Episodes
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Children don’t grieve in the same way that adults grieve. We need to honor children’s grief process and help them recover without time constraints. Althea T. Simpson’s guest in this episode is Dr. Ajita Robinson, grief and trauma expert and the author of The Gift Of Grief. Dr. Ajita discusses with Althea how children are more than likely to show their grief through demanding behaviors as they move in and out of their grief process.
We need to consider the child's age, emotional maturity, the circumstances of the loss, and the connection with the child’s loss. Working through difficult feelings can become easier with time through support and open conversations. Join in the conversation to help children in your life move through the grief process with strength and grace.
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Working as a mental health professional takes a huge emotional and psychological toll on any individual. And, if not managed correctly, this could manifest in how you handle your business. In this episode, Althea T. Simpson shares how she deals with negative emotions while running her private psychotherapy practice. Althea not only tackles how she deals with her own trauma but how she interacts in business relationships that turn sour as well. It is critical that you take care of yourself first. You can always rebuild or start a new business, but if you lose yourself in the process, everything else goes down the drain. Lend an ear and gain some important lessons on self-care for practicing psychotherapists.
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Missing episodes?
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What is non-directive play therapy and how does it promote resilience? Not all children and adolescents possess the resilience to bounce back from adverse situations. Parental involvement is crucial to achieving therapeutic change in children and adolescents receiving play therapy treatment. There are several protective factors that can help children build resilience. In this podcast episode, Althea T. Simpson talks about the role parents play in fostering resilience and managing risks in the lives of their children. She dives into non-directive play therapy as an approach to promote resilience in children. She also touches on the core principles of child therapy and examine what therapists should focus on in non-directive play therapy.
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Play therapy helps clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and development. Althea Simpson discusses in this episode how play therapy themes manifest during play therapy with children. Examples include aggression, containment, good vs. bad, etc. Identifying themes gives insight into a client’s inner world. Mental health professionals can use the observation to decide the best treatment course. Tune in and learn about various play therapy themes.
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Marketing and branding are two different concepts. Achieving business success is understanding the differences between the two and how to effectively use each to level up or level out your business. Branding and marketing are necessary expenses to starting and sustaining a psychotherapy business, but they are often missed steps, or does not get enough time and attention to create lasting impressions to attract the clients you want to serve. Establishing a brand identity must come first because it’s your promise to your clients and defines who you are as a person and as a business.
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Mindset and emotions are two necessary factors in achieving success, and they are as important as your goals and motivations. Althea T. Simpson reflects on the ups and downs of her private psychotherapy practice and entrepreneurial journey, sharing how her feelings and perceptions impacted every decision and strategy she has made, usually in the wrong ways. She explains how life will always be full of storms and tests, and it is up to us to become resilient through proper self-care and seeking support. If one can harness the power and strengths from a well-targeted mindset and well-handled emotions, personal and financial growth can be expected.
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Knowing the business of psychotherapy practice is just as important as offering traditional psychotherapy to clients. When thinking about starting a private psychotherapy practice, you must consider timing and your financial resources because starting your own business is not as easy as one may think. Even after starting your business, you must sustain it. On today’s podcast, Althea T. Simpson focuses on the VICTORY factors that has helped her to lay a foundation for her private psychotherapy practice and create her own success story.
For information for the Business Blunders Small Group Coaching for Private Practice Psychotherapy, please check out www.altheatsimpson.com.
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Many psychotherapists are unaware of the importance of building their personal brand and platform. Harnessing its power can help your private practice stand out to prospective clients before they even set foot in your door or computer. Althea T. Simpson sits down with Sharvette Mitchell to dissect the six different components in establishing your personal brand. They detail how to choose your audience, the importance of visual marketing, and the power of media coverage and publication. Althea and Sharvette also discuss the Platform Builders Program and how both of them were connected through it.
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It’s unrealistic to make children the change agents in their families when they are the least powerful. As therapists, we must address the important relationship between parent and child to help parents become the therapeutic agents of change themselves. In this episode, Althea T. Simpson is joined by Licensed Social Worker and Registered Play Therapist Supervisor, Cathi Spooner, to talk about attachment-focused play therapy with traumatized children and their families. She talks about the process parents need to go through to think about how they can properly have a disciplinary structure with their child, and then gives some advice to other therapists out there on how they can work with their clients better. In working effectively with traumatized children, working with the family is vital for healing and recovery, and it takes training and practice. Start here by listening in on the wisdom Cathy imparts and more.
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Some traumatized children will see the school environment as challenging and trigger traumatic stress reactions. Others may view the school environment as a source of security and continuity. Either way, the school should be safe to all, and in this episode, host, Althea T. Simpson, discusses the need to collaborate with educators to create trauma-informed learning environments. She talks about the ability of a child’s brain to change from being traumatized and re-orienting educators on their responses to a child’s trauma, which are more physiological than psychological. Traumatized children may be under a lot of stress that can cause their system to shut down; this includes their ability to focus or concentrate, affecting their ability to learn. Join Althea in this discussion to become more informed about how to better create learning environments for traumatized children and more.
