How to Use Poetry with Teens in Play Therapy for Self-Expression

This week I’m sharing one of my favorite ways to help teens access the therapeutic powers of play using poetry.

Yes - poetry!

If you’re rolling your eyes and remembering your high school English class feeling tortured by reading poetry, then rest assured - this is not your high school English class version of poetry.

Poetry is an expressive arts modality that allows clients to use words and language for expression - like the lyrics of your favorite songs.

This week I’m sharing my favorite ways to use poetry with my adolescent clients to help them access the therapeutic powers of play

Join me for this free weekly podcast!

If you work with adolescents and want some great strategies using expressive arts then you don’t want to miss this week’s free podcast episode.

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

Copy

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, where we talk about all things play therapy, and this week we're talking about an expressive arts modality that, I'll be honest, when I first heard about it, oh goodness, this was probably back in 2000 and eight, maybe. Probably. And we were, um, I was living in Virginia at the time. We were organizing the Virginia Association for Play Therapy. We were organizing training topics and trying to promote play therapy. And one of the play therapists in our, in our area was using, was a big fan of poetry therapy. And she did a training on it, and I thought to myself, stick needles in my eyes. That sounds atrocious, but I wanted to be supportive and I wanted to kind of represent association for play therapy well, so I went and I was so glad that I went. Um. I'm gonna do a shout out to Wendy Ratting back in Virginia. She's the one that got me hooked. Anyway, she did this training. She was a, a registered play therapist supervisor, and she was using poetry, and there's this whole category of poetry therapy as an expressive arts modality that I had no idea of because when you said poetry, my mind went to English class learning poetry and, uh, like, you know, like the old poets and they didn't make any sense to me most of the time. And I was, I was just not a fan. And going to that training and seeing how play there play how you can use poetry as an expressive arts modality to help clients heal. I was just transformed. I, by the end of that training, I was hooked. I have been hooked ever since, so I am grateful for that training and grateful that my, my perceptions were changed and shifted because I think it's a really powerful modality. And when working with adolescents, I use this one all the time. I use poetry in play therapy sessions with adolescents as a way to help them express what's going on. Um. Kind of explore different ideas and different things going on, and I found it to be a really useful tool. So as we've been talking about using play therapy with adolescents, in my mind, being able to use expressive arts is the way to make a difference with adolescents when you're using play therapy. So that is our topic today, using poetry in play therapy. Uh, for clarification, I am not a, um, poetry therapist. Just like I'm not an art therapist, I'm not a music therapist. Those are expressive arts categories in and of themselves. I use poetry, I use art, I use music with my theoretical model to help clients access those therapeutic powers of play. And I think it's really important to make that distinction.'Cause I, I think language matters because it conveys what we're talking about, which is what poetry therapy is all about. So if you're joining us live, feel free to, and you're a play therapist or you're a child and adolescent mental health professional, please feel free to post in the comments, what population do you work with, what, what Play Therapy modality are you using? Are you working with adolescents? For those of you watching on the replay, I would love to hear your comments as well, so please feel free to join into in the conversation if you're a child and adolescent therapist or a play therapist and, and also those of you listening on the podcast, feel free to connect with me on Instagram, message me your thoughts and comments. Send me an email, um, with your thoughts and comments. I'd love to hear from you. So let's get started for today. So we're talking today about using poetry in play therapy when you're working with adolescents. And so for those of you who are watching on the live stream, I'm showing a book called Poetry Therapy Theory and Practice by Nicholas Maza. Now this one is a bit. Uh, it just seems weird to me to say that 2003 is an oldie, like it's 23 years ago. It just seems like it was like last decade. Doesn't seem like she'd be that old. Also as an FYI, I am fighting off a cold. I have been battling it for a couple of weeks, but it seems to be winning again this week. So if you hear my voice being a little raspy or I'm a little sniffly, and also my brain is a little wobbly these days. So, um, just be forewarned. So, um, I thought it would be useful one to, for if you're interested in learning more about poetry therapy, then there are some resources and it is a whole thing. And, um, there's actually, I think there's still, uh, a association for poetry therapy. Here's what I found interesting. So in the book, he, um, uh. He talked about what is poetry therapy, and he talked about, this is what he says. I'm gonna quote the book here. He says, poetry therapy as one of the