Lessons from the Playroom – Details, episodes & analysis

🎙️ She’s back! In her fourth appearance, Lisa welcomes the deeply loved and returning guest Mili Sarmiento Shoemaker—bilingual therapist, teacher, and Certified Synergetic Play Therapy Supervisor and Trainer—to introduce a brand-new topic to the podcast: Family Constellation Work.

Rooted in systemic and ancestral wisdom, this conversation explores how children’s symptoms often reflect unresolved family dynamics, not just their own inner world. Together, Mili and Lisa unpack key principles from Family Constellation theory—including the Orders of Love—and how therapists can begin using a systemic lens in the playroom, even without formal training.

In this expansive and soulful episode, you’ll discover:

• What Family Constellation Work is and why it matters in therapy
• How children may carry or express unresolved intergenerational trauma
• The three core Orders of Love (Belonging, Hierarchy, and Balance of Giving & Taking)
• How imbalance in these orders can result in symptoms like resentment, overwhelm, or soul entanglements
• The difference between taking and receiving—and why this matters in the therapy room
• How to begin integrating a systemic lens into your practice, even without formal training

✨ Whether you’re new to this work or looking to deepen your lens, this episode is filled with insight, heart, and transformative “aha” moments.

🎧 Also check out Mili’s past episodes:

• When the Aggressor is You: Therapist Activation in the Playroom 
• Attachment to Self: The Cornerstone of Healing
• Why Therapists Attract the Clients That They Do

A beautiful and eye-opening conversation you won’t want to miss 💖

What makes play therapy supervision truly effective? In this first-ever Lessons from the Playroom episode on supervision, Lisa Dion is joined by Polly Douglass, Kim Buller, and Khris Rolfe—three extraordinary play therapists and top supervisors at the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute. Together, they explore the power of reflective and relational supervision and how it transforms both supervisees and their clients.

Whether you're currently in supervision or serving as a supervisor, this episode will offer invaluable insights into:

🔹 What it means to be reflective and relational in supervision
🔹 How to build a supervisor-supervisee relationship that fosters growth and trust
🔹 The role of the supervisor as an external regulator for the supervisee
🔹 How to help supervisees become more embodied in their work as play therapists
🔹 Ways to offer supervision that empowers therapists to trust themselves

This conversation weaves together a beautiful tapestry of reflection, relationship, and emotional attunement—helping play therapists feel their clients’ experiences rather than just think about them.

🌟 Tune in and discover how to create a deeply supportive and transformational supervision experience!

Original Air Date: April 25, 2023

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💜 Learn More About Synergetic Play Therapy: 

👉 Visit our website for courses, resources, and certification opportunities – www.synergeticplaytherapy.com

📚 Explore Our Books: Aggression in Play Therapy – www.synergeticplaytherapy.com/books

🎧 Listen to Our Podcast: Lessons from the Playroom – www.synergeticplaytherapy.com/lessons-from-the-playroom/

✨ SPT Foundation: Learn more about it's mission, team and initiatives:

👉 https://synergeticplaytherapy.com/spt-foundation/

🔗 Connect with Us on Social Media:

• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/synergeticplaytherapy/
• Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SynergeticPlayTherapyInstitute

"Every part of us, even the ones we've been taught to reject, holds the potential for growth and healing." – Mili Shoemaker

Aggression in the playroom is a familiar topic—but what happens when it’s not coming from the child, but from within us as therapists? This is a conversation we rarely hear in the play therapy world, yet it’s a reality many therapists silently grapple with. In this eye-opening episode, Lisa sits down with Mili Shoemaker, a seasoned play therapist, Synergetic Play Therapy trainer, and clinical supervisor, to explore what it means when therapists feel their own aggression arise in session.

With honesty and compassion, Lisa and Mili unpack the discomfort, shame, and stigma that often accompany these experiences. They dive into the protective patterns that emerge when we try to suppress these feelings, and how true healing begins when we stop rejecting these parts of ourselves.

Together, Lisa and Mili explore:
 

✨ The taboo of therapist aggression – Why this conversation is missing in the play therapy world and why it needs to be heard.
✨ Recognizing therapist activation – How to notice when your own history, protective mechanisms, and triggers show up in the playroom.
✨ Befriending aggression – How shifting from judgment to curiosity about our own aggressive parts creates deeper therapeutic presence.
✨ Embodied expression vs. catharsis – Why aggression isn’t something to suppress, but also isn’t about explosive release.
✨ The unmet needs beneath aggression – Understanding what these feelings are signaling and how to meet them with self-compassion.
✨ Breaking free from shame – How to reframe aggression as part of our full humanity rather than something to fear or reject.
✨ Integration and authenticity – Why making space for all parts of ourselves strengthens our ability to hold space for our clients.

This episode is an invitation to step into a conversation that has been long overdue—to acknowledge, explore, and ultimately embrace a part of ourselves that holds the potential for healing and growth.

