How to Increase Play Therapy Impact & Reduce Burnout

More Impact. Less Burnout. isn’t a cute slogan. It’s a line in the sand.

Because here’s the truth most play therapists won’t say out loud:

Burnout doesn’t come from caring too much.
It comes from doing this work alone.

In this week’s free livestream episode, we’re pulling back the curtain on why being part of a strategic play therapy community isn’t optional if you want sustainable impact in play therapy. 

Not another play therapy training. Not more play therapy activities. 

But real-time support, shared wisdom, and a place where your nervous system can finally exhale with people who “get it.”

We’ll talk about:

• Why isolation quietly drains confidence, creativity, and clinical clarity
• How being in the right play therapy community sharpens your impact with clients
• What actually helps play therapists stay grounded when the work gets heavy
• And how Play Therapy Elevation CIRCLE is intentionally designed to reduce burnout while helping you work smarter—not harder

You’ll also get an inside look at what’s inside PTEC during Open Enrollment week—how it works, who it’s for, and why so many play therapists say it’s the missing piece they didn’t know they needed.

If you’ve ever thought:
 “I love this work… but I’m tired.”

Join me for this free weekly podcast!

Less hustling. More healing.

For your clients—and for you.

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

Transcript

Cathi Spooner: 0:02

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. Welcome to this week's episode of Next Level Play Therapy. I am trying a new thing, which is, there we go. There we go. Um, my streaming platform lets me use, um, Instagram, so I'm trying Instagram. On this new platform, so we're gonna give it a try. Hopefully all of you on Instagram are able to hear me and see me. And I am super excited this week I really wanna talk about burnout and reducing burnout in a way that we don't necessarily talk about. Reducing burnout is really not about play therapists not caring, although I think we get there because we're doing it in isolation. I think that's one of the reasons that burnout happens because we are doing play therapy predominantly in isolation. We don't have access to support, we don't have access to support to colleagues or supervisors maybe that understand play therapy and understand what it is. So if you have tried to get support from people, your colleagues that are not, or supervisor even, that is not a play therapist. Then a lot of times what happens is you end up trying to explain what play therapy is and then that tends to not get the impact. I mean, you might get some great ideas here and there that are helpful. I've had some amazing supervisors myself, but they didn't know play therapy and when I was working with kids, I was the only play therapist. And I, I didn't know what to do and I did feel burned out. And so it wasn't until I found a community and I found that community through a couple of colleagues with Play Therapy, acade, um, uh, the Association for Play Therapy. There was one or two people in my community that I connected with, and we kind of helped each other out a lot. And then, um, establishing a a, a private practice where we would all play therapists. That was helpful as well'cause we could staff cases. But I think as a community overall in the play therapy or child and adolescent community. We are predominantly practicing play therapy or doing play therapy alone. And I know this because I talk to a lot of people who are doing it alone, and that is something I hear all of the time. And so the other thing that we wanna talk about is so is play therapy consultation or being part of a membership, is that a luxury or is it a necessity? We talked a little bit about that in last week's livestream episode, or if you're listening to the podcast, we talked a lot about, um, a lot about that in last week's episode. This week we're also talking about what will help to lower burnout and what does a helpful play therapy consultation or a membership look like so that you're not wasting your time and feeling frustrated and really getting the support that you need. So we'll talk a little bit about that and then how community, being part of a community really does help. And so the first thing that I wanna talk about is. Doing it alone and play therapy. If you're in the mental health field, this is a, we're in a relational field. We do that therapeutic use of self building, strong therapeutic rapport is important, so it's relational and building that therapeutic rapport through that therapeutic use of self means that we're engaging our neurobiology with our client's neurobiology. And then that can be, that can be draining day after day session after session after session showing up. And then when we're doing it in isolation, we're carrying that alone. And so when we're doing it in isolation, what I find happens is that we overthink play therapy sessions or we're constantly second guessing our clinical decisions because we're not sure if what we did in the session helped or we're not sure how to tell if our clients are even making progress or how to even know what to do and when to do it. And then that ends up spending a lot of time trying to figure out what to do, where to get the resources. Maybe you're pulling out books and you're reading your books, or you're searching the internet, trying to find some resources, some re free resources. Maybe you're going through Amazon and you're filling up your Amazon cart. And when that happens, we s we end up spending a lot of our emotional and mental energy trying to figure it out on our own. And then we end up kind of running on empty. And even when we're really skilled, I find clients still know. And I think all of us at some point do get a little, um, overwhelmed and