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We often hear the notion of the play therapy process and the need to hold a sacred space for healing in play therapy.

But, what the heck does that mean?

Can play therapists provide a space for healing with a lens of spirituality?  Are we allowed to talk about it?

The notion of spirituality and religion are often considered the same thing, but I don’t think they are.  

I think spirituality is much broader than religion, and they’re often connected - for better and for worse.

What does this mean for play therapists who work with a variety of clients who come from a variety of backgrounds including their beliefs about spirituality and how that shows up in the treatment process?

And what about a play therapist’s own beliefs about spirituality?

I’ve often heard play therapists refer to becoming a play therapist as a calling and not just a job.

How do play therapists hold the notion of entering into a sacred space for healing in the playroom as part of their calling while also navigating the ethics of this process? (I know - I said the scary word: ethics 😆)

Join me for this free weekly podcast! Because that’s exactly what I’m going to talk about this week.  

Yep! Let’s do this.  Let’s talk about it. Let’s explore what it means to provide a sacred space for healing in play therapy.  

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

Send us a text

Recognizing themes in play therapy sessions is an important part of being a play therapist because it influences how you make sense of what your client is communicating and what you do in sessions.

I remember when I was learning how to use play therapy early in my career and hearing about the importance of recognizing themes in play therapy sessions.

It felt like an impossible task - trying to figure out if I was actually observing a “theme” in my clients’ sessions or if I was just making 💩 up in my head.  

I remember stressing about it at times.  

To be honest, there are times I’m still not really sure and I remind myself to trust the process and see where the play therapy journey leads my client and I.  

Recognizing themes in play therapy is important but it’s not the only thing that matters.  I mean - you can focus sooooooo much on getting it right that you miss the mark to create a safe environment and being fully present in the sessions to hold space for healing.  

So, what’s a play therapist to do?

Well, think about play therapy as learning how to listen deeply in sessions so you can tune into what is being communicated.

Like you do when talking with parents or maybe your adult clients.  We learn to listen deeply to what is being communicated (not necessarily the actual words being spoken).

Play therapists “listen” deeply to what is being communicated through children’s play during play therapy sessions, including when working with traumatized children.

It’s like learning a whole new language - what are your clients communicating through their play and how do you respond and engage with them in “conversation without making things worse?”

Learning to understand children’s play behaviors and what is being “communicated” during play therapy sessions about their traumatic experience is an important part of working with traumatized children.

That’s what I’ll be discussing in this week’s podcast episode.  

I’ll discuss tips for identifying play therapy themes in sessions and common play therapy themes you may observe in your play therapy sessions with clients.

So, hop on over to wherever you listen to podcasts and have a listen.

And I’d love it if you would do me a big favor and leave a review.  

It’s always nice to get feedback to make sure these podcast episodes help you on your play therapy journey.  

And - send me a message on Instagram (@renewingheartstraining) about the episode! 

I love hearing from you - and yes- I do respond to your messages. 🤓

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

Send us a text

Let’s get creative!  Play therapy activity ideas to help traumatized children and teens heal

If you’re a play therapist or child/adolescent therapist, then you’re probably always thinking about play therapy activities to use with your clients.

I’ve never met a play therapist who didn’t love learning new play therapy activities.

We’re like moths drawn to light when it comes to finding play therapy activities.  🤣

One of the things I love about being a play therapist is the creativity of play therapy (and the second thing is actually using them with clients and having fun)

Want to learn some of my favorite play therapy activities I use with children who have experienced trauma?

Join me for this free weekly podcast!

This week I’ll share three of my FAVORITE play therapy activities for exploring the connection between emotions and body as well as exploring anger and dealing with negative self-talk that comes with the impact of trauma.

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

Send us a text

Learning more play therapy activities isn’t enough to help children heal.

If you talk to the experts in the field of any mental health discipline, you’ll likely get very different answers about what is the most effective way to help clients heal from trauma.

This is true in play therapy as well.

There are a few things that are true across most play therapy models when working with trauma. 

One big mistake often made by play therapists is over focusing on getting the “right” play therapy activities to use in sessions.

This usually results in feeling more confused and overwhelmed when your client isn’t making progress and you’re getting frantic calls from caregivers about all the things that aren’t going well.

So what really makes a difference to get the best results for your traumatized clients using play therapy?

Join me for this free weekly podcast! I’ll break down the benefits for using a play therapy framework that’s grounded in a theoretical model within the context of a safe therapeutic relationship.  

We’ll examine why simply learning more play therapy activities won’t get you the results you want 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

Send us a text

What’s the best approach to using play therapy with traumatized children and teens?

If you’re a play therapist or child/adolescent mental health professional, then you probably have clients on your caseload who have experienced trauma.

The thing about experiencing trauma is that it’s unique to each child and adolescent.

While there are definitely similar issues to address at the heart of the treatment process, individualizing your approach to fit each client is important to ensure deep healing.

So, what’s a play therapist to do?  

Is there a play therapy approach that meets the unique needs of each client for healing?

This week I’m discussing a play therapy model that gets to the heart of healing trauma with children and teens using the wisdom of neuroscience and attachment theory.  So don’t miss it and join the conversation!

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

Send us a text

Is there a connection between suicide ideation in adolescence for children who have experienced trauma?

