The Trauma Roadmap: Using Neuroscience & Attachment in Play Therapy

Are you tired of leaving your play therapy sessions wondering if you’re actually helping or just "playing"?

You’ve invested in the play therapy training, you’ve gathered the strategies, and you have a playroom full of tools. 

But if you’re like many play therapists, having more information has only led to more confusion. 

When you’re in the middle of a play therapy session with a traumatized child or teen, it’s easy to second-guess your decisions and feel overwhelmed by which direction to take.

The secret isn’t another weekend workshop or a new set of play therapy activities—it’s having a reliable Play Therapy Roadmap.

In this week’s podcast, we’re discussing how to move from clinical overwhelm to grounded confidence. 

We’ll explore why a trauma-informed play therapy model acts as your professional GPS, guiding your decision-making through every stage of the healing process.

We’ll be diving into:

• The Play Therapy GPS: Why a play therapy model is essential for knowing exactly where you are (and where you’re going) in treatment.
• The Neuroscience & Attachment Lens: How grounding your work in these two pillars simplifies your clinical choices.
• Healing the "Second-Guessing": How to tell if your interventions are truly helping your traumatized clients heal.
• The Power of Community: Why the "secret ingredient" to clinical success is never practicing in isolation.

Stop wondering if you’re doing enough and start using a play therapy framework that provides clarity for you and better outcomes for your clients.

Don't forget to subscribe and follow for more weekly insights on mastering trauma-informed play therapy!

#PlayTherapy #Neuroscience #AttachmentTheory #TraumaInformed #CathiSpooner #ClinicalSupervision #PlayTherapistLife #MentalHealthProfessionals

