Rainbow Tree Play Therapy CIC

04/02/2025

This week is Children's Mental Health Week. This years theme is "Know Yourself, Grow Yourself"
Place2Be have created this fantastic art activity to invite children to explore their roots, what helps them to grow, and what resource they have to adapt to change. Take a look! Great for use in the play therapy space or at home.

Get involved in our wellbeing activity from Place2Be's Art Room where children can learn more about themselves by imagining a plant in growth.

16/12/2024

On Saturday my 9 year old went to a rollerskating party... I witnessed a transformation in that hour and a half that reminded me why play is so essential to the growth of our children's minds. He had never skated before.

I reminisced with some other parents about how we were fully professional skaters by the age of ten in the 80's/90's!! The roller discos at the local leisure centre were a core memory!! We talked about the various injuries we'd sustained, the envy about those other kids who had the in-line fancy skates while we'd had to hire the rubbish ones we had to tie to our feet! We spoke about how we had tried and failed to skate backwards! We talked about how those boys had been so good that we'd lie down in a row on the floor and they would jump over us!

But the 10 kids at the party had never skated!! They are rural kids without the access to safe streets or even a leisure centre. But still, it made us think about how much childhood has changed since 'our day'. Why have we become so out of touch with this type of play? thats probably a question for another day.

So my son was very nervous. He didn't think he could do it. He couldn't do it - he was absolutely rubbish! I spent a few laps holding him up and trying to 'teach' him how to move his feet and how to hold his own body to stay balanced. I then slowly started to let go. He went by himself. He smiled so broadly and screamed in delight at his newly discovered skill! Then he fell flat on his backside and did the splits! He got up, and tried again...and again...and again. An hour later he (and his friends) are joining in on the roller limbo activity.

The transformation in that short time was such a wonderful example about how play for the sake of it can bring about growth mindset, resilience, failure and success, and of course joy!

So much of children's play is now coached, structured, adult-led and outcome-based. It was so good to witness these wonderful children enjoying their transformation from complete novices to accomplished skaters. I loved it!

As play therapists this is the transformation we provide space for in our play rooms - what a privilege it is.

21/11/2024

22/05/2024

A message for your child if they're having a difficult day.

💡 untanglegrief

21/05/2024

At the click of a button, you can now watch our webinar with Emma Weaver, Deputy CEO of The ADHD Foundation Neurodiversity Charity, who recently presented ‘ADHD & Autism: Supporting Dysregulated Behaviour’.

Discover her practical hints and tips here: https://hubs.li/Q02xy6530

24/03/2024

A gentle reminder from Attachment Nerd ✨

20/03/2024

Love them.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Share your thoughts in the comments.

💭

07/03/2024

That moment when you arrive at school and the office tell you there’s a rampant sickness bug! 🤢

24/02/2024

A bit of reading before I head to a conference hosted by the author in a couple of weeks.

These books are so clear and concise and in language that make them easier to digest. And it’s not just theory, there’s also great practical suggestions for people supporting children who are, or have been, traumatised.

19/02/2024

… adds to shopping list…

For practitioners and students

16/02/2024

This is such a great analogy. As a Play Therapist the range of resources we use in the room allow the child to freely choose and use. At times it can feel really hard to watch as they use ALL of the paint, glue, slime, clay etc. 🤣 In a classroom environment this would be stopped and potentially the child corrected for their behaviour, or not allowed to take part. In the playroom we reframe this by providing permissive ways to contain the overspill while stil allowing the need to be met. The resources allow the space for the child to meet their needs and do the work of therapy for themselves; without judgement or correction.

“I want you to build a tower,” I say.

You agree, and you stand up to go get the bucket of blocks off the shelf.

I shake my head sternly. “No. Did I tell you you could get up? Sit down. Build a tower.”

You look confused. You point over at the bucket of blocks. It’s five feet away and on a reachable shelf, but you don’t have it in front of you now.

I sigh at your limited comprehension abilities. I take out a piece of paper to help me make a visual, and I draw you a little stick figure chart. “Look. First, make a tower. Then, stand up and walk. See? You have to make the tower first.”

You gesture at me about the absurdity of the situation you’re in. Pointing your hands downward like, “make a tower out of what???”

I point at the visual chart again, slowing my voice down like you’re a baby. “First, tower. Then, get up.”

You sit there and stare at me, waiting for me to figure out that you literally can’t.

I take out some stickers. “Come on. Make a tower and I’ll put a smiley face on your chart for the day! Don’t you want a smiley face?”

You DO want a smiley face but you literally don’t have the tools for the job! You have nothing with which to make a tower. You start to get angry.

