EP 35-how-to-develop-culturally-informed-play-therapy-case-conceptualization
[00:00:00] Cathi Spooner: Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy, a weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services. We'll explore all things play therapy to elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play.
[00:00:23] I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives. So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families.
[00:00:47] Today, I want to talk about cultural formate formulation when you are doing your case conceptualization in play therapy. So I'll talk a little bit about what case conceptualization is, because that's a really fancy term. And some of you may not be familiar with it. If you have been watching some of my previous live stream episodes, then you probably will be familiar with it because I've been talking about case conceptualization and play therapy for a few weeks now and the different aspects of case conceptualization, especially in play therapy and the importance of case conceptualization to get that impact that you're looking for for your clients. And really understanding the cultural aspect of case conceptualization is an important part of that competency to really understand your clients and their families holistically.
[00:01:55] It also makes sure that you're checking your own biases and you're making sure you're not misdiagnosing because you've attributed a certain type of behavior to something like a refusal or some other kind of maybe not so positive aspect of your client when it may actually be their cultural norm. And so understanding that is critical for developing that therapeutic rapport with your clients and their parents or guardians.
[00:02:35] As well as making sure you can effectively help them navigate through all of the phases of the treatment process. Because we know, and when we're in the middle of the treatment process, even in play therapy, when we're looking at the child holistically and thinking in terms of child within context, of family and community,
[00:03:02] then we know in the middle phases of treatment, that's kind of where the rubber hits the road can get a little challenging. You have to overcome and help navigate around a few of those, um, challenges that come up in the play therapy process. And if you don't have that strong therapeutic rapport with your clients, then you may lose them.
[00:03:26] So, and sometimes that can be easier said than done and sometimes it can be actually not too bad. So if you're joining me live today, I would love to know who's here. Go ahead and post your name in the comments. Post where you're from. I am Cathi Spooner. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and a registered play therapy supervisor here in the United States.
[00:03:55] And I have been in the child and adolescent mental health field for over 30 years now, supervising and training, doing consultation for about the last 15 years. And so I stream live every Wednesday at 7 a. m pacific time here in the United States and talk about all things play therapy and expressive arts to pass along my knowledge of uh, 30 years.
[00:04:23] and all my knowledge through the consulting and supervising process. I have an online play therapy consultation supervision program called Play Therapy Academy. So I'll talk a little bit more about that at the end if you're interested in getting into some kind of additional support to level up your play therapy skills.
[00:04:49] I'll also talk about some of the online courses, trainings. In person trainings I have going on. If you're interested in that. One of the things that I have been really focusing on lately is really getting some of those core competencies in play therapy to get a really strong foundation because I love using the analogy of building a house.
[00:05:14] We know if we don't have a strong foundation, then it's not going to bear up the weight of the house, so to speak. So for the play therapy metaphor that has to do with building up your theoretical model foundation and how do you take that theoretical model and apply it as well as some of these core competencies that the Association for Play Therapy has identified that we need to
[00:05:44] develop mastery with regardless of our play therapy model. There are some things that are consistent across all the play therapy models. And it's been my experience when we develop competency in these, then the quality of services that we provide really exponentially increases. That's a process. It takes time.
[00:06:09] We all know in the mental health field that requires also getting some mentoring, um, AKA play therapy supervision and consultation. And learning how to do that will definitely help you make more of an impact because that's the reason you do this, right? This is why we all do it. We want to make a difference.
[00:06:32] We want to make an impact. And to do that, it's really important in my opinion, to get these core competencies, to gain mastery with them. And so that's why I've been talking a lot about some of these core competencies, I've developed, uh, an online course series called Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Excellence.
[00:06:54] These courses are really focused on some of these foundational skills of play therapy. So like the first, the first online course, they're all safe, self paced, so you can take them whenever it's convenient for you in your time zone. So the first one is, Uh, getting grounded in play therapy foundations.
[00:07:14] That's a core one for play therapy. Um, becoming a play therapist. The second one I have out currently is called getting grounded in play therapy case conceptualization. And so a lot, a lot of what I've been talking about over the last several weeks is, is information that I've gathered and put together in this course.
[00:07:37] I go into more depth in the course I walk you through step by step how to do it. And at the same time, I think these are important things for us to be talking about in the play therapy community because I don't think they come up very often. I think in some ways we kind of take them for granted. One of the things that I've found as I've been over the last 15 years, especially the last I would say last 10 years is really, um, not really understanding the importance of case conceptualization and how that can make a huge difference in your, the quality of your play therapy services.
[00:08:19] And so if we're talking about play therapy case conceptualization, one of the things that we need to make sure to also talk about is what is cultural formulation within the larger case conceptualization framework? So there's a few people that are kind of checking in. I wanted to say hi. There's a few people on Instagram.
[00:08:43] So I live stream every week into Instagram and then I use a streaming platform called StreamYard to live stream into my private Facebook group. So if you're a play therapist or wanting to learn play therapy on your child and adolescent therapist using Play and Expressive Arts, you may be interested in this Facebook group.
[00:09:06] It's called Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground. You do have to answer all the questions in order to get into the group. I always like to say that because on a regular basis. They don't and they don't get in sometimes. So just make sure if you want in the group and you're a child and adolescent therapist using play therapy and expressive arts, just make sure you answer all the questions.
[00:09:30] So, um, so I have Natalie. Looks like Natalie is from LinkedIn from Australia. It's midnight there. Unfortunately, I may not be able to stay. However, it's lovely to know it happens. Uh, it happens. Thank you. I'm an accredited mental health social worker and registered play therapist. That is, that's so awesome.
[00:09:53] And also Natalie or any of you, um, who are in a very different time zone for me. As an FYI, these live streams will automatically generate into a recorded replay. You can't join in. I mean, you can join in after the fact and post in the comments after the fact. I love that, uh, interacting with people and kind of engaging.
[00:10:17] I think it's really cool to learn what people are doing around the world using play therapy and helping children, adolescents and families heal. And how play therapy is, um, being done in other countries and other cultures. So I think that's really cool. That's one of the nice things about, uh, the internet is we get that ability to to interact and engage with people around the world.
[00:10:46] So that is really cool. Um, and so on Instagram, looks like we have a couple of people, uh, Dov, yeah, I hope I pronounced your name correctly from Malta. That is so cool. I have to tell you this. My, my dad, uh, he was in the Navy. So this is of course back in the 50s and 60s. Uh, probably more the 60s, but I remember my dad would go on these.