expressive arts therapies includes attention to verbal and nonverbal behavior, language, symbolism, use of sensory modes, vision, order, and balance. Poetry therapy involves the use of language arts as the in therapeutic capacities. That sounded like play therapy to me. When I read that, I thought, oh my gosh. That's why I think they go so well together is because you're using this expressive arts modality in a therapeutic way, and that's what we're doing with play therapy. Play therapy is one of the expressive arts modalities. So, um, so let's talk a little bit about, um, using play therapy. I mean, sorry, using poetry in play therapy and how does that work? The way that it works is we're using poetry to help our adolescent clients. I've used this with young clients too. Some of my younger clients loved using poetry. I use it in family play therapy all the time. I remember one family that I worked with had a, uh, like a 5-year-old and some older elementary school and a middle schooler. And I, I, you know, before we did the play, the family play therapy activity using poetry, I always check in and I, I, when I'm using my attachment base, um, family play therapy model, then I'm, I'm working really collaboratively with parents and I was chatting with them and we were gonna focus on a certain thing in the session we were targeting a, a specific area that the parents felt like we needed to work on to create some shifts in the system. And I, I had this idea about using poetry, but I knew one of, one of 'em was really little. So I asked, you know, do you think this would be effective? And they're like, oh yeah, she's gonna take over. And lo and behold she did take over the whole process and kind of let us along the way, which was so cute to watch. And it was, it was very interesting to see the dynamics that were, how they all worked together with that. And so we can, we can use it in family play therapy models. I've used it in group therapy sessions with adolescents. It works like magic. I love using poetry in groups with adolescents. I've used it individual play therapy sessions with younger kids. I've used it in play therapy sessions with adolescents when we're, um, using expressive art. So I, I find this to be a really effective way to engage adolescents in the play therapy process and help them access those therapeutic powers of play for healing. And so, if you think about it. Um, if you think about poetry and u using it therapeutically, when we're accessing the therapeutic powers of play can access most of them. Actually, most of the therapeutic powers of play, and if you are a little rusty on the therapeutic powers of play, the Association for Play Therapy has this handy dandy little, um, graphic on their website so you can go in there and search for the therapeutic powers of play. It's A PDF, um, but it facilitates communication is one of the therapeutic powers of play, right? That's what we're helping at adolescence, to find ways to express themselves in in a way that is beneficial for them. And we talked a lot about that using play therapy with adolescents in a previous session. So I'm not gonna go over that again in this session 'cause I wanna focus on poetry and using it and give you some ideas. For using it in this session. So I would EI would encourage you to go back and watch the previous, uh, episode or two about using play therapy with adolescents. So what we're doing is for when we're using play therapy and we're using expressive arts to help access the therapeutic powers of play, we're helping our adolescent clients find ways for self-expression, and that's communication, right? So self-expression, access to the unconscious. We can do some direct teaching or indirect teaching using poetry. Also when some of these activities, as I describe them, think about ways in which they require creative problem solving. Developing resiliency, moral development. That's one of the things we're really working on in adolescence is they're kind of honing what are their beliefs and values and how are they, how are they coming into their sense of self and who they are. So providing expressive arts activities to do that is going to help them work through some of those things. Some of those typical developmental adolescent things, but also we're looking at how some of their mental health issues have gotten activated. I typically, the theoretical lens, I typically look through and I blend it in for my integrative when I'm using, when, if I'm working with adolescents, I'm gonna be using an integrative model and I'm gonna be grounding that in attachment and neuroscience. So I'm looking at um, attachment relationships and how those have influenced their beliefs about themselves others, their beliefs about relationships, how they show up in relationships, what does that mean for who they're becoming as a young adult. All of these things, if we look at that through that attachment lens and accessing the therapeutic powers of play to go through and explore and express and use creative problem solving and figuring those things out to change some of their perceptions about themselves and address some of the underlying issues that they're experiencing. We can use poetry to do that'cause we're accessing these therapeutic powers of play. Um, and so the benefit for teens is that we are giving them an avenue for self-expression to explore implicit experiences that may not have access to brought through their left brain cognitive, um insight oriented areas of of