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PODCAST

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast

Julie and Philippa

In a world where play can be seen as frivolous or unnecessary, Julie and Philippa set out to explore its importance in our everyday lives.Pondering play and therapy, both separately but also the inter-connectedness that play can in its own right be the very therapy we need.Julie and Philippa have many years of experience playing, both in their extensive professional careers and their personal lives. They will share, ponder, and discuss their experiences along the way in the hope that this might

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All Episodes

65:35

Unlocking Empathy: Play as a Catalyst in Therapy and...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/10/09

Julie interviews play therapist and social work lecturer Pete Ayling about how playfulness supports understanding, empathy, and perspective-taking for children and adults. Pete describes his roles teaching social work students, supervising play therapists, and quality-assuring UK play therapy training, and reflects on play in his life through relationships, arts, nature, and identity exploration. They discuss play as symbolic representation that can loosen thinking when experiences are hard t...

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56:11

Pathways to Recovery: Lee Smith on Reforming...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/10/02

Philippa interviews Lee Smith, a mental health nurse with 30 years’ experience in Tier 4 inpatient children’s services, whose NHS roles included ward management, clinical specialist and consultant posts. Lee describes entering nursing via an interest in psychology, working in forensic CAMHS, and helping rehabilitate highly detained young people through structured leave and relationship-based work. He explains CAMHS tiers 1–4, the emergence of psychiatric intensive care units, and how detentio...

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53:16

Beyond the Behavior: Understanding Trauma with...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/09/25

In this episode of Pondering Play and Therapy, host Philippa interviews Dr. Lisa Cherry—author, speaker, researcher, and consultant—about trauma, adversity, attachment, and compassionate responses to behavior. Cherry shares how her childhood experiences of trauma, being in care, emotional neglect, school exclusion, and homelessness shaped her commitment to social justice and a career spanning residential care, leaving-care teams, education, and independent work. She discusses sustaining onese...

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46:10

From Blunders to Breakthroughs: Pondering...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/09/18

In this episode of Pondering Play and Therapy, the hosts discuss how “mistakes” in therapeutic work never fully go away and are better understood as learning opportunities. They reflect on recent examples of making unhelpful assumptions in play therapy sessions and meetings with parents, including using materials that were too dysregulating and shortcutting families’ stories due to time pressure and experience-based bias. They explore the value of consistency in the play therapy room, the imp...

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68:45

From Aggression to Expression: A Play Therapist's...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/09/11

Host Julie interviews Glasgow-based play therapist and With Kids trainer Jeanne McLaughlin about children’s play involving death, dying, and violent themes, based on McLaughlin’s workshop “How to Die Well in the Playroom.” McLaughlin shares her career path into play therapy, With Kids’ work in schools and its MSc training with Queen Margaret University, and why she avoids the term “aggressive play,” reframing it as high-energy play linked to underdeveloped sensory and regulation systems. She ...

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46:09

Unlocking the Sandbox: Therapy Through Play. A...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/09/04

Margot Sunderland joins Philippa in this weeks episode of Pondering Play and Theraplay. The conversation explores how “burying” in sandplay can mean different things, from hiding feelings to gaining control, and emphasizes therapist curiosity about what symbols mean for each child. It contrasts direct responses (“Does this feel like something in your life?”) with indirect, metaphor-based approaches for children who cannot or will not talk about feelings, noting metaphor can be more digestible...

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62:22

EP77 Therapeutic Journeys: Q&A with Listener Becky Webb

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/07/24

Philippa and Julie close the UK summer term with a Q&A episode featuring listener and play therapist Becky Webb, who shares her career path and asks about working therapeutically during family transitions and around bereavement. They discuss moving beyond blanket rules about waiting for stability or set time periods, focusing instead on assessment, goals, and providing supportive, relational therapy without necessarily doing deep trauma processing, while also supporting “big people” and o...

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63:08

EP76 Gardens & Guidance: Finding Joy in Play Therapy;...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/07/17

Julie hosts Simon Kerr-Edwards on Pondering Play and Therapy to discuss clinical supervision for therapists and school staff, plus Simon’s parent consultations. Simon, a Buckinghamshire-based practitioner, describes training first as a drama therapist, later completing a play therapy master’s at Roehampton after meeting Anne Cattanach, and moving from local authority and CAMHS work into independent practice. They explore why supervision is essential, how it differs from personal therapy, and ...

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57:48

EP75 Behind the Lines: EMDR Therapy in Action; A...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/07/10

In this episode of Pondering Play and Therapy, Philippa interviews Matt Wesson, former president of EMDR Association UK, EMDR Europe senior accredited trainer/consultant, and BABCP-accredited CBT therapist with 30 years’ mental health experience across the military, NHS, industry, and private practice. Matt explains EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) as an eight-phase psychotherapy developed for PTSD and now used for wider issues (e.g., phobias, social anxiety, depression li...