we're not sure what to do. I find even I sometimes get overwhelmed and I'm not sure what to do. And I've been doing this a long time, so I think that's part of what ends up happening with burnout. And I see this a lot in Play Therapy Academy and we, and I see this now with Play Therapy Elevation Circle, which is my new membership for play therapist. I, I find that when you're doing it alone, then you do end up getting a little burned out. And then when we have our mastermind meetings and we're consulting and sharing ideas, then people end up leaving, feeling supported, rejuvenated, and less burned out. Even those tough cases where you just need to bring it somewhere and um, I know others who get it say, yeah, I had that happen are, yeah, I totally understand. And so this is where being part of the community really does change the equation, so to speak, because you are no longer doing it alone. When you have that support, you have a place where you can go and get ideas or share concerns, or share your own struggles, then you end up getting others who are gonna help you see patterns. In, in Elevation Circle, in our Mastermind meetings and in Play Therapy Academy, when we're doing case presentations and staffing those, we do a version of that in Elevation Circle. When we're doing that, we are, we are really honing our case conceptualization skills, honing in on, figuring out what's really at the root of the problem, what patterns are sustaining it. And we use that information to figure out what to do. And so because you have other people trying to help you figure it out, and you're not figuring it out all by yourself. It reduces that kind of mental fatigue or cognitive overload. And then, because we all share the same language, we all are play therapists, we all get play therapy. Maybe we're in varying stages of expertise. Maybe we, we, um, maybe you're newer, maybe you've been doing it for a while in Elevation Circle. We have. We have people like myself who are registered play therapy supervisors. We have people who are just new to the play therapy process. We have people kind of anywhere in between that. And so, um, we end up not having to explain what play therapy is first, so you can get the support that you're actually looking for. You don't have to explain it. We get it. We may be in varying stages of getting it, and we still get it. And here's the thing. I see this in Play Therapy Academy. I see this in Elevation Circle as well. Even people who are newer to the play therapy process. Uh, what I find is, you know, more than you think, you know, like you have some deep down level insight and usually what you're trying to do is figure out and what to do with that and how to make sense of it and how to a, apply that with the theoretical model. And so even I find when we are all in there together talking about things, then it really does help to get deeper impact and it reduces burnout because we all have hard cases. Just because you're struggling doesn't mean you're a terrible play therapist. It doesn't mean maybe you weren't cut out to do this job.'Cause I hear that a lot as well when I'm talking to people. And I find this happens every single time in every single meeting that we have, where we're staffing cases. That shared connection, that shared understanding in a no judgment zone where no ideas are bad ideas, um, unless we're an ethical, of course. And we all struggle. It's not like you're the only one struggling, but you only know that when you feel safe enough to bring that to the community and share your struggles, and then what you find out is you're not the only one we've all had those struggles and maybe somebody else is having the exact same struggle. That felt sense of being seen, heard, and understood helps us. Like we're, it's not just what we do for our clients. We are relational beings, right? We're human beings, so that helps us as well. That gives us the support that we need to help our clients. It's that same analogy we tell parents all the time, you have to fill up your own well so that you can pour out to your kids. As play therapists, we have to make sure we're filling up our well 'cause we're, we are filling up our well because we are pouring out to our families. We wanna make sure we have enough for our families and for our clients. And so doing that alone is really a big task. It's emotional, it's mental, and doing it in alone is, is draining. So if you're feeling burned out and you're the only play therapist in your agency or in private practice, it's probably because you, you don't have a play therapy community where you feel safe and supported to process that. And so it does help to a burn avoid burnout because it does provide that sense of support, that felt sense of being seen, heard, and understood. And now you have a place where you feel like you belong. We're we're relational beings. Varying degrees of needs for connection. And what I mean by that is some of us are more extroverted, some of us are more introverted, most of us are somewhere in between. But all of us need a sense of connection and belonging. And I think as play therapists we need that sense of community. I, I remember, so if you've listened to any of my podcast episodes or watched any of my livestream episodes in the past, you probably would've, uh, heard that I used to live on the East coast back, um, years ago, and then we sold everything up and moved. I got a new job, my husband got a new job. Kids, kids went along their way doing their thing. And when I got here, I, I was the only play therapist I knew. To be honest, I was, my, my family were, were the only peoples I people I knew. We moved here, we didn't know anyone. Uh, started, started over. And I remember being the only play therapist around and feeling like a fish outta water until I went to a play therapy conference that was