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

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. And today we're gonna be talking about what do you do if you feel lost and you're not sure w- how to help your client or what's going on, you're feeling confused, probably a little overwhelmed and not sure what to do And that's what we're gonna be talking about today, using a neuroscience and attachment lens as your roadmap to guide you through that play therapy process, especially when you're working with traumatized child, uh, traumatized children and adolescents. And so, um, we're gonna be talking about how to use play therapy and integrate that neuroscience and attachment lens in there, and why exactly does that matter. Like, why do you need a roadmap, so to speak, in order to help you get the best results possible, excuse me, for your, for your child and li- child and adolescent clients who've experienced trauma? So let's get started for today. Um, full disclosure, we had quite a few little technical snafus, and I'm looking at the Instagram, uh, 'cause I stream from my Instagram on my phone, and it's just such an odd… Today is just an odd day. Like, it's already getting started super odd. I'm looking at my phone with the Instagram Live screen, and I'm like, "It's so fuzzy. It's so weird." I don't know what's going on today in the internet world, but it is, there's some gremlins happening. You know? I'm a little befuddled. So now that I got that out of the way, I'll focus. So if you're watching live on, uh… So we had some, s- we had some snafus with LinkedIn. We had to get that started over, so I'm streaming also live on YouTube and Instagram. But my Instagram screen looks really weird, so we'll find out if I'm actually streaming live. So if you're on Instagram and you're watching, post in the comments so I know we're actually live. Um, and for all of you, if you're watching live, go ahead and po- post in the comments. I would love to see who's here. Um, what are your questions? What are your thoughts? Go ahead and post in the comments, even if you're watching on the replay, 'cause the replays will automatically generate on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. For those of you listening to the podcast, excuse me, I would love to hear your feedback as well. Feel free to reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn. Send me a message. And let's get started for today. So the first thing to keep in mind, one, it… So here's the thing, one of the reasons that I thought today's topic would be useful is because there's one thing I keep hearing all the time w- when I'm, when I'm talking to people who are scheduling the 30-minute video calls with me for either, um, my Play Therapy Academy program or Elevation Circle to see which one's a good fit. And one of the things that I hear all the time is that you probably have taken lots of different trainings, and then there was a lot of great ideas in these trainings, but then you feel lost and you're not sure how to make them all work together. And so then that results in feeling a little bit lost and not sure what to do in your sessions or maybe you're, you're kind of not sure what stage or how to… What stage of play therapy you're in, or how to tell if your clients are even making any progress. And this is why it's really important to think about what play therapy model are you using. This is, this is where people tend to get stuck because even if you're using an integrative play therapy model, your play th- the, the, um, theory models that you learned are still theory-based, and they're going to, um, have y- you're gonna have an idea of how your clients are making progress, what to look for. And so even when you're blending models, it's, it's important to think about that theoretical model and how do you know if change is occurring. And so sorry, I got a little stuck in my throat today. So the key to your success, even when you're blending your play therapy theoretical models, the key to your success is thinking about what your theory models say to do in the sessions. How do they say to do it? When do they say to do it? That's why your theory model is really, really important. So even if you're taking a lot of different trainings, like you might get some great ideas, maybe some great strategies, and maybe it's more strategy-based, but it's not necessarily grounded in any kind of theoretical model, then that's typically where people get lost. And the way that I think about play therapy and theoretical models, I love using a neuroscience and attachment lens. Like, I look at everything through a neuroscience and attachment lens. And then that's gonna ground how am I making sense of what change looks like. So if I'm looking at, if I'm looking at trauma And I'm working with clients who have, um, who've experienced trauma, then, then I'm gonna be thinking about how trauma impacts the body and how trauma impacts how I make sense of the world through that attachment lens. So is the world safe? Am I safe? And I'm thinking about how the brain is predictive in nature, and I'm thinking about that brain-body connection, so those somatic aspects of how the brain and the body work together. The brain is… The brain and the body are taking in information. Especially when you're talking about trauma, you really wanna think about the, the sensory aspects of that traumatic experience and how that got stored away in the brain And that's gonna influence how you're making sense of what's going on with your client. And that's gonna guide your decision-making. And then you're also thinking about what, what treatment goals do you have in place. So like what is that client… How will they… Your treatment goals are basically how you know when your clients are better. And so if you've identified those treatment goals and objectives, and you've kinda clarified those, then that's gonna help you figure out if you're making progress. And because treatment goals are, um, kind of a work in progress, I think we update and change periodically throughout the process, having those conversations with your clients and their caregivers, 'cause we work with children and adolescents, that's gonna help you make sure you're on the right track. So how do you know if you're getting better, if your clients are getting better? Well, you're thinking about the impact of trauma and the impact of trauma from an attachment lens as well as that neuroscience lens. You're thinking about their behavior, going to the root of it, and what's at the root of the behavior. Well, it's probably trauma. What kind of trauma did they experience? How did they experience it? How did they make sense of it? You know, how did they respond? W- how did their caregivers respond? You're looking at all of those things, and then that neuroscience and attachment lens is gonna kinda guide your thinking. The other thing that you're thinking about is what is your play therapy model because your play th- you can alway… Like I, I think you can ground attachment and neuroscience, that lens, and what we're learning about attachment and neuroscience from, from the research, and we can ground that in our play therapy model and kind of integrate them that way. And so let's say, let's say you're a play therapist and you were trained to use child-centered play therapy. You can still look at, um, that presenting issue like trauma through your child-centered play therapy lens and also from a neuroscience and attachment