In this special 300th episode of the Play Therapy Podcast, and on a special day (the podcast launched three years ago today!), I share the full audio from our recent livestream celebration—a live Zoom event joined by listeners from all over the world. This episode is part reflection, part celebration, and part rally cry for what’s next in the CCPT movement.
I talk about how the podcast started as a simple idea to serve a small group of play therapists—and how it’s grown into something so much bigger. I share stories from the early episodes, the unexpected moments of momentum, and the incredible support that’s fueled the growth of a global community of clinicians committed to preserving the purity of the Child-Centered Play Therapy model.
Whether you’ve listened from the beginning or recently discovered the podcast, this episode is a heartfelt thank-you—and an invitation to keep building, growing, and advocating together. Here’s to 300 episodes, and the next 300 to come.
PlayTherapyNow.com is my HUB for everything I do! playtherapynow.com. Sign up for my email newsletter, stay ahead with the latest CCPT CEU courses, personalized coaching opportunities and other opportunities you need to thrive in your CCPT practice. If you click one link in these show notes, this is the one to click!
If you would like to ask me questions directly, check out www.ccptcollective.com, where I host two weekly Zoom calls filled with advanced CCPT case studies and session reviews, as well as member Q&A. You can take advantage of the two-week free trial to see if the CCPT Collective is right for you.
Ask Me Questions: Call (813) 812-5525, or email: brenna@thekidcounselor.com
Brenna's CCPT Hub: https://www.playtherapynow.com
CCPT Collective (online community exclusively for CCPTs): https://www.ccptcollective.com
Podcast HQ: https://www.playtherapypodcast.com
APT Approved Play Therapy CE courses: https://childcenteredtraining.com
Twitter: @thekidcounselor https://twitter.com/thekidcounselor
Facebook: https://facebook.com/playtherapypodcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr.
Brenna Hicks,
your source for centered and focused play therapy coaching.
So let me
welcome you first of all.
I'm so happy to see faces and have a chance to hang out with you on my
Friday afternoon.
I know some of you are in completely different parts of the world,
but
really glad you're here.
(00:21):
And I don't know how many of you all were able to attend the last one,
but
this will be pretty similar in structure.
I'll kind of walk you through what we can expect today
and give you some housekeeping details and then we'll dive in.
So.
We are planning,
let me silence my computer,
we are planning to be on longer than an hour.
(00:43):
I want to let you know last one went about 1 hour and a half,
so please stay as long as you can if you have to hop off,
hop back on.
Don't worry about coming in and out.
I know you all have clients and busy schedules,
so stay as long as you can and we'll go until.
We've exhausted the questions and or 2 hours,
whichever happens first.
(01:03):
Last call was an hour and a half,
so we'll see how this one goes,
but
I wanted to make you aware that
tomorrow,
as a matter of fact,
is
the 3rd anniversary of the podcast.
So tomorrow we hit our 3 year mark.
We launched on May 17th of 2022.
So tomorrow is our 3rd year of doing this,
(01:25):
and this is our 300th episode.
So I didn't plan that,
it's just how it worked out,
which is really cool.
So I'm going to do a little contest for you all.
So for those of you that attend this live call today,
I'm going to give away 3 because it's 3 years,
300 episodes.
I'm going to give away 3 30 minute calls with me,
(01:46):
where you get to talk to me about anything you want for 30 minutes.
So the way that you get entered into that contest,
if you would like to have a 30 minute chat with me,
Zoom call,
please send me
your CCPT story.
So whatever your story is,
if it's I've been doing it my whole life,
I just found it.
(02:06):
This is my 2nd,
3rd,
4th career.
I'm still in grad school.
I,
whatever your story is,
if it's a transformation story,
if it's a win story,
if it's a celebration story,
if it's a struggle story,
it doesn't matter.
What's your CCPT story,
email that to me.
And I would love to hear where you all have been
and how you found CCPT and what it means to you.
(02:28):
So that will just be a way for me to connect
with each of you personally and by sending me that email,
you will get entered into the drawing for those 3 30 minute Zoom calls with me.
The deadline for that is next Friday at midnight,
so you have a week,
no rush.
Please shoot me an email brenna@thekidcounselor.com and let
me know your CCPT journey and your story.
(02:50):
And then you'll have a chance to have one of those Zoom calls with me.
So,
and I'll,
I'll bring that up a little bit later because I know
more people are going to be hopping on as well.
OK,
Mya,
do we need to say anything else?
OK.
All right,
so let's dive in to,
by the way,
those of you that just hopped on,
glad you're here.
Welcome.
And I want to spend a little bit of time kind of going through.
(03:12):
This process,
I want to help you all understand what this journey has been like
from one listener to thousands,
and I certainly did not anticipate
what this podcast was going to become
and how it was going to grow and what I was
launching when we did that first episode 3 years ago,
(03:33):
almost to the day.
So,
as I say that,
I want you to genuinely know how grateful I am,
how
I,
I'm like shocked and surprised in the best way
at what this has become,
and so this wouldn't exist without you all.
So please know
there's a lot of gratitude and thanks that comes with this 300th episode because
(03:55):
many,
actually most podcasts never make it past episode 40.