We know from the research that trauma has a significant negative impact on children that can contribute to mental health issues into adolescence and adulthood.

So, it would make sense that trauma would have a profound impact on adolescents if left unhealed.  

To get a little technical (hang in there with me) - research has shown that childhood trauma can impact cortisol responses to stress and the development of a well-functioning HPA Axis (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis).

The thing to remember here is that an optimal way of functioning is for our body to be in a state of homeostasis (balance) and our body is constantly making adjustments to achieve homeostasis.

What the heck does all this have to do with the connection between childhood trauma and adolescent suicide?

Well, I went down the research rabbit hole again in preparation for my upcoming play therapy training about healing trauma. (I like to stay up to date with the latest research for my trainings 🤓)

I discovered a few interesting things about the body’s response to trauma and its connection to adolescent suicidality.

Since I love using a neuroscience and attachment lens when conceptualizing the roots of the problems experienced by children and teens, 👇

I looked at the latest research about childhood trauma and found an interesting study about childhood trauma and adolescent suicidality.

Want to know what I found?

Join me for this free weekly podcast!I’ll discuss what research says about childhood trauma and its connection to mental health issues, specifically from a neuroscience standpoint about how trauma impacts the body’s stress response.  

I’ll also discuss how this is relevant for play therapists using play therapy to help young clients heal.

Citation for Research Articles:

Goltser-Dubner, T., Benarroch, F., Lavon, M., Amer, R., Canetti, Giesser, R., Kianski, E., Martin, J., Pevzner, D., Weinberg, B., Ben-Ari, A., Bar-Nitsan, M., Alon, S., Yshai, S., Lotan, J., GAlili-Weisstub, Segman, R., and Shalev, A. (2025). Childhood trauma cortisol and immune cell glucocorticoid transcript levels are associated with increased risk for suicidality in adolescence. Molecular Psychiatry, published online February 24, 2025. www.nature.com/mp

Buena, I. M., Szentagotai-Tatar, A., and Mui, A. C. (2017). Early-life adversity and cortisol response to social stress: A meta-analysis. Translational Psychiatry, 20177:1274. doi.10.1038/s41398-017-0032-3

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

Send us a text

The last several years of neuroscience research has shown mental health professionals how to better understand the role of autonomic nervous system and interpersonal neurobiology.

It’s provided a wealth of information to understand the importance of creating a safe healing space for children and adolescents who have experienced trauma.

Children cannot establish a connection with play therapists unless they first experience safety within the therapeutic relationship and in the playroom.

How do you help children activate their social engagement circuits so they can engage in the play therapy change process?

Join me for this free weekly podcast, I’ll share five components that will ensure children deactivate their threat circuits and activate their social engagement circuits so they can access the therapeutic power of play.

That’s where the magic happens, so creating a safe therapeutic space is critical for play therapy to be successful. 

So, don’t miss this week’s 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

Send us a text

Have you ever had a client present to your office and you were kind of stumped about what to do?

Me too.  I’ve totally been there.

The thing that helped me to make sure I was doing my best to help my client was having a good network of colleagues and mentors to share their knowledge and resources.

That’s exactly why I’m soooooooooo excited about my guest this week - Leah Evans, LPC,  RPT. 

Leah is part of our Play Therapy Academy community and regularly shares her knowledge about using play therapy with children experiencing problematic eating.

Interested in learning more about play therapy with children experiencing eating challenges?

Join me for this free weekly podcast! Leah and I will discuss signs to recognize a potential eating problem in children and teens as well as how play therapy can help.

For more information about Leah Evans, check out her Psychology Today profile at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/leah-m-evans-san-antonio-tx/899627

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

Send us a text

I’ve heard it said by mental health professionals and play therapists that case conceptualization doesn’t really matter when you’re working with clients.

When I dig a little deeper about their reasons, the response that I get is that play therapy and counseling is intuitive and it’s about building a strong relationship with clients.

When I challenge them a little, most of the time they are using case conceptualization to inform their decision making and don’t realize it.

My thought is that being more intentional about case conceptualization and how it helps provide excellent play therapy services to clients can only be a good thing.

Are you using case conceptualization to inform your decision-making about what to do with clients?

Does it really matter if you’re using case conceptualization?

Join me for this free weekly podcast! I’ll discuss what is case conceptualization and how you can use it to maximize healing for your play therapy 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

Send us a text

Boost Parental Involvement in Play Therapy with Attachment & Neuroscience Strategies

If you’re a play therapist or child/adolescent therapist, then you know children exist within the context of a family and parental involvement in the treatment process is important.

But do you view parents as the therapeutic agents of change for their child?

As the therapeutic agent of change for their child, parents play a critical role in the play therapy change process for co-regulation to help their children use their parents to navigate the day-to-day challenges of everyday living.

If you’ve ever felt unsure about how to involve parents, it’s probably because you’re not sure how to include parents in the change process or maybe you’ve struggle with getting parents to be involved consistently and in a meaningful way.

We also know from decades of research that children who have secure relationships with their parents are resilient and have a healthy sense of self. 

If you’re struggling with engaging parents in the play therapy change process then join me for this free weekly podcast, I’ll discuss how you can maximize positive outcomes in play therapy for your clients by getting better engagement from parents.

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