do this first part, and that's because they want to start helping their clients right away to help them feel better. They wanna show parents that play therapy is actually working. Some don't wanna inconvenience. Parents are making them feel uncomfortable by asking a lot of questions, taking up their time. Or I've also heard people talking about diagnosis doesn't really matter 'cause it just puts a label on the child that doesn't really help them. And while I would agree that diagnosis is not the end all be all, I also don't think we should throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak. That there, that it can give us some good information. And so is it really true that we're wasting time by skipping that psychosocial and getting right into doing play therapy sessions? So even if I, I'm gonna kind of challenge a little bit here with the mindset of, oh, I'm just gonna go ahead and do the first, the play therapy session and that, that way I'll get to know my client better and I won't take up parents' time. And we could get started right away. But is it really true that not doing that very first cycle assessment is not valuable? And I, I, I don't agree with that. And here's why. If we use the analogy of going to the doctor, if your child was sick, actually the doctor asking you questions and trying to figure out what the issue is, gives you more confidence that the doctor actually understands what's going on before they start prescribing medi medicine. If they don't really fully know why, I don't know about you, but when my kids were little, I would ask the doctor like 17,000, especially with my first, like when we went to the doctors all the time, it seemed like, and I found that, um, when the, when the doctors answered my questions, I had more confidence in what was going on, but it also helped me know what I needed to do. And so what happens when we don't do that initial assessment and initial case formulation is after the, we do that initial rapport building somewhere in the two to three weeks, six weeks. And somewhere after that we begin to get lost. And not sure how are we actually integrating the caregivers into the play therapy process 'cause we haven't taken that time to figure out what's going on. And where do parents fall in the patterns for why this is happening? So there's a, there's a book by Sper and Sperry and they, they talk about case conceptualization and from their book case conceptualization, mastering this competency with ease and confidence. There's a quote that I really. Like that, I think kind of sums it up, which is two of the most common concerns that trainees have in working with clients are reflected in the questions, what do I say and what do I do? While logical, these questions can quickly get trainees lost and off track, which is common when trainees lack an accurate co cognitive map to guide them to dis, to develop accurate cognitive maps to guide the treatment process, or I would say case conceptualization. Trainees must first become competent at focusing, which means knowing where to focus one's attention when listening and observing. One of the most useful questions that trainees can ask themselves and their supervisor is, what should I be noticing and listening for when I talk to clients? There was also, uh, uh. An article in the Psychotherapy Network, and they were, they were doing a larger study and where they were considering the idea of burnout. And so, um, Scott Miller and Mark h Hubble talk to, they wanted to talk to the, the experts in the field of psychotherapy, and they were, they were addressing the issue of burnout. What I found interesting when I was reading this was that it, it looked at burnout a different way. And so what they found was with a focus on, with these masters, what they did was they, from day one began to concept, they did their initial case conceptualization, and then from there they used that to get a sense of whatever theoretical model they were using. What is that gonna look like from beginning of treatment to end of treatment? And what is it gonna take to, for this client based on what's going on? And what we've considered is the underlying root of the problem. What is it gonna take to help that client get better? And when they took that framework from day one, what they found was that, um, with this focus on outcomes, 50% client improvement and there was a 50% less dropout rate. Um, and so the, so the idea is really getting a sense from the beginning of what's really going on and what needs to help move the needle for this client resulted in less clients dropping out and 50% of them getting better. There was a quote in the article. Um, that I thought was in interesting in interview after interview, the field's most effective clinicians place the outcome of treatment above involvement with clients as their chief consideration, the focus of their work and professional identity. This isn't to say they don't care about their clients. The tendency to conflate involvement with effectiveness is easy to understand. Says psychologist, Darryl Chow. Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna kind of. Think about that a different way. We know therapeutic relationship is important. I believe therapeutic relationship is important. It is the glue that holds clients in the treatment process. I think what they're challenging us to think about is it's not just therapeutic relationship, it's also skill. It's also our ability to think about from the get go and, and really develop competency with our case conceptualization skills and how are we using that throughout the treatment process with our decision making. So it's not, I think sometimes we put so much focus on the cli, especially in play therapy. We'll just follow the, the child and everything will be fine. And that doesn't always work out because yes, we want to believe in the child's intrinsic ability to move towards healing and wholeness. Given the free and protected space and with structure and some scale in our clinical decision making, we can help guide them because we're gonna, we're gonna know what to do and who needs to be involved in the treatment process. And then we can guide them through that from beginning to end. And so if we think about five-year-old Sam and his tiny tornado behaviors. Some other things to think about as we're thinking about our case conceptualization, we have these presenting symptoms. And the other thing is your play therapy theoretical model is gonna influence how you are making sense of what the problem is and why the problem is happening. So how does your case, how is your case conceptualization influenced by how are you defining the problem and your play therapy approach? So what's at the root of the problem? Some of you guys said this in the um, in the chat. It could be trauma, it could be attachment disruption due to a high conflict divorce. Could be sensory processing issues, could be anxiety, could be a DHD, could be autism, could be any combination of the above. And then your play therapy model is gonna influence what that, how you're conceptualizing that. So, um, what do, what do we need to do instead of just getting started right away? I, I highly recommend making sure don't use that psychosocial assessment as a. Uh, check the box. I think we gather really important information when we do that. We wanna make sure to gather information about frequency, intensity, and duration. When we understand how often it happens, how intense is it and how long has it been going on, it helps us to understand the difference between maybe separation anxiety or generalized anxiety. Is it depression or is it maybe, um, trauma PTSD? Or is it a DHD? When did these things start? Was there a a shift that happened? Has it gotten worse over time? What seems to activate it? When does it happen? When does it not happen? We use all of that information to formulate our initial case conceptualization. Which is our working hypothesis. And then we continue that throughout the treatment process. And so that brings us to component number two, which is your play therapy theoretical model. I, I think it's incredibly important for us as play therapists to at least learn a play therapy model. Just learn at least one to get started. You can always add on from there, but your play therapy model influences how you make sense of what the problem is, and then what are you gonna do in each stage of the play therapy process. So if you get lost, right, and somewhere in the process you're like, I don't know if this is working. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. We go back to our case conceptualization, what are the things that are at the root of this and what does my play therapy model say to do in stage one of, let's say Adlerian play therapy? What are they supposed to be accomplishing in ad stage one? What's the focus of stage two? In stage two? What am I gonna be working on? So if I am using a play therapy model that, um, is di directive as opposed to child-centered play therapy, if I'm using Adlerian play therapy, then I'm gonna be thinking about in this stage of treatment. What is it that we're working on that's also gonna gimme an idea of whether or not they're making any progress. So your play therapy model is actually like your GPS or your map that helps you navigate through each stage. And so what I, what I find happens a lot is that rather than focusing on learning a play therapy model, applying it with fidelity and through each stage of the change process with a variety of different clients, 'cause it's gonna look, look different with different clients, but the fundamental foundation and framework is still gonna be the same. What ends up happening is play therapists will go on Pinterest, a Amazon or Etsy, trying to find play therapy activities. Focus on getting the right art supplies or toys or games. Kind of overfocus on finding the perfect activity and spending hours searching for it without any framework to plug it into or using, saying you use an integrative play therapy approach. You attend lots of play therapy trainings. I give play therapy trainings all the time, and we have to figure out how are we integrating those? What is our approach? What does that even mean? Being an integrative play therapist, how do I, I, I talked to one person who was, um, considering play Therapy Academy or Elevation Circle, and one of the things I hear all the time. Was one of the things that she had said is, I, I've taken all these trainings, these are all really important, but I don't know how to fit 'em all together. So now I feel like I'm getting lost because I don't know how these fit together in a cohesive way. So I know where I am in the play therapy, which stage of play therapy I'm in, or what stage the child is in. And so we end, I call it the spaghetti against the wall method, which is you're just trying anything and everything to see if something actually sticks. This is where imposter syndrome comes in. Um, you start second guessing yourself and you can't tell if you're making any progress. And so if you go back to your play therapy model, it's going, this is what I do. I take a step back, I go back