That's a statistic that they've studied.
Most podcasts are dead by the 40th episode.
And this is 300 and it's only getting bigger and so
I'm really grateful to each and every one of you.
So this is a celebration of us.
I want to make that very known.
I,
I think that
(04:16):
this is very much a collective we
and yes,
I'm behind the mic and I'm the one that's putting out episodes,
but
you all email me,
you send me questions,
you interact,
you listen faithfully.
I,
I wanna,
I wanna tell you what
is significant that we just found out yesterday.
We went back and looked at the first episode so
(04:37):
that we could see when our first episode was.
That's how I know it was 3 years ago tomorrow.
And within the last 30 days,
the first episode,
even though we're on episode 300,
the first episode has been downloaded 700 times
in the last 30 days.
So what that tells me is
there is such a huge community of CCPTs
(05:00):
that are seeking support and knowledge and training,
and I'm just so grateful that you all care so deeply
about the model.
I'm so grateful that you all care so deeply.
about adherence to the model
and that CCPT has hooked you
the way that it does.
So this is very much about you all for believing in this model and for caring
(05:21):
about your work,
caring about your kids,
caring about your communities.
I talk all the time
about
the impact that we have.
We never
ever question
whether or not our lives make a difference.
We're gifted
in CCPT with knowing that every single day
(05:42):
we have impact
and the influence
that we're able to have on
individual kids,
their families,
our communities,
and largely the world,
you impact generations when you work with children.
And the fact that there are so many CCPTs that want to be all in on this,
(06:04):
and the very first episode,
I listened to it yesterday just to refresh myself.
I was like,
what did I even say on the first episode?
I don't even remember.
And it was kind of a vision casting episode,
so it was just kind of where are we gonna go?
What does this look like,
whatever.
And I,
I listened back to that and I was like,
oh my gosh,
(06:24):
from the very beginning I said
this is gonna be CCPT
and that's all you're gonna get
and that's what this is about
and
that's polarizing,
right?
I mean,
play therapy is broad and vast and there's a lot of theoretical orientations
and so to have this kind of following,
this kind of audience,
this kind of investment.
(06:45):
It says something about
the model and your commitment to it,
so
I want this to be a collective celebration for all of
us because I can't do this if y'all don't listen.
And if you don't care and if you're not
invested and you don't want to learn this stuff,
I don't have any reason to put anything out.
So thank you,
huge celebration for everyone.
(07:07):
And I want to give you a little bit of backstory about how this came to be,
because I know some of you may know this story,
but I think most of you actually don't.
I've been doing my parenting podcast since 2016.
And that is
actually that's another story I'll tell you in a second,
but
the parenting podcast was where I,
I intended to have a podcast.
(07:28):
I never thought I would have a clinical podcast,
one for therapists,
but what ended up happening was I kept getting emails from therapists
that were listening to the parenting podcast.
And so one day it just kind of hit me,
you know,
like God drops little
things in my brain
and I said,
oh my gosh,
there are so many therapists that listen to this podcast.
(07:50):
I doubt there's a CCPT
podcast for therapists.
So I did a little perfunctory search and I was like,
no,
I don't think there's anything about CCPT on a podcast right now.
And so that was kind of the the beginning of the whole thing.
I thought,
let me just throw out a couple of episodes and see if therapists care,
see if therapists are interested.
(08:11):
And here's what you all probably don't know,
even if you know that part.
I poured
from 2005 when I started my practice,
I poured into parents,
and I really truly believed that was my platform.
I believed that I was given an opportunity to
help parents,
support parents,
encourage parents,
teach parents,
(08:32):
and I poured all of my energy and efforts into parents.
That's why I had a parenting podcast.
I had a newsletter.
I had all kinds of stuff for parents,
workshops for parents,
trainings for parents,
and
it just never really got traction.
And it was really defeating.
To a point where many,
many times I questioned if I should even keep going.
(08:53):
When you get no engagement,
when you get no interaction,
when you get no emails,
when you get no sense that it's making any kind of difference,
it's disheartening,
and I often felt like I was spinning my wheels needlessly.
I didn't know to what end.
I didn't know if I was having any impact,
and it was really just kind of frustrating if I'm being completely honest.
(09:14):
And so I had continued with this parenting podcast this whole time,
not really thinking it was
doing a whole lot,
but I was like,
well,
I've been doing it this long,
I might as well keep going.
It was more of a I'm not gonna quit kind of thing than really I wanted to keep going.
And so
when I threw out this notion of a therapist podcast.
And I did my first couple of episodes.
(09:35):
I had no way to know what this would become
and so fast,
faster than I could even prepare for you all.
You all were banging down my door asking for more and more and more and more,
more coaching,
more training,
more workshops,
more CEUs,
a community,
uh,
more podcasts.
And I just,
I wasn't prepared for you all in the best way.
(09:57):
It was the most surprising unpreparedness.
And so that really solidified to me
that
the parenting side of it,
it's important,
but really where I am and where I should be is with you all.