[00:11:16] I promise you this applies. Uh, my dad would go on these six months cruises and we'd be, he'd be gone for like six months at a time, but he would always come back. But one of the places my dad talked about all the time that he absolutely loved was Malta. Um, so that is cool. I would love to kind of see, see that area just because my dad talked about it so much.
[00:11:40] Um, so we have also child counselor uses creative therapies. That's awesome. It's 4:00 PM there. Yeah, I think you guys, that's interesting too 'cause that's good for me to know. 'cause I was thinking in Europe it was 3:00 PM i, I probably should have looked at my time. World time clock better . So yeah, that's interesting.
[00:12:02] Four o'clock there. Yeah, it's 7:00 AM where I am on the. I'm in the, uh, on the west coast here in the United States. So that is awesome. Welcome. So glad you guys are here. I would love to know who of you are using case conceptualization. And, um, have you even heard about case conceptualization in your play therapy training?
[00:12:29] My experience is that we don't really talk about it too much, which is why I think it's important have these conversations because when I do supervision and we do this in my Play Therapy Academy, which is my online group, we go through, we'll do the case conceptualization process. And, um, the difference that makes in helping you not feel lost and overwhelmed is huge.
[00:12:58] What I found is when play therapists or child and adolescent therapists are not necessarily taking the time in the beginning, then they oftentimes get lost and feel overwhelmed and then their imposter syndrome kicks in and then they're feeling like they don't know what they're doing and it feels awful.
[00:13:21] And so, there's a Facebook user says using case conceptualization in my practicum class right now. That is awesome. And I'm assuming that's probably not a play therapy class. but probably more case conceptualization in general, which is excellent. And I think probably one of the things that you'll have to do then is make sure with your play therapy theoretical model, how are you going to use that model to do the case conceptualization.
[00:13:56] So, um, that's one of the things that I do in my case conceptualization course, the, um, Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Case Conceptualization, because there's a book if you're interested, this book is golden. It's by Len Sperry and John Sperry. Case conceptualization, Mastering this Competency with Ease and Confidence, Second Edition.
[00:14:21] Also, the, the DSM 5 has a whole, uh, section on case formula, uh, clinical, cultural case formulation. In there. And so, um, what, so what I've what I've done is I took a lot of the information from here, um, and the DSM and other resources and kind of used a play therapy lens. If you're using your case, case conceptualization from play therapy.
[00:14:52] So today, what I want to do is talk about that. Um, what's the cultural formulation component of case conceptualization? So first and foremost, I'll just kind of briefly review case conceptualization. If you're interested in learning more or hearing more about what I've talked about, feel free to hop over to if you're in my Facebook group, all of the live replays are pinned in the featured section.
[00:15:27] Um, if you're in LinkedIn, uh, and probably even Instagram, maybe it's probably better to hop over to my YouTube channel. My YouTube channel is Cathi Spooner, Renewing Hearts Training. And if you click in the live tab, all of the replays are over, uh, over there. Feel free to, uh, if you find this information helpful on the YouTube, please feel free to like it and share it across your social media platforms.
[00:15:55] On my YouTube channel, you can subscribe so you get and click the notification bell. So you do get notified, but all the replays are there. Um, So the book title is, uh, Case Conceptualization. It's by Len Sperry and John Sperry. I'll hold it up so maybe you can see it a little bit in the, in the, uh, uh, camera there.
[00:16:23] Uh, Case Conceptualization, Mastering this Competency with Ease and Confidence, Second Edition. And it's the, the book is a really good book. I, I, I highly recommend it. I don't get any kickbacks from this book. I just really think it's a good book. I like to let people know about it, especially in the play therapy world, because we don't really talk about it that much.
[00:16:47] So case conceptualization is essentially ident gathering information to identify exactly what's going on. What are the roots underlying the behavior and what patterns are sustaining it? So why is it, what specifically is happening and why is it happening? And that requires looking at some of the patterns within the family system.
[00:17:15] The reason it's important is kind of what I've already talked about already is it's, you know, really getting that case conceptualization gives you a better idea of what what actually is going on so that when you are determining what what play therapy intervention model so this is a treatment it ties directly in with treatment planning and i'm going to talk a little bit more about that later um because if you don't really target the right area then you you could you going in the wrong direction, which is possibly, that's probably what explains why you're feeling lost and overwhelmed because you don't know exactly what's going on.
[00:18:01] You don't know why you're using the interventions that you're using or how they're supposed to be helping. So if you take that time at the beginning, at the very beginning, then it's going to help you later on. And we're always an assessment model from start to finish all the way through. We use our clinical decision making.
[00:18:25] We kind of use our assessment throughout the change process. And I always say like the first 90 days are really take in what we've gathered initially with parents and depending on the age of the child through that psychosocial assessment that bio psychosocial cultural spiritual assessment. And formulating our treatment plan and our diagnosis to kind of give us an idea,
[00:18:52] okay, here's where I want to start. And then we typically take that first 90 days or so to get a better sense and kind of hone in on that a little more closely to figure out and get a sense of what's going on, build that therapeutic rapport. And so here's where I am going to, I'm going to have a different opinion
[00:19:16] of some of the industry norms in the play therapy community. And how do I know this? So as I'm developing these courses and my next one, the next course coming up in this Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Excellence Series is Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Treatment Planning. How, what is treatment planning?
[00:19:40] And, and I also in this course kind of break it down to the mechanics of like, how do you write a, uh, play therapy goal that lines up with your play therapy model? How do you write those dang objectives? What's the difference between interventions and objectives and how do I write this dang thing? And why is it not, you know, so it's not just a paperwork product, uh, process to meet the, uh, documentation gods and the insurance gods, but really make it useful.
[00:20:09] So as I've been going through and doing some more research for this, in addition to what I've done for the previous courses. One of the things that I've noticed over and over is some, some of the, um, leaders in the field will say things like, Oh, you don't really need to do the assessment or we don't really do treatment plan.
[00:20:29] It's kind of more of an intuitive process. And I don't, I don't disagree that it's an intuitive process. I do believe it's an intuitive process. Where I, where I do disagree is the fact that we don't need to do that assessment at the beginning. Um, because what I found is play therapists get lost, you get lost in the, especially in the beginning when you're learning it.
[00:20:56] I don't, I can't tell you how many times I've talked with play therapists who are learning, and they're lost, and they don't know what's going on, and they feel like a big fraud, and they feel horrible, and it's overwhelming, and they start thinking, well, maybe I'm just not cut out for this, maybe I just wasted all my money getting a master's degree because I'm horrible at this, when in fact, it's not that at all most of the time.