to my case conceptualization, I think about my play therapy model. That helps me figure out, okay, where are they in the stage process, uh, in the play therapy process? Which stage of play therapy are they in? Who needs to be involved in play therapy? And your, the role of caregivers in treatment for your little client is going to influence how parents are going to be involved. One of the things I hear all the time is we're just letting parents in the play therapy room, but we have no plan for them. We let them in'cause they want in. Well that's fine, but maybe it's not helpful for them to be in there. Like, what is their role in the, in the session? What is the therapeutic role?'cause it's not to sit in there and watch that is not therapeutic. It might be a, it might be a way to help the child. Get used to being in play therapy. So you might use mommy statue or daddy statue, but that's limited. We're only using that in the beginning. If you're using child-centered play therapy and the parent is in there, then you're not using child-centered play therapy. So our play therapy model is going to influence what you're doing in the sessions. Why are you doing it? When are you doing it? And who's involved and why are they involved? So, um, to really strateg strategically facilitate healing, here's always what I recommend. If you don't know what play therapy model that you, if you don't have one, at least a foundational one, start with one at least. Um, then figure out what play therapy. Theoretical model you align with that aligns with your clinical values and your belief. And then start learning how to use that one because it's gonna influence how you explain the problem and the solution. And when you're using an integrated approach, what theory models are you actually integrating? And how do those models explain the problem and what you're gonna do to fix it? So you, and then you're gonna be choosing your play therapy activities based on what your theory model dictates for each stage, based on what the problem is and what are the roots of it, the pattern sustaining it, and what is the role of the parents in that session. And so when we think about Sam and we go back to his tiny tornado behaviors. How would you, like what theoretical model would you guys use? And you can post that in the chat. Like what would your theory model be and how is that going to influence how you define the problem? So if you're using child-centered play therapy, your going to define the problem in terms of the child needs a better sense of self. And when they get, I look at Atta child-centered play therapy, like attachment, like we're helping them develop a secure attachment style and all the resiliency that goes along with that. Or are you using Thera play? If you're using the play, you've identified that the attachment relationship needs to be repaired, and there's a specific way that you're integrating parents into the play therapy process. Or if you're using prescriptive play therapy, you might be teaching coping skills. You might be, um, teaching like deep breathing or recognizing negative self-talk, how that influences your emotions. You're gonna get a little CBT ish there, so depending on your play therapy model is gonna influence how are you making sense of it and what are you doing in the session? All right, let me see if I can pull up your chats. It's not, oops, sorry about that. Didn't mean to go forward. I'm trying to see the chats when I share my screen. It's always not always easy to see the chat. I'm not seeing it. Um, here's the other thing, and I mentioned this before, the glue that holds it all together is a strong therapeutic relationship. So even if you are just in the beginning of learning play therapy, oh, there's a chat. There it is. Um, Aaron says, integrative Adlerian and CCPT attachment needs to be repaired and a sense of security needs to be developed. Also, there's something Sam needs to process and his behaviors communication. Yes, that was a good one. Um, Carol be said, child-centered play therapy And Carol Beth is amazing with child-centered play therapy. I've seen. Um, yes. Um, Jayna said I use a trauma model that is flexibly sequential model. My kids don't have trauma. I still follow the model except for trauma narrative part. Yeah, I kind of do something similar with that sometimes too. Yeah. Um, oh, interesting. Um, found parents are 70 30. Some don't understand why I prefer to meet with them, but others express gratitude for meeting with them before the child in psychoeducation, uh, after psychoeducation. And I think that's so true, Alyssa. I think in that first session we're also doing psycho education about what play therapy is so that we can set. Realistic expectations, but also explain how does this work. That's also where you're gonna explain like, how are you responding to phone calls and you're not taking all them in between sessions, but that's a whole other training. Um, constrained by insurance. Not actually, it's a nine. Oh, uh, parent consult. It's a family therapy without child present. Plus that nine, oh, the first one is a 9 9 0 7 9 1. That's assessment. It can be just the child, I mean, sorry. It can be just the parent when you're doing that because it's a diagnostic psychosocial assessment. So you may wanna, uh, you may wanna think, I think there's probably some codes maybe that you're not sure about. I was in private practice for 16 years. Um. Insurance issues due to Rural Health Clinic does the CPT codes. Procedure codes are, are set by the federal government, so it might just be some clinic