And the impact that I know we have collectively
is
(10:18):
so much greater
because I know that
if you all listen to this podcast,
let's say you each have 20 kids.
I know some of you have less,
some of you had more,
but let's just average if every one of you has 20 kids.
Think about the.
The Venn diagram of that.
I
coach you,
(10:38):
you interact with kids differently.
Kids go home to their families.
The families start interacting differently.
Generational
spread and breadth of reach,
and that has been such an incredible thing for me to to watch and to observe,
and you all have just been in it from the beginning,
so passionate,
(10:59):
so hungry,
so committed.
And it's been so special and so,
I hope you know,
I say it on the podcast all the time,
but I'm gonna reiterate it again.
I hope you know how grateful I am.
This
This was not
what I expected.
And I'm grateful
More so for kids.
(11:22):
I was talking to somebody the other day and I said,
if your hearts don't break for kids,
I don't know why you do this job.
If your hearts are not broken,
for what kids are dealing with
and the struggles that they have and their family dynamics,
and their circumstances and what's going on for them right now,
I don't know how and why you do this job.
(11:45):
But every day
That I get
on a podcast with y'all.
I know that we're making a difference,
and I know that kids are better for it.
And I know that their lives will change,
their families' lives will change,
generational cycles will change.
And that's meaningful
and it matters,
(12:06):
and it's easy to get lost
in the work.
It's easy to get drained.
It's easy
to feel burned out.
It's easy to have so much going on.
We feel lonely,
we feel isolated,
we feel unsupported.
We feel untrained.
We feel like we have no idea what we're doing.
But we can't lose sight of what matters.
(12:27):
We can't lose sight of why
the why is
kids need us
kids deserve people that love them.
Kids deserve people that respect them.
Kids deserve people that understand them at a developmental level.
Kids deserve people that unconditionally accept them.
(12:48):
We provide that for them.
They don't get it anywhere else.
Other people in their lives try.
Other people want that for them.
But they don't receive that.
Our relationship with kids and the environment in our playrooms,
it is the most special,
unique.
Moment for kids
(13:09):
our relationship and our environment it's like nothing that they get anywhere else
so
the why is that we
are focused,
we're adherent,
we're purposeful
because we know what that does for kids we know the outcomes we know the gains
we know longitudinally what that looks like for them.
(13:30):
And we know that CCPT works.
So
I wanted you to kind of know how I didn't ever see this going in that direction
and let me go back to what I said I was gonna circle back to.
Because of you all,
my parenting podcast
is more engaged,
more invested
and more popular than ever.
(13:51):
And you wanna know what that tells me all of
you are referring your clients to the parenting podcast.
So thank you for that because the traction
that was always missing with my parenting podcast,
I have it now because of the therapist podcast.
So many of you send parents to the parenting
podcast and I'm getting emails from parents now.
I'm getting engagement from parents now.
(14:14):
Many of them start their email with.
So my child's in play therapy.
And I know that that is because of you that they're listening to that podcast,
and believe it or not,
I can't even believe I'm saying this out loud,
but
I get more downloads to the parenting podcast than I do to the therapist podcast,
and it used to be the polar opposite.
(14:35):
You all used to way out download the parents,
and now parents are downloading the parenting podcast more than the clinical.
So this is a tandem effort
and for those of you that do not know of the parenting podcast,
for those of you that do not use the parenting podcast in your work,
it is there for you.
You absolutely have every permission that I can give.
(14:59):
Send the link,
send episodes,
share information with your parents.
It is a resource for you.
I,
I said before,
this is a collective we.
These are not my episodes,
these are our episodes.
If you need a parent to understand limit setting,
send them to the limit setting episode in the parenting podcast.
There are more than one,
but
find one and send it to them.
(15:19):
Give them
a playlist,
send them to the link for the podcast in general.
There's 2 seasons of the parenting podcast.
Use that to your advantage.
If you need to support parents and you need resources to do that,
please take advantage of the parenting podcast.
It's yours to use.
OK,
so
I want to circle back to the very first episode,
(15:40):
what I said,
and I want to share a little bit about that
and then we'll move into Q&A in just a second.
That very first episode when I did kind of the
vision casting and when where I saw the podcast going.
I want you to know that
I'm really proud of 300 episodes ago and I had no idea what this would look like,
what I shared in the vision and where I thought this was going to go,
(16:02):
that's exactly where this podcast has been,
and it's been true
to what I said.
It's been consistent
and the whole purpose of this
is to preserve and advance
the pure CCPT model.
To preserve it,
why?
Because it's getting diluted.
Because it's getting misunderstood,
(16:23):
it's getting misused,
it's getting misinterpreted,
it's getting convoluted,
it's getting integrated,
it's getting all kinds of things.
It's to preserve the pure and true CCPT model #1.
#2,
it's to advance it.
And,
and I'm not advancing it on my own.
I'm walking on the,
(16:43):
in the footsteps and and on the shoulders of giants in the field.
So,
but our giants are leaving the field.
Landreth has retired,
Bratton has retired.
Ray has largely retired.
They're still speaking.
But
they are no longer practicing the way that they once were.
And therefore,
(17:03):
who is coming along
in
their place.