brain, they might not be able to access that. So we can use play therapy with poetry to help them explore some of the things that for them, uh, are maybe current issues that they're struggling with or exploring, like I said, values and beliefs so we can, we can help them through poetry, reduce some of their inhibitions about exploring that, because now we've given them an avenue to do that in a way that's meaningful for them. Also, emotion regulation, because there can be like this meditative quality about poetry as we're kind of focused in the moment on writing EEE expression through writing. I, there's this, um, on Instagram, I forgot. I forgot her name. I think her name is Baby Blue Music. I forgot something like that. Um. Oh, I wish I could remember. Anyways, she, she, she posts on Instagram. I follow her on Instagram and sh she's using music. She's using music to talk about, uh, and, and express, have a way of expressing some of the challenges. Like she has a song about anxiety. She sings about anxiety. Well, the way that I think about music, the lyrics are poetry, it's self-expression, using words and language. She's also using sound and rhythm with it as well, but just that writing process and that creative process unfolding can be meditative. Also, where we're writing, oh, sorry. I feel like I have a sneeze coming on. And for those of you just joining, I am, uh, overcoming a cold. I'm fighting it off and it, it thinks it's gonna win, but it's not. Anyways. Um, so I'll try not to sneeze. Anyway, so, um, identity development, we can use, like I said, we can use poetry as a way to explore values, making meaning of things, navigating the challenges of relationship. When I, when I thought about this topic. Thought about my own adolescence and I used poetry back then and I did not even remember that, but this was back in the 1970s okay. Um, and we didn't really think about poetry as therapy way back then. At least I didn't in high school, and we didn't talk about it that way. And I remember using writing and poetry and journaling as a way to, I had kind of a challenging adolescence that I remember. I remember using, and one of my poems actually got published in the, in the, uh, what did we call that? Anyways, there was a, like a creative arts. Not a journal, but a publication that the high school put out for students publishing their artwork, their, their stories and poetry. And mine got, mine got published in there. So I thought about it years later and I thought, oh my gosh. I was using poetry back then for exploring values and that angst of being an adolescence in addition to, um my family situation was not at all stable at that time, and I used it as a way to help me explore and make meaning of things. And I think that's what we can offer to adolescents is an avenue for them to do that, that doesn't, um, cause them to try or put them in a, a position where they have to use insight and make meaning of things. I think we can do it. That's one of the beauties of expressive arts, I think, is to allow the, the, process, that creative process to unfold. Um, and in fact, there, one of my favorite, um, authors these days, I don't, you can follow him on Instagram. I feel like I'm doing lots of promotions today. Let's consider these resources. Um, if you're watching on the, uh, livestream or the replay. You'll see me showing a book by Yung Pueblo. You can follow him on Instagram as well. He write, he has a book called Clarity and Connection. He has another book of poems called Inward. I would, I would say a lot of these are, kind of, um, I think they're therapeutic. I read 'em all the time. I actually get a book and I'll, I'll take my pencil. It feels weird writing in a book, but I'll take a pencil and I'll kind of use it to spring, uh, springboard journaling. Like I'm gonna read one of his poems and it's called, and, uh, you can see he's kind of a, he reminds me of a way back in the day in the 1970s, EE Cummings was, was like all the rage. I remember my mom getting one of his books, I think. I don't remember how I found him, but anyways, he would like, this reminds me of kind of an EE Cummings kind of style where there's no punctuation and all lowercase letter letters and a kind of a different modern take on using poetry and anyway, so I'm gonna read this one just to give an example. I think of how poetry can be used in a creative way and as play therapists then we can use it therapeutically in our sessions. I would say that a lot of the stuff I do with adolescents using expressive arts, I'll also use with adults, so this is a, a poem in his book, young Pueblo, in Clarity and Connection. The poem is Reclaiming Your Power is noticing when a story based on assumptions is making your mind tense and intentionally bringing yourself back to the present moment. As a way to cut the delusion. So even reading it, you kind of have to slow down and be reflective, I think. And then I usually will, like if I'm highlighting something, I don't know if he's gonna appreciate that I write over all over, but it's my book. I can do what I want and it's meaningful to me anyways. I kind of use it as a journal. But that to me was a good example of how poetry can one be reflective and rhythmic. Also help adolescents go through and explore some of those things that they're working through as an adolescent. And also validation because it kind of helps as you're processing your feelings and you're exploring your feelings and you're trying to make meaning of what's