policies. Um, so with all of this, the, the Association for Play Therapy defines play therapy as the use of a theoretical model to help children access the therapeutic powers of play within a strong, the, uh, therapeutic relationship. So we, your model is going to influence how children access those therapeutic powers of play, and it's all wrapped up in that strong therapeutic relationship. And so the third component really has a lot to do with relationship. So we, we focus a lot on using a strong therapeutic relationship with clients and I would, I would kind of offer up who are we using support from as play therapists? Who are we trusting to guide us and support us and give us ideas and strategies? I think a lot of times what I've observed is that we talk a lot about consultation being really important. We'll even use the E word, the ethics word, um, but we treat it more like it's a luxury and not a necessity. I think there's a lot of reasons for that, some of which is access. Um. And are we getting the support that we need within a community of like-minded play therapists? And so what I find ends up happening because we treat it maybe a little bit more like a luxury than a necessity, we don't really recognize the importance of, uh, peer-based consultation or support and access to exp. I would experiences and resources of colleagues and the collective wisdom and insights of the group. I will tell you this, if you ask any of the Play Therapy Academy members here and the Play Therapy Elevation Circle members here, if even if I wasn't around and they, you ask them without me present, they would all say it's the, the group meetings and that consultation where you get. Not only my almost 35 years of experience, but you get the collective wisdom of the group. And then what ends up happening is this happens every time. This is my favorite part about the two memberships. And that is like, we'll be talking about a tough case and I'll be honed in usually on attachment and neuroscience things. And then somebody else will have some, a question or an insight. And then we think about that and that gets us thinking about other things. And then that'll give me ideas. It'll give other people ideas. And the other thing is knowing that you're not alone. There are other people who are, are experiencing the same thing. So it kind of helps reduce some of that. I must be the worst play therapist on the planet. Um, I. Because you're probably not the only one that has experienced those things. Plus you get ideas for some of your clients. And so a, a lot of times also what ends up happening is because we treat it a little bit more like a luxury than a necessity, we end up, um, putting off, joining consultation or a community saying, we're gonna do it later. We might join a consultation program or a group in our comp community, but maybe it's not with play therapists. So you find yourself really explaining play therapy a lot, um, or you're not really kind of clicking with them or they're not really offering the support that you're looking for, and then you end up missing out on. Really fresh ideas and I find what we can accomplish in a group consultation call or group mastermind, we can accomplish so much quicker in one session with I say all our heads together are better than my one head. Um, we can get there much quicker. And so what ends up happening is then we end up waiting be until we're drowning before we reach out and or maybe we're starting to feel a little bit of burnout. We may have some complex cases and they just seem to be getting worse. Um, maybe assuming nobody else is gonna understand. So then that creates some disconnection and burnout. We know when we get isolated, things get worse. It's the same for therapists as well. Um, when we can share that load with each other. Then it feels lighter. And if we're looking at this for staying in for the long haul, having that support to be able to do that, I think is really important. And the other thing is sometimes we end up just getting surface level growth. Um, and not, so we may go to a training and we might learn a thing or two there, but are we really seeing how to apply that more in depth? Which is one of the reasons for any of the trainings that I offer now in 2026, um, access to Elevation Circle is gonna be part of that.'cause I wanna continue to support people so that people have a place to, um, process ideas or say, Hey, I tried that way. You said it didn't work so well. You know, just a place where we don't have to do it alone. And so even the research, um, supports the importance of. Consultation. There was a study by new et al called peer consultation, an enriching necessity rather than a luxury for psychologists during the pandemic and beyond. There was a quote in there that I think really summarizes it, which is peer consultation groups can provide opportunities to increase awareness of biases, engage in critical thinking, and reduce shame and isolation that often arise in clinical work. I would definitely say this would be true in the um, play Therapy Academy and Elevation Circle, and I think you would probably find the members in those two programs would say the same. There was another study by betas et al. That, um, it, that was titled Therapist's Perspectives on Effective Elements of Consultation Following Training. And so, um. They were looking at in this study, they were looking at a evidence-based treatment, but if you're using it effectively, is the training enough? And what they found was no, the training was not enough. And when they offered the consultation following it. Then