To
put CCPT out into
graduate programs and coursework and textbooks
and information and the beauty of podcasting
is that
it has reach internationally for everybody and it's free and it's accessible.
(17:25):
You don't have to go to a course,
you don't have to take a grad cert,
you don't have to read a book.
I encourage you to do those things,
but the podcast is accessible everywhere to everyone.
So the reach of this has been incredible.
Such a gift.
Technology has afforded us that opportunity.
I have people,
you should see the map,
y'all.
I wish I could show it to you.
(17:45):
You should see the map of where the listeners are of this podcast.
It is literally worldwide.
It is unbelievable to me.
I mean,
in this tiniest smallest little countries like you
you see the name and you're like,
there's a listener in that country.
It's unbelievable to me.
how special it is,
the reach that this podcast has.
So be really proud,
(18:07):
be really
excited
about the fact that this model is being preserved and advanced.
And the more adherent we are and the more you know,
the more you start to
do your own evangelism.
You start to do your own teaching,
you start to do your own coaching.
Many of you have many of you have said
I launched this program at the school.
(18:28):
I launched this program in my community.
I'm training teachers now.
I'm training parents now.
I'm bringing on supervises now.
That's how we preserve and advance the model.
This is not a Brenna
thing here.
This is all of us.
We're preserving and advancing CCPT.
So I hope that that is inspiring to you.
I hope it's encouraging to you.
I'm honored every day that this is what we're doing as a,
(18:52):
as a group.
So
I wanted to just really quickly just share
that
I've gotten so many emails.
I get the benefit of people reaching out to me,
and I know you all don't,
and sometimes you feel like you're alone
in the the fray.
I get emails
weekly,
sometimes daily
of transformation stories.
(19:14):
Where someone says
I
was eclectic,
I was integrative
I was doing ABA,
I was doing CBT I was doing
trauma focused EMDR whatever you fill in the blank.
This is my path.
This is where I was.
I've been fully CCPT for fill in the blank amount of time,
(19:35):
sometimes 6 weeks,
sometimes 6 months,
sometimes whatever.
I've been fully CCPT.
Here's what I hear.
I'm finally seeing
positive outcomes that I never saw before.
I hear that all the time.
Once I went fully CCPT I'm finally seeing outcomes,
and I never saw them before.
(19:55):
Here's something else I hear.
I was so frustrated.
I was so disillusioned.
I felt so lost.
My brain was a mess.
I never knew what I was doing.
I have full clarity and focus and purpose now.
Something else I hear all the time.
I,
I have
(20:16):
parents that are actually finishing the course of treatment with me now.
I had so high levels of attrition.
Parents would only stick with me for 8 weeks,
10 weeks,
12 weeks,
and I was never able to see everything all the way through.
And now that I'm fully adherent to the model,
parents are sticking it out with me and we're
mutually deciding to terminate.
(20:38):
This is what happens when we adhere.
We see these outcomes and they're huge,
and I get stories like that all the time,
so I want you to know
that first of all you're not alone.
Second of all,
there are so many
instances where we can go look at what CCPT has done.
And yes,
(20:59):
we're involved in that,
but really we trust the model
and we trust the process.
And ultimately we have to believe
that when we remain adherent,
these are the things that we can expect.
There's freedom and there's peace
in that
because the alternative is
we're constantly scrambling.
(21:21):
And CCPT has a framework.
It has a system.
It has grounding
where we know we just fall back on the model and we remain adherent
and we watch kids self-actualize
and we watch parents go,
oh my gosh,
things are so much better.
wow,
like he's completely regulated now.
He hasn't gotten a note home from school in months.
(21:43):
He never throws tantrums anymore.
What a gift.
What a gift,
and we know that that happens.
We just remain adherent.
So,
that's,
that's kind of where I wanted to share the journey of from one listener to thousands,
and
really quickly,
I have 4 other really quick little things that I just want
to touch on and then we're going to dive into Q&A.
(22:05):
I get asked a lot,
what,
what makes you want to do this?
What keeps you recording every week?
What gets you behind that mic,
you know,
you sit by yourself in a room and you talk to a microphone,
like how,
how does this,
how does this do something for you?
If I could,
I could give you 100 reasons,
but if I'm going to give you one.
I really,
every time I record,
(22:26):
I feel like I'm talking to each one of you.
And it's just,
it's conversations about something that I love.
I could talk about CCPT all day every day until I take my last breath.
Why?
Because it's all consuming.
And
I truly love knowing that
we just sit and chat about stuff,
and I envision you like talking back to me.
(22:48):
I imagine your facial expressions.
I imagine the things that you say to me when we're it
it feels like a conversation to me.
So that's why I do this because it's interactive,
it's collaborative,
and I love that.
Another thing that I get asked is what,
what do I think is something that CCPT has to offer the world right now?
Well,
(23:09):
so many things,
but I think above all hope.
Parents and kids need to believe that transformation is possible.
And I think they just want to have hope
that their current state does not have to be their future state.
And when we're not adherent,
when we're eclectic,
(23:29):
when we're integrated,
when we're doing all kinds of things,
we don't know what the outcome will be.