in the state where I was at the time, and I felt so rejuvenated connecting to my people. We had a shared language. I had a shared sense of belonging. It just really helped me feel a little more stable and grounded. That might've been a little bit because I felt like a fish outta water moving to the other side of the country. Um, and I think that play therapy piece where I felt seen, heard, and understood, made a huge difference as well. And so that ongoing community brings that sense of the ability to not have to do it alone. So I can integrate maybe some of the trainings that I've taken, figure out how to apply those with different clients at different situations, getting more clarity about what I needed to do or what you need to do, and then also more confidence in yourself, in your skills. And I think that makes a big difference in helping to reduce that sense of burnout and having much more impact with the clients that we serve. And so the thing is, not all play therapy consultation works. And we've even seen this, I think, was it last, I think last episode or maybe the one before it. I talked about, uh, two research articles that talked about effective consultation and how consultation helps with go, like you go to the trainings, you get the information, and then consultation helps you integrate that with different client presenting issues, different situations. So that training, the consultation helps with that training application. And the articles talked about why some play therapy. Uh, so why some consultation is better than other consultation and what makes good consultation. And so not all consultation is effective. And I know that as well because I do talk to a lot of people and I hear that from people is that maybe they were in a membership and it didn't quite meet their needs, or they were in, they were getting consultation and they were in a consultation program and maybe it wasn't meeting their needs. And so, so what? What does. Um, what are some things that make consultation not very helpful is sometimes they're a little too big. So you feel like you disappear in there and you're kind of just one of the crowd. Or maybe I've heard this a lot as well. Is there too. unstructured and they feel like they're not really accomplishing anything and the time that they spend together in that consultation meeting, and so it doesn't feel like they're getting what they're, they're needing and optimizing their time in that consultation. Meeting, um, or maybe it feels like it's too performative, like they have to perform a second a certain way or you have to do it all this way and you can't do it any other way, or this way is the best way and that way is not the best way, um, that can feel like. Um, one, I hear this a lot too, from people that I talk to can feel like they're being judged or it makes them feel a little anxious about, oh my gosh, am I doing it wrong? If I do it a different way, makes me feel a little guilty. That doesn't feel good. Um, so, so there are, there are things that I think people experience that maybe turn them off to being part of a community or maybe give them a bad experience. Or maybe these are things they worry about. Like I know this week I have opened up Enrollment to Play Therapy Elevation Circle. That's my online membership um, for play therapists and we do consultation in there. We'll do a book club in there. I'll talk a little bit more about that. And, um, some of the questions that have come up are, are we gonna do consult, um, case, case conceptualization. And, because I really want to use that time wisely to get the most impact. And I really wanna make sure I'm honing my skills a little bit more. So I wanna get, I wanna get support to hone my skills. I wanna make sure that there's a structure in place, but also like when are we meeting, how often are we meeting, what are meetings look like? And so these are all legitimate questions, I think, to make sure that you are getting the support that you need. And the other thing that makes a, what, uh, an effective community or effective consultation for members is I think that felt sense of being seen, heard, and understood. A place where we can get support for our nervous system. Where we can fill up our buckets where we feel safe to have differing opinions. A clinical, let's go with clinical opinions, um, and maybe think about things a different way and feel safe to do that. Safe and supported that not. I'm not a firm believer that there's only one way to do anything. I think the fact that Play Therapy has five evidence-based, I think it's five evidence-based play therapy model, shows that the, the research shows that there, there are different models that are effective and one model isn't the end all be all. That being said, I think if you're using a play therapy model, you need to use it to Fidelity. Or if you're integrating blending models together, then you are making sure that how you are applying and using those theoretical models that you've integrated, you need to use those effectively. So it's that balance between the two. And it needs to be, the community needs to be a place where you feel like you can be authentic. You can, um, show up and say, I had this really bad day, or I've really started to dread this with what's going on with the particular client, and then we can look at, let's see what's going on with that, to help create a shift. You don't have to do it alone, but you're not gonna do that if you don't feel safe. You don't, you're not gonna do that if you're gonna feel judged. So it needs to be a place where you can you can talk about clinical application, that you can hone your skill. So it's not just ideas we're taking what's discussed and making sure there's some practical application to it.'Cause in my opinion, if we just show up and shoot the poop, then I, I, I have other