[00:21:22] Most of the time is they just haven't gotten a good grounding and learned how to do case conceptualization that will inform their treatment planning that's culturally informed to meet the specific needs of each client. And, um, that's what really helps to make an impact. We do need therapeutic rapport.
[00:21:47] It is an intuitive process. Absolutely. It's all of those things. And in my opinion, it's not either or it's not black and white. It's not binary, no assessment or only assessment. It's not that way. It's the, it's the balance and the blend of both pillars of treatment that you bring your personality and your kind of flavor into the play therapy process with that balance. And that will help you navigate through the play therapy process and make the impact that you want to make.
[00:22:30] That's why we do it. It's a hard job. When we, you know, we can, we can struggle and work through and kind of, ah, sometimes through the process and you see your clients making that breakthrough and getting to that next phase and getting that aha moment and you're like, yes, this is why I do this. This is why I keep going.
[00:22:52] So in order to do that, we need these foundational basics and case conceptualization is one of those. So, oops, I forgot to use my little banners here on, on a stream yard. I can create these little banners. They don't show up on Instagram. Um, so that's case conceptualization. The next part of this, what I want to talk about is mostly the focus for, for today's live stream episode, which is cultural formulation.
[00:23:24] What is cultural formulation and how, um, in play therapy and how does that fit into the overall case conceptualization? So cultural formulation is essentially. You're recognizing the role of cultural identity, cultural experiences, cultural values, cultural norms, traditions, beliefs on your client's overall well being and their functioning and how these factors promote resiliency.
[00:24:02] So you're always wanting to make sure you look for some of the resiliency. These are the things you want to support. And where some of these factors may be contributing to the problem. And if you've been working with children and adolescents for a while now, and you work from with children and families of from cultures outside of your own, whatever country you're living in.
[00:24:30] And let's say the child has grown up predominantly, I'll say, like here in the US, what we find is children who are raised predominantly in the US and have parents who were raised predominantly in other cultures. Those two can be a clash sometimes. And those are usually the ones we're seeing in our office.
[00:24:50] So the goal is how do you help them navigate through that? First though, you have to understand what it is. You have to understand what the cultural identity is and which family members are ascribing to that cultural identity and what varying degree do they kind of identify with cultural, their culture or what ways are they rejecting their culture?
[00:25:19] Um, which is maybe part of the problem that the parents and the children are experiencing. So you're, you're looking at that. You want to understand how do those factors contribute to the problem. And how does culture influence your client's understanding of the problem? How does culture influence parents or grandparents or extended family members or the community in which they are a member of?
[00:25:53] How to all, how does culture influence their understanding of the problem? How, and that's including parents and family members. So you're looking at those things and in the case conceptualization course, the play therapy case conceptualization course, one of the things that I do is I walk you through like what questions to ask in the biopsychosocial assessment.
[00:26:20] cultural and spiritual assessment. What, what questions you want to ask? Why do you want to ask them, including the cultural formulation piece? And then taking that information, I walk you step by step through the case formulas, uh, case conceptualization process for children and their families using a play therapy lens.
[00:26:46] And then that's going to help you to do your treatment planning, which is the next course. That course will be coming out in, in, um, July next month. So, so how do you take that information? So now you have case formalization. How does case, uh, cultural formulation help with treatment planning? There, there needs to be a reason, right?
[00:27:16] There's a reason we're doing this. The whole reason we're doing this is to get really good outcomes for clients so that you can make a difference in their life and be part of that change process with them within that context of a strong therapeutic relationship. So when you do your cultural formulation and how it impacts your treatment planning,
[00:27:45] is when you're doing your cultural formulation, you're also checking your own biases about culture, especially if that culture is different from your own, you want to, because a lot of times what's culturally, um, typical, what's the norm in one culture, we often may find that to be. We may misunderstand it or misdiagnose it all together.
[00:28:15] Um, and so really understanding where our clients are coming from, meeting them exactly where they are so you can help them get where they want to be is really important. It also ensures that you're not, you're going to reduce. the likelihood of misdiagnosing. If there's something that's a cultural norm for your client's culture, but you're not familiar with it or you're not understanding or recognizing it, it does increase the likelihood that you may misdiagnose your client.
[00:28:55] And the reason that's important is because you'll be focusing on the wrong thing. And you may be ascribing something as a problem when it may not be the problem. It may just be their way of being. And then that's your own bias showing up in this formulation process. So the importance of it is to make sure that you're actually,
[00:29:22] you're accurately recognizing how culture plays a role in the problems your clients are experiencing, as well as recognizing any of those resiliency factors. And when you're recognizing culture and cultural norms and respecting those, that's also going to increase your ability to establish a strong therapeutic rapport.
[00:29:52] Really, respecting and validating parents concerns about culture as well as the children's experience of their culture and their family and and really helping parents and children come together around areas that may be creating some some conflict and some disconnect rupture in their relationship but also Um, being respectful of culture and I. We had this one family we were working with, um, and it was round eating and it was a family, um, from another culture.
[00:30:35] And so, and in that culture, food is huge and making sure you're feeding your family and feeding your kids. But for this, uh, little client, the food had become a way of dealing with emotions. So there's a lot of unhealthy eating. And so working through that with mom, and then what mom did, she went on the internet on YouTube and found, uh, some YouTube channels focused on cooking, the food that is, you know, from her culture, but found healthy ways of cooking the food.
[00:31:13] And so, you know, working through and respecting that process, I think is really important and being able to develop that rapport and showing parents that you respect them and their culture and helping them recognize where, Hmm, they're this is this may not work so well here in this, this part here in our country, um, you know, with some of the parenting, typical parenting approaches and from other countries, like here in the U.
[00:31:41] S., they don't go over so well. So being able to be respectful because the intent is to be a good parent. The intent is that they love their child. The intent is they want their child to, to grow up and be healthy, happy and productive. We can always join on that intent and build rapport around that and recognizing some of those positive areas and those positive things about culture and then work with some of the areas where it may need change.
[00:32:18] So that is it for today. Um, if you, I'm just going to do a quick recap. So first and foremost, case conceptualization is an important competency to master and play therapy because it's the difference between feeling lost, overwhelmed, and feeling like a big giant imposter and getting minimal results. to really recognizing what's going on so you can get amazing results and make an impact and make a difference in the lives of your clients.
[00:32:55] And again, we want to make sure that we balance out, um, gathering information, doing that assessment process with using your play therapy theoretical lens. Because that's going to help to identify your play therapy theoretical lens will influence how you, how you identify and make sense of and describe what the problem actually is.