going on, poetry as self-expression and creative problem solving, excuse me, I'm gonna take a drink of my coconut water. Can help adolescents feel seen, heard, understood, and held right. That's what Daniel Siegel talks about in his interpersonal neurobiology model of mindset. He talks about helping clients feel seen, heard, understood, and held so they feel less alone in their experiences and through that therapeutic process where we're connecting and they're feeling seen, heard, and understood, we know from neurobiology that we're also helping to facilitate a change in those neural pathways through that attuned presence. We can create that in the play therapy sessions. We can use that in family play therapy sessions. We can use that in group therapy sessions with our adolescent clients. So those are, to me, some of the benefits of integrating poetry as an expressive arts modality into the play therapy process. And so, and also if you're interested in learning how to use play therapy with adolescents and using expressive arts, and you love that idea of using a neuroscience and attachment lens, or maybe you just want some fresh ideas and new ways of working with your adolescent clients using play therapy. I do have a training coming up, so I'm gonna talk about that a little bit at the end. You'll probably wanna keep listening for that. I'll also talk a little bit about Play Therapy Academy. I have openings in that. Play Therapy Academy is where we do kind of a deep dive core skill building with play therapy and really honing your ability to use play therapy effectively and feel confident using it. So I'll talk a little bit more about those at the end.'Cause we, we talk about a lot of these things in Play Therapy Academy. We also talk a lot about these things in Elevation Circle, which is more of the community based support. So let's talk about some ideas for using poetry. With your adolescent, adolescent client. So let's say I usually kind of bring the expressive arts activities in when we're talking about something that's going on. I'm going to use expressive arts to help bypass any of those ways they might get stuck, trying to be insight oriented first. I, we can use these expressive ways to help them sort through that, and then later they can connect if they're ready. They don't have to though. It's like play therapy. We trust that process, that that therapeutic process is gonna be beneficial and help them to resolve some of those issues. So. So if we're talking about, um, the, one of the ways that I integrate play therapy is if we're talking about things and maybe they're kind of doing their what ifs, right? What if this happens? Excuse me, or what if that happens? And they're kind of stuck in that and maybe getting in their head too much about it. We can use that and do a what if activity. So this is where teens are gonna write about their fears, exaggerations, future goals, and then. Then, so like, this is, honestly, this is what I did in high school. I wrote this poem called Just because it wasn't a, it wasn't titled What If, but, uh, to me, I, I, it could easily be what if, you know, I, I was accepted for who I was. What if I took a risk and I, discovered my power. You know, this is me like a zillion decades later, but there would've been some version of that in the poem that I write. But you could like what if, so what if about their fears? What if about some of the ways that they might be exec exaggerating and going into black and white thinking, right? So if you're using DBT therapy and you're, you're working on not being black and white and maybe trying to help them walk a middle path. You could use a what if poem to help facilitate that process. So another one would be, um, another activity. I love doing this one as well. This one is, there's two that I use with kind of music. So if we're thinking about it from a poetry standpoint, what I might do is have the adolescent, this f there. Okay, so let me do a self-disclosure again first. So my husband went off to work and my dog Luna. Is now in the office with me. She, she is behind me rolling around and moaning. You might hear her digging. You might hear her moaning. I tell people that. So you, you won't wonder what is going on in the office or as you're listening. That's my dog, Luna. She's in here with me and she likes to hang out. She likes to hang out with her people. Luna. She's getting old so she doesn't hear me when we call her name anymore to get her to stop. So anyways, all righty. So using lyrics in a poem. So one if, and this is, uh, most adolescents have a favorite artist or they have a favorite song or they like music. So you can tap into that interest and so you can have them pick one of their favorite songs. Or maybe one of their favorite artists or band. And then typically what I'll do is we'll go on to YouTube. I'll have 'em show me which song it is that they wanna listen to. We, uh, which I usually try to get the YouTube version of it that has the lyrics so I can see them.'Cause sometimes it's hard to hear the lyrics with some of the songs, especially the screamy ones. Um, and so, then we'll listen to the song and then I'll explore, you know, what is it that you like about that song? What's meaningful to you? And then what we'll do is we'll usually try to find the lyric. You can usually find, do a Google search or, um. You can usually find the lyrics. And so I'll print those out and then, or I'll pull those up on the screen if we're, uh, near my computer. And