I can't guarantee hope for someone
with CCPT.
I absolutely can.
I say
I know what
will happen as we go through the process.
It happens over and over and over again.
We have the four universal outcomes to fall back on.
I mean that's,
(23:50):
that's important enough,
but then
a highly anxious kid comes in.
I know they're going to have a reduction in their anxiety.
And as a result of highly anxious behavior,
they're also going to be grasping at control.
They're not going to need as much control.
I can predict that too.
They're going to build self-confidence.
I can predict that too.
(24:10):
They'll feel better about themselves.
They'll feel that they can problem solve.
They'll have more coping.
Why?
Because I know the outcomes.
So I think CCPT above all else,
it does a lot,
but it offers hope,
and I think that that's really powerful because a lot of
times many parents come in and they feel absolutely hopeless.
And then
(24:31):
another thought.
I believe that CCPT has become a movement.
Not
just a method.
And I want to touch on that really quickly.
I talk about the wave of CCPT on episodes a lot and that's true,
but I believe that this is a movement
because
we've had a movement away
(24:52):
from.
Adherence,
we've had a movement away from pure theory.
We've had a movement away from training in grad
courses.
do you know how many therapists email me,
reach out to me,
message me,
whatever,
and they say
I was never even made aware of play therapy until after I graduated.
There is so much tragedy in that statement.
(25:12):
I,
I can't even wrap my head around it.
You're training therapists and a fraction of those
people are going to work with children.
We have to have children's therapists in the world,
right?
So we know that a portion of every grad cohort is going to work with kids
and they're not even being exposed to play therapy.
There's been this shift away from it,
(25:33):
and I think the movement,
everything comes full circle,
right?
So I think the movement has become
everyone's running back to CCPT
and I'm so excited about that.
It's not just a method,
we get it.
When once you get CCPT,
it gets you
and you just,
you're gonna ride the wave with us and I'm so excited about that.
And then finally,
(25:54):
I wanted to kind of
finish out this discussion part before we get into Q&A.
If you've only even listened to one episode,
I know many of you,
I,
I get,
I get comments about this all the time that you've listened to every single episode.
You are 299 of 299.
Thank you,
hug and high five.
For those of you that have maybe only listened
(26:16):
to one or you're at any point in between,
I had a discovery call with someone earlier and she said she's on 132.
So I was like,
you're almost halfway there.
I know regardless of how many episodes you've listened to.
That
this podcast is about all of us.
So whether you've listened to one or all of them or anywhere in between,
(26:36):
this is our
journey,
this is our path,
this is our podcast.
And
that is very,
very special to me that
we can create a community
around
talking through a mic
and
all of the engagement and the interaction that is incredible and so
really,
(26:56):
really excited for our 300th episode.
Thank you for being here.
All right y'all,
well it was so good to be with you.
Thank you so much for attending.
I know we went an hour and a half,
so I appreciate those of you that were on the
whole time and those of you that came on late.
Thanks for joining.
For those of you that were not on at the beginning of the call,
if you would like to be in a raffle to have a 30 minute Zoom call with me,
(27:17):
please send your CCPT story to me via email.
And if you attend the call and you send me your CCPT journey and story,
we'll draw 3 names and we'll schedule 3 30 minute Zoom calls
for whatever you want to talk about.
So you can ask me questions,
you can,
whatever,
it's up to you.
30 minutes,
your choice.
(27:37):
So please,
if you want to be considered for that,
please send me an email brenna@thekidcounselor.com.
Y'all mean so much to me.
I'm so grateful for each and every one of you.
The 300th episode is a huge milestone.
Thanks for celebrating it with me.
Thanks for hanging out with me.
And I appreciate y'all.
If you want to reach out about anything,
please do.
You know that my email door is always open,
(27:58):
and I hope you all have a great weekend.
Bye,
everyone.
Thank you for listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr.
Brenna Hicks.
For more episodes and resources,
please go to www.playtherapypodcast.com.
You're listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr.
Brenna Hicks,
your source for centered and focused play therapy coaching.
So let me
welcome you first of all.
I'm so happy to see faces and have a chance to hang out with you on my
Friday afternoon.
I know some of you are in completely different parts of the world,
but
really glad you're here.
(00:21):
And I don't know how many of you all were able to attend the last one,
but
this will be pretty similar in structure.
I'll kind of walk you through what we can expect today
and give you some housekeeping details and then we'll dive in.
So.
We are planning,
let me silence my computer,
we are planning to be on longer than an hour.
(00:43):
I want to let you know last one went about 1 hour and a half,
so please stay as long as you can if you have to hop off,
hop back on.
Don't worry about coming in and out.
I know you all have clients and busy schedules,
so stay as long as you can and we'll go until.
We've exhausted the questions and or 2 hours,
whichever happens first.
(01:03):
Last call was an hour and a half,
so we'll see how this one goes,
but
I wanted to make you aware that
tomorrow,
as a matter of fact,
is
the 3rd anniversary of the podcast.
So tomorrow we hit our 3 year mark.
We launched on May 17th of 2022.