[00:33:23] And then using that case conceptualization to do your treatment planning that will influence diagnosis. Diagnosis is not a bad word. It's not all about diagnosis. And we want to make sure to get an accurate diagnosis because it gives you an idea of what's going on. How many different kinds of anxiety are there?
[00:33:46] There's a ton. And you want to make sure you understand the difference between is this trauma Or is it ADHD or is it anxiety? They all share similar symptoms, but if you don't do that case conceptualization, you're possibly going to miss what are the roots of that and misdiagnose altogether. I have seen that happen over and over.
[00:34:12] And it's not to say we're never going to misdiagnose. Sometimes we do miss it. Sometimes, you know, we'll start out with one diagnosis, and as we're getting into, you know, the middle part, we're realizing, oh, I think this is probably something else. Those things do happen. Um, but that's not, in my opinion, a reason not to do it in the beginning.
[00:34:31] That's just kind of where I, I tend to take a different stand on that particular, um, topic. And so the second thing is, what is, what is cultural formulation? Which is really learning how to develop a cultural, um, culturally informed case conceptualization, so that it ensures you understand your client in a holistic way.
[00:34:59] And, um, this client lives within the context of family and community. And those families and communities come with specific cultural norms, beliefs, values, traditions, ways of understanding and make sense of sense of, um, what your client is going through. So you want to make sure to understand that and create. It does when you're using that cultural formulation, that cultural lens, you're also creating cultural safety, which is an important part of that therapeutic communication with your client.
[00:35:40] Because culture is dynamic and it's deeply embedded in a person's way of being. So within the context of that therapeutic communication that you're having, you're more aware of those dynamics of the culture and how those show up within that communication, that, um, interaction. in those therapy sessions and how you might be communicating in a way that may be problematic for your clients or misunderstanding maybe their way of, like, if they don't understand anything in their culture, then they don't want to look like they're a bad parent or that they don't understand what you're saying so they may not tell you. And they may just say yeah I get it and they don't and you're like racking your head like why are they not doing what I'm saying is the best thing for them to do. Are they just being willful are they a terrible parent well it may not have nothing to do with that it may be that they're a really good parent but some of those cultural influences are showing And so how does cultural formulation help with treatment planning?
[00:36:55] If you're aware of your own cultural biases. and your preconceptions, your, and what are some of the cultural influences that are going on with not only resiliency, which are, which are the resiliency factors. You want to make sure you support those. You want to validate those. You want to highlight those.
[00:37:22] And then that will, that's going to help build rapport. That's going to help build trust. That's going to help you make sure you check your biases and you check your preconceptual, uh, preconceptions about what's going on to help you make the shift you need to make. While also. building that relationship so that when you, when you make suggestions for change, where you may be challenging your client's parents or client outside of what's typical in their culture, but maybe not necessarily, um, that may be causing some conflict, then you're going to help that family be able to get to another place where they can respect culture.
[00:38:09] And also maybe integrate some of those new things from the new country where they're now living in a way that is comfortable and compatible with the beliefs and values of the, that particular family. And that's a case by case basis. So if you're, and, and so when you're doing your creating your treatment plan and you're in that treatment planning process to figure out, what type of play therapy model are you going to use?
[00:38:38] What kind of interventions are you going to use? Who's involved in the treatment process? How often are parents going to be involved? How are they? How often are you going to see with kids? What are you going to do with them in the sessions? All of those things. You're going to have a much more grounded, holistic, accurate and respectful process in the, in the play therapy process.
[00:39:03] So that is it for today. Um, if again, if you found this information helpful, please like it and share it across your social media platforms. All of the replays, if you ever want to watch any of the past ones, you can, if you're in my Facebook group, you can pop into the featured section they're all in there.
[00:39:23] Otherwise, you may want to just pop over to my YouTube channel, Cathi Spooner, Renewing Hearts Training, click on the live tab and all of my live replays are in there on all kinds of different topics. Please feel free to share those as well. If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, if you're interested in online play therapy consultation, also known as supervision.
[00:39:48] I do have a few openings left in my play therapy group. I have one on Saturday and one on Wednesday evening, my time, one on Saturday morning, my time. And Play Therapy Academy, it's really hands on. We have a case presentation schedule. And people in the group will present their schedule. We'll talk about case conceptualization.
[00:40:13] What specific play therapy model are you using? How are you applying the model? We give lots of feedback. You, there's some amazing people in our group. Um, and they, they always add, um, resources, information. So you not only get my 30 years of experience in child and adolescent therapy, you also get the collective wisdom and brilliance of the group.
[00:40:41] That's what I say. And then also in Play Therapy Academy, the pro, it's a program that includes the twice a month online groups. As well as all of the courses from the Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Excellence series. In addition, we have a group chat for support in between session and there's some other bonuses that come with Play Therapy Academy.
[00:41:06] If you don't need Play Therapy Academy and you already have, uh, supervision with someone, or maybe you're already in RPT, but you want to take some of these courses, they're available a la carte, so to speak. You can buy them. separately. Just pop over to my website. Um, the one that I've been talking about recently is Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Case Conceptualization.
[00:41:31] I have some other courses over there as well. If you're interested in the courses, you can pop over to my website, which is rhplaytherapytraining. com. The courses will be on the courses page. If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, then pop over to the website and go on the supervision page. You'll see information about Play Therapy Academy and you can schedule a free 30 minute call with me.
[00:42:03] a video call. We can talk about Play Therapy Academy. See if it's a good fit for you. Um, I do only have a few spots left. So if you're interested, you probably want to contact me sooner rather than later because I'm not doing, uh, when they close, they'll be closed for a while until somebody is not doing it anymore.
[00:42:22] So, all right, so I will see you next week and have a bye.
[00:42:31] Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy. I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal. If you enjoyed this episode, Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
[00:42:57] Remember, play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth. Whether you're a new play therapist or experienced, I encourage you to continue your learning journey to unlock the potential of play in your own work and relationships. If you have any questions or topic suggestions for future episodes.
[00:43:18] I'd love to hear from you. Connect with me on social media and visit my website at Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources. Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy. Until next time, keep playing, learning, and growing.
[00:00:00] Cathi Spooner: Welcome to Next Level Play Therapy, a weekly podcast dedicated to supporting the next generation of child and adolescent therapists to provide exceptional play therapy services. We'll explore all things play therapy to elevate your work with children and adolescents using the therapeutic powers of play.
