by Kylie Ellison
Hosted by therapist and trainer Kylie Ellison, this podcast explores the heart of Child-Centred Play Therapy and the healing power of play. Each episode offers thoughtful reflections and practical insights for play therapists, students, and caregivers supporting children’s emotional wellbeing. ✨ Join the community: https://mailchi.mp/playtherapycircle.com/play-therapy-circle ✨ Podcast subscriptions: https://kylieellison.com.au/ptcsub
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
7/17/2025
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July 16, 2026
<p></p><p>For our very first guest interview on The Play Therapy Circle Podcast, host Kylie Ellison sits down with the incredible Dr. Jodi Mullen, a professor in the counselling and psychological services department at SUNY Oswego, where she has worked as a counsellor educator for nearly 30 years. Jodi is the founder and director of Integrative Counselling Services, a registered play therapy supervisor, a CCPT Master, an internationally sought-after trainer and speaker, and the recipient of the Association for Play Therapy's Key Award for professional training and education. She has also been Kylie's own clinical supervisor for several years, and it shows in the ease and honesty of this conversation.</p><p>Jodi reflects on entering the play therapy field back in 1994, at a time when the profession was barely known, even within the mental health community. She talks about how far things have come since then, with a growing evidence base, wider public awareness, and more practitioners specialising in theoretical approaches like child-centred play therapy. She's candid, though, that calling yourself child-centred and actually practising with fidelity to the model are two very different things, and that fidelity is what makes the approach genuinely evidence-based.</p><p>Kylie and Jodi trace the emotional and professional journey of becoming a play therapist, including the vulnerability required to sit with a child's story, the discomfort of learning skills like limit setting for the first time, and the deep self-acceptance work that underpins being able to accept a child exactly as they are. Jodi shares moving stories from her decades in the same community, including former child clients returning to see her as adults, and small, unforgettable moments in the playroom that reveal just how much children pick up on connection and care, even without ever being able to name it themselves.</p><p>The conversation moves into some of the more complex clinical territory play therapists face: children who present as selectively mute, children who seem almost too compliant and hard to "find" in the room, and the growing pattern of learned helplessness Kylie is noticing in her own practice in Brisbane. Jodi offers a compassionate, curious lens for understanding these presentations rather than viewing them as problems to fix.</p><p>They also dig into supervision, talking about the qualities Jodi looks for in a supervisee who is going to thrive in this work, including vulnerability, self-awareness, the ability to take feedback, and a genuine sense of humour. From there, the discussion turns to countertransference, which Jodi describes not as something to be avoided or feared, but as a consultant in the room, a signal from the child that deserves attention and care rather than personalisation.</p><p>Toward the end of the episode, Jodi and Kylie talk openly about compassion fatigue and burnout, and why regulation, boundaries and self-care aren't optional extras in this profession, they're essential to being able to keep showing up for clients. Jodi's advice is simple but sits with you: protect your non-negotiables, learn to say no, and find an accountability partner to help you stick to it.</p><p>This episode is warm, funny, and full of hard-won wisdom from someone who has spent over three decades in the playroom and still finds it as meaningful as the day she started. Whether you're brand new to play therapy or years into your own practice, there's something here to sit with.</p><p>Jodi will be joining us in person at the Play Therapy Circle Conference, 24-25 October at Rydges South Bank, Brisbane. Come learn, laugh, and connect with her and the wider play therapy community over two full days. Details and tickets are in the show notes.</p><p><a href="https://kylieellison.com.au/ptcconf2026/">Play Therapy Circle Conference 2026 - Kylie Ellison Therapy & Training</a><a href="https://kylieellison.com.au/ptcsubs/">Circle Subscriptions - Kylie Ellison Therapy & Training</a></p><p></p>
July 9, 2026
<p><strong>🎧 Flashback Episode: Self-Care for Play Therapists (A Revisit)</strong></p><p>We're pulling this one back into your feed because some conversations deserve a second listen, especially when life gets busy and self-care quietly slips down the priority list again. If that's you right now, welcome back to this one.</p><p>In this episode, Kylie Ellison gets refreshingly honest about what self-care actually looks like in the life of a play therapist, recorded, fittingly, at the tail end of an exhausting Monday, with no polish and no pretending. It's less "10 tips for wellness" and more "here's what's really going on, and maybe you're going through it too."</p><p>Kylie talks through why self-care isn't a nice-to-have but a professional responsibility, especially for play therapists holding space for children's big emotions, trauma stories, and nervous systems day after day. She shares the cumulative, often invisible toll of that work, and how easily compassion fatigue and burnout can creep in when we're deeply passionate about what we do.