the, um, effectiveness of using it and getting better outcomes was greatly improved by consultation. But they were also looking at, if we're doing that, then what makes consultation effective were some of the other things that they looked at. And I'm gonna read this quote,'cause this to me was one that I think is really, really important and stands out. What they found was authenticity was one of the most important things. And the quote is, authenticity was maximized when they could bring their own cases to consultation. Therapists also appreciated peers experiences, especially if those experiences closely reflected their own clinical challenges and outcomes. And I, I would say that is what we're finding as well in, um, plate Therapy Academy and Elevation Circle. So what are some tips for maximizing? I would definitely say if you are, uh, if you have other play therapists in your community or you can connect with them, I would say connect. Set something up regularly to meet with them so you don't have to do it alone. Join an online play therapy focus consultation group. I'm gonna talk a little bit about the ones that I have to offer or schedule consultation with, uh, an expert in play therapy for specific issues. What I find is it definitely maximizes your ability to move forward quicker and feel more confident that you're really getting the best results for your clients. And so, just kind of summarizing what we talked about, I love trees, so I use the tree analogy. Very at the roots. We need our case conceptualization to help us get clear before we can figure out what we're doing. We need to understand what it is that's going on and how are we going to integrate caregivers in there. Second is your play therapy model. That's what guides us through and keeps us on track. It is the foundation to helping you figure out what you are going to be doing in the sessions. When you're going to be doing it and how you're going to be doing it, it also influences how you're gonna be building that therapeutic rapport. What is that actually gonna look like? Child-centered play therapy is gonna do it much differently than maybe, um, CBT play, the cognitive behavioral play therapy or prescriptive play therapy. And then the third thing is being part of a play therapy community. We're coming up, uh, first week in February, we're gonna be celebrating play therapy community as a whole across around the world. And because nobody can do this work alone, having support and having support from like-minded play therapists is gonna help you with even your toughest cases, help you stop second guessing yourself all the time and avoid burnout. One of the things that I hear all the time when I'm talking to people is I'm the only play therapist where I work. And I think children and families need us to develop competence using play therapy, and we need a supportive community where we can grow without feeling overwhelmed, judged and exhausted, trying to figure things out by ourselves. And so I think being part of a play therapy community helps to make sure you're not feeling alone, overwhelmed, burned out, stressed out. So the uh, I mentioned Play Therapy Academy a few times. Also Elevation Circle, and these are just some of the people that have been part of the program as we've gone along. I would say one of my favorite things about play therapy. Um, consultation and the memberships. So I originally started with Play Therapy Academy and what I found was not everybody needed that level of support. It's a little higher level of support and not everybody needed that and not everybody was ready for it. And so that's when I started Play Therapy Elevation Circle, which took what is working actually some of my favorite parts about Play Therapy Academy, which is the group consultation. Um, so that we have that ability to support each other. And so the benefits of being in a play therapy academy is that you don't you, you have others helping to make sure that you get a 360 view of the problem. Like we, we have personal biases, we get stuck, we get kind of stuck in one way of thinking about it. And being part of a community helps us look at other options and other ways of viewing it. Also, we get creative ideas for the sessions so that you don't feel like you're stuck. I was also say a big one is helping to identify themes in play therapy sessions. I find this is a lot of where we kind of second guess ourselves a lot. Was that actually what I think it was? Um, and also how do I figure out if it's even working and is the client making any progress and. How do you, how do you, uh, talk to parents? How do you involve parents? What happens if something horrendous? We have, there are times in, in our consultation meetings, you know, somebody will share a, a challenging conversation they had with parent. Janine will recognize, we just did this a, a couple of weeks ago, and I, I would say, one, we, you get support. We are all like Pat on the back, but also you get ideas. So we're not stuck there. And maybe it's a way to move things forward. Maybe not, but maybe it is. But you know, you don't have to do it alone. And that results in not feeling isolated and alone. And so for those of you that are interested, I do have, um, elevation Circle. Enrollment is open starting today. It's gonna close. It's, um, like I said, elevation Circle was really designed to provide support for play therapists, a place to come and staff cases, a place to get ideas, a place to share ideas. And really, I think the acronym of Circle for me kind of summarizes the whole thing, which is a place to