🔗 Tune in and take the next step toward deeper self-acceptance and authenticity in the playroom.

***

💜 Learn More About Synergetic Play Therapy: 

👉 Visit our website for courses, resources, and certification opportunities – www.synergeticplaytherapy.com

📚 Explore Our Books: Aggression in Play Therapy – www.synergeticplaytherapy.com/books

🎧 Listen to Our Podcast: Lessons from the Playroom – www.synergeticplaytherapy.com/lessons-from-the-playroom/

✨ SPT Foundation: Learn more about it's mission, team and initiatives:

👉 https://synergeticplaytherapy.com/spt-foundation/

🔗 Connect with Us on Social Media:

• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/synergeticplaytherapy/
• Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SynergeticPlayTherapyInstitute

The beautiful Marshall Lyles is again joining Lisa Dion for another Lessons from the Playroom episode, but this time to talk about understanding Ableism and Disablism in the Playroom. 

Marshall Lyles, LMFT-S, LPC-S, RPT-S, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, has 20 years of practice in family play therapy. Drawing on lessons learned from working with attachment trauma in a variety of settings, Marshall regularly teaches on sandtray therapy and family work around the globe. In our opinion, Marshall is one of the leading voices in helping us understand ableism and disablism. You can connect with him at www.marshalllyles.com.

In this episode, Marshall and Lisa tackle this commonly occurring, yet secretly held subject of ableism and disablism in our field. Here’s what you’ll hear:

• How ableism and institutionalized ableism has entered our profession, and how we might be perpetuating ableist norms for our clients or even for each other as therapists; 
• How to step into the mind of another in order to really have the sufficient mentalization to think critically about our own play spaces and our play therapy practices;
• How to initiate repair when rupture happens due to unawareness or assuming all minds and bodies work in the same way; and
• How to more fully celebrate the uniqueness of individuals and help individuals love and appreciate themselves exactly as they are.

You're invited to listen to this episode and take Marshalls’ wisdom to heart to discover ways to more fully welcome your clients’ mind and body into the therapeutic space. As well, to stay true to you as a clinician and do what you need to care for your heart, your mind, and your body. 

Podcast Resources: 

• Synergetic Play Therapy Institute
• Synergetic Play Therapy Learning Website
• FREE Resources to support you on your play therapy journey 
• Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach to Integrating Intensity

* If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcast, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and invite your friends/fellow colleagues to join us.

Original Air Date: August 13, 2020

When our clients come to session it is easy to get caught up in thinking that they are their age, when in fact, they are not their age. At least not their chronological age. This episode is dedicated to helping you begin to understand the difference between emotional age and chronological age, a few clues to help you spot emotional age and regression, and how to work with these younger states in both your clients and yourself when they arise in the play room.

* "When a child comes into play therapy, we are not working with their chronological age, but their emotional age." - Lisa Dion

Podcast Resources: 

• Synergetic Play Therapy Institute
• Synergetic Play Therapy Learning Website
• FREE Resources to support you on your play therapy journey 
• Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach to Integrating Intensity

* If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcast, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and invite your friends/fellow colleagues to join us.

In this episode, we’re talking about a topic that we’ve never discussed, but is such an important topic to our work as play therapists. And that is dissociation. To have this discussion, Lisa has with her the fabulous Annie Monaco. Annie is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Registered Play Therapist, and faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute. With over 20 years of experience, Annie is a global trainer and has a specialty in EMDR Therapy with children and teens, and advanced training in attachment and dissociation in children especially with aggressive and hostile parts of self - she’s the perfect person to learn more about this topic!

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode: 

• A usable definition of dissociation beyond the textbook to really get a sense for how it shows up in our client sessions;
• How dissociation reflects the child’s inside personal struggles and what it looks like;
• Understanding dissociation connected to complex or developmental trauma;
• How to help a child, parent, and even us as the therapist have compassion for all of the parts of the child (...a critical part of a child’s treatment process);
• Activities and strategies to support children in exploring all of their parts of themselves and facilitate a path to healing. 

Also, Annie shares a great question that you can ask children to really begin to understand the parts of themselves. You’ll definitely want to have this question in your play therapy toolbox! 

Enjoy this conversation that will take you beyond textbook understanding of dissociation and demystify what dissociation looks like for our clients (.... and even for ourselves)!

Podcast Resources: 

• Synergetic Play Therapy Institute
• Synergetic Play Therapy Learning Website
• FREE Resources to support you on your play therapy journey 
• Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach to Integrating Intensity

* If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcast, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and invite your friends/fellow colleagues to join us.

Original Air Date: Jan 20, 2021

As a play therapist have you ever experienced this or felt stressed thinking ...

*"OMG, I don't have enough toys in the playroom" ...

*" I don't have the right kind of toys"... 

*"I need a certain kind of toy because I work with children who have these issues"...

*"I live in a part of the world that doesn't have access to toys"...

