Creatively Mindful Play Therapy

13/08/2025

Lovely sensory day at Green Fingers today out in the woodland setting. Soap making, slime making, bubbles, gelli baff with insects, cornflour mud, playdoh farm, treasure beach, hand painting, potion station and sea spaghetti.

04/08/2025

Beautiful neurodiversity strengths umbrella. I’ve grown up with dyslexia and it’s given me strengths I’ve learnt are unique not just challenges. We all have our gifts we just have to find them.

𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗨𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Z9xjnDgQN/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Thanks to Executive Functioning Toolbox for sharing this excellent infographic of the neurodiversity strengths! ☂️
Source: The National ADHD & Neurodiversity Charity.
𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: https://tinyurl.com/27mkz7tk

11/07/2025

It’s a scary but true picture! More and more children are not able to cope with school which leads to higher exclusions and children not being educated at all at home. I’ve met lots of these children and many still awaiting diagnosis or EHCP being declined.
Please government rethink what it is your trying to teach our children. Right now your teaching them they don’t fit, they are unworthy and alone.

25/06/2025

Today’s fun ready for tomorrows sensory tray- Chickpea sensory tray-
Acrylic paint, dried chickpeas and baking paper. Rub together and air dry.

23/06/2025

When we ask children to be calm we are actually asking them to shut down the messages and feelings within themselves.

We are asking them to tune out of thier interception, their most powerful sense.

What they need is to be heard and that message to be validated in an authentic way first, for regulation to happen.

Let’s all be a part of stopping the shut down because socially we feel we all need to appear we have control. Instead let our children really feel what their bodies have to say. Is so important children grow up connected to thier interception- their inner messages.

It’s like having a car and never listening to the red light warnings- it’s going to break down if we don’t!

22/06/2025

What a weekend! Thank you Monika for creating PTUK, the best course and family of play therapist I could ask for. The most amazing conference, meeting and listening to Lisa Dion was beyond inspirational. Seeing my lovely colleagues/friends and course director.
So much gratitude for you all. Thank you

20/06/2025

I have finished my placement and await my certificate as a qualified therapeutic play practitioner. I have have one day a week space in September left for work so it’s going to be a busy year ahead.
A client has just come to the end and and her words in her card were felt deeply. Sometimes all we need is to feel genuine kindness to see our worth.

“Thank you for showing me how kind you are”.
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28/05/2025

Power of Play Therapy

Children who visit a Play Therapist are likely to have experienced some form of trauma. This could be a one-off trauma or cumulative.

When the trauma is cumulative in nature, happens early in life and by adults who the child relies upon to survive, it can affect the child's brain development. This disordered brain development can cause a child to expect all adults to be scary and dangerous. This fear impacts their ability to make relationships with others whom they come into contact with.

In Play Therapy, a considerable emphasis is placed upon the therapist's ability to create a safe, permissive environment where children are able to express themselves freely through the play.

It's through this relationship that the therapist shows nurture towards the child, engages and shows interest in what the child does, and enjoys having conversations with the child.

Through these interactions the child begins to learn that some adults are safe and can be trusted to keep them so. These safe adults become like a lighthouse in a storm for the child, until the child can generalise these experiences to other adults in their lives.

21/05/2025

Please help us get the support children need by signing the charter.

I've mentioned the Child Mental Health Charter a few times in posts now and I thought I'd give a little more insight as to what the purpose of it is. Here's the 6 principles that underpin all the work we do and what we're hoping to achieve for the children in the UK.

I see many children who need mental health support, but because of long waiting lists or lack of expert support often don't get what they deserve; let alone as an early therapeutic intervention.

Many children don't voice their needs with words, and go unnoticed or labelled as 'shy', 'quiet' or even 'troublemakers'. Their behaviour tells a story!

Play and Creative Arts Therapists are trained to use a wide variety of mediums to enable children to communicate those needs without using words. Often unpicking struggles and worries that allow the child to later leave them behind. The process is powerful and changes who that child will become into a more confident, self-aware and emotionally intelligent version of themselves.

We need to make sure that every child can have access to this expert mental health service, rather than being left alone in their emotions or being seen by someone who isn't qualified to help them- yes that does happen!

YOU can help! By SHARING this post and following this link https://childmentalhealthcharter.com/supporters and signing the charter. With more supporters, comes more attention. ANYONE can do this! Thank you to everyone who takes the time to sign.

17/05/2025

I absolutely love Deb Dana she has many wonderful books about connecting to your neverous system in a Polyvagal approach.

10/05/2025

Day one of SandStory Training, using my favourite tool in my Play Therapy kit - sand.

It’s so powerful that tiny bits of sand which is made up of different minerals such as; quartz, feldspar, hematite and also shells, coral and other rocks can reconnect us to our subconscious and unconscious knowledge that lives within us.

Sand is thought to be millions of years old!