connect, inspire, reflect, collaborate, learn, and elevate each other. And so if you're interested in Play Therapy, elevation Circle, we, we meet once a month for the Circle Mastermind meetings. This is where, and it's for, we have seasoned play therapists in there. We have brand new play therapists in there. We have anywhere in between, um. This is a little bit different from Play Therapy Academy in that we kind of, uh, this is more like we're coming together for mastermind meetings to put our heads together. We also have a monthly book club meeting, which I am super excited about. We are reading, um, being a Brainwise Therapist by Bonnie Bag Knot. So we, we read a couple chapters and we come together and discuss so that we have the application and then how do we use that information. For the work we're doing with play therapy, there's resources in there. There's a com community group chat. So when we're not having the meetings, if you need support or wanna share ideas or you have a question or you had a bad day, or you had an awesome win, that would be the place to share it. So we have, that's available all the time. Also, um, if you're a member of Elevation Circle, then you get a discount on any of the trainings that I do while you're an active member. Uh, play Therapy Elevation Circle, so a 20% discount. There's also a monthly newsletter in there with, um, some tips and strategies about what's going on. And so if, um, some questions that get asked a lot about Elevation Circle is how does it work? So it's online. And you stay as long as you want. You can cancel any time. There are different options. So you can pay monthly, it's $47 a month, or you can pay quarterly, and then it ends up being $37 a month. We meet, um, we meet inside of a, uh, it's called Circle is the platform, so it's easy to use. We can schedule meetings in there, different things. My, my ultimate goal is that, um, we'll have maybe meetings where people who want to take their child-centered play therapy skills deeper, or maybe they really want to get support for using Adlerian play therapy, that community members would be able to meet and give each other support in addition to some of our other meetings as well. So, um, so the other question is, how are you gonna, for those of you who attended live today, we have, um, you're gonna be getting the, uh, video series. These are my favorite things to do when I'm using attachment focused family play therapy, which was my play therapy model for family play therapy. Um, these were my favorite activities, so that should be, I think may, can you put that link? I, in the, I'm trying to get my chat to come back. Uh, may if you could put that in the chat, the link to download. Oh, there it is. I stay long enough. Yeah. Okay. So, um, if you want to have more information about. Circle. I'm happy to stay on and answer any questions that you have. Registration is open today. It's going to close on January. I'm only letting 10 people in. I I really, I launched Elevation Circle less than a year ago, so we're really focusing on creating that sense of community and connection. So right now we're still building that and creating that connection. And so to do that, I wanna make sure that the people in there getting, getting what they need from there. And so we're only, we're only opening up enrollment for 10 people who are interested in joining the community and being part of the community and supporting each other and sharing ideas. Registration is gonna close on January. For those of you who joined before January 31st. You are gonna get a free 30 minute consultation call with me. And so you'll get additional support that way. We have a welcome party where we're going to kind of show you around the platform. How does all of that work? Um, Sandy asks, when did the meetings take place? Oh, that's a great question. So, um, unlike Play Therapy Academy, an Elevation Circle, the meetings are recorded. So for those people who can attend, they're gonna attend live. But if for whatever reason, if you can't make it, the meetings are recorded. I try to vary the day and time just to accommodate different people's schedules. Um, right now what seems to be working most of the time is either Monday evening or Saturday morning, we're trying out, like this time. On Sundays as well. Um, so we're trying out different things for when we meet and for those people who can't attend, you can watch the, the replay, including the, the book club meetings. So, um, Michelle asked, how do you register for oh, play Therapy Academy? So Play Therapy Academy is a different one. If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, I do have some openings for that. So what I would suggest you do is to hop over to my website on the consultation page, you'll see Play Therapy Academy. Schedule a 30 minute video with me, uh, video call to see if it's a good fit for you. Um, and, and play Therapy Elevation. Circle that one you, the registration is open for Elevation Circle. Through January 31st through the end of the week, um, when daytime, day and time of week. Any other, any other questions? Feel free to unmute yourself if you have questions. I'm happy to answer any of those. My, my goal for Play Therapy Elevation Circle is really creating a sense of community, but also supporting each other to do this hard work and do it well. And I think in order to do that, what I found is we need support in order to do that. I mean, we could join, there are plenty of free Facebook groups, uh, where you can ask questions, but it's not the same, uh, in my opinion as having a call