15 episodes
Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S
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Join me on Next Level Play Therapy, a podcast for child and adolescent therapists seeking to elevate your play therapy services. Hosted by Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S, at Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training.
Each episode delves into the nuances of play therapy, exploring innovative techniques, evidence-based practices, and practical strategies for providing exceptional therapeutic experiences. These engaging discussions cover a wide range of topics, including building rapport with children, how to make sure you get great outcomes for clients, therapeutic toys and tools and strategies to use in sessions, addressing trauma and attachment issues, engaging parents, promoting emotional regulation, and nurturing resilience for children and their families.
Whether you're an experienced therapist looking to refine your skills or a novice clinician venturing into the world of play therapy, the Next Level Play Therapy podcast equips you with the knowledge and insights to enhance your play therapy practice. With interviews featuring experts in play therapy, exploration of best practices, discussion of game-changing principles and strategies, this podcast equips you with the tools to unlock the amazing power of play therapy to transform the lives of children, adolescents, and families.
Tune in to Next Level Play Therapy and take a journey towards becoming an exceptional play therapist as we navigate the next level strategies that lead to profound healing and growth for children and their families.
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What Does Case Conceptualization Have to Do with Play Therapy Themes?
Play therapists place a lot of emphasis on recognizing themes in play therapy sessions.
Why?
Because understanding play behaviors and recognizing what clients are communicating in their play is critical to help them in the healing process.
Here’s where case conceptualization is often overlooked when making sense of what’s going on in play therapy for your clients.
Understanding play therapy themes is heavily influenced by your play therapy model.
What does that have to do with play therapy case conceptualization?
I’m glad you asked!
Join me for this weekly podcast, I’ll discuss why case conceptualization is important to ensure you use the information gathered from play therapy themes so you can help your clients achieve the healing they are seeking and make a difference in their lives.
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 -
What’s the Best Way to Identify Themes in Play Therapy Sessions?
Have you ever struggled to figure out what exactly your clients are communicating during their play therapy sessions?
Whether you’re a new play therapist or a seasoned play therapist, identifying themes can be challenging.
Learning to recognize themes in your clients’ play therapy sessions is a great way to understand what they are communicating through their play.
That’s why I’m soooooooooooo excited to have my guest, Dr. Jodi Mullen, share her tips identifying themes in play therapy sessions. 🎉
I love her idea of conceptualizing themes in play therapy sessions as the main points in a story.
So cool, right?!!
Join us for this free weekly podcast. We’ll be sharing some valuable information to help you recognize themes in play therapy sessions.
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 -
Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Play Therapy Progress Notes
There is a lot of terrible information being shared in the mental health community about writing progress notes.
Some information is based on fear, some information is based on misunderstanding about progress notes, and some information is based on minimizing the importance of progress notes. (Ouch!) 😲
Over the last 30+ years in the mental health field, I’ve heard and seen most of the terrible information being shared about writing progress notes.
Not all the information is terrible, and some of the information has some valid aspects to it.
Are you struggling to write play therapy progress notes?
Join me for this free podcast, I’ll share four mistakes play therapists make when writing progress notes and suggestions for writing sound, ethical progress notes.
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 -
How to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed Providing Play Therapy
What’s the secret to success using play therapy like a pro?
Any new play therapist will tell you that the thing that drives them to learn new things 👇
is their desire to make a difference in the lives of children.
Over the last 15 years supervising new play therapists, I’ve witnessed four things that are 🔑for your success using play therapy so you can accomplish your dream.
Learning to use play therapy takes dedication to take risks and overcome challenges.
Join me for this weekly podcast, I’ll share three important things you need to master in order to use play therapy like an expert so you can make a lasting difference in the lives of children and their families.
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 -
How to Engage Challenging Children in Play Therapy
If you’re a child/adolescent mental health professional, then you probably have children and adolescents on your caseload who are reluctant to engage in therapy.
These children can be overwhelming and frustrating, even for seasoned therapists.
What can you do to engage them in sessions so you can help them?
Knowing how to use play therapy strategies effectively can make a huge difference to engage your young clients in the change process.
Join me for this week’s podcast episode with my guest, Liana Lowenstein, MSW.
Liana Lowenstein has worked in the child/adolescent mental health community for over 35 years and has helped thousands of professionals use strategies that work.
She’s an internationally recognized expert and her 14 books are used by mental health professionals all over the world. You won’t want to miss this dynamic podcast episode.
My guest, Liana Lowenstein, and I will be discussing reasons why children can be difficult to engage in treatment and how to help them.
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 -
How To Recognize Clinically Relevant Themes in Play Therapy Sessions
How do I know what’s happening in my clients’ play therapy sessions?
How do I know what’s important to notice and what’s not important in play therapy sessions?
How do I know what my clients’ behaviors in play therapy sessions mean?
These are often the questions asked by new play therapists.
Anyone new to play therapy will have asked these questions at some point when learning to use play therapy with their young clients.
There’s a deeper level of learning needed underlying these questions to develop competency understanding play behavior and themes in play therapy sessions.
Join me for this weekly podcast, I’ll discuss what you need to know so you can make sense of what’s happening in play therapy sessions and how to use that information to facilitate healing for your clients.
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