NeuroplayAustralia - Play Therapy and Child Counsellor

17/12/2025

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15/12/2025

14/12/2025

Tonight, many of us are feeling shaken - not only by what has happened, but by what we’ve seen.

Graphic footage has a way of bypassing logic and going straight to the nervous system. Even if you didn’t seek it out. Even if you only watched for a moment. Even if you told yourself you were fine. Images like these don’t land as “news” - they land as threat. And once they’re in the body, the body responds as if it were there.

If you feel unsettled, nauseous, shaky, tearful, on edge, numb, or unable to settle your thoughts - this is not weakness or overreaction. This is your nervous system doing exactly what it is designed to do after exposure to trauma, even second-hand trauma.

One of the most important things you can do right now is to stop watching.
Not later.
Not after one more update.
Now.
Repeated exposure to graphic footage keeps the body trapped in survival mode. It doesn’t help you process or understand - it re-activates the system again and again. Turning it off is not avoidance or apathy. It is protection.

If you have children, please be especially mindful of rolling news and any media platforms they have access to. Children cannot contextualise graphic imagery - their brains absorb it as lived experience. If they have seen or overheard anything, keep explanations simple and grounding:
“Something very sad and scary happened. You are safe right now.”
Avoid details. Avoid replaying footage. Your calm, regulated presence matters far more than information at this time.

You may notice your mind looping - replaying images, even scanning for danger and imagining worst-case scenarios.
This isn’t you spiralling; it’s a brain trying to restore a sense of safety after shock. Gently bring yourself back to what is real right now. Look around. Name what you can see, hear, feel. The nervous system needs cues of safety to stand down.

For some, this kind of exposure stirs old wounds - previous trauma, grief, or a long-held sense that the world isn’t safe. For others, it may create a heaviness or a numbness that’s hard to explain. Numbness is not indifference. It is a protective response when something feels too much to hold all at once.

Tonight is not a night for analysis or meaning-making. It’s a night for containment and care.

Lower the sensory load.
Create distance from screens.
Breathe slower than feels natural. Long exhales.
Hold something warm or solid.
And stay connected to what grounds you.

And finally:
You are allowed to look away.
You are allowed to protect your nervous system.
You are allowed to shield your children.

Being informed does not require being flooded.

If all you can do tonight is soften the noise, hold those close to you, and let your body settle - that is enough.
Nothing about how you’re responding is wrong. This is what being human looks like when something deeply distressing enters our collective awareness.

12/12/2025

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When children face adversity or developmental challenges, play therapists step in as quiet revolutionaries, creating safe spaces where healing growth happens, through the language children speak best: play

We don’t just support individual children. We strengthen families. We equip educators. We build community resilience from the ground up. That’s a ripple effect that touches classrooms, families, and future generations

Investment in play therapy isn’t just compassionate, it’s smart policy. It’s prevention. It’s early intervention that saves systems downstream costs while giving children their best chance at thriving

✨ Let’s ensure every child who needs a beacon of hope can find one

10/12/2025

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10/12/2025

Holding a sleeping baby provides comforting, predictable, nurturing touch (affective touch) that calms the baby’s nervous system, reducing stress hormones and strengthening the communication between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) (rational thought) and the amygdala (fear/emotion center). This builds a strong PFC-amygdala circuit, teaching the brain that stress is manageable and signals safety, which fosters better emotion regulation and reduces the likelihood of an overactive fear response, thereby lowering future anxiety.

🗂️How Holding Strengthens Connections:

📑Calms the Nervous System: Gentle, consistent touch stimulates the release of oxytocin and activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting calmness and reducing cortisol (stress hormone) levels.

📑Builds Neural Pathways: This soothing input, especially during sleep when the brain processes emotions, helps form stronger, more efficient neural pathways between the PFC and limbic structures like the amygdala.

📑Provides “Scaffolding”: A caregiver’s presence acts as external regulation, helping the infant’s immature central nervous system manage stress and build its own regulatory capacity.

🗂️How It Prevents Future Anxiety:

📑Better Emotion Regulation: A well-connected PFC can effectively “talk down” the amygdala, preventing overreactions to perceived threats.

📑Creates a “Blueprint” for Safety: Consistent positive experiences teach the infant’s brain that the world is safe and supportive, not threatening, creating a resilient foundation against anxiety.

📑Reduced Amygdala Reactivity: This early buffering effect leads to less intense fear responses and fewer “meltdowns.”

PMID: 33584178

10/12/2025

Wednesday wisdoms

08/12/2025

“Play isn’t a break from learning.
It’s the fastest way the brain learns.

When kids are deeply engaged in play, their brains shift into high-efficiency mode.
Dopamine and endorphins surge.
Stress hormones drop.
New connections form faster, and stick longer.

Dr. Karyn Purvis found that play can create brain connections with 95% fewer repetitions than traditional teaching.
Because when the brain enjoys the process, it works harder to keep the lesson.

By age three, children have built 1,000 trillion synapses.
Play accelerates that growth, sometimes 20x faster than rote practice.

A game of tag sharpens coordination and focus.
Building a fort demands problem-solving, engineering, and creativity, all at once.

Finland leans into this.
Children there focus almost entirely on play until age 7 and still outperform test-heavy nations in reading, math, and science.

MIT research shows kids in play-based programs develop 40% stronger executive function skills like focus, memory, and adaptability.

The “skill and drill” approach fights against biology.
Repetition without joy activates stress.
And stress blocks memory.

Play is the opposite.
It lights up multiple brain regions at once.
It strengthens learning from every angle.

So the next time you think your child is “just playing,” remember:
That’s the most advanced learning system evolution ever designed.

And the best educational investment you’ll ever make?
It isn’t in a device.
It’s in their joy.”

- BeAta Fuller

08/12/2025

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05/12/2025

Almost 40% of Australian children experience family violence.*

But you can't tell a child who has suffered years of neglect and abuse to simply "do better". It takes time, patience, and specialist therapeutic care to help children who have suffered from trauma.

Worldwide, play therapy is recognised as an effective psychosocial and mental health treatment modality.

Play therapy provides children with a consistent and predictable therapeutic relationship and environment in which to explore their fears, difficulties, struggles and pain, as well as their hopes, dreams and fantasies.

If you’re considering extra support for your child in the new year, now is a great time to enquire.

Talia (registered clinical play therapist) can be reached on 0409334452 or talia@neuroplayaustralia.com.au

*Australian Child Maltreatment Study, 2023