lens. You can blend those in together. Your play therapy model, child-centered play therapy, is gonna help you understand what to do in the session, when to do it And how to do it, like in child-centered play therapy, you're going to be tracking in a specific way, and you're not gonna be leading, you're not gonna be asking questions. But let's say you're using an Adlerian play therapy theoretical model, and you're blending in neuroscience and attachment to understand how that trauma is impacting your client, and you're blending that with your Adlerian lens. And then you're gonna follow that Adlerian play therapy process, and Adlerian play therapy is going to, um, influence what you do, how you do it, and when you do it In the play therapy process, and then you're gonna be looking at where they are, where your client is in that stage of change. So your theory model makes sense of how you make sense of the process or the problem. So I-- my default would be neuroscience and attachment, and so I look at everything from a neuroscience and attachment lens, and I blend that with my, my theoretical model. And so, um, let's say you're using EMDR, and you're blending EMDR, and you're, now you're using it in play therapy. Well, EMDR is gonna look different with an adult versus with a child in many different ways, but there's still going to be some guiding principles about what you do. Or let's say you have done training in internal family systems, and now you're blending that into play therapy. So you're taking that, uh, your play therapy model. Let's say you're using Gestalt play therapy, which is kind of my new obsession, um, and you're blending some EMDR in there with maybe some parts work in your Gestalt play therapy model. You're, you're kinda using that Gestalt model plus what IFS says is how you identify parts and how you talk about parts, and then EMDR is when you get to the trauma memories it's gonna influence what you do and how are you processing those trauma memories. The, the trauma model that I learned decades ago at this point in time is, is kind of similar to many of the trauma models. And what I mean by that is there's gonna be a safety, there's, uh, aspect in the very beginning, establishing safety and rapport. You're gonna do a little psycho-education about trauma, and then you're gonna be helping to-- you're gonna be beginning that slow, titrated exposure therapy to that traumatic memory, and your, your play therapy model or your trauma model is gonna influence how you do that. And then you're gonna be working through those trauma memories, and then there's gonna be some post-traumatic growth component to that trauma model. So, so your model really does influence what you do in the sessions and how you do it. And, and here's the thing that I find it's really hard to do this by yourself, I think, especially when you're beginning. But I've been doing this for a long time, and I still use support from people. So, w- um, like, I think being part of a community is really, really important. When we're in Play Therapy Academy, one of the things that we're doing, especially when we're working… Um, not especially, but when w- you're trying to figure out what to do and how to make sense of what's going on, in Play Therapy Academy, we'll walk through the case conceptualization. We'll walk through how are you applying your play therapy model, how are you tracking, how are you identifying themes. So all those core competencies of play therapy and how are you, how are you implementing your play therapy model. So we do a lot of staffing, and one of the things that I found really useful about Play Therapy Academy, and also Elevation Circle. So Elevation Circle is more… It's probably… The best way to describe it would be probably more of a, a generalized support rather than a deep dive into skill building. So in Elevation Circle and Play Therapy Academy, both of those have the- probably the strongest component is the group aspect. Meaning there's a community of play therapists who get it that can help you figure out how to help your client. And in Play Therapy Academy, we do a deeper dive. We meet more often. It's a much smaller group. And I only have openings when somebody leaves, and so I have a few openings now. I'll talk a little bit about that at the end if you want to, um, schedule a 30-minute meeting with me to see if Play Therapy Academy would be a good fit for you, or if maybe Elevation Circle is, that's a better fit for you now. In Elevation Circle, we, we do the consultation. Sometimes we do mini trainings, like last weekend we did a mini training on Gestalt Play Therapy. We had somebody come in and talk about Gestalt Play Therapy. Sometimes we do case consultation in there. We have group support, a book club in there. So, so when we're thinking about, um, using play therapy and your play therapy model is your GPS It's, it's important to know your theoretical model, but having support to know how to apply it, and if you're using an integrative model, how are you integrating that? Having a community of support to help you do that I find is really, really important. In fact, I think that's kind of the secret ingredient, which I'm gonna talk a little bit more about 'cause I'm skipping around here. I'm still a little befuddled from all my, um, pre-live stream pre-recording, I'll call them little gremlins that were going on. So when you're using a neuroscience and attachment theory model, um, one of the things I think that it is useful to do that because I think it helps you really figure out what is going on underneath those behaviors with your client. So, um, especially when… I, I think especially when you're working with children who've experienced trauma and some pretty significant attachment wounds. I think it also is helpful when you're talking about anxiety and some of those other things because it kind of activates that threat response system, and the brain is kind of stuck in a predictive loop of what I call danger, danger, Will Robin. R- um, if you've ever seen that Lost in Sp- I grew up with Lost in Space, and there was that little robot. Whenever there was danger, he would fling his arms and all his lights would go off, and he would say, "Danger. Danger. Danger, Will Robinson." Um, and Will Robinson was one of the characters. I, I feel like our brain does that when it's kind of stuck in that threat detection loop of where our brain's always kind of signaling danger, danger, danger and all our little neuro circuits are going a little haywire, um, sending energy and responses to respond to a threat that's not actually a threat, but our brain is saying it's a threat. And to me, when we're, we're thinking about working with traumatized children and adolescents, we want, I think, regardless of what theoretical, seminal and historical play therapy model that you're using like child-centered play therapy or Adlerian play therapy or Gestalt play therapy, I think you can also think about that from a neuroscience and attachment lens and a- add that layer in there Um, because I think, I think understanding how the brain and the body work is gonna help you figure out what to do in the sessions, and that's why we wanna focus on looking at the deeper roots of the problem and not just on the behaviors. That's one of the things that I find happens a lot. So I, I also have a training coming up if you're interested. Registration closes tomorrow. The training is on Saturday. It's called Healing Trauma Through Play