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Parental conflict, stress, anxiety, and depression increase child misbehavior and acting out. If we can help decrease this, we can better help the parents help the child. Dr. Sandy Stillo, LPC-S, CHST, and Mrs. Amber Bailey, MS, LMFT, LPC, CHST from The Counseling Spot are child therapists who believe in the power of intentional parent-centered consultation during the process of child-centered play therapy. Although child-centered play therapy is led by the child, the relationship between the therapist and the parents is just as important as their relationship with the child. In this episode, they sit down with Althea T. Simpson to emphasize the importance of consistent, standalone parent consultation sessions to allow for targeted work with parents. What is more, they also discuss the struggles mothers face when it comes to “mommy guilt,” going deep into the issues in mom-shaming as they compare themselves to their ideas of the ideal mother and how this affects the child in the process.
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Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic technique that incorporates books and pretty much any literature, depending on your creativity, into the play therapy session with children, adolescents, adults, families, and even couples. Utilizing storytelling through fiction and non-fiction books can be very therapeutic and symbolize nurturing, depending on how you incorporate it. Bibliotherapy is adaptable and can be used by mental health professionals and parents to help clients improve social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. On today’s podcast, Althea T. Simpson shares how mental health professionals and parents use bibliotherapy to improve children’s social, emotional, and behavioral functioning.
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Domestic violence is a major concern for children. It is a social problem that impacts individuals, families, and society. Children who witness domestic violence experience emotional, mental, and social problems that can affect their developmental growth. Even if children are not hurt themselves, they can see, hear, or imagine what is happening to a parent or caregiver, making the child feel unsafe. On today’s podcast, Althea T. Simpson brings awareness to domestic violence's silent victims – the children.
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Just because you’re in the helping profession doesn’t mean that you aren’t supposed to make money. Psychotherapy practice may not be a gold mine by itself, but there are so many ways that you can diversify your income beyond traditional psychotherapy practice. Join Althea Simpson as she talks about this with Paul "Bashea" Williams, LCSW-C, LICSW. Paul is not just a psychotherapist. He is an author, business owner and speaker. Having walked his talk, Paul teaches us the importance of having a contingency financial plan and diversifying your income sources so that you can become more financially stable and independent. Ultimately, freeing yourself up from money troubles will help you show up and be more present for your clients. After all, that’s the whole point of the profession, right? Listen in and learn how to get yourself out of that poverty mindset and start living the life that you deserve.
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Play therapy does not exist in a vacuum; it can be used with other modalities with the aim of enhancing the whole healing experience. In this episode, Althea Simpson sits down with Jackie Flynn, EdS, LMHC-S, RPT to talk about using Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) as a safe and effective treatment modality for treating children with trauma experiences. EMDR is a promising psychotherapy technique that targets neural connections associated with trauma and redirects them to new, positive experiences and emotions. Althea and Jackie discuss how EMDR can be integrated into play therapy treatment to help individuals work through traumatic experiences and enhance emotional resources. They also touch on how EMDR and play therapy can be used with adults, as well as the requirements for being trained and certified as an EMDR practitioner.
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Does play therapy work for adults? Traditionally, play therapy was designed to work with children below 11 or 12, but you’ll be surprised at how well it works for people beyond those ages. In this episode, Althea Simpson discusses the use of play therapy as an effective treatment modality for adults receiving psychotherapy treatment. As with children and adolescents, play therapy can help adults gain greater self-awareness to understand and process problems, including stress, anxiety and relationship issues. After all, we have been playing ever since the day we were born. There must be a good reason for that.
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You can't build a house without a foundation. As with starting your own psychotherapy private practice, what you need before anything else is get the basics down. In this episode, Althea T. Simpson offers a checklist of business essentials to start a psychotherapy private practice. Though it is not an exhaustive list, it gives some guidance about the necessities that will help you kickstart your new venture into the right path. Join Althea as she covers the important things you need from the kind of attitude and mindset you must have, down to the legalities and paperwork of your business as well as the important platforms to have.
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Growing up can be tough when you are in an environment that discriminates you based on the color of your skin, and so many Black children have to deal with the traumas and anxieties caused by racism. Especially now with the Black Lives Matter movement going strong, it has become even more important to provide the necessary mental and emotional support to the children within the community. In this episode, Althea T. Simpson sits down with Arron Muller, Licensed Master Social Worker, to address the effects of racial trauma on Black children. They then go deep into LEGO-based play therapy interventions that can help express anxieties and fear children are experiencing related to police brutality. Follow them in this conversation to know more about the pressing issues that will affect children as they go into adulthood and how we can help.
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Welcome to the Chronicles of a Play Therapist Podcast. In this first episode, Althea Simpson, MBA, LCSW, RPT-S introduces play therapy – an approach in expressive therapy that holds incredible potential and practice-proven effectiveness in healing the generational trauma that besets the black community through their historical and contemporary experience of racial inequality and oppression. Black pain is real. To work with black clients in healing their trauma, mental health professionals have to acknowledge and give due consideration to that pain. Althea fully recognizes that fact and has created a community geared towards healing racial trauma. Through this podcast, Althea will walk you through this unique modality that will help you deal with these racial wounds and step forward from being hurt to being healed.
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