In this Lessons from the Playroom episode, Lisa discusses the #1 thing that will get you off track as a therapist ... and it's trying to be someone you’re not!

Despite messages that might suggest differently, authenticity and "being yourself" is not easy and has so many implications for therapists. Join Lisa in a conversation to explore: 

• How you know when you're trying to be someone you're not;
• Why it's so important to be yourself in the playroom;
• How to show up most like yourself and embody what feels true for you as a therapist; and
• How to access a deeper level of attunement that is needed to support your clients.

Tune in and join Lisa on the journey to learn more about this most essential ingredient to your client’s healing journey - and this time it’s about discovering who you are as a therapist. 

*If you'd like to learn how to develop a more embodied practice to support your clients on their healing journey, check out this episode on Interoception & Play Therapy (episode # 91).

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.

OMG! - the synergy between Lisa and her next guest is … well, let’s just say, it’s like getting an opportunity to eavesdrop on a beautiful conversation between two brilliant minds!

Kim Barthel is an award winning Occupational Therapist, teacher, and best-selling author who has successfully merged play, Polyvagal Theory and Sensory Processing. Tune in and discover:

*Ways to more deeply understand the body, nervous system activation, and what it looks like in your client;

*How to truly understand a child client’s behavior at a deeper level (hint: it has to do with perception and body movement);

*How to visibly identify confirmation that something has integrated in the child (e.g., their moments of empowerment or deep connection to themselves);

*The biggest misunderstanding about the autonomic nervous system; and

*What regulation truly means, how it’s connected to the body, and ideas for how to regulate more through your own body.

Listen to today's episode and “geek out” with Lisa and Kim on a topic that they both love dearly - Learn how to safely help a child be in their “vessel” and to access a more flexible, adaptable, socially connected, engaged, and playful response through the body.

*Kim Barthel's mission is to support the conscious evolution of the human spirit. Kim is an award-winning occupational therapist, multi-disciplinary teacher and best-selling author who is active in supporting people in many contexts globally. She is passionate about understanding complex behavior, neurobiology, trauma-sensitive practice, attachment and mental health. Kim has 37+ years of practice in helping people to be their best selves. Join her for her online series - Trauma-Sensitive Practice.

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.

Lisa Dion’s next special guest is a Certified SPT therapist, coach, mom and Yoga instructor. She’s known her for years - all the way back to when Lauren worked in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Listen as Lauren Porter and Lisa talk about how to make Yoga a practice that can support you as a therapist and redefine and unpack yoga in a way that maybe you haven’t considered… 

...And how getting to know yourself more and experiencing a widening of your window of tolerance for your emotional states can help your practice as a therapist tenfold. 

Whether you’re experienced in yoga or not, deepen your understanding of the possibility of how yoga can support you in being with your clients in more embodied ways. 

You’ll discover:

• What yoga is really about (hint: it’s not to help you feel better)
• How yoga gives understanding to both the conceptual world and the embodied YOU
• How to overcome the mental, emotional and physical blocks that prevent you (and all of us) from having a lived experience 
• How to use yoga as a practice for knowing yourself more and why it’s so important to consider if you’re a therapist
• How yoga can “hold you” in times of flooding or overwhelm
• The connection between yoga and [one of Lisa’s favorite concepts) Interoception
• All the ways that a yoga practice can look (...the answer might surprise you)

And before she goes, Lauren guides you through an exercise to unlock the diaphragm (...it’s perfect for when someone says, “take a deep breath” and you can’t - because this absolutely happens sometimes … or more times than we want to count). 

Listen to today's episode and expand your capacity for accessing the ventral vagal response so that you’re able to stay connected to yourself with whatever is happening in you and around you (...playroom included). 

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.

Happy New Year! To kick off January 2022's first podcast, Lisa Dion is jumping into another most requested topic - Translating the Play to Parents/Caregivers. In this episode you’ll find out why this can be such a challenge for play therapists, but oh-so important!

Learn 4 tips for how to translate the child’s play to parents/ caregivers including how to:

• Set the stage early on in the process for parents about what they can expect and to honor/protect the confidentiality of what’s going on in the room with the child client.
• Develop or enhance parent buy-in within the therapeutic process. 
• Translate what the child is doing in the room to the parents (being able to shift from a right-brain experience to a left-brain process)
• Maintain congruence and authenticity when explaining to parents what’s happening in the child’s process 

Note: If it’s helpful, you might want to return to podcast episode #13 to discover how to set great goals in the playroom.

We know it’s tough work being a play therapist - a gentle reminder to give yourself grace and time in the process, as well as know that you’re doing an amazing job already and it’s good enough - You are the most important toy in the playroom. 💜

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.

We’re ending the year with our most requested topic - Working With Childhood Sexual Abuse 

In this episode, Lisa Dion is joined by Sueann Kenney-Noziska whose work with sexually abused children and adolescents is absolutely remarkable. In addition to maintaining a full-time private practice, she is internationally recognized as an esteemed author, guest lecturer, and professional speaker (... a phenomenal speaker!). Sueann has been educating therapists, courts, and community partners for years regarding the impact of trauma, dynamics of sexual abuse, delayed disclosure, and other matters pertaining to childhood abuse and trauma. 

This episode is packed with so much information, you might want a paper and pen to take notes. And join them in a conversation to explore: 

• Challenges (and rewards) of working with this population
• Common dynamics that occur during sexual abuse
• The disclosure process and why it’s so hard for children/teenagers to disclose
• Ways to support parents in building relationships with their children for future open dialogue/disclosure
• How the trauma narrative can look differently for these children and in a play therapy process
• Ways to navigate this work while taking care of yourself to prevent vicarious trauma/compassion fatigue

Listen to today's episode and let Sueann’s wisdom give you insight and clarity on working with this very special population through the play therapy process.