I point at all of the others in the room. They all have a bucket of blocks right in front of them, and they’re all making a tower. “All your friends expect you to make a tower. You are behaving in an unexpected way and it’s making us uncomfortable.”

Weighing your options, you finally decide to stand up anyway and make a mad dash for the shelf. Maybe you can grab the bucket of blocks before I catch you? Maybe you can cobble together a tower in the few seconds you’ll have? Maybe that will help me understand?

But once you’re on your feet I’m yelling at you. Then I’m holding you down. Then I’m fighting you, hurting you, punishing you, calling you pathological and aggressive and defiant. I write in my report that I did all the right things and you did all the wrong ones.

The next day, I ask you to make a tower.

You still don’t have any blocks.

***

Constantly, CONSTANTLY, adults in positions of power over children (school, home, extracurricular activities) demand that children do things that they’re told to do, and use as a bribe or take away as a punishment the very resource that the child would actually need in order to do the thing that they’re told to do.

This was written specifically about the fact that Autistic children’s special interests are often used as a bribe, or with a first/then system, like, “first do this work, then you can play with your cars for three minutes,” or, “first do what I’m telling you, then you can have a ‘sensory break’.” What this ignores is that those are LITERALLY the vehicle by which their brain BECOMES able to do the work. The special interest is joy, delight, interest — neurologically speaking, it’s dopamine. And dopamine is actually, physically required in order to be able to initiate a task, and in order to be able to access the higher thinking resources required to do the task. Or the sensory tool is LITERALLY meeting the sensory need and requirement in the human being’s body that needs to be met in order for them to be able to access the higher thinking skills required to focus and attend to what they’re trying to do. But these things get taken and used by therapists or “therapists” or teachers or parents as if they are a reward, a bribe, an afterthought.

The special interest or the sensory tool are the “standing up and walking” over to the blocks, in the analogy story above. But the adult keeps getting mad that the child is trying to stand up and walk.

The child is doing whatever it takes to move toward dopamine or toward having their sensory needs met. And the adult is getting mad about the thing they’re doing to move in that direction.

That’s what this post was written about, but the analogy carries over into lots of other realms, too. Teachers take away recess — physical body movement — to punish kids for moving their bodies too much. They police children’s ability to talk to one another, the human innate social need to bounce ideas around with peers.

People are naturally, instinctually, really good at meeting their sensory needs. If they have a little extra energy or need a little extra proprioception in their legs and feet, they’ll bounce while they’re walking. If they are trying to keep their brain awake and moving in a slow-moving environment when they can feel themselves fading, they’ll reach out and fidget with something that’s in front of them. But watch a group of kids try to wiggle a little while they walk down a hallway or reach out and brush fingertips against something they’re walking past and as likely as not you’ll see an adult “correct” them (incorrectly, since telling them “stop it” does nothing to teach them how to channel it, only to suppress it til it explodes somewhere else).

The brain can’t even do the thing you’re asking it to do, without the resources it needs to do the thing. But kids start seeking out the resources, and get in trouble, and get hurt, and get punished, and the adults think, “I have done all the right things, and you have done all the wrong ones.”

The next day, the adult asks the child to get up and do it again.

And they still don’t have any “blocks”.

***

[Image description:
A brightly coloured red, yellow, pink, blue, and green cartoony block tower, with words on it that read in bold all-caps font, “I want you to build a tower”. End description.]

24/01/2024

Let’s talk about classroom shame.

One of the reasons I trained as a play therapist was seeing the impact of classroom behaviour charts on children’s well being. The toxic trauma and stress caused by the Traffic Lights 🚦 clouds ☁️ and sunshines☀️

I saw children living in fear of their name being moved onto the cloud ☁️ the red light 🔴 etc. I noticed the toxic stress this caused. It was always the same children. The children with adverse experiences, the young carers, the children with additional needs.

I wondered how the teachers would feel if their performance was up in lights in the staff room? Whether this would motivate them? I knew I would feel ashamed, guilty, useless and not heard.

Thankfully this practice is reducing but it’s still there! I still go to schools where this is used every day. It usually coincides with phrases such as ‘they are choosing to be naughty’ ‘you need to make the right choice’ and others all focusing on the behaviour rather than the emotional needs behind that behaviour.

This needs to change faster! The evidence is clear. Shaming children causes long term toxic stress. It increases dysregulation, triggers a stress response in the brain to initiate the Flight, Fright, Freeze, Fawn response. It damages.

This article provides further insight to changing this classroom practice for good. There are so many other ways!!

Dear Teacher, Before you hang that stoplight up for the new school year, please put yourself on red for a minute or two. Rethink the idea that hanging a large paper traffic light in the front of t…