Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for…

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4 Sand Tray Activities for Family Play Therapy Sessions

Episode 95

Thursday, November 13, 2025 • Duration 46:49

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I love love love using sand tray therapy in family play therapy sessions!

Watching how families approach and complete the activities provides a wealth of information about interaction patterns and how each family member sees the world and their family relationships.

When I use sand tray activities in family play therapy sessions, I like to use activities that allow me to observe interaction patterns.

As play therapists working with children in family systems, we recognize the importance of children experiencing secure attachments with parents as well as developing healthy relationships with siblings.

I would even include helping children to develop healthy relationships with extended family members and family friends who are “family” in a different way.

Healthy connection and support is vital for all humans, and as play therapists we have an opportunity to help our young clients develop a strong network of support with family and other important people in their lives.

Using sand tray in family play therapy sessions is an awesome way to get a peek inside their family system and circle of support.

Interested in getting some ideas to use sand tray in family play therapy sessions? Join me for this week's podcast! I’m sharing four of my favorite family play therapy activities using sand tray and tips for using these activities effectively.

So — If you love using sand tray in play therapy like I do and you’ve been wondering how to use it effectively in family play therapy sessions, then you don’t want to miss this 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

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How to Use Sand Tray in Family Play Therapy Sessions?

Thursday, November 6, 2025 • Duration 40:11

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🌪️ Family Play Therapy + Sand Tray = Chaos or Connection?

Ever had a family play therapy session turn into a sand-flinging circus? 🙃 One minute it feels like magic, the next like total mayhem.

The truth is—the sand tray can be one of the most powerful tools for family healing… but only if you know how to guide the process with purpose.

👉 In this week’s episode, I’ll show you how to move from chaos to clarity with 3 practical tips for using sand tray in family play therapy sessions.

✨ Discover how to set the stage so every family member feels included (without power struggles).
✨ Learn prompts that turn random sand play into meaningful connection.
✨ Find your framework so the sand tray becomes a healing space—not a battlefield.

Don’t miss this chance to level up your family play therapy game—join me live!

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 Conceptualize the Role of Parents in Play Therapy

Episode 85

Thursday, September 4, 2025 • Duration 45:41

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What’s one of the biggest struggles play therapists say causes them to feel anxious, incompetent, frustrated, and generally overwhelmed on a regular basis?

If you guessed working with parents – winner, winner, chicken dinner!

It’s one of the most common challenges I hear from play therapists.

Do any of these sound familiar?

“I can’t get parents to schedule a parent only session with me.”

“I’m getting lots of phone calls, texts, and emails from a parent telling me all the things their child is doing and I feel pressure to fix it fast.”

“I feel like parents just want to drop off their kid for me to ‘fix’ and they want things fixed yesterday.”

“My client asked if their parent could join the session so I said yes and it was sooooooooo awkward. It was awful.”

If you said yes to any of these then you are not alone.

The underlying root of these stressful situations is a fundamental missing ingredient in your approach to play therapy.

The problem is that most play therapy training doesn’t talk about how to work with parents in play therapy, especially challenging parents.

How To Talk to Parents About Difficult Issues in Play Therapy

Episode 84

Thursday, August 28, 2025 • Duration 41:03

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When I talk with play therapists about reasons they avoid having difficult conversations with parents/caregivers, here's the most common worry they tell me 👇

“What if I say something and they pull their kid from play therapy?”

It can feel awful when parents terminate play therapy before real change can happen.

We feel like giant failures and then start listing all the ways we failed the child (and ourselves).

So, this fear is real.

Sometimes parents do pull their child from play therapy prematurely and it does feel awful.

Play therapists often avoid hard conversations—like naming the parent’s role in a child’s symptoms—because they don’t want to rupture the relationship or risk the parent pulling their child from play therapy.

If we look a little deeper into this fear, what’s really beneath the surface?

It’s often rooted in people-pleasing, imposter syndrome, or fear of being seen as “too much” or “not helpful enough.” (Ouch!)

So let’s talk about it. Let’s dive right in and have a conversation so you can move beyond your fear and have those hard conversations so your clients can get real healing.

Join me for this week's podcast! I’ll share four tips to help you overcome your fear and take charge with compassion and kindness to have difficult conversations and reduce the likelihood parents will pull their child from play therapy.

What is Best Practice in Play Therapy Clinical Decision-Making

Episode 83

Thursday, August 21, 2025 • Duration 36:15

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How does being trained to use a specific play therapy model influence clinical decision-making vs clinical decision-making of child/adolescent therapists using play in therapy?

Hmmmmm. What the heck does that question even mean?

Essentially clinical decision-making involves our expertise and training in a play therapy model and how play therapists engage in the decision-making process to get excellent treatment results for their clients.

Is the clinical decision-making skill level of play therapists who are trained to use specific play therapy models better than child/adolescent therapists not trained who are using play in sessions?

A study by Baker-Ericzen, Jenkins, Park, and Garland (2015) explored the quality of clinical decision-making for child/adolescent therapists who were trained in an evidence-based treatment model (EBT) versus therapists who were not.

This study, Clinical Decision-Making in Community Children’s Mental Health: Using Innovative Methods to Compare Clinicians With and Without Training in Evidence-Based Treatment, 👇🏼

Had some interesting results.

Join me for this week's podcast episode, I’ll discuss the findings of their study and how it relates to play therapy.

There are several play therapy models considered to be EBT models, so this study provides some interesting points for child and adolescent therapists to consider when working with children using play.

How to Work with Resistance in Play Therapy: 4 Approaches for Reluctant Clients

Episode 82

Thursday, August 14, 2025 • Duration 42:56

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What do you do when you keep getting frantic phone calls from caregivers between play therapy sessions telling you all the things going wrong with their child?

