Mara Play Therapy

23/05/2026

Movement is so important!! We really need to move away from traditional ways of learning and allow children to move to be ready to learn

What if kids aren’t struggling to focus because they won’t sit still - but because they can’t?

Angela Hanscom highlights that movement is essential for building attention, self-regulation, and readiness to learn. When kids climb, run, and explore, they’re strengthening the very skills they need to focus in the classroom.

Instead of asking for more seat time, maybe we should ask:
👉 Have they had enough time to move?

Read more here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-real-reason-why-kids-fidget_b_5586265

“In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move!” – Angela Hanscom

16/05/2026

Children often don’t know, don’t have the words or can’t say what’s going on for them.

But they can show us. As this image shows, behaviour is communication.

At Mara we can help children communicate through play. We can support parents to unpick and understand behaviour. We can help foster connection and work with you to develop strategies to support.

14/05/2026

Group Therapy in East Linton. See Flyer for details.

I’m currently looking to fill the remaining spaces in the 5–6 age group for my Small Group Play Therapy pilot running this June in East Linton.

This small therapeutic group is designed for children who may feel overwhelmed, have big emotional reactions, or find group situations difficult to manage.

The group will remain intentionally small, with a focus on regulation through play within a supportive therapeutic environment.

Saturdays in June
The Mart, East Linton

Details in the flyer below.

If you’d like to explore whether this may be the right fit for your child, email to arrange a short initial call:

asmplaytherapy@gmail.com

12/05/2026

When children are highly dysregulated, they can’t process more input, and that includes Words. I love the idea of words costing money while helping a dysregulated child…how are you going to spend your words??

10/05/2026

Often children struggle to end what they are doing and move onto something else. We see it at the end of therapy sessions. Grainne explains what can be happening and how to help…

05/05/2026

Otters don’t stop playing when they grow up 🦦

They belly-slide on riverbanks. They wrestle. And they float on their backs holding something that caught their attention.

We have built an entire culture around the idea that play belongs to childhood.

Something to be grown out of. Traded in for productivity, seriousness, and the performance of adulthood.

The otter disagrees.

River otters are frequently observed playing and sliding together throughout their lives — and there is evidence that this play strengthens social bonds, improves skills, and maintains group cohesion. Not as juveniles. As adults. Consistently. Across a lifetime.

When we deprive children of play, we don’t just affect their childhood. We interrupt the sequence through which humans learn to bond, regulate, empathise, and belong.

And when we deprive adults of play?

Research tells us what the otter already knew. Play in adulthood sustains mental health, emotional resilience, and social connectedness. It reduces cortisol, fosters belonging, and protects against isolation, anxiety, and depression. Adults deprived of play become rigid in their thinking, brittle under stress, and much less open to handling the curve balls life throws. Play is essential for physical health, emotional wellbeing, social connectedness, and adult happiness — not as a luxury, but as a biological need that does not expire with childhood.

The otter plays as a pup.
The otter plays as an adult.
The otter does not apologise for either.
Play is not a phase you pass through on the way to adulthood. It is how life is sustained. 🌿

Nature Knows — A series of posts by Dr Play
📍 drplay.com.au

24/04/2026

Sometimes we worry that helping our children when they are feeling big emotions might mean they never learn to manage on their own. In fact your instinct to be beside them and support them through those moments builds exactly what they need to be confident and capable with their emotions (and behaviour). See below!

If you’ve ever been told your child “should be able to calm themselves by now”, this matters.

Decades of developmental research show that emotional regulation is not something children learn alone. It is built, slowly and repeatedly, through co-regulation with a safe adult. Before the brain can self-soothe, it needs to experience being soothed. This isn’t permissive parenting — it’s how nervous systems develop.

Studies on parent–child synchrony, the Still-Face paradigm, and social biofeedback consistently show the same thing: regulation is social before it becomes internal. Children borrow calm, learn meaning, and gradually build the capacity to regulate themselves through relationship. Co-regulation isn’t a parenting trend — it’s the cornerstone of emotional development.

Research references (evidence-based)
Ruth Feldman – Bio-behavioural synchrony research demonstrating that attuned caregiver–child interactions predict later self-regulation and emotional competence (Feldman, 2003; 2012).
Edward Tronick – Mutual Regulation Model and Still-Face paradigm showing that infants rely on caregiver responsiveness to regulate distress before self-regulation emerges.
György Gergely & Watson – Social biofeedback model explaining how contingent adult responses teach children to understand and regulate internal emotional states.
Murray et al. (2019) – Applied developmental model positioning co-regulation as a core mechanism through which self-regulation develops across childhood.
Bornstein et al. (2023) – Reviews framing co-regulation as a multilevel biological and relational process foundational to emotional regulation.

21/04/2026

✨Mara Play Therapy✨

16/04/2026

Slime in play therapy for older kids offers a powerful sensory-based tool to navigate grief, anxiety, and emotional regulation. It provides a tactile, grounding activity that helps children process complex emotions, reduce stress, and improve focus while serving as a safe, nonverbal outlet for emotions and trauma.