So tomorrow is our 3rd year of doing this,
(01:25):
and this is our 300th episode.
So I didn't plan that,
it's just how it worked out,
which is really cool.
So I'm going to do a little contest for you all.
So for those of you that attend this live call today,
I'm going to give away 3 because it's 3 years,
300 episodes.
I'm going to give away 3 30 minute calls with me,
(01:46):
where you get to talk to me about anything you want for 30 minutes.
So the way that you get entered into that contest,
if you would like to have a 30 minute chat with me,
Zoom call,
please send me
your CCPT story.
So whatever your story is,
if it's I've been doing it my whole life,
I just found it.
(02:06):
This is my 2nd,
3rd,
4th career.
I'm still in grad school.
I,
whatever your story is,
if it's a transformation story,
if it's a win story,
if it's a celebration story,
if it's a struggle story,
it doesn't matter.
What's your CCPT story,
email that to me.
And I would love to hear where you all have been
and how you found CCPT and what it means to you.
(02:28):
So that will just be a way for me to connect
with each of you personally and by sending me that email,
you will get entered into the drawing for those 3 30 minute Zoom calls with me.
The deadline for that is next Friday at midnight,
so you have a week,
no rush.
Please shoot me an email brenna@thekidcounselor.com and let
me know your CCPT journey and your story.
(02:50):
And then you'll have a chance to have one of those Zoom calls with me.
So,
and I'll,
I'll bring that up a little bit later because I know
more people are going to be hopping on as well.
OK,
Mya,
do we need to say anything else?
OK.
All right,
so let's dive in to,
by the way,
those of you that just hopped on,
glad you're here.
Welcome.
And I want to spend a little bit of time kind of going through.
(03:12):
This process,
I want to help you all understand what this journey has been like
from one listener to thousands,
and I certainly did not anticipate
what this podcast was going to become
and how it was going to grow and what I was
launching when we did that first episode 3 years ago,
(03:33):
almost to the day.
So,
as I say that,
I want you to genuinely know how grateful I am,
how
I,
I'm like shocked and surprised in the best way
at what this has become,
and so this wouldn't exist without you all.
So please know
there's a lot of gratitude and thanks that comes with this 300th episode because
(03:55):
many,
actually most podcasts never make it past episode 40.
That's a statistic that they've studied.
Most podcasts are dead by the 40th episode.
And this is 300 and it's only getting bigger and so
I'm really grateful to each and every one of you.
So this is a celebration of us.
I want to make that very known.
I,
I think that
(04:16):
this is very much a collective we
and yes,
I'm behind the mic and I'm the one that's putting out episodes,
but
you all email me,
you send me questions,
you interact,
you listen faithfully.
I,
I wanna,
I wanna tell you what
is significant that we just found out yesterday.
We went back and looked at the first episode so
(04:37):
that we could see when our first episode was.
That's how I know it was 3 years ago tomorrow.
And within the last 30 days,
the first episode,
even though we're on episode 300,
the first episode has been downloaded 700 times
in the last 30 days.
So what that tells me is
there is such a huge community of CCPTs
(05:00):
that are seeking support and knowledge and training,
and I'm just so grateful that you all care so deeply
about the model.
I'm so grateful that you all care so deeply.
about adherence to the model
and that CCPT has hooked you
the way that it does.
So this is very much about you all for believing in this model and for caring
(05:21):
about your work,
caring about your kids,
caring about your communities.
I talk all the time
about
the impact that we have.
We never
ever question
whether or not our lives make a difference.
We're gifted
in CCPT with knowing that every single day
(05:42):
we have impact
and the influence
that we're able to have on
individual kids,
their families,
our communities,
and largely the world,
you impact generations when you work with children.
And the fact that there are so many CCPTs that want to be all in on this,
(06:04):
and the very first episode,
I listened to it yesterday just to refresh myself.
I was like,
what did I even say on the first episode?
I don't even remember.
And it was kind of a vision casting episode,
so it was just kind of where are we gonna go?
What does this look like,
whatever.
And I,
I listened back to that and I was like,
oh my gosh,
(06:24):
from the very beginning I said
this is gonna be CCPT
and that's all you're gonna get
and that's what this is about
and
that's polarizing,
right?
I mean,
play therapy is broad and vast and there's a lot of theoretical orientations
and so to have this kind of following,
this kind of audience,
this kind of investment.
(06:45):
It says something about
the model and your commitment to it,
so
I want this to be a collective celebration for all of
us because I can't do this if y'all don't listen.
And if you don't care and if you're not
invested and you don't want to learn this stuff,
I don't have any reason to put anything out.
So thank you,
huge celebration for everyone.
(07:07):
And I want to give you a little bit of backstory about how this came to be,
because I know some of you may know this story,
but I think most of you actually don't.
I've been doing my parenting podcast since 2016.
And that is
actually that's another story I'll tell you in a second,
but
the parenting podcast was where I,
I intended to have a podcast.
(07:28):
I never thought I would have a clinical podcast,
one for therapists,
but what ended up happening was I kept getting emails from therapists
that were listening to the parenting podcast.