*Or, "I'm a play therapist, I'm supposed to have toys"

In this episode, Lisa asks the question - Are toys really necessary in play therapy? .... 

Join Lisa for this important conversation and dig a little deeper to explore: 

• What really is at the root of play therapy
• What is the purpose of the toy
• How to facilitate a child's process even if toys in the traditional sense are not available, and
• What really is the most essential toy in the playroom

This episode is dedicated to therapists around the world who may have limited access to toys 💜

"With the understanding that a toy can be anything at all, we transcend cultural barriers and socioeconomic status to focus on the relationship and use whatever is in the environment. We also honor that the greatest toy in the playroom is really you, the therapist!" -Lisa Dion

We’re so excited for today’s topic (...it’s definitely a hot topic) and the amazing guest that is joining Lisa. Stacy Jagger is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor (RPT-S), as well as an AAMFT Approved Supervisor. A native of Nashville, Stacy is the founder and clinical director of Music City Family Therapy. She is the author of 30 Day Blackout, as well as the children's book, A Letter from Emma. She’s also a regular guest on the local NBC affiliate show “Today in Nashville” and has frequently been featured as a child expert for the local morning and evening news. 

In this episode, Stacy will talk about how, for many families, the way screens (computers, phones, tvs, etc.) are used, can become a distraction from connection or dealing with deeper issues in families, as well as a cause for much of the dysregulation that we see in kids’ nervous systems. She’ll also share ways that we can help families start to manage their screen time use and return to a new “normal” where connection and relationship is the focus.

Join Lisa and Stacy for this powerful conversation to support your child clients and their families. Here’s what you’ll learn:

• The potential impact of screen time for children;
• How to assess a child and family’s screen time usage and connect to the child/family’s treatment goals;
• Ways to support families in disconnecting from screens and shifting the focus on connection back to self and family; 
• What it looks like to re-calibrate a child and family’s collective nervous system through a 30-day digital detox (blackout/greyout); and 
• How to artfully come back to a new normal after a blackout period. 

If you’re curious and want to see if you (or your family) might benefit from a 30-Day Blackout, Take the quiz here. It’s also a great resource for your clients!

Podcast Resources: 

• Synergetic Play Therapy Institute
• Synergetic Play Therapy Learning Website
• FREE Resources to support you on your play therapy journey 
• Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach to Integrating Intensity

* If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcast, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and invite your friends/fellow colleagues to join us.

This episode aired on Oct 5, 2020.

To her thousands of listeners around the world, Lisa expresses in gratitude, "Thank you for providing me with a sense of home." 

It's time to turn the tables! For several years, Lisa has shared play therapy knowledge and insights, interviewed special guests and helped create discussion and new learning for clinicians all over the world. But who is this person behind the microphone?

In this episode, Lisa is the one in the hot seat as she is interviewed by Katherine Eastlake, Certified Synergetic Play Therapist and Supervisor. Katherine takes Lisa all the way back to her very first play therapy session, the play therapy influences in her life, why she created the Lessons from the Playroom podcast, how the podcast helps her connect to a global feeling of home, and so much more.

Podcast Resources: 

• Synergetic Play Therapy Institute
• Synergetic Play Therapy Learning Website
• FREE Resources to support you on your play therapy journey 
• Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach to Integrating Intensity

* If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcast, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and invite your friends/fellow colleagues to join us.

Synergetic Play Therapy is celebrating 15 years 🎉 (... and Lisa is also celebrating her birthday this week 🥳) … And it’s a perfect time to reflect on this amazing field of play therapy that we’re all a part of including where we started as a field and where we’re headed (.... yes, there will be a bit of predicting the future happening 🚀✨).

Join Lisa as she talks about the journey of the mental health field at large and how that has influenced the play therapy field … how we started with a focus on changing behaviors… then moving more deeply into an appreciation for the body and its importance in the healing process … the influence of neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology, and the Polyvagal Theory … a greater understanding of the role of the therapist and the therapist’s contribution to the healing process (... you are the most important toy in the playroom after all 💕) … and where Lisa thinks we’re headed as a field (hint: it has to do with the role of mind and perception and science).

This is one episode you’re not going to want to miss!

*Celebrate with us! Enjoy $15 off any of our 1-3 hour courses through the month of June! That’s 50% off all of our 1-hour courses. Use coupon code “Celebrate15” at checkout. Sale ends July 9th.

And thank you to all of our listeners!  We’re nearing one million downloads and, whether you started out with us in 2017 when we launched this podcast or only just recently found your way here, we couldn’t be more thrilled to have you as part of our weekly conversations and journey. Sending love and gratitude to you all! 💕

Podcast Resources: 

• Synergetic Play Therapy Institute
• Synergetic Play Therapy Learning Website
• FREE Resources to support you on your play therapy journey 
• Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach to Integrating Intensity

* If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcast, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and invite your friends/fellow colleagues to join us.