Nourish Play Therapy

20/10/2025

Thank you to for highlighting PANS and PANDAS in their blog on classroom wellbeing

It’s so important that teachers and school staff understand how these conditions can affect children day to day. Raising awareness like this helps make schools more supportive and informed places for families navigating PANS and PANDAS.

Read the blog here https://www.twinkl.co.uk/blog/pans-pandas-and-classroom-wellbeing

20/10/2025

Why the Vagus Nerve Matters in Play Therapy ⚛️ If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, anxious, or emotionally activated during a play therapy session —you’re not alone.

It happens because we feel with our clients.

And when a child’s nervous system is activated, ours naturally responds.

But here’s the key—how we regulate ourselves in those moments matters.

And that’s where the vagus nerve comes in.

In our nervous system, we have two main branches:
🔹 The Sympathetic System – The part that revs us up (fight/flight).
🔹 The Parasympathetic System – The part that slows us down (rest/digest).

The vagus nerve lives within the parasympathetic system—specifically, in the ventral vagus branch.

✨ Its job? To help regulate our arousal states—whether we are escalating (hyperarousal) or shutting down (hypoarousal).

Why Does the Vagus Nerve Matter in Play Therapy?

Because in play therapy, our nervous system is constantly interacting with the child’s nervous system.

We sit with their:
💥 Activation
💥 Emotional overwhelm
💥 Fear, sadness, rage, confusion

And in doing so, we feel it, too.

Without an ability to regulate through the vagus nerve, we risk:
❌ Staying stuck in activation alongside the child
❌ Feeling overwhelmed, drained, or anxious after sessions
❌ Losing access to the spaciousness needed for co-regulation

Here’s the essential piece—we cannot co-regulate a child unless we can regulate ourselves.

When we learn how to activate our vagus nerve, we:
✔️ Stay connected to ourselves in heightened moments
✔️ Create a sense of safety for the child to anchor into
✔️ Hold a steady presence, allowing the child to move through their activation

The more regulated we are, the more we become the child’s external regulator—offering them a way back to themselves.

An Invitation—Explore Your Own Vagal Regulation

If this is new to you—or if you want to deepen your understanding—I invite you to explore:
🌿 How do you activate your vagus nerve?
🌿 What practices help you regulate when you’re activated?
🌿 How does your ability to regulate impact your clients?

Because knowing how to engage your own vagus nerve isn’t just about self-care—it’s about becoming a more attuned, grounded, and effective therapist.

Much love on the journey 💜

Lisa

14/10/2025

14/10/2025

💜Join us for our monthly SEND coffee morning! All welcome for coffee and cake, open to all parents and carers of children and young people aged 0–25. This month we will be joined by SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information and Advice Support Service). We’re also excited to share that we have a parent carer Vicki Hendriksen joining us to talk about her lived experience of PANDAS
Wigan Sendiass
https://panspandasuk.org/

📆Tuesday 21st October
⏰10-12 noon
📍Ashland House, Ince, WN2 2DX

12/10/2025

Definitely got that from my supervision this weekend ❤️xx

How many times have you sat with a client who's told the same story over and over, analyzed it from every angle, yet still feels stuck?

Sometimes the path forward isn't through more talking. It's through the hands.
There's wisdom that lives beyond words. It's in the symbols we choose, the landscapes we create, the figures we place without quite knowing why. Sandtray therapy creates space for that wisdom to emerge, bypassing the intellectual defenses that keep our clients (and ourselves) circling the same questions.

Join us for a 5-day Sandtray Therapy Experiential Retreat where Tammi Van Hollander, LCSW, RPT-S, RST-C/T, with her over 25 years of experience, will guide you on a journey to integrating sandtray play therapy into your clinical practice.

This retreat isn't about learning another technique to add to your toolbox. It's about experiencing firsthand how the creative process accesses parts of ourselves that rational thought simply can't reach. When you create your own sandtray scenes, you'll understand on a visceral level why this work is so powerful, and why your clients don't always need words for healing to happen.

You'll leave not just with new skills, but with a profound trust in the non-verbal, symbolic language of the psyche. The kind of trust that only comes from experiencing it yourself.

Want to dive deeper into experiential sandtray work? Comment "sandtray" below for a code that saves you $400 on registration. But hurry! Space is limited and the retreat kicks off on October 20th!

09/10/2025

For my daughter Evie Rose 💚

Today (Oct 9) is World PANS PANDAS Awareness Day 💚

These treatable brain–immune disorders can cause sudden changes in a child or adult's emotions, behaviour, or ability to function.

Understanding the symptoms is the first step to helping families find answers.

💡 Learn more → https://inflamedbrain.org/

09/10/2025

06/10/2025

As children heal, they begin to understand their worth. A child who once sought approval at any cost may start to recognise safe and unsafe relationships. A child who once felt powerless may begin to assert their needs. 💛✨

03/10/2025

02/10/2025

02/10/2025

Maggie Dent 🩵🤍🩵

02/10/2025

PANS/PANDAS Awareness Day is on October 9th! There are many ways to get involved. Join us!

https://neuroimmune.org/get-involved/pans-pandas-awareness-day/