And so one day it just kind of hit me,
you know,
like God drops little
things in my brain
and I said,
oh my gosh,
there are so many therapists that listen to this podcast.
(07:50):
I doubt there's a CCPT
podcast for therapists.
So I did a little perfunctory search and I was like,
no,
I don't think there's anything about CCPT on a podcast right now.
And so that was kind of the the beginning of the whole thing.
I thought,
let me just throw out a couple of episodes and see if therapists care,
see if therapists are interested.
(08:11):
And here's what you all probably don't know,
even if you know that part.
I poured
from 2005 when I started my practice,
I poured into parents,
and I really truly believed that was my platform.
I believed that I was given an opportunity to
help parents,
support parents,
encourage parents,
teach parents,
(08:32):
and I poured all of my energy and efforts into parents.
That's why I had a parenting podcast.
I had a newsletter.
I had all kinds of stuff for parents,
workshops for parents,
trainings for parents,
and
it just never really got traction.
And it was really defeating.
To a point where many,
many times I questioned if I should even keep going.
(08:53):
When you get no engagement,
when you get no interaction,
when you get no emails,
when you get no sense that it's making any kind of difference,
it's disheartening,
and I often felt like I was spinning my wheels needlessly.
I didn't know to what end.
I didn't know if I was having any impact,
and it was really just kind of frustrating if I'm being completely honest.
(09:14):
And so I had continued with this parenting podcast this whole time,
not really thinking it was
doing a whole lot,
but I was like,
well,
I've been doing it this long,
I might as well keep going.
It was more of a I'm not gonna quit kind of thing than really I wanted to keep going.
And so
when I threw out this notion of a therapist podcast.
And I did my first couple of episodes.
(09:35):
I had no way to know what this would become
and so fast,
faster than I could even prepare for you all.
You all were banging down my door asking for more and more and more and more,
more coaching,
more training,
more workshops,
more CEUs,
a community,
uh,
more podcasts.
And I just,
I wasn't prepared for you all in the best way.
(09:57):
It was the most surprising unpreparedness.
And so that really solidified to me
that
the parenting side of it,
it's important,
but really where I am and where I should be is with you all.
And the impact that I know we have collectively
is
(10:18):
so much greater
because I know that
if you all listen to this podcast,
let's say you each have 20 kids.
I know some of you have less,
some of you had more,
but let's just average if every one of you has 20 kids.
Think about the.
The Venn diagram of that.
I
coach you,
(10:38):
you interact with kids differently.
Kids go home to their families.
The families start interacting differently.
Generational
spread and breadth of reach,
and that has been such an incredible thing for me to to watch and to observe,
and you all have just been in it from the beginning,
so passionate,
(10:59):
so hungry,
so committed.
And it's been so special and so,
I hope you know,
I say it on the podcast all the time,
but I'm gonna reiterate it again.
I hope you know how grateful I am.
This
This was not
what I expected.
And I'm grateful
More so for kids.
(11:22):
I was talking to somebody the other day and I said,
if your hearts don't break for kids,
I don't know why you do this job.
If your hearts are not broken,
for what kids are dealing with
and the struggles that they have and their family dynamics,
and their circumstances and what's going on for them right now,
I don't know how and why you do this job.
(11:45):
But every day
That I get
on a podcast with y'all.
I know that we're making a difference,
and I know that kids are better for it.
And I know that their lives will change,
their families' lives will change,
generational cycles will change.
And that's meaningful
and it matters,
(12:06):
and it's easy to get lost
in the work.
It's easy to get drained.
It's easy
to feel burned out.
It's easy to have so much going on.
We feel lonely,
we feel isolated,
we feel unsupported.
We feel untrained.
We feel like we have no idea what we're doing.
But we can't lose sight of what matters.
(12:27):
We can't lose sight of why
the why is
kids need us
kids deserve people that love them.
Kids deserve people that respect them.
Kids deserve people that understand them at a developmental level.
Kids deserve people that unconditionally accept them.
(12:48):
We provide that for them.
They don't get it anywhere else.
Other people in their lives try.
Other people want that for them.
But they don't receive that.
Our relationship with kids and the environment in our playrooms,
it is the most special,
unique.
Moment for kids
(13:09):
our relationship and our environment it's like nothing that they get anywhere else
so
the why is that we
are focused,
we're adherent,
we're purposeful
because we know what that does for kids we know the outcomes we know the gains
we know longitudinally what that looks like for them.
(13:30):
And we know that CCPT works.
So
I wanted you to kind of know how I didn't ever see this going in that direction
and let me go back to what I said I was gonna circle back to.
Because of you all,
my parenting podcast
is more engaged,
more invested
and more popular than ever.
(13:51):
And you wanna know what that tells me all of
you are referring your clients to the parenting podcast.
So thank you for that because the traction
that was always missing with my parenting podcast,
I have it now because of the therapist podcast.
So many of you send parents to the parenting
podcast and I'm getting emails from parents now.
I'm getting engagement from parents now.
(14:14):
Many of them start their email with.
So my child's in play therapy.