[00:00:23] I'll discuss practical tips and ideas so you can provide a transformative experience for your young clients and make a real difference in their lives. So get ready to take your play therapy skills to the next level and make a lasting impact in the lives of children, adolescents, and families.
[00:00:47] Today, I want to talk about cultural formate formulation when you are doing your case conceptualization in play therapy. So I'll talk a little bit about what case conceptualization is, because that's a really fancy term. And some of you may not be familiar with it. If you have been watching some of my previous live stream episodes, then you probably will be familiar with it because I've been talking about case conceptualization and play therapy for a few weeks now and the different aspects of case conceptualization, especially in play therapy and the importance of case conceptualization to get that impact that you're looking for for your clients. And really understanding the cultural aspect of case conceptualization is an important part of that competency to really understand your clients and their families holistically.
[00:01:55] It also makes sure that you're checking your own biases and you're making sure you're not misdiagnosing because you've attributed a certain type of behavior to something like a refusal or some other kind of maybe not so positive aspect of your client when it may actually be their cultural norm. And so understanding that is critical for developing that therapeutic rapport with your clients and their parents or guardians.
[00:02:35] As well as making sure you can effectively help them navigate through all of the phases of the treatment process. Because we know, and when we're in the middle of the treatment process, even in play therapy, when we're looking at the child holistically and thinking in terms of child within context, of family and community,
[00:03:02] then we know in the middle phases of treatment, that's kind of where the rubber hits the road can get a little challenging. You have to overcome and help navigate around a few of those, um, challenges that come up in the play therapy process. And if you don't have that strong therapeutic rapport with your clients, then you may lose them.
[00:03:26] So, and sometimes that can be easier said than done and sometimes it can be actually not too bad. So if you're joining me live today, I would love to know who's here. Go ahead and post your name in the comments. Post where you're from. I am Cathi Spooner. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and a registered play therapy supervisor here in the United States.
[00:03:55] And I have been in the child and adolescent mental health field for over 30 years now, supervising and training, doing consultation for about the last 15 years. And so I stream live every Wednesday at 7 a. m pacific time here in the United States and talk about all things play therapy and expressive arts to pass along my knowledge of uh, 30 years.
[00:04:23] and all my knowledge through the consulting and supervising process. I have an online play therapy consultation supervision program called Play Therapy Academy. So I'll talk a little bit more about that at the end if you're interested in getting into some kind of additional support to level up your play therapy skills.
[00:04:49] I'll also talk about some of the online courses, trainings. In person trainings I have going on. If you're interested in that. One of the things that I have been really focusing on lately is really getting some of those core competencies in play therapy to get a really strong foundation because I love using the analogy of building a house.
[00:05:14] We know if we don't have a strong foundation, then it's not going to bear up the weight of the house, so to speak. So for the play therapy metaphor that has to do with building up your theoretical model foundation and how do you take that theoretical model and apply it as well as some of these core competencies that the Association for Play Therapy has identified that we need to
[00:05:44] develop mastery with regardless of our play therapy model. There are some things that are consistent across all the play therapy models. And it's been my experience when we develop competency in these, then the quality of services that we provide really exponentially increases. That's a process. It takes time.
[00:06:09] We all know in the mental health field that requires also getting some mentoring, um, AKA play therapy supervision and consultation. And learning how to do that will definitely help you make more of an impact because that's the reason you do this, right? This is why we all do it. We want to make a difference.
[00:06:32] We want to make an impact. And to do that, it's really important in my opinion, to get these core competencies, to gain mastery with them. And so that's why I've been talking a lot about some of these core competencies, I've developed, uh, an online course series called Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Excellence.
[00:06:54] These courses are really focused on some of these foundational skills of play therapy. So like the first, the first online course, they're all safe, self paced, so you can take them whenever it's convenient for you in your time zone. So the first one is, Uh, getting grounded in play therapy foundations.
[00:07:14] That's a core one for play therapy. Um, becoming a play therapist. The second one I have out currently is called getting grounded in play therapy case conceptualization. And so a lot, a lot of what I've been talking about over the last several weeks is, is information that I've gathered and put together in this course.
[00:07:37] I go into more depth in the course I walk you through step by step how to do it. And at the same time, I think these are important things for us to be talking about in the play therapy community because I don't think they come up very often. I think in some ways we kind of take them for granted. One of the things that I've found as I've been over the last 15 years, especially the last I would say last 10 years is really, um, not really understanding the importance of case conceptualization and how that can make a huge difference in your, the quality of your play therapy services.
[00:08:19] And so if we're talking about play therapy case conceptualization, one of the things that we need to make sure to also talk about is what is cultural formulation within the larger case conceptualization framework? So there's a few people that are kind of checking in. I wanted to say hi. There's a few people on Instagram.
[00:08:43] So I live stream every week into Instagram and then I use a streaming platform called StreamYard to live stream into my private Facebook group. So if you're a play therapist or wanting to learn play therapy on your child and adolescent therapist using Play and Expressive Arts, you may be interested in this Facebook group.
[00:09:06] It's called Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground. You do have to answer all the questions in order to get into the group. I always like to say that because on a regular basis. They don't and they don't get in sometimes. So just make sure if you want in the group and you're a child and adolescent therapist using play therapy and expressive arts, just make sure you answer all the questions.
[00:09:30] So, um, so I have Natalie. Looks like Natalie is from LinkedIn from Australia. It's midnight there. Unfortunately, I may not be able to stay. However, it's lovely to know it happens. Uh, it happens. Thank you. I'm an accredited mental health social worker and registered play therapist. That is, that's so awesome.
[00:09:53] And also Natalie or any of you, um, who are in a very different time zone for me. As an FYI, these live streams will automatically generate into a recorded replay. You can't join in. I mean, you can join in after the fact and post in the comments after the fact. I love that, uh, interacting with people and kind of engaging.
[00:10:17] I think it's really cool to learn what people are doing around the world using play therapy and helping children, adolescents and families heal. And how play therapy is, um, being done in other countries and other cultures. So I think that's really cool. That's one of the nice things about, uh, the internet is we get that ability to to interact and engage with people around the world.
[00:10:46] So that is really cool. Um, and so on Instagram, looks like we have a couple of people, uh, Dov, yeah, I hope I pronounced your name correctly from Malta. That is so cool. I have to tell you this. My, my dad, uh, he was in the Navy. So this is of course back in the 50s and 60s. Uh, probably more the 60s, but I remember my dad would go on these.