then what I'll do is I'll have them pick one or two lines from the song, and now they have to use that as the basis for a poem that they're going to write. And so I have them add as much or as little. You know, whatever kind of words. Here's how I introduce it. I'll say you can, you know, use these two lines from the lyrics to create an your own poem. It can be any kind of poem. It can, it doesn't have to rhyme, it doesn't have to look a certain way. However you do it is fine. There's no wrong way to do this activity. And I do that because I want them to get out of judgment. I want them to, because they're not gonna be able to access that creativity or that self-expression if they're judging themselves. And I say that with the what if as well, so. We kind of set it up that way. There's no wrong way and it's expressive arts in therapy, so there's no wrong way to do it. And so normally in the beginning, if it's the first time they've done it, then it might, they might be a little hesitant, but you just kind of stick with them and encourage'em, and you have an inner sense of confidence that it will be okay and then they can use your calm neuro system to get settled and allow themselves to express, to, um, create a poem. And then a, another one is I, and this is what I learned in my, that poetry training that I went to a zillion years ago. Um, I have printed out, I went through and printed out like seven pages of words. And like adjectives, nouns, verbs, um, some like con uh, what do you call those? Like the, these, the ands, the, you know, those, um, I printed out and then I painstakingly cut out each word to be an individual word. So they were really little, put 'em in a container. And so another option would be have 'em pick out the songs and then use the words, get some extra words, and they can add those words. So you'll have, they'll pick the song lyrics, and now we have those, they've written those down. And then I have this whole container full of words. I'll have them grab as many or as few of the words as they would like to grab them. They get those and we've spread those out on the table and they kind of look at 'em, and then they can use those words to add on to their poems. That usually helps if they're a little stuck. The other thing that I like to use with, um, poetry is now that they've created this poem now they can create art to go with it, or they can use clay to create a symbol that represents what they've, their poem, or they can, like, you know, like you do art for a album cover, they can do art to go with their poem, what represents the poem. So that's another way of getting some art in there with the poem. Um, and then another one is, I just used the words, uh, so all of those poetry words, I'll just have them grab as many or as few of the poetry words that they want to, and then they use those words to create a poem from the words that they've chosen. And then again, when they're done and they've read it to me, that I might, um, have them use art or clay or something to rep to create a visual representation to go along with that. One of my favorite things to do, and this one is one I use with like family play therapy all the time or group or even individual. So most of you have probably heard of Shell Silverstein. This is my son took all the, these were his books. He. My youngest son, I, I think it was like third grade, and they were reading Shell Silverstein poems in his class, and he, he loved Shell Silverstein. And so then we had to buy all of his books and then he would let me borrow them for therapy sometimes. And eventually he donated them to me, which I was very happy about. But he had, by then, he had taken the jacket off all, all of'em. But anyways, so one of the things that I'll do is I'll use Shell Silverstein poems because they're silly and they're fun, and so we can access that positive motion, therapeutic power of play, and we can use that. So. Um, I may, I, I may have a few that I've picked out and they get to choose from 'em. So I'm gonna, so here's a perfect example, and this is a Shell Silverstein book from his book called A Light in the Attic. This one's called Fear, right? We're play therapists. We explore these things. So the poem, and then they come with these kind of fun um, visuals that go with them. So if you're watching on the live stream, you'll see it. If you're listening to the podcast, then you're probably familiar with Shell Silverstein. But here's the poem, it's called Fear. Barnabas Browning was scared of drowning, so he, so he would, he, so he never would swim or get into a boat or take a bath, or cross a moat. He just sat day and night with his door locked tight and the windows nailed down, shaking with fear that a wave might appear and cried so many tears that they filled up the room and he drowned. Which is kind of appalling and ridiculous at the same time. So you, you don't know, I don't know Michelle Silverstein half the time. I don't know whether to be like shocked or just laugh'cause it's so ridiculous. But the kids think they're funny. So there's an, uh, another poem called Standing is Stupid, right? Like if you're a kid, this just taps into being a kid. Standing is stupid. So standing is stupid. Wrongs a curses. Skipping is silly. Is worse, hopping is hopeless. Jumping's a chore. Sitting is senseless leaning, sub bore running's ridiculous. Jogging's insane. Guest will go upstairs and lie down again. So, um, so what I'll have 'em do is I'll have 'em pick out one of the poems