Therapy: 21:20

A Neuroscience and Attachment Approach. And so, um, one of the things that I find people through Play Therapy Academy, Elevation Circle, and the trainings, one of the things… And when I talk to people when they scal- s- uh, schedule the 30-minute videos, one of the thi- video calls with me to find out if Play Therapy Academy is a good fit or if Elevation Circle is a better fit, one of the things I hear a lot is that they're not sure what to do in session, and they're kind of focusing on the behaviors and not going to the root of the problem. And, and so your theory model is gonna influence how you make sense of what is going on at the root of the problem, and what are the patterns that are sustaining it. And so that's one of the, the… one of the reasons you want to make sure that you're thinking about what is your theory model, because it's gonna influence how you make sense of the problem, and how you make sense of the problem is gonna influence what you do to help your client solve their problem or resolve their problem or get better or heal, however you wanna say it. But your theory model is going to influence how that works, and it's first and foremost gonna influence how are you making sense of what's going on. And then it's gonna guide you in your decision-making about what to do. And again, to me, the secret ingredient of all of this, excuse me, is, is your play therapy community. I've talked to so many play therapists who say they're the only play therapist in their agency, or maybe they're in private practice and they don't have access to other play therapy support. But it can feel really lonely and isolating because you don't have anyone e- anyone who understands play therapy to bounce ideas off of, to, um, figure out where you might be stuck and how to get unstuck, get ideas for, um, strategies to use. So I think, I think it's important to be grounded in a theory model because your theory model influences how you make sense of what the problem is and then influences what are you gonna do about it, your treatment planning basically. But the other thing that I think is equally important, and I'm finding that play therapists are really feeling isolated and alone, burned out, overwhelmed, tired, second guessing whether they made the right decision for their career or if they were cut out to be a play therapist, maybe they're not very good. The likelihood that you're a terrible play therapist is not very high. The problem is more likely that you need support in knowing how to make sense of what's going on and how to help your clients. And when it comes to trauma, I think there's even an extra layer of concern that a lot of play therapists experience which is, I don't wanna make it worse. I don't want to … What do I do if they get triggered? Uh, questions I get asked all the time, or what happens if they, um, if something happens in there and their trauma gets triggered and they start acting out their trauma in the session or maybe they dissociate in the session. And to me, that's where your play therapy model is gonna, is gonna be your guide. It's gonna help you know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. And having a community of support around you to be able to help you out to get ideas and figure out what's going on, make you feel like you're not alone and, and then get support that you're probably not a horrible play therapist like you think you are. That to me is where having a play therapy community is, is a game changer and that's what I've found. I've been, I've been, uh, running Play Therapy Academy probably for, hmm, probably six years now. I've done supervision before for about 15 years, but I kinda created Play Therapy Academy to provide a lot of support for people who wanted to learn how to use play therapy with confidence and feel like they know what they're doing. And then last year, a little over a year ago, I launched Play Therapy Elevation Circle because what I found was not everybody needed or wanted or was ready for the higher level of support with Play Therapy Academy, and they still needed some support. They needed some play therapists who get it and understand, and so that when they're trying to get help from their colleagues, they don't have to explain why play therapy actually does work and feel like they're justifying play therapy rather than getting the support that they need. And so that's why I launched Elevation Circle. S- And then so the other thing, and that, that was a little over a year ago. And, and one of the things, because I believe so strongly in, in community, and I've seen how powerful it is in Elevation Circle and Play Therapy Academy, o- one of the things that I've been doing is any of the trainings that I've been doing, like I have one coming up on Saturday, June 6, called Healing Trauma- Um, healing trauma through play therapy, a neuroscience and attachment approach. So in that model, in that, in the training, I'm gonna be going through the neuroscience and attachment to help understand and guide your clinical decision-making and your thinking about what's going on with your traumatized client. So we're gonna use that theoretical lens to make sense of what's going on, and then I'm gonna walk you through how to use, uh, a trauma atta- um, a trauma-informed approach. It's an integrative play therapy approach, and so I'll kind of walk through what theoretical models we're integrating in there, and then walk you through each stage of that framework so you know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it in each stage, and how to make sense if there's any, um, if your clients are making progress through that process. And once, um… In addition to the training, you're gonna have access to 30 days of Elevation. I mean, 60 days of Elevation Circle as part of your registration, so that after the training, you still can get access to support and, um, you won't have to feel like you're doing it alone. Because what I found is, after the training, as we're really motivated, we're super excited, and then, uh, we sit in front of our clients, and then something happens and we're like, "Oh, we didn't talk about this in the training. I'm not