[00:11:16] I promise you this applies. Uh, my dad would go on these six months cruises and we'd be, he'd be gone for like six months at a time, but he would always come back. But one of the places my dad talked about all the time that he absolutely loved was Malta. Um, so that is cool. I would love to kind of see, see that area just because my dad talked about it so much.
[00:11:40] Um, so we have also child counselor uses creative therapies. That's awesome. It's 4:00 PM there. Yeah, I think you guys, that's interesting too 'cause that's good for me to know. 'cause I was thinking in Europe it was 3:00 PM i, I probably should have looked at my time. World time clock better . So yeah, that's interesting.
[00:12:02] Four o'clock there. Yeah, it's 7:00 AM where I am on the. I'm in the, uh, on the west coast here in the United States. So that is awesome. Welcome. So glad you guys are here. I would love to know who of you are using case conceptualization. And, um, have you even heard about case conceptualization in your play therapy training?
[00:12:29] My experience is that we don't really talk about it too much, which is why I think it's important have these conversations because when I do supervision and we do this in my Play Therapy Academy, which is my online group, we go through, we'll do the case conceptualization process. And, um, the difference that makes in helping you not feel lost and overwhelmed is huge.
[00:12:58] What I found is when play therapists or child and adolescent therapists are not necessarily taking the time in the beginning, then they oftentimes get lost and feel overwhelmed and then their imposter syndrome kicks in and then they're feeling like they don't know what they're doing and it feels awful.
[00:13:21] And so, there's a Facebook user says using case conceptualization in my practicum class right now. That is awesome. And I'm assuming that's probably not a play therapy class. but probably more case conceptualization in general, which is excellent. And I think probably one of the things that you'll have to do then is make sure with your play therapy theoretical model, how are you going to use that model to do the case conceptualization.
[00:13:56] So, um, that's one of the things that I do in my case conceptualization course, the, um, Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Case Conceptualization, because there's a book if you're interested, this book is golden. It's by Len Sperry and John Sperry. Case conceptualization, Mastering this Competency with Ease and Confidence, Second Edition.
[00:14:21] Also, the, the DSM 5 has a whole, uh, section on case formula, uh, clinical, cultural case formulation. In there. And so, um, what, so what I've what I've done is I took a lot of the information from here, um, and the DSM and other resources and kind of used a play therapy lens. If you're using your case, case conceptualization from play therapy.
[00:14:52] So today, what I want to do is talk about that. Um, what's the cultural formulation component of case conceptualization? So first and foremost, I'll just kind of briefly review case conceptualization. If you're interested in learning more or hearing more about what I've talked about, feel free to hop over to if you're in my Facebook group, all of the live replays are pinned in the featured section.
[00:15:27] Um, if you're in LinkedIn, uh, and probably even Instagram, maybe it's probably better to hop over to my YouTube channel. My YouTube channel is Cathi Spooner, Renewing Hearts Training. And if you click in the live tab, all of the replays are over, uh, over there. Feel free to, uh, if you find this information helpful on the YouTube, please feel free to like it and share it across your social media platforms.
[00:15:55] On my YouTube channel, you can subscribe so you get and click the notification bell. So you do get notified, but all the replays are there. Um, So the book title is, uh, Case Conceptualization. It's by Len Sperry and John Sperry. I'll hold it up so maybe you can see it a little bit in the, in the, uh, uh, camera there.
[00:16:23] Uh, Case Conceptualization, Mastering this Competency with Ease and Confidence, Second Edition. And it's the, the book is a really good book. I, I, I highly recommend it. I don't get any kickbacks from this book. I just really think it's a good book. I like to let people know about it, especially in the play therapy world, because we don't really talk about it that much.
[00:16:47] So case conceptualization is essentially ident gathering information to identify exactly what's going on. What are the roots underlying the behavior and what patterns are sustaining it? So why is it, what specifically is happening and why is it happening? And that requires looking at some of the patterns within the family system.
[00:17:15] The reason it's important is kind of what I've already talked about already is it's, you know, really getting that case conceptualization gives you a better idea of what what actually is going on so that when you are determining what what play therapy intervention model so this is a treatment it ties directly in with treatment planning and i'm going to talk a little bit more about that later um because if you don't really target the right area then you you could you going in the wrong direction, which is possibly, that's probably what explains why you're feeling lost and overwhelmed because you don't know exactly what's going on.
[00:18:01] You don't know why you're using the interventions that you're using or how they're supposed to be helping. So if you take that time at the beginning, at the very beginning, then it's going to help you later on. And we're always an assessment model from start to finish all the way through. We use our clinical decision making.
[00:18:25] We kind of use our assessment throughout the change process. And I always say like the first 90 days are really take in what we've gathered initially with parents and depending on the age of the child through that psychosocial assessment that bio psychosocial cultural spiritual assessment. And formulating our treatment plan and our diagnosis to kind of give us an idea,
[00:18:52] okay, here's where I want to start. And then we typically take that first 90 days or so to get a better sense and kind of hone in on that a little more closely to figure out and get a sense of what's going on, build that therapeutic rapport. And so here's where I am going to, I'm going to have a different opinion
[00:19:16] of some of the industry norms in the play therapy community. And how do I know this? So as I'm developing these courses and my next one, the next course coming up in this Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Excellence Series is Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Treatment Planning. How, what is treatment planning?
[00:19:40] And, and I also in this course kind of break it down to the mechanics of like, how do you write a, uh, play therapy goal that lines up with your play therapy model? How do you write those dang objectives? What's the difference between interventions and objectives and how do I write this dang thing? And why is it not, you know, so it's not just a paperwork product, uh, process to meet the, uh, documentation gods and the insurance gods, but really make it useful.
[00:20:09] So as I've been going through and doing some more research for this, in addition to what I've done for the previous courses. One of the things that I've noticed over and over is some, some of the, um, leaders in the field will say things like, Oh, you don't really need to do the assessment or we don't really do treatment plan.
[00:20:29] It's kind of more of an intuitive process. And I don't, I don't disagree that it's an intuitive process. I do believe it's an intuitive process. Where I, where I do disagree is the fact that we don't need to do that assessment at the beginning. Um, because what I found is play therapists get lost, you get lost in the, especially in the beginning when you're learning it.
[00:20:56] I don't, I can't tell you how many times I've talked with play therapists who are learning, and they're lost, and they don't know what's going on, and they feel like a big fraud, and they feel horrible, and it's overwhelming, and they start thinking, well, maybe I'm just not cut out for this, maybe I just wasted all my money getting a master's degree because I'm horrible at this, when in fact, it's not that at all most of the time.