and then they have to take, um, two to three lyrics from the Shell Silverstein poem and create their own poem, kind of like we did with the lyrics. Say this one, they're choosing two to three lines from the poem, and then you can also add some of your poetry words to help 'em out with that. There's, you know, you could do, you don't have to use, if you're using a, I use this one with adolescents too, because they're usually a little reluctant thinking it, it seems kind of stupid, like standing. Um, so I'll usually use Sell Shell Silverstein because they're funny and they're not heavy at all so we can help them access those therapeutic powers at play because it doesn't feel heavy. You know, but you can use any of 'em. Like you can use some of the ones from Y Pueblo if you have a really insightful adolescent who likes to go deep. You gotta be careful with that though. Sometimes they get way too existential and in their head. Um, so another one is blackout poetry. I learned about this one from one of my clients. What I worked in residential treatment program for, for girls. And she was very creative. Like her creativity was amazing to watch. Anyway, she, she was doing this thing called blackout poetry. She found it on YouTube. So, by the way, if you wanna learn more about blackout poetry, you can go look on YouTube. Um. So with blackout poetry, you're taking like a, a magazine or a book you can use, like an old book that you're, is you're not using anymore, or the free bin at the library or something. And then they're gonna go through and pick specific words in the poem. And, to create a poem and they're gonna black out the rest. So you can use a sharpie marker, a black one to black out all the letters. You can use paint like acrylic paint works really well to black it out. And so what's left are the words in your poem and um, what, what this client did is she took the, she used a book and she would black out the words, and she kind of used it as her, her journal because you know, there was a lot of pages in there and she kinda used it as her journal. And she would black out using paint and then she would create art in addition to the poem on the pages. So you can use collage. As well with, um, with the blackout poetry, adding that on in there. So those are some ideas for poetry therapy, using it in expressive arts with your clients in play therapy sessions. If you say play therapy, teenagers are probably gonna roll their eyes, but if you talk about using expressive arts, then that that usually kind of captures their interest a little bit more. So just kind of a recap for today, poetry is an expressive arts modality, and we can use it in play therapy to help adolescent clients access those therapeutic powers of play. And the benefit is that they have alternative ways of expressing their beliefs, regulating their emotions and their nervous systems. Exploring the struggles of adolescents that they're working through, exploring identity and relationship, and experience some self-compassion by feeling validated, feeling seen, heard, understood, and held. And then there are a variety of ways to use poetry. In play therapy sessions. The key is though, to have a framework that is grounded in a theoretical model so that you know what you're working on, when you're working on it, and how you are going to use that expressive arts poetry activity to help them access those therapeutic powers of play. So if you're interested, I do have a training coming up called Express, I mean, uh, play therapy with adolescents using expressive arts. There's a virtual option, there's an in-person option. And for those of you whose, um, the time zone doesn't quite work for you. Maybe you're not available. It's gonna be March 7th, so it's coming up. Registration is gonna be closing next week, so registration is closing soon. But if you, if you, um, aren't available on that day or the time zone doesn't work for you, there will be a recording, a recorded version available. It won't be available until after the training, but you can re, you'll need to register now and then, once the training is over, we'll put it, um, we'll kind of put the recordings into modules so that you can access and watch the training and do all the things. So that's gonna be available, um, for those of you who are interested in play therapy with adolescents, you can sign up for that soon. And, sorry, I got a little distracted with some of the comments. Um. And that registration for that is closing soon. If you're interested in learning how to use play therapy and you want, um, you are really focused on developing some of the core competencies and getting support to use the up specific play therapy theoretical model through all of the stages of change. I do have openings in Play Therapy Academy. I only have openings when people leave, so I have some openings now. If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy or you're interested in the training. Pop over to my website at rh play therapy training.com. That's RH play therapy training.com. The play therapy with adolescents using expressive arts training will be on the training page if you're interested in learning about play therapy Academy. You can find out more about that on this the, uh, supervision page. You'll wanna schedule a free 30 minute video with me to make sure it's a good fit for you. All righty, well that is it for today, 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 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.