exactly sure what to do here." So in my mind, giving you access to 60 days of Elevation Circle gives you some additional support so you don't have to do it alone. You can stay if you want to stay in there, and I hope, I hope people stay. I really think it's a great c- um, support. We have a lot of amazing conversations in there, in both either Play Therapy Academy or Elevation Circle. Your registration will include access, 60 days of access for new members. If you're not already in Elevation Circle, then you have 60 days of access for that So, um, let me do a quick recap for today. So today we're talking about a trauma roadmap using neuroscience and attachment in play therapy. The first thing you wanna think about is if you've taken play therapy training after play therapy training, and you've gotten lots of great ideas, and you're struggling to know how to pull it all together to help your traumatized clients, then you're likely struggling with too much information and not enough understanding of how to bring that all together into a strategic approach that's gonna make a difference for your clients. So your, your theory model is your GPS that helps you make sense of what is going on with your clients at the root of the problem, what are sustaining it. And when you're using a neuroscience and attachment lens, then that is gonna influence how you make sense of what the problem is and why it's happening and what are the patterns sustaining it, and then what are you gonna do to re- to resolve that. Like, what is, what are you gonna do in your sessions? When are you gonna do it? How are you gonna do it? And that's, that's gonna influence your decision-making. So even if you're using an integrated model, you're blending together several theory models, then you're thinking about the framework that you're gonna use with that blended integrative approach. How are you making sense of what the problem is? So you still need a framework for guiding you through that process. And then being a play therapist can feel very isolating because oftentimes you are the only play therapist in your community or, um, in your agency Or maybe you're in private practice. I remember when I was just getting started years and years ago, I've always, always used support, 'cause I'm a firm believer that it's impossible to do this, to do this job, to be a play therapist on your own. And I just remember I was in a consultation group, we, but it was mostly people who were not pl- well, well, I was the only play therapist, to be honest. And these were amazing women, and they gave me great ideas, but they did not understand play therapy. And so in order to really hone my play therapy skills, I actually had to, um, get that support elsewhere, because I felt like I was having to explain what play therapy is. And I can't tell you how many times I talk to people who even are in with, um, like a practice that's for kids, but there's nobody trained in play therapy, that they're often finding that they get questioned or they get looked at like, "Why aren't you using a directive model?" Or, or, "Look, just, these are great worksheets. Pull these out." I personally think I'm allergic to workse- worksheets. I'll use them occasionally here and there, but I use them more to guide me, because I think as a play therapist, we can move the needle faster by using play to help, uh, our cl- our young clients heal. And so to me, being part of a play therapy community is, is the secret ingredient for success, so you don't have to feel like you're alone. You don't start feeling burned out and overwhelmed, and y- you kinda stop second-guessing all of your decisions, 'cause you have support to help you know what's going on and help get you on the right track to help your clients. So that is it for today. If you're interested, I do have this training coming up, Healing Trauma Through Play Therapy: A Neuroscience and Attachment Approach. If you're interested in the training, registration closes tomorrow, so you'll wanna sign up soon. Um, and you can pop over to my website at rhplaytherapytraining.com. That's rhplaytherapytraining.com. Pop over to the training courses page. Look for the live trai- uh, trainings. You can, you can register for the in-person training option, which will be in St. George, Utah, which is absolutely beautiful. Or you can register for the virtual option and, uh, attend virtually the training on, on Saturday, on June 6. If, if that doesn't work for you or maybe the time zone is not your friend, then we will have a recorded option, so you can register for the recorded option. And then about seven to 10, 10 days after the training, so about seven to 10 days after June 6, we'll take, uh… The, the recordings will be available. So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna record the training on June 6 'cause it has all of the updated information. I went through and updated all the neuroscience and attachment information in light of some more information that's come out this year that helped to fine-tune and better understand trauma. And so I went through and updated all of my slides about the neuroscience and attachment part to make sure that the most recent information is in there So the, for the recorded option, what's gonna happen is after June 6th, we'll take the, the video recording of the training, we'll kinda chop it up into smaller video segments and put it in different module- modules. It'll be the whole entire training, just more in bite-sized segments. You can take it in your own time zone when it's convenient for you. And so if the recorded option works better, then you can, you can sign up for the recorded option. But registration for all of those is gonna close on S- um, Thursday, tomorrow, June 4th. So you'll wanna sign up for that soon. All, all three of those options give you 60 days access to Play Therapy Elevation Circle. If you have any questions about it, please feel free to reach out to me, email me, message me, 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 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 and relationships. If you have any questions or topic 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.