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.

Have you ever thought about where and how you most connect with your sense of self and innate wisdom?... This next Lessons from the Playroom guest has made it her life’s focus to help her clients do just this (...48 years as a psychotherapist!)

Marie José Dhaese is the founder of Holistic Expressive Therapy and creator of an absolutely amazing and beautiful therapeutic “play home” (See it for yourself. It’s so magical!). 

In this episode, Marie José talks about how all of us hold within ourselves an innate kernel of wisdom that drives us to grow into our potential …  This view has shaped how she then attends to the nurturing sensory qualities of all environments (indoors and outdoors) and tailors each session to her client’s needs using a variety of expressive therapies.

Learn this unique and special way that Marie José approaches a client’s healing process and discover how to:

• Address the physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual needs of the client;
• Go beyond a specific protocol or intervention and understand the difference between “therapy” and healing;
• Facilitate healing not only from the “inside/out” but from the “outside/in;” and
• Help clients connect to their inner strengths and resources (before engaging in a deeper exploration of the issues that bring them to therapy.)

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.

Why is it so hard to let go and surrender to the reality of WHAT IS, in your life?... Join Lisa Dion as she takes you on a reflective journey to answer this very important question (... because we know it’s not easy and, let’s just be honest, can be downright painful!). 

In this Lessons from the Playroom episode, learn:

• Why it’s so hard to let go and surrender to what is happening in your life
• How to not lose yourself when you’re letting go or surrendering
• How to become aware and work through the shoulds/unmet expectations and being in the unknown of what it is to create safety
• How to work with the resistance and mindfully move into a place of surrendering and letting go
• How to fully integrate the experience of letting go/surrendering (including a powerful technique to do so)

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 next guest, from a young age, wanted to be both a philosopher and a pilot … while life took her down a different path, she has since translated the “mysteries” of EMDR Therapy when working with children for thousands of therapists worldwide ... and taken many of her clients on a journey to places within themselves, giving them wings to soar!  💖

Ana Gomez is the founder of the AGATE Institute and has focused her career on working with complex and developmental trauma, healing generational wounds, and understanding dissociative patterns.

Join Ana Gomez and Lisa Dion in a discussion about EMDR Therapy with kids where Ana gives understanding to:

• What is EMDR Therapy and how it can be applied to your child clients;
• How to support your child clients in developing a relationship with their inner world;
• How attunement is key in the healing process; and 
• The importance of doing your own “work” as a therapist so that you can accompany your clients on their journeys through their traumas from a more embodied perspective. 

Listen to today's episode and receive your “wings” from an extraordinary “pilot” who so beautifully reminds us why we do what we do, the power of this work, and why we continue to show up for our child clients day in and day out. 

*Ana M Gómez, MC, LPC is the founder and director of the AGATE Institute in Phoenix, AZ. She is a psychotherapist, author, and an international speaker on the use of EMDR therapy with children and adolescents with complex and developmental trauma as well as generational wounds and dissociation. Ana is the author of EMDR Therapy and Adjunct Approaches with Children: Complex Trauma, Attachment and Dissociation and several book chapters and articles on the use of EMDR therapy with children and adolescents. In addition, she is the author of multiple children’s books and therapeutic tools.

Check out this incredible resource formed by Ana and other amazing EMDR Therapists who are bringing EMDR Therapy into their work with children – the Global Child EMDR Alliance.

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.

We’re doing something different in this episode! … This time, Lisa is joined by three important people in her life - three Certified Synergetic Play Therapists, for a discussion of some of the challenges we might face as a play therapist. 

Take time to pause, reflect and find out what to do when a child/client:

• tries to take care of the therapist;
• does not turn on their screen during a teletherapy session (and what is really necessary for attunement to occur - the answer might surprise you); 
• struggles with transitions, including not wanting to leave a parent’s side or not wanting to leave the playroom when it’s time to go.

*Special guests: Certified Synergetic Play Therapists,  Andrea Davidson (Colorado), Johanna Simmons (Vancouver, British Columbia), and Rachel Freeburg (Oregon).

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, Lisa is joined by another special therapist - a gem 💖 in the play therapy field (and he’s also a poet 😉) … Marshall Lyles joins Lisa in a discussion that brings new thought, new life, and new excitement to processes and things you may have heard about for years.

Join Lisa and Marshall in conversation about …

• The use of Sandtray therapy in healing attachment and trauma;
• How attachment styles present for clients (and yourself) in the sandtray;
• How to go deeply within yourself through the “sandtray mirror;”
• Ways to navigate your own inner landscape and cultivate a “reflective practice;”
• And how to further develop yourself as a play therapist through the modalities that you practice.

As a bonus, Marshall also shares his poem, Digging Deeper that he recently shared in the book, Advanced Sandtray Therapy.

Marshall Lyles, LPC-S, LMFT-S, RPT-S, lives in the Austin, Texas, area and has 20 years of practice in family and play therapy. Drawing on lessons learned from working with attachment trauma in a variety of mental health settings, Marshall regularly teaches on trauma, expressive therapies, and attachment-informed family work around the globe. He’s published in professional journals and magazines in addition to contributing to several books including recently co-authoring the book Advanced Sandtray Therapy (released in September 2021). 

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.