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How To Talk to Parents About Difficult Issues in Play Therapy

How To Talk to Parents About Difficult Issues in Play Therapy

Update: 2025-08-28
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When I talk with play therapists about reasons they avoid having difficult conversations with parents/caregivers, here's the most common worry they tell me 👇


“What if I say something and they pull their kid from play therapy?”


It can feel awful when parents terminate play therapy before real change can happen.


We feel like giant failures and then start listing all the ways we failed the child (and ourselves).

So, this fear is real.  


Sometimes parents do pull their child from play therapy prematurely and it does feel awful.


Play therapists often avoid hard conversations—like naming the parent’s role in a child’s symptoms—because they don’t want to rupture the relationship or risk the parent pulling their child from play therapy.  


 If we look a little deeper into this fear, what’s really beneath the surface?


 It’s often rooted in people-pleasing, imposter syndrome, or fear of being seen as “too much” or “not helpful enough.”  (Ouch!)


So let’s talk about it.  Let’s dive right in and have a conversation so you can move beyond your fear and have those hard conversations so your clients can get real healing.


Join me for this week's podcast! I’ll share four tips to help you overcome your fear and take charge with compassion and kindness to have difficult conversations and reduce the likelihood parents will pull their child from play therapy.



Join my free Facebook Community Play and Expressive Arts Therapy Playground.

Check out my free resources for mental health professionals working with children, adolescents, and families who want to integrate play therapy and expressive arts into their clinical work.

I work with individuals and agencies to develop successful strategies and meet the treatment needs of your child and adolescent clients and their families using play therapy & expressive arts.

Contact me to schedule a free 30-minute video call if you're ready to level up your skills

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How To Talk to Parents About Difficult Issues in Play Therapy

How To Talk to Parents About Difficult Issues in Play Therapy

Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S