You feel the weight of these phone calls and the pressure to make everything better- quickly.

You’ve tried many times to get these caregivers to schedule an appointment with you but there’s always a reason they can’t meet with you.

So, you spend hours writing emails and responding to phone calls with little to no success.

Or - what about the client that seems to do the same thing week after week after week in their play therapy sessions?

You begin to wonder if play therapy is really working and start to second-guess your clinical decisions about what to do in sessions.

You start to research new play therapy activities and frantically try anything you can in play therapy sessions - hoping that something will “work.”

Sound familiar? Working with challenging cases in play therapy can leave you feeling defeated, frustrated, and wondering if you’re making the right decisions or making things worse for your clients.

If that’s you, then join me for this weekly podcast! I’ll discuss how to engage children and caregivers who are resistant to play therapy.

I’ll share insights from neuroscience and attachment theory that provide the keys for engaging even the most challenging clients and their caregivers in play therapy.

How to Avoid Burnout and Create Meaningful Change in Play Therapy

Episode 81

Thursday, August 7, 2025 • Duration 46:31

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Have you ever thought to yourself when it’s just you and you’ve had a hard day - “I wish I had someone to help me process what just happened in that play therapy session.”

If you’re like most play therapists that I’ve met, you’re probably the only one in your agency or group that works with kids and uses play therapy (or is aspiring to learn play therapy).

Being a play therapist can feel lonely and challenging because you don’t have others who “get it” about the benefits of play therapy or who feel confident using play therapy with their young clients.

And - what you’re doing matters!

Helping children access the therapeutic powers of play is a critical need in the mental health field.

Your ability to intervene early in the life of a child to help them overcome the social and emotional difficulties they’re experiencing is important.

And you believe strongly in the importance of helping children heal - right?!

Being part of a play therapy community of like-minded mental health professionals is not a luxury - it’s a game changer, even for seasoned play therapists!

So, if you’ve been feeling like you’re on a play therapy island by yourself and wondering why being part of a play therapy community can make a difference in the quality of your play therapy services, 👇

Why Collecting More Play Therapy Activities Is Keeping You Stuck (And What Actually Creates Client Breakthroughs)"

Episode 80

Thursday, July 31, 2025 • Duration 41:39

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If you’re a play therapist -

Do you find yourself doing any of these? 👇

🙄 Constantly searching for new activities online

🙄 Have folders full of saved play therapy interventions

🙄 Still feeling uncertain about client progress

🙄 Wondering why 'perfect' activities aren't creating lasting change

If you're like most play therapists I know, you probably have folders of saved play therapy activities, Pinterest boards full of ideas, and a bookshelf overflowing with play therapy books.

Sound familiar?

And you might be thinking that finding the perfect activity is the key to helping your clients make progress.

After all, that's what everyone seems to be searching for online, right? And Dr. Google’s new AI feature is amazing! You can get answers to your play therapy questions instantly!

But if finding the right activity online or in a play therapy book was the solution then you probably wouldn’t be second-guessing your decisions or feeling like nothing is working.

That’s why in this week’s episode, I'm sharing:

✨ The hidden reason why collecting more activities isn't the answer (this might surprise you)

✨ What actually creates breakthrough moments with clients (hint: it's not what most experts tell you)

✨ The key shift that helped our community members stop second-guessing their interventions

✨ A practical framework for building unshakeable clinical confidence

Join me for this free weekly podcast!

How To Tell If Clients Are Just Playing in Play Therapy

Episode 79

Thursday, July 24, 2025 • Duration 47:10

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Is this just a flower… or a window into healing using play therapy?

How do you know if your client is ‘just playing’ or doing deep therapeutic work in play therapy sessions?

Ever stared at a child’s drawing of a flower and thought:
“Is this meaningful… or are we just passing time?”

You’re not alone.

As play therapists, we’re trained to honor the child’s process—but let’s be real:

There are times when it’s hard to tell the difference between meaningful play and… filler.

In this week’s podcast episode, I’m cracking open the essential (and often misunderstood) question:

👉🏽 How do you know if your client is doing healing work—or just doing an activity in play therapy sessions?

We’ll explore:

The real difference between activity and process (and why it matters).
What to look for when it seems like “nothing is happening.”
When drawing flowers might be avoidance… and when it’s deep grief in disguise.
The five play therapist check-in questions to help you decode what’s really going on.

Whether you’re brand new to play therapy or you’ve logged hundreds of play therapy sessions, this convo will sharpen your clinical lens—and help you show up with more clarity and confidence.

What Are the Benefits of Play Therapy with Traumatized Kids?

Episode 78

Thursday, July 17, 2025 • Duration 46:06

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Have you ever thought to yourself - I have no idea how play therapy actually helps my traumatized client heal?

Then I’ve got good news for you!

✨ This week’s livestream episode is focused on the hidden healing power of play therapy for traumatized children.

What if a pile of toys, a safe room, and a listening heart could help rewire a child’s nervous system?

In this week’s free livestream episode, I’m peeling back the curtain on something profound—how play becomes the language of healing for children who’ve lived through trauma.

I’ll explore how play therapy doesn’t just help children "calm down"—it teaches their brains how to regulate.

How a child picking up a puppet or placing a figure in the sand isn’t random—it’s restoration in motion.

Join us as we talk about:

Why emotional regulation starts with relationship, not rules
How children rebuild self-esteem through play-based agency
The surprising role of safety in lowering cortisol and anxiety
And how the playroom becomes sacred ground for healing to begin

Whether you're a play therapist, mental health provider, or someone who believes in the power of play—this episode will leave you inspired, grounded, and full of fresh insight.

Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence – Details, episodes & analysis

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Next Level Play Therapy: A Podcast for Play Therapy Excellence – Details, episodes & analysis

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