Nourish Play Therapy

24/04/2026

When a child’s behaviour feels “challenging”, it can quickly become overwhelming for the adults around them.

But behaviour rarely appears out of nowhere.

Often it is the outward expression of something much deeper.
Exhaustion.
Sensory overload.
Fear.
Anxiety.
Hunger.
Sleep deprivation.
Feeling misunderstood.

Sometimes it is simply a child trying to communicate something they do not yet have the words for.

When we shift our thinking from “What is wrong with this child?” to “What might this child be experiencing?”, everything begins to change.

Behaviour starts to make sense.

And when behaviour makes sense, we can start responding in ways that actually help.

If this is something you are navigating right now, we explore these underlying causes in much more depth in our Managing Behaviour that Challenges session.

You can read more about it here if it would be helpful:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1968153537211

22/04/2026

22/04/2026

21/04/2026

For some families, the change happens almost overnight.

A child who was coping suddenly becomes overwhelmed.

Severe anxiety appears.
Food becomes impossible.
OCD behaviours begin suddenly.
School becomes unbearable.

Parents often describe it as feeling like their child disappeared overnight.

And yet when they seek help, many are met with confusion or disbelief.

“Are you sure it’s not anxiety?”
“Perhaps it’s behavioural.”

But conditions like PANS and PANDAS can cause rapid and dramatic changes in children.

For families living through it, the experience can feel frightening and isolating.

Understanding what may be happening medically is a crucial first step toward the right support.

If you want to learn more about recognising the signs and what families can do next, we have a specialist webinar exploring this topic.

More information here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1980367676029

19/04/2026

For our english followers who head back to school tomorrow after the Easter break.

Last Day of Holidays Emotional Reset

Tomorrow isn’t about uniforms or bags.
It’s about helping children feel emotionally ready to return to school.

After a break, many children feel a mix of excitement, worry, sadness, and overwhelm — even if they can’t name it yet. That’s not a problem to fix. It’s a nervous system asking for support.

Sunday is your chance to slow things down.
Lower the emotional load.
Create space for feelings without rushing to reassure.
Offer regulation before logic.

Small, intentional moments tomorrow can make a big difference to how Tuesday feels — especially for children who struggle with transitions, anxiety, or after-school restraint collapse.

15/04/2026

What is emotional intelligence?

When I define emotional intelligence, I define it as the capacity to BE with.

But be with what?…
The capacity to be with our sensations, our feelings, and our thoughts that arise in any given moment. What I’m describing is our capacity to regulate. Our ability to connect or to regulate in the midst of whatever experience we’re having.

It’s not about being calm. It’s not about having a particular experience in our feelings, thoughts, or body.

It is about being able to be with any and all experiences that arise in any given moment.
It’s our capacity to stay connected to ourselves in frustration, joy, sorrow, anxiety, confusion, overwhelm, anger….the list goes on.

And it’s one of the most important and hardest things to develop in ourselves.

Take a moment and think about an emotion that is typically challenging for you to experience. When this emotion arises in you- are you able to connect to yourself in the midst of it? Or do you want to run away from it, ignore it, push the feeling down, or pretend you aren’t having the feeling? What do you do?…

Whatever you do is not right or wrong; it’s simply information to help you get curious about your areas for growth as you’re developing your own capacity, expanding your windows of tolerance, and developing greater and greater levels for your own emotional intelligence.

Because when we learn how to connect to ourselves rather than expecting ourselves to calm down (which is a hard thing in and of itself), we learn some key things…

…We learn that we’re okay in the midst of our experiences. We don’t have to run away. Or that even when things feel challenging, we can still move toward that intensity. It allows us to expand our window of tolerance and engage in life at a deeper level because we get to experience a wider range of the fullness of emotional activity – to feel more alive, more connected with life itself, more connected with our own body, and our own being.

It’s also one of the main goals of play therapy! We’re helping to develop within children larger and larger states of emotional intelligence. This is what we’re up to with kids – it’s not about calming them or ourselves. Instead we’re supporting children in learning how to be with any and all experiences that arise. And it’s this ability to connect to themselves that is the ultimate gift we give to the children we work with.

Much love on the journey 💜

Lisa

13/04/2026

Children don’t heal through words alone. They heal through experiences.

The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, developed by Bruce D. Perry, reminds us that the brain develops from the bottom up. This means regulation comes before reasoning.

In Play Therapy, we meet the child where their brain is developmentally, not where we expect them to be.

Through rhythm, repetition and sensory experiences, play helps regulate the lower parts of the brain before gently supporting connection and reflection.

Because a child who feels safe can begin to think.

“Regulate, relate, reason.” - Bruce Perry

10/04/2026

Please visit: https://www.bapt.info/ for booking before it closes on 8th May.

®

08/04/2026

💕 I’ve had the privilege in my lifetime of spending time with individuals - small and grown up - who’s words don’t come easily … you might know a few people like this yourself.

These individuals have been some of my greatest teachers: they’ve forced me to look below the surface and let go of the words to discover the body - to look, listen and to feel. 💕

I once interacted with an individual who wanted to verbally communicate but had a hard time speaking. Some diagnosed him as being on the Autism spectrum. He was an incredibly aware individual, but talking didn’t come easily.

As we interacted, I went below the words and watched him. His body, his movements, and his sounds elicited a feeling in me, a deep understanding of the felt sense of his inner world. It was a world that, by normal standards, would be hard to access.

… And yet, there it was! The truth. It was right in front, engaging with me.
I shared with him my experience of the felt sense and, at one point in complete amazement, he looked at me and – in that rare moment – the words flowed easily.

✨ “How did you know?” he asked.
✨ “I feel you, as your body speaks so beautifully,” I replied.

… Too often we focus on words, believing that our verbal communication is the best and most accurate way to share and understand one another.

But the irony in this is that even when the language is not there, the communication remains. And what is left may be the most effective way of expressing oneself.

Words are simply one part of the information we hold. The body is the ultimate truth teller!

✨ The great revealer – an integral part of the puzzle, and a prominent pixel in the big picture.

Much love on the journey! 💜

Lisa

07/04/2026