where we're interacting with each other, asking questions, and, and really connecting with each other in that way. All right. Any other? All righty. So Michelle, did you re recommend doing both Academy and the Circle? I do not. And here's why I say that. Um, because you'll get everything you need in Play Therapy Academy. It, um, that one is a little more focused on getting your RPT credential. Play Therapy Academy is. So, it's very structured and um, it meets the requirements for the Association for Play Therapy. If you're looking for support, that's what the circle is gonna be.'cause I kind of took that consultation piece and put that in Elevation Circle. So we have, we have the ability to get support with ideas, figure out where you're stuck. So if you do Elevation Circle, if you're, if you want your RPT credential, uh, elevation Circle is not going to meet the criteria for that. We don't do CEEs in there. It doesn't count for the RPT credential. That would be, uh, play Therapy Academy. Yeah. So the book that we're reading is called Being a Brainwise Therapist by Bonnie Badnock. Um, so the book is takes, um, Daniel Siegel's Neuro Sequential, not that's Bruce Perry interpersonal neurobiology, so that interpersonal neurobiology. Theoretical lens. And then how do you apply that in therapy? Her focus is predominantly adults. What I like about her book, though, for play therapists is she has a whole chapter on, uh, using sand play, a whole chapter on using art. She also has a chapter on working with kids and what would that look like? So in the first part of the book, she's really talking about that interpersonal neurobiology theoretical lens, and then how, how do we use that in the therapy process? And then in, in our book club meetings, we're talking about how do we apply that for play therapy? I am not gonna lie, I get a little nerdy 'cause I love Money Bock's book. I've probably read it like three times. It's one of my favorites. Um, we can, we can get super nerdy in there, but we also like to like, make it practical. Like how do we use this information and make it applicable for play therapy and book club. The monthly book club is Play Therapy Elevation Circle. Alrighty. Any other, any other questions, feel free to unmute yourself. I'm happy to answer all of 'em. You guys have some really great questions in here. All righty. I think we covered everything. All righty. Oh, Mina says, agree. I felt isolated in my clinic, and now I feel supported. Yeah, I'm glad, Mina, we love having you in, in our group. Uh, another barrier is finances. Yes. I, I, yeah. And I tried to make, that's a really good point. Faith. I tried to, I, for Elevation Circle, I wanted to make it affordable. Um, so, so I did, I have, it's 47 a month if you pay monthly, but it's 37 a month, dollars a month if you do the quarterly payment option. Um, oh, Alyssa said, Kathy, you came to my internship at Oh, Wasatch family. I remember that. Did a sand tray training. That was your first training and Oh, good. You were hooked. Thank you for introducing me to the San Tray world. Yeah. Plus you have Claire up there too. Hmm. Yeah. I'm very spoiled at that internship with Claire. I know, right? You guys have tons of support there. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate, you know, that training, I was just like, my mind is blown. I gotta do this. So I have several different sand trays. Way too many miniature, so I appreciate, yeah, yeah. Well I'm actually doing that training again in a two day model in April down in southern Utah. I, well, I'm glad. Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm glad it kind of, you know what, I got hooked on play therapy kind of the same way. This was like a gazillion years ago. And I had heard about play therapy when I was a special ed teacher, 'cause the school psychologist. Um, did a play therapy group. Like that's a whole story there in and of itself. But then it took me forever'cause I, I got lic, I, I got into the field when there wasn't any internet. And then, and then eventually I, I met somebody in my pr uh, practice where I was working at the time of group practice. And she seemed to know what she was doing 'cause I couldn't find anybody who knew what to do. Anyway, she convinced me to go to the sand tray training. It was a three day sand tray training. It was very expensive at the time. And I went and I was transformed. It was, I was hooked. I fell in love with and got, and that's kind of got me started on in, in play therapy as well. That's awesome. Alrighty. When is the next circle, is the question? Um, so. I'm assuming you're talking about the meetings. So, um, the, the enrollment ends January 31st, so, and I'm only admitting 10 people. We're only taking 10 people. So if you're interested, um, then you'll wanna make sure to enroll before January 31st ends to circle meetings. Is there a theme? Oh, that's a great question. Janna or Janna? Um, is there a theme each month or just discussion cases? It's both. Actually. Like in February, there's another, um, elevation Circle member. She's an RPTS actually, and she is working on her doctorate. To, and her theme is her, it's not her doctorate. She is, she is working on her doctorate, but she's doing, um, capstone instead. Long story. And she is doing a lot of research on the effectiveness of family play therapy. And so because I'm a nerdy pants, I, I wanna know what she's finding out. Plus, I think it's interesting. So in, in February, Alexa's gonna talk about what she's finding from the research about family play therapy, and then we'll probably talk about that. I'll probably talk about attachment focused family play therapy and using a model and things like about that. That being said, if somebody's got a case and they really want some support, then we just shift gears.'cause the ultimate goal is to make sure you get the support that you need. And so if we shift, then we shift. There. So sometimes we have specific themes. Sometimes it's just presenting cases. It just really depends on, um, making sure people get what they need. So when is the next, I think I answered that one, Elizabeth. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the next circle. So if you wanna unmute, feel free to do that. Hi. Yeah, sorry. I'm just thinking about joining and wondering, um, like when, I know you said they're recorded other 90 minutes, um, I'm just wondering if you have a date and time or not yet. For February. Um, in February. I, I do, I don't remember offhand. I think, um, I was just looking at it, I think for the book we, we once a month for book club. Okay. I think, I think that one's on February 9th. That might be a, I think that's a Monday. I have. And then, um, oh, here we go. 22nd. Yes. 22nd on. Yes. Oh, thank you. Carol. Beth. Carol Beth's in Elevation Circle. Awesome. Um, yes, February 22nd is the Mastermind. Okay. Um, and then we're, I'm doing on the fourth, February 4th in the evening is a kind of a welcome party. Basically ask all your questions, how do you use the platform showing you around the platform, um, how to connect with other members in the platform. Carol, Beth, I keep trying to connect you and, um, the other Oregon lady. Just FYI. I'll make it happen. Yeah. I promise. I think you guys No, no, no, no pressure. I just, I no know you are trying to connect with people and she's interested too. So Yeah. So showing people around the platform, how do you connect with other members, all that kind of thing. Um, so I'm, I'm kind of open to what we've kind of decided is Monday evenings kind of work the best for most people. I'm trying out this time on Sundays, 'cause this was a time members said was useful as well. We have somebody in the group that's in Australia, so I'm trying to schedule times that will translate into the time zone for Australia as well, which is pretty cool to have my, uh, people globally. That's pretty cool. Um, some other questions. Kathy oth asked how many people are in the group at a time. So Elevation Circle is, there's not really a limit, um, for the people in Elevation Circle. That being said, we're a small group right now, and so it can vary depending on people's schedules and, um, what they have going on. It can vary how many people are in the group at one time. Um, Elizabeth said yes, thinking, just thinking for planning purposes looks like a, that was me again, I was just wondering when the next, like consultation time was and it sounds like Monday evenings, which I would not be able to do, but Sunday evenings I could do so. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I, right now we're just trying out a bunch of times I've, I've done Saturdays as well, so I'm just really trying to see. What worked? I, my guess is we're probably gonna land on either Sunday afternoons or Monday evenings. Um, but yeah, so feel free to say what works best for you and we are trying to, trying to accommodate people with that. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy. You're welcome. Thanks for coming. Yes. Sundays, Amy said, I, I'm, I'm thinking Sundays are gonna probably be the thing. Here's the thing. Okay. On weekends, I put makeup on for the webinar. I don't usually wear makeup. So when we, the, here's how I feel about the meetings, especially on the weekends. Just show up. If you haven't showered, just show up. If you don't like, uh, wearing makeup, just show up. If you are doing the best you can just to even click on and show up, then show up. Um, there's no pressure, there's, there's no guilt. My my goal is for people to feel like this is a place where they can connect and get support. We are a no judgment zone. We are, uh, like if you didn't wash your hair show up. Yeah. Any other questions? I think I got most of them. Let's see. Alrighty. Oh, awesome, Elizabeth. Yeah, it would be great to see there on Wednesday. Yeah, if you guys have any questions, you can always reach out to me by email. Um, if you're having any issues, reach out to me by email. So, yeah, feel free to reach out any questions and hopefully I will see some of you guys in there and for the Play Therapy Academy people. Um, yeah, you guys can come to the book clubs also. So, all righty, that is a wrap for today then. Thank you guys for coming. I'll just stay on if anybody else has got any other questions. Bye. Carol. Beth. Oh, I should, I'm gonna stop sharing so I can see people. We should have done that. All righty. All righty. I don't know if I have your email address. Oh, okay. I will put it, well, did you get, did you get an email Oh, to join the meeting? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, you can reply to that one, but I'll also, so that's it. Put it, I'll put it in the chat as well. Yeah. Okay. Info at rh play therapy training.com. There you go. I put it in the chat as well, and I will just copy that real quick. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And yes, Mina, I have not, I saw your email. I just haven't had a chance to reply. So yeah, definitely will stay on and I can give, it's easier to tell you anyway than to. Kind of put it, put it in there. So thanks Mina email address. I think I got all the questions. All right. All right.