[00:21:22] Most of the time is they just haven't gotten a good grounding and learned how to do case conceptualization that will inform their treatment planning that's culturally informed to meet the specific needs of each client. And, um, that's what really helps to make an impact. We do need therapeutic rapport.
[00:21:47] It is an intuitive process. Absolutely. It's all of those things. And in my opinion, it's not either or it's not black and white. It's not binary, no assessment or only assessment. It's not that way. It's the, it's the balance and the blend of both pillars of treatment that you bring your personality and your kind of flavor into the play therapy process with that balance. And that will help you navigate through the play therapy process and make the impact that you want to make.
[00:22:30] That's why we do it. It's a hard job. When we, you know, we can, we can struggle and work through and kind of, ah, sometimes through the process and you see your clients making that breakthrough and getting to that next phase and getting that aha moment and you're like, yes, this is why I do this. This is why I keep going.
[00:22:52] So in order to do that, we need these foundational basics and case conceptualization is one of those. So, oops, I forgot to use my little banners here on, on a stream yard. I can create these little banners. They don't show up on Instagram. Um, so that's case conceptualization. The next part of this, what I want to talk about is mostly the focus for, for today's live stream episode, which is cultural formulation.
[00:23:24] What is cultural formulation and how, um, in play therapy and how does that fit into the overall case conceptualization? So cultural formulation is essentially. You're recognizing the role of cultural identity, cultural experiences, cultural values, cultural norms, traditions, beliefs on your client's overall well being and their functioning and how these factors promote resiliency.
[00:24:02] So you're always wanting to make sure you look for some of the resiliency. These are the things you want to support. And where some of these factors may be contributing to the problem. And if you've been working with children and adolescents for a while now, and you work from with children and families of from cultures outside of your own, whatever country you're living in.
[00:24:30] And let's say the child has grown up predominantly, I'll say, like here in the US, what we find is children who are raised predominantly in the US and have parents who were raised predominantly in other cultures. Those two can be a clash sometimes. And those are usually the ones we're seeing in our office.
[00:24:50] So the goal is how do you help them navigate through that? First though, you have to understand what it is. You have to understand what the cultural identity is and which family members are ascribing to that cultural identity and what varying degree do they kind of identify with cultural, their culture or what ways are they rejecting their culture?
[00:25:19] Um, which is maybe part of the problem that the parents and the children are experiencing. So you're, you're looking at that. You want to understand how do those factors contribute to the problem. And how does culture influence your client's understanding of the problem? How does culture influence parents or grandparents or extended family members or the community in which they are a member of?
[00:25:53] How to all, how does culture influence their understanding of the problem? How, and that's including parents and family members. So you're looking at those things and in the case conceptualization course, the play therapy case conceptualization course, one of the things that I do is I walk you through like what questions to ask in the biopsychosocial assessment.
[00:26:20] cultural and spiritual assessment. What, what questions you want to ask? Why do you want to ask them, including the cultural formulation piece? And then taking that information, I walk you step by step through the case formulas, uh, case conceptualization process for children and their families using a play therapy lens.
[00:26:46] And then that's going to help you to do your treatment planning, which is the next course. That course will be coming out in, in, um, July next month. So, so how do you take that information? So now you have case formalization. How does case, uh, cultural formulation help with treatment planning? There, there needs to be a reason, right?
[00:27:16] There's a reason we're doing this. The whole reason we're doing this is to get really good outcomes for clients so that you can make a difference in their life and be part of that change process with them within that context of a strong therapeutic relationship. So when you do your cultural formulation and how it impacts your treatment planning,
[00:27:45] is when you're doing your cultural formulation, you're also checking your own biases about culture, especially if that culture is different from your own, you want to, because a lot of times what's culturally, um, typical, what's the norm in one culture, we often may find that to be. We may misunderstand it or misdiagnose it all together.
[00:28:15] Um, and so really understanding where our clients are coming from, meeting them exactly where they are so you can help them get where they want to be is really important. It also ensures that you're not, you're going to reduce. the likelihood of misdiagnosing. If there's something that's a cultural norm for your client's culture, but you're not familiar with it or you're not understanding or recognizing it, it does increase the likelihood that you may misdiagnose your client.
[00:28:55] And the reason that's important is because you'll be focusing on the wrong thing. And you may be ascribing something as a problem when it may not be the problem. It may just be their way of being. And then that's your own bias showing up in this formulation process. So the importance of it is to make sure that you're actually,
[00:29:22] you're accurately recognizing how culture plays a role in the problems your clients are experiencing, as well as recognizing any of those resiliency factors. And when you're recognizing culture and cultural norms and respecting those, that's also going to increase your ability to establish a strong therapeutic rapport.
[00:29:52] Really, respecting and validating parents concerns about culture as well as the children's experience of their culture and their family and and really helping parents and children come together around areas that may be creating some some conflict and some disconnect rupture in their relationship but also Um, being respectful of culture and I. We had this one family we were working with, um, and it was round eating and it was a family, um, from another culture.
[00:30:35] And so, and in that culture, food is huge and making sure you're feeding your family and feeding your kids. But for this, uh, little client, the food had become a way of dealing with emotions. So there's a lot of unhealthy eating. And so working through that with mom, and then what mom did, she went on the internet on YouTube and found, uh, some YouTube channels focused on cooking, the food that is, you know, from her culture, but found healthy ways of cooking the food.
[00:31:13] And so, you know, working through and respecting that process, I think is really important and being able to develop that rapport and showing parents that you respect them and their culture and helping them recognize where, Hmm, they're this is this may not work so well here in this, this part here in our country, um, you know, with some of the parenting, typical parenting approaches and from other countries, like here in the U.
[00:31:41] S., they don't go over so well. So being able to be respectful because the intent is to be a good parent. The intent is that they love their child. The intent is they want their child to, to grow up and be healthy, happy and productive. We can always join on that intent and build rapport around that and recognizing some of those positive areas and those positive things about culture and then work with some of the areas where it may need change.
[00:32:18] So that is it for today. Um, if you, I'm just going to do a quick recap. So first and foremost, case conceptualization is an important competency to master and play therapy because it's the difference between feeling lost, overwhelmed, and feeling like a big giant imposter and getting minimal results. to really recognizing what's going on so you can get amazing results and make an impact and make a difference in the lives of your clients.
[00:32:55] And again, we want to make sure that we balance out, um, gathering information, doing that assessment process with using your play therapy theoretical lens. Because that's going to help to identify your play therapy theoretical lens will influence how you, how you identify and make sense of and describe what the problem actually is.
