When nothing's going right….. you should go left.
Peter H. Reynolds does it again! The author of playroom favorites like Ish and The Dot that are powerful bibliotherapy tools to help support kids with perfectionism, anxiety, self esteem, and confidence! For his latest book When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left Peter H. Reynolds teams up with Marc Colagiovanni with a book that dives deep into the impact of carrying our big feelings with us and letting them lead the way, and what kids can do instead.
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When “Next Week” Never Calms Down: The Reality of Busy Family Life
As a parent I found myself saying “It’ll all calm down next week after we get through [insert event/activity here]” Every. Single. Week. 
Does any parent really love school mornings?
If you are out there - I would LOVE to know your secret. The reason for this is that even for kids that genuinely like school, it can feel like herding cats to get out the door. And for the kids that don’t want to be there. Bucket up it’s going to be a bumpy ride. 
The first thing you need to do to start working with anxiety in the playroom is to get an accurate diagnosis. And while both you, and the kid in front of you, would muuuuch rather dive deep into the playroom, without an accurate diagnosis you run the risk of not being as effective as you can be as a play therapist.
As a play therapist you usually go into your first session with a liiiittle bit of information about the kiddo and family in your waiting room. And as you scroll through the intake paperwork you might see some familiar clusters of checkboxes ticked off when you get to symptoms.
One of the boxes I see most often? Anxiety! But that little tiny checkbox doesn’t tell me the real things I need to know about this kid.  Parents Come In With Ideas… And Sometimes They’re Right (Or Not)
Parents sometimes come into the playroom with specific ideas of what could be going on with their child. Sometimes these ideas are spot on, and sometimes…. not so much. Others come in completely lost, and just know that what is happening with their child is difficult, painful, and disruptive to their child’s life. They want their child to be back to their old self - a happy, creative, vibrant, athletic, (sometimes grumpy), typical kid. 
Fear and worry are biologically protective. Uncomfortable feelings like anxiety give us the clues and cues that we don’t like what is happening in our current environment, or something that we think might happen in the future, and we want it to be different.
Real talk moment?
I save EVERYTHING. Handouts. Interventions. Copies of scribbled notes from trainings. And as I get later and later in my play therapy career I know that letting go is important too…. It’s a journey okay! 
Your play therapy theory is the foundation for everything you do in the playroom.
Heck, it’s the foundation for not only what you do, but how your playroom is created. And even if your playroom has any toys at all. 
When I ask play therapists about their theory sometimes I get an answer like this:
“I’m a non-directive play therapist”. And as a Registered Play Therapist- Supervisor it’s my job to help clinicians go deeper. More importantly, what I want clinicians to know? |
Hi, there!I'm Ann Meehan, an LPCC, 
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[email protected] | Copyright Meehan Mental Health Services 2025
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[email protected] | Copyright Meehan Mental Health Services 2025