places I can go to get that done. But if I'm showing up, 'cause I want support and I need some ideas, then I, I wanna get in there and I want people to come around me and let's all put our, put our boots on and put our work gloves on and get it done clinically. So, and, and when we have that as a play therapy community, then we have others who understand play therapy. And maybe somebody in the community, maybe you really want to learn, uh, you've taken you've taken like Adlerian play therapy, maybe done some Adlerian consultation.'cause you really wanna learn how to apply that model with fidelity. But you just need ongoing support. And maybe there's another person in the consultation program or the consultation group community that is also wanting to use Adlerian play therapy then you have another person with your specific play therapy model language, or um, maybe somebody with child-centered play therapy wants to learn that to fidelity and you're just struggling a little bit with that and there's another person in there that speaks your same play therapy language. Or maybe it's an integrated approach, but I, it needs to be a place where you can have clinical discussions, share varying clinical opinions, be supportive, non-judgmental, and share some of your struggles so that you can get ideas and you have others helping to fill your bucket up so you have the ability to pour out to your family, to your loved ones. And to your clients. One of the things I hear play therapists say a lot, and I remember this, I remember feeling this way, is I'm a play therapist, but sometimes I feel like I give the better part of me to my clients and I don't have much leftover from my own family, and that is a heavy burden. I feel like a lot of play therapists feel this way, especially when you have young kids. And so having a place where you can get your bucket filled up so you have the ability to pour out to the people that you love most in your life. And to be there to be the kind of play therapist that has deep impact for your clients. So that's, that's a lot of what we are doing actually that's what we are doing in play Therapy Elevation Circle. So in Play Therapy, elevation Circle, it's a, it's a place for play therapists to come where you. Do not feel like you have to do it alone, where you can come where people speak. You shared play therapy language, and there's no judgment, and you can get support, share ideas, share struggles to to get some solutions, to get back on track, so we're not gonna just go there and chit chat and share ideas and not do anything with them. To me, that's kind of useless, like, let's get something done. That's why we're here. And so that's what we do once a month in play therapy elevation Circle. We get together for a circle Mastermind meeting. So a mastermind is all of our brilliant heads coming together, sharing clinical ideas and strategies, helping each other get unstuck, figuring out where we're stuck, why we're stuck, and how do I apply my clinical case conceptualization skills to hone in and then use that information to figure out what to do. And I don't care if you're brand new to play therapy, kind of doing it for a little while, or you're experienced have been doing it for a while. We all need that help. We all need that support. And we also, one of the things that I also love about play therapy Elevation Circle is our monthly book club. I love that. We have a monthly book club, so, um, for a monthly book club.'Cause I don't know if you're like me, but, uh, like I have a gazillion books. You can see most of my, a lot of my books behind me. Trust me, I have like three other shelves. And books piled everywhere, uh, books that I wanna read, and then I read them. I, I might get some ideas while I'm, I'm reading that, but then sometimes I'm, I'm really not sure what to do with the information. And so I thought for book club, we're, we're reading a specific book right now we're reading being a Brainwise therapist by Bonnie Bad Knock it. It's was published in 2008 and the information is still gold. It is so good. And so even though it's kind of geared towards adults, what I liked about her book as opposed to, I liked the book that Daniel Siegel wrote as well called Mine Site. What I liked about the one Bonnie Badnock wrote is there's a whole chapter in there on using an interpersonal neurobiology lens with sand, play, with art. And then there's a chapter in there, how do you use it with children and adolescents and families? And so it gave some practical application for how to use this theory model or a the theoretical lens with children and adolescents and families. And so we, we read the information, but again, we're not just sharing ideas. We want practical application. So how do we take this information and apply it? So in Elevation Circle we have monthly consultation mastermind meetings. We have a monthly book club meeting. We have, um, a group chat feature where we share ideas, where we get support, where we kind of, um, things that maybe we've talked about in our mastermind meeting. We'll share those resources in the, in the, um, group chat. There are some free guides and videos and resources in there. We're adding all of the time. One of the questions that somebody asked this week during open enrollment for Elevation Circle is, um, like, are, are the Mastermind meetings, do they have a specific topic each month or are, is there a specific structure to the mastermind meetings and there, there is a structure like it. What I do is I, I think we need to kind of do our case presentation so we can get started with our case conceptualization and then that, I think that maximizes our time. We do that in Play Therapy Academy. I find that it really helps us to focus and get structured. So I applied that same structure for our, um, mastermind meetings. So in the mastermind meetings, sometimes we'll do a specific topic. Sometimes it might be if somebody has a pressing need or maybe they're not sure if they need help or not, and then we just staff it and they realize, yeah, I did need help. Like this month in Elevation Circle, one of our members is, uh, also a registered play therapy supervisor, and she's pursuing her doctorate and her focus for her, her, she's doing a, um, what do they call those? Capstone. And she is focusing on family play therapy, which I think is awesome.'Cause I, you know, attachment focus, family play therapy is my, the model that I use when I'm working with families using play therapy. And, um, so she's been doing all of this research and literary literature review and so she's gonna talk about that at our at our next meeting. So that's the other thing. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to do all the latest research. When you're in a community.'Cause I like making sure we look at the research. When you're in a plate therapy community, you have the ability, and we do this in play therapy elevation circle, what, what does the latest research say? What is the, what is this particular, um, approach. What is that all about and what's the purpose of it? We can use our mastermind meetings to get up to date on the latest research and what we're seeing in the field, and then how do we apply that with our clients? And we can also use it to staff cases, we can use the information from the research to staff our cases, but we can be flexible. It's both. It's a place where we can get the latest research, get the latest information, stay up to date on things, talk about how we're gonna use that information, because we want that practical application. Then also we can talk about, uh, use that time for staffing cases. So we, we have the ability to be a little flexible with that based on what, what the community needs ultimately, uh, since, so play therapy elevation circle. I started it almost a year ago and we've been kind of fine tuning it, getting it off the ground. The catalyst for me starting Elevation Circle is because I saw what was really working in Play Therapy Academy, which is my kind of high level. If you really wanna take a deep dive, develop your skills as a play therapist, learn how to use a play therapy model, and really develop the confidence and even I would say, some leadership in the play therapy community. And usually people in play therapy, aca Play Therapy Academy, are wanting to pursue their registered play therapy C credential. What I, what I, but because it's very limited, uh, only a limited number of people could be there. It, it wasn't real. I couldn't really allow a lot of people in there, and what I found is not everybody needs that level of support. Not everybody wants that level of support. They might not be ready for that level of support, or maybe they don't plan on, um, pursuing a, a registered play therapy credential. Maybe you're not even in the U.S Um, and you, you're doing play therapy and you wanna make sure you're doing it with impact and confidence, and you need support to do that. Then I found that there was a, a bigger need, and so that's when I created Play Therapy Elevation Circle so that it could meet the needs that I saw happening in the play therapy community, which was, we've taken the trainings, we've done the things, but now what we really need is also a place to come and take all of that information and get support for how do I integrate this into my play therapy process or my services that I'm providing? How do I get support when I'm stuck? And I, I went there and it was great when I learn, learned it there, but now I'm in a situation and I'm not quite sure how I might apply that. And so to me that's where Elevation Circle provides some support for people who don't want to do play therapy alone anymore, and you're feeling burned out and you're second guessing yourself, and you're wondering if you made a wrong decision, uh, with your, your professional goals, or maybe you know you're in the right field, you just really need some support to help you stay in this for the long haul, not stop doing it alone. So it's gonna play therapy. Elevation Circle is a place that where it's a no judgment zone and we support each other and we discuss clinical things going on. Get clinical ideas and resources and help you stay grounded while you are doing play therapy. So if you are interested in play therapy elevation Circle membership is now open, uh, or, or enrollment is now open. It's closing soon. It's closing on Saturday, January 31st. And we're only allowing 10 people.'cause we really wanna make sure to create that sense of community and get that solid foundation. We just moved over to a brand new platform that is much more aligned with what we want to accomplish in play therapy elevation Circle. So we're all kind of learning the platform together, and connecting and, um, supporting each other. And so if you are tired of doing play therapy alone and you want support so that you can have less burnout, you can stay the long haul in play therapy, continually work on getting impact for your clients and honing your play therapy skills then play the uh, Play Therapy Elevation Circle. Enrollment is now open, so you're gonna wanna hop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com. We'll also put some links in the comments so you can also check out the links in the comments, or feel free to message me. We will send the link to you or if you have questions. If you have questions, just message me. Hop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com. Play Therapy Elevation Circle is now open for enrollment. It's closing Saturday, January 31st, and I'll see you inside. 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. 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.