</p><p>The conversation moves through three practical pillars:</p><p>🔹 <strong>Professional self-care</strong>: setting boundaries around caseloads, session spacing, admin time, and communication limits (including the "if it's more than two lines, it's an appointment" rule)</p><p>🔹 <strong>Emotional and nervous system care</strong>: grounding rituals before and after sessions, post-session processing, and the reminder that a dysregulated therapist can't co-regulate a child</p><p>🔹 <strong>Practical, real-life self-care</strong>: hydration, eating, workspace atmosphere, recognising early burnout signs, and building in small moments of joy and connection outside the playroom</p><p>Kylie doesn't offer this as someone who has it all figured out. She's candid about still learning, still working on her own boundaries, and still forgetting to drink water. That honesty is the heart of the episode: a reminder that self-care isn't about doing it perfectly, it's about noticing, adjusting, and starting with just one small thing.</p><p>If you're feeling tired, stretched thin, or like you've been pouring from an empty cup lately, consider this your permission slip to slow down and check in with yourself today.</p><p>💛 Take care of you, and take care of each other.</p><p>This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not provide therapeutic advice. All case examples referenced are de-identified. If you're seeking personal support, please reach out to a qualified mental health professional in your area.</p><p></p>
July 2, 2026
<p><strong>When Parents Push Back: Working with Resistance in Play Therapy</strong></p><p>You can have every handout, every strategy, every piece of psychoeducation ready to go, but if the parent sitting across from you is defended, exhausted, and quietly drowning in shame, none of it is going to land. So what do we actually do?</p><p>Ever sat across from a resistant parent and thought, "If I could just get through to them, everything would shift for this child"? You're not alone, and in this episode, Kylie unpacks one of the most common threads she hears from supervisees: how do we support children when we're not finding movement, insight, or collaboration with their parents?</p><p>Recording on a beautiful winter's morning on Quandamooka country (yes, you're getting the Brisbane weather update whether you asked for it or not), Kylie shares reflections on why so many parents show up to our clinics exhausted, overscheduled, and carrying an enormous amount of shame, and why the answer, again and again, comes back to connection.</p><p>In this episode, Kylie explores:</p><p>Why all roads lead back to relationship. You can have every tool in the world, but without connection, parents simply won't invest in giving your suggestions a go.</p><p>The contributing factors behind parental defensiveness: guilt and shame (one of the most acute forms of shame in the literature), overwhelm, unresolved childhood history, system pressure, and protection.</p><p>Why this generation of parents, hello geriatric millennials, are the first expected to re-parent themselves while re-parenting their children, often while working and running a household at the same time.</p><p>How the tenets of CCPT, empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard, apply just as much to the parents in our consults as they do to the children in our playroom.</p><p>What it means to "meet children of all ages," including the defended parent who was likely criticised as a child and learned that vulnerability wasn't safe. This is the parallel process: the way we work with children mirrors the way we work with parents.</p><p>Practical shifts you can make right away: leading with curiosity and wonder statements instead of "you should try," reflecting and validating feelings, sharing playroom wins as gentle invitations, and honouring where a parent sits in the cycle of change.</p><p>Why countertransference is therapeutic gold, and what your own frustration or irritation might actually be telling you about what's happening for that parent.</p><p>The "session three" marker Kylie watches for, why early drop-off can sometimes be a better outcome than losing a family twenty sessions in, and how to set collaborative expectations, and hold boundaries, from the very first consult.</p><p>This is gentle, person-centred reflection for anyone doing the tender work of supporting families. A reminder that we don't need to break through the wall. We just need to make the environment safe enough that the wall doesn't have to work so hard, and to give parents the same patience, empathy, and time we'd offer any child in the playroom.</p><p>Whether you're a seasoned play therapist, a student just starting out, or someone deeply passionate about working with children, you belong here.</p><p>Got a play therapy or CCPT question you'd love answered on the pod? Email Kylie. The link's in the show notes, and she'd genuinely love to hear from you.</p><p>Come join the free community circle to connect with other CCPT practitioners (link in show notes too).</p><p>If this episode resonated, please follow the podcast, share it with a colleague, or leave a short review. It helps others find the circle.</p><p>Until next time, look after yourselves and each other. Go well.</p><p>This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute therapeutic advice. All views are Kylie's own, and any case examples have been de-identified.</p><p></p>
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Hosted by therapist and trainer Kylie Ellison, this podcast explores the heart of Child-Centred Play Therapy and the healing power of play. Each episode offers thoughtful reflections and practical insights for play therapists, students, and caregivers supporting children’s emotional wellbeing.
✨ Join the community: https://mailchi.mp/playtherapycircle.com/play-therapy-circle ✨ Podcast subscriptions: https://kylieellison.com.au/ptcsub
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