Top 3 Tips for New Play Therapists

Starting Play Therapy can be like entering a whole new world.

Think Minecraft, Jumanji, and Wizard of Oz vibes - we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. 

And with this new world can bring a boat load of doubts.

Am I doing this right? Is this working? Aren’t we just playing?
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In supervision/consultation these are the questions that frequently come up for both new therapists wanting to learn play therapy AND seasoned therapists that are transitioning from traditional talk therapy to this new modality with children. 

I recently was interviewed by a graduate student in a play therapy class about what it means to work with kids and do play therapy.  One of her questions hit me so deep that I just HAD to share it with you - complete with the answer of course! 

The question? “What’s the best advice you could give a new play therapist?”

And the reason that hit me was I wanted to give her 1,000 different tips, tidbits, and takeaways. I mean as of right now my blog has 280+ Blog posts and TONS of free resources for therapists on all things play therapy. To say supporting play therapists is my passion is a MASSIVE understatement! 

So, being concise was such a challenge.

What I told her? That I wished I could hand her a bouquet of my best advance (of course the play therapist in me is always working with a metaphor).  

In this beautiful bouquet would be three types of flowers - each holding one of the key foundational pieces of advice.

First - find YOUR passion area. 

What types of populations would you LOVE to see? What would be YOUR dream client? 

Are you a therapist that likes to work with depression, anxiety, or trauma? Grief and loss? Kids birth - 5? Kids who are angry and break things? Rural populations? Neurodiverse kids and teens? Do you have a passion for incarcerated youth? Inner city clients? Teens? Do you want to see kids whose anxiety gets in the way of performance? Youth in the foster care system? Divorced and separated family systems?

You likely had some big responses (on either side) of what populations and speciality subsets you feel most excited about.  AND when you are learning something new you are absolutely going to be apprehensive and have a major case of imposter syndrome.  Don’t imposter syndrome and the process of learning a new skillset and speciality prevent you from working with populations you feel like you will be most effective with!

Next - get good solid training! 

Anytime you want to learn something new the absolute perfect (and ethically necessary) trifecta is training, supervision/consultation, and practice.  Just like you would never (*fingers crossed*) try a modality like EMDR with your client after watching a YouTube video, you want to make sure you have some “good enough” training before starting to use techniques with clients.  For a clinician already trained in CBT, a blog post or YouTube video might be enough to use an intervention or technique with a client.  

However, Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy as an overarching theoretical model you want to use for a client will take more than a video or blog post to understand and conceptualize! AND if you are working with a completely different model like Child Centered Play Therapy or FirstPlay you likely need one (or more) solid foundational training and taking in a text book or two! 

What training you want to pursue will also be directly related to the populations you work with! If you want to work with infants - FirstPlay is amazing! If you are only going to work with teens, you might want to consider Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy or another directive approach! If you want to develop a skillset with Neurodiverse clients you might want to consider AutPlay! 

The last piece to the bouquet - get good supervision! 

Whether you are pursuing becoming a Registered Play Therapist™ (see more on that HERE!) or are just wanting to gain more expertise and competency finding a supervisor or consultant who is a good match for you is essential!  

Supervision and consultation is where it ALL comes together.  You can explore the populations you want to work more with and with a real human being you can process and unpack what is actually happening in the session and troubleshoot any of the difficulties and stuck points that come up with these new skills (and they will!).

For some therapists they have hit the jackpot and have an amazing supervisor or consultant down the hallway or in their community!  Sometimes the supervisor you are assigned to for licensure is an RPT™ or RPT-S™ and can support you through the process of gaining competency in play therapy! 

For other therapists - this is absolutely not the case.  Your agency assigned supervisor only works with teens 15 and up and you are being assigned 5 year old's on your caseload.  You are the only therapist in a group practice that sees kids and even though you are licensed you want someone as a sounding board for your skill development. Your agency supervisor LOVES Child Centered Play Therapy but you want to get trained in AutPlay or Synergetic Play Therapy. 

The awesome news is that with all of the tech advances you can see out consultation virtually and can find someone who is an absolute perfect fit for the population you see as well as the specific play therapy theories you are working with! 

Learn more about the consultation groups I offer HERE! 

Wheeww! So there is the absolute beautiful bouquet of advice I would love to give any new play therapist! 

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