[00:33:23] And then using that case conceptualization to do your treatment planning that will influence diagnosis. Diagnosis is not a bad word. It's not all about diagnosis. And we want to make sure to get an accurate diagnosis because it gives you an idea of what's going on. How many different kinds of anxiety are there?
[00:33:46] There's a ton. And you want to make sure you understand the difference between is this trauma Or is it ADHD or is it anxiety? They all share similar symptoms, but if you don't do that case conceptualization, you're possibly going to miss what are the roots of that and misdiagnose altogether. I have seen that happen over and over.
[00:34:12] And it's not to say we're never going to misdiagnose. Sometimes we do miss it. Sometimes, you know, we'll start out with one diagnosis, and as we're getting into, you know, the middle part, we're realizing, oh, I think this is probably something else. Those things do happen. Um, but that's not, in my opinion, a reason not to do it in the beginning.
[00:34:31] That's just kind of where I, I tend to take a different stand on that particular, um, topic. And so the second thing is, what is, what is cultural formulation? Which is really learning how to develop a cultural, um, culturally informed case conceptualization, so that it ensures you understand your client in a holistic way.
[00:34:59] And, um, this client lives within the context of family and community. And those families and communities come with specific cultural norms, beliefs, values, traditions, ways of understanding and make sense of sense of, um, what your client is going through. So you want to make sure to understand that and create. It does when you're using that cultural formulation, that cultural lens, you're also creating cultural safety, which is an important part of that therapeutic communication with your client.
[00:35:40] Because culture is dynamic and it's deeply embedded in a person's way of being. So within the context of that therapeutic communication that you're having, you're more aware of those dynamics of the culture and how those show up within that communication, that, um, interaction. in those therapy sessions and how you might be communicating in a way that may be problematic for your clients or misunderstanding maybe their way of, like, if they don't understand anything in their culture, then they don't want to look like they're a bad parent or that they don't understand what you're saying so they may not tell you. And they may just say yeah I get it and they don't and you're like racking your head like why are they not doing what I'm saying is the best thing for them to do. Are they just being willful are they a terrible parent well it may not have nothing to do with that it may be that they're a really good parent but some of those cultural influences are showing And so how does cultural formulation help with treatment planning?
[00:36:55] If you're aware of your own cultural biases. and your preconceptions, your, and what are some of the cultural influences that are going on with not only resiliency, which are, which are the resiliency factors. You want to make sure you support those. You want to validate those. You want to highlight those.
[00:37:22] And then that will, that's going to help build rapport. That's going to help build trust. That's going to help you make sure you check your biases and you check your preconceptual, uh, preconceptions about what's going on to help you make the shift you need to make. While also. building that relationship so that when you, when you make suggestions for change, where you may be challenging your client's parents or client outside of what's typical in their culture, but maybe not necessarily, um, that may be causing some conflict, then you're going to help that family be able to get to another place where they can respect culture.
[00:38:09] And also maybe integrate some of those new things from the new country where they're now living in a way that is comfortable and compatible with the beliefs and values of the, that particular family. And that's a case by case basis. So if you're, and, and so when you're doing your creating your treatment plan and you're in that treatment planning process to figure out, what type of play therapy model are you going to use?
[00:38:38] What kind of interventions are you going to use? Who's involved in the treatment process? How often are parents going to be involved? How are they? How often are you going to see with kids? What are you going to do with them in the sessions? All of those things. You're going to have a much more grounded, holistic, accurate and respectful process in the, in the play therapy process.
[00:39:03] So that is it for today. Um, if again, if you found this information helpful, please like it and share it across your social media platforms. All of the replays, if you ever want to watch any of the past ones, you can, if you're in my Facebook group, you can pop into the featured section they're all in there.
[00:39:23] Otherwise, you may want to just pop over to my YouTube channel, Cathi Spooner, Renewing Hearts Training, click on the live tab and all of my live replays are in there on all kinds of different topics. Please feel free to share those as well. If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, if you're interested in online play therapy consultation, also known as supervision.
[00:39:48] I do have a few openings left in my play therapy group. I have one on Saturday and one on Wednesday evening, my time, one on Saturday morning, my time. And Play Therapy Academy, it's really hands on. We have a case presentation schedule. And people in the group will present their schedule. We'll talk about case conceptualization.
[00:40:13] What specific play therapy model are you using? How are you applying the model? We give lots of feedback. You, there's some amazing people in our group. Um, and they, they always add, um, resources, information. So you not only get my 30 years of experience in child and adolescent therapy, you also get the collective wisdom and brilliance of the group.
[00:40:41] That's what I say. And then also in Play Therapy Academy, the pro, it's a program that includes the twice a month online groups. As well as all of the courses from the Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Excellence series. In addition, we have a group chat for support in between session and there's some other bonuses that come with Play Therapy Academy.
[00:41:06] If you don't need Play Therapy Academy and you already have, uh, supervision with someone, or maybe you're already in RPT, but you want to take some of these courses, they're available a la carte, so to speak. You can buy them. separately. Just pop over to my website. Um, the one that I've been talking about recently is Getting Grounded in Play Therapy Case Conceptualization.
[00:41:31] I have some other courses over there as well. If you're interested in the courses, you can pop over to my website, which is rhplaytherapytraining. com. The courses will be on the courses page. If you're interested in Play Therapy Academy, then pop over to the website and go on the supervision page. You'll see information about Play Therapy Academy and you can schedule a free 30 minute call with me.
[00:42:03] a video call. We can talk about Play Therapy Academy. See if it's a good fit for you. Um, I do only have a few spots left. So if you're interested, you probably want to contact me sooner rather than later because I'm not doing, uh, when they close, they'll be closed for a while until somebody is not doing it anymore.
[00:42:22] So, all right, so I will see you next week and have a bye.
[00:42:31] Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Play Therapy. I hope you found the discussion valuable and gained new insights and ideas to support your work helping children, adolescents, and families heal. If you enjoyed this episode, Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps to improve and reach more people who can benefit from this information.
[00:42:57] Remember, play therapy is a powerful tool for healing and growth. Whether you're a new play therapist or experienced, I encourage you to continue your learning journey to unlock the potential of play in your own work and relationships. If you have any questions or topic suggestions for future episodes.
[00:43:18] I'd love to hear from you. Connect with me on social media and visit my website at Renewing Hearts Play Therapy Training to stay updated on upcoming episodes, trainings, and resources. Thank you once again for listening to Next Level Play Therapy. Until next time, keep playing, learning, and growing.
