#35: Step into a world where play and healing intertwine in Episode 35 of HPOE. Ariel, Stefanie, and special guest Maria delve into the transformative power of play therapy. Discover how Disney villains can become tools for empathy in therapy and how engaging with our favorite stories and characters can foster healing and growth. This episode is a heartwarming journey into embracing our inner child through the magic of play, offering insights for therapists, educators, and Disney lovers alike.

Register for the “Play Therapy: To Infinity and Beyond Conference” taking place at Disneyland and the Dinseyland Hotel from March 5-10th, 2024 here: https://www.anewhopetc.org/playatdisneyland

Summary of HPOE35: Unlocking The Healing Powers of Play

Ariel Landrum 0:03
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Ariel, I’m licensed therapist who uses clients’ passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:13
And I’m Stef, I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn more about themselves and the world around them.

Maria Laquerre-Diego 0:20
And I’m Maria, I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist and registered play therapist who tries to find Disney and pop cultural references in everything for therapy.

Stefanie Bautista 0:29
And here at Happiest Pod, we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum 0:33
Why? Because we’re more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums that you consume. So what Disney experience are we talking about today, everybody?

Stefanie Bautista 0:41
Well, we do have a special guest the welcome Maria, thank you so much for being on the podcast with us today. Maria, do you want to share a little bit about what you do as a play therapist? If no one knows what a play therapist is?

Maria Laquerre-Diego 0:52
Sure, sure. So as a registered play therapist with the Association for Play, which is based on in California, I incorporate the powers of play. And often what it comes down to is those moments that we don’t have the words to articulate what we’ve gone through, regardless of age. Play allows us to process and share those experiences with someone who’s trained to interpret play as communication.

Ariel Landrum 1:20
That’s really interesting, because I know, and I’m curious for you, I’m an art therapist, and we have very specific way in which we view art that’s different than using art therapeutically. So how do you use play as a play therapist versus a therapist who plays with their client?

Maria Laquerre-Diego 1:35
A great question, because we don’t just play with our clients. So play therapy is a model that goes on top of and includes your theory of change. So play therapy is a large umbrella, someone might be a narrative play therapist really focusing on storytelling and the powers of story, doing narrative work, but inner weaving their use of play techniques. Or they could be a solution focused play therapist or ecosystemic play therapist, right. So your theory of change will remain in play therapy is just a model that helps make the interventions more fun. And it removes the requirement to be in our brain and in our vocal space. So often, it can be really hard to talk about the hard things. And so having someone trained on the other side of the couch for you, who doesn’t need you to say the words but can give you alternate ways to express those things. That is that’s play therapy.

Stefanie Bautista 2:34
I love that in education play is a big part. But as teachers, it’s always like, “You have to stop playing now. Because we have to learn.” And it’s just like, the kids perspective is always like, “When are we allowed to play when are we going to play?” And I think this way, it’s kind of flipping the narrative a little bit and saying that, you know, we are learning through our play, but not necessarily saying you know, play as like a reward or whatever. Like it’s a way to express yourself in a way to communicate through play, because everybody talks about how body language is so important. That’s very important when it comes to play to because you are then using how you react to certain situations, how you’re interacting with other people, and how you’re doing decision making, as you know, a kid through play. It’s it’s really cool. I really love that.

Maria Laquerre-Diego 3:17
Yeah, great. Yeah. And yeah, play is learning, right? We are learning through play we have from the very I mean, when we think about infants, what what do we do we play peekaboo, right? We talk and sing songy voices that doesn’t need to go away. And so I’m, I’m excited also to talk about like using play with adults because it’s, it’s very much geared and marketed that play therapy is for children. But I use it with adults, I do it in couples counseling. It’s really helpful anytime. You don’t have the words necessarily or it’s too hard to vocalize.

Ariel Landrum 3:50
Well and for any of our listeners who have been listening to our episodes for a while episode 24 When we talked about Disney Villains we actually mentioned Maria and her talking and training on how to use villains and therapy as something that’s affirming as opposed to pathologizing.

Maria Laquerre-Diego 4:08
Love. Thank you so much. Was that from the TAGGS? That has really ...