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46:20

EP74 From Photocopiers to Pandemics - Managing...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/07/03

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53:27

EP73 Beyond Borders: Healing Through Play and Therapy...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/06/26

Host Philippa interviews social worker, therapist, author, and international presenter Steph Hunter about her current work and career, largely supporting children in care and trauma-informed services. Steph describes preparing a Canada keynote, “Humanising Services,” through the international Children and Youth Care (CYC) Network, and discusses clinical supervision and training for children’s home providers, work with inpatient services, and association with Mark Finnis on restorative practic...

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63:50

EP72 Beyond Words: The Role of Metaphor in Healing...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/06/19

Julie interviews Tim Woodhouse of Tiptoes Child Therapy Services in northwest England, a multidisciplinary practice founded in 2010, named after Janusz Korczak’s quote about “standing on tiptoes” to reach children’s feelings. They discuss working with children affected by complex developmental trauma (including sexual harm, neglect, physical and emotional abuse, and broader ACE-related factors) and the key question of whether children replaying trauma in play therapy is helpful or harmful. Ti...

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48:59

EP71 Empowering Futures: Playful Sustainability...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/06/12

Philippa hosts an episode of Pondering Play and Therapy with guest Louise Robertson, founder of The Sustainables Academy (nominated for the Earthshot Prize in 2025) and a lecturer at Aberdeen University, formerly a teacher and head teacher. Louise explains how the colourful “Sustainables” characters provide a playful hook to help children, educators, parents, and communities understand complex sustainability concepts across water, air, and land, encouraging mindful choices, reduced waste, and...

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53:27

EP70 Play Interruptions Explored: From Parenting to...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/06/05

Philippa and Julie explore how interruptions shape children’s play and emotional wellbeing, from everyday endings like mealtimes, bedtimes and school bells to more harmful breaks when adults are distracted, unwell, or inconsistent. They discuss how predictable routines can help children tolerate frustration, while unexpected or repeated disruptions can affect a child’s sense of value and trust, especially for children with instability, multiple moves, or experiences like COVID-related shutdow...

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61:25

EP69 Understanding Attachment: Tools for Families and...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/05/29

Julie welcomes Viv Norris, founder and CEO of the Family Place on the Welsh borders, supporting adoptive and other families across Wales and parts of England, and co-founder of Theraplay UK. Viv traces her path from intense residential therapeutic work with adolescents, through music therapy training and clinical psychology, into 20 years in the NHS and later fostering and adoption services. She explains why she built an independent, team-based service centred on carers, group supervision and...

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52:17

EP68 Post-COVID Childhood Anxiety, Insights for...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/05/22

In this episode of Pondering Play and Therapy, host Philippa welcomes back Chicago-based child therapist Mandy Jones to discuss how COVID continues to affect children and families five to six years on. Mandy shares what she’s seeing in her practice with mostly under-8s, especially “COVID babies” now entering or finishing kindergarten: higher baseline anxiety, difficulty with transitions, separation distress, shutdowns or big behaviours, and heightened concerns about germs and mess. They explo...

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52:36

EP67 Sarah Naish on Fostering, Therapeutic Parenting...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/05/15

Philippa welcomes Sarah Naish, bestselling author of The A–Z of Therapeutic Parenting, adopter of five siblings, foster carer, agency founder and keynote speaker. Sarah explains how the book grew from real-life notes and emails into a practical guide that helps carers understand fear-based, trauma-driven behaviour and respond with firm, fair boundaries, nurture, curiosity and linked logical consequences rather than punishment. They discuss how therapeutic parenting differs from “gentle parent...

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67:02

EP66 Pondering Play and Mess with Ellen Dempsey

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/05/08

In this episode of Pondering Play and Therapy, Julie speaks with newly qualified play therapist Ellen Dempsey about her Roehampton University dissertation, “Oh, What a Mess,” exploring messy play and therapeutic presence. Ellen shares how her own preference for tidiness created tension, shame, and distraction in the playroom when children used sensory materials, and how supervision and an embodied messy-paint exercise helped her reconnect with the felt experience behind her topic. Using quali...

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63:50

EP65 Exploring Family Ties, Childhood, Therapy and...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/05/01

Siblings, Roles, and Therapy: Connection, Conflict, and the “Pie” of Attention Philippa and Julie explore sibling relationships through personal experiences and clinical work, discussing how children take on roles (e.g., “good child,” eldest organiser, protector) and how grief and major life events can reshape sibling bonds. They reflect on how siblings can remember the same childhood events very differently, how play and shared memories can build belonging, and how conflict may reflect deve...

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53:50

EP64 Bridging Childhood Trauma and Therapeutic...

Pondering Play and Therapy Podcast ·

2026/04/24

Philippa Kelly speaks with Sarah Dillon, consultant psychotherapist and head of therapeutic services for True Fostering and Safer Fostering, about how her own childhood in and out of foster care shapes her child-centered, trauma-informed work. Sarah explains why children react strongly to birth family contact, how sibling conflict can stem from trauma bonds, unmet needs, shame, and difficulty holding dual attachments, and how caregivers can use empathy, visuals (like her “pie” analogy), and c...

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83 results

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