And I know that that is because of you that they're listening to that podcast,
and believe it or not,
I can't even believe I'm saying this out loud,
but
I get more downloads to the parenting podcast than I do to the therapist podcast,
and it used to be the polar opposite.
(14:35):
You all used to way out download the parents,
and now parents are downloading the parenting podcast more than the clinical.
So this is a tandem effort
and for those of you that do not know of the parenting podcast,
for those of you that do not use the parenting podcast in your work,
it is there for you.
You absolutely have every permission that I can give.
(14:59):
Send the link,
send episodes,
share information with your parents.
It is a resource for you.
I,
I said before,
this is a collective we.
These are not my episodes,
these are our episodes.
If you need a parent to understand limit setting,
send them to the limit setting episode in the parenting podcast.
There are more than one,
but
find one and send it to them.
(15:19):
Give them
a playlist,
send them to the link for the podcast in general.
There's 2 seasons of the parenting podcast.
Use that to your advantage.
If you need to support parents and you need resources to do that,
please take advantage of the parenting podcast.
It's yours to use.
OK,
so
I want to circle back to the very first episode,
(15:40):
what I said,
and I want to share a little bit about that
and then we'll move into Q&A in just a second.
That very first episode when I did kind of the
vision casting and when where I saw the podcast going.
I want you to know that
I'm really proud of 300 episodes ago and I had no idea what this would look like,
what I shared in the vision and where I thought this was going to go,
(16:02):
that's exactly where this podcast has been,
and it's been true
to what I said.
It's been consistent
and the whole purpose of this
is to preserve and advance
the pure CCPT model.
To preserve it,
why?
Because it's getting diluted.
Because it's getting misunderstood,
(16:23):
it's getting misused,
it's getting misinterpreted,
it's getting convoluted,
it's getting integrated,
it's getting all kinds of things.
It's to preserve the pure and true CCPT model #1.
#2,
it's to advance it.
And,
and I'm not advancing it on my own.
I'm walking on the,
(16:43):
in the footsteps and and on the shoulders of giants in the field.
So,
but our giants are leaving the field.
Landreth has retired,
Bratton has retired.
Ray has largely retired.
They're still speaking.
But
they are no longer practicing the way that they once were.
And therefore,
(17:03):
who is coming along
in
their place.
To
put CCPT out into
graduate programs and coursework and textbooks
and information and the beauty of podcasting
is that
it has reach internationally for everybody and it's free and it's accessible.
(17:25):
You don't have to go to a course,
you don't have to take a grad cert,
you don't have to read a book.
I encourage you to do those things,
but the podcast is accessible everywhere to everyone.
So the reach of this has been incredible.
Such a gift.
Technology has afforded us that opportunity.
I have people,
you should see the map,
y'all.
I wish I could show it to you.
(17:45):
You should see the map of where the listeners are of this podcast.
It is literally worldwide.
It is unbelievable to me.
I mean,
in this tiniest smallest little countries like you
you see the name and you're like,
there's a listener in that country.
It's unbelievable to me.
how special it is,
the reach that this podcast has.
So be really proud,
(18:07):
be really
excited
about the fact that this model is being preserved and advanced.
And the more adherent we are and the more you know,
the more you start to
do your own evangelism.
You start to do your own teaching,
you start to do your own coaching.
Many of you have many of you have said
I launched this program at the school.
(18:28):
I launched this program in my community.
I'm training teachers now.
I'm training parents now.
I'm bringing on supervises now.
That's how we preserve and advance the model.
This is not a Brenna
thing here.
This is all of us.
We're preserving and advancing CCPT.
So I hope that that is inspiring to you.
I hope it's encouraging to you.
I'm honored every day that this is what we're doing as a,
(18:52):
as a group.
So
I wanted to just really quickly just share
that
I've gotten so many emails.
I get the benefit of people reaching out to me,
and I know you all don't,
and sometimes you feel like you're alone
in the the fray.
I get emails
weekly,
sometimes daily
of transformation stories.
(19:14):
Where someone says
I
was eclectic,
I was integrative
I was doing ABA,
I was doing CBT I was doing
trauma focused EMDR whatever you fill in the blank.
This is my path.
This is where I was.
I've been fully CCPT for fill in the blank amount of time,
(19:35):
sometimes 6 weeks,
sometimes 6 months,
sometimes whatever.
I've been fully CCPT.
Here's what I hear.
I'm finally seeing
positive outcomes that I never saw before.
I hear that all the time.
Once I went fully CCPT I'm finally seeing outcomes,
and I never saw them before.
(19:55):
Here's something else I hear.
I was so frustrated.
I was so disillusioned.
I felt so lost.
My brain was a mess.
I never knew what I was doing.
I have full clarity and focus and purpose now.
Something else I hear all the time.
I,
I have
(20:16):
parents that are actually finishing the course of treatment with me now.
I had so high levels of attrition.
Parents would only stick with me for 8 weeks,
10 weeks,
12 weeks,
and I was never able to see everything all the way through.
And now that I'm fully adherent to the model,
parents are sticking it out with me and we're
mutually deciding to terminate.
(20:38):
This is what happens when we adhere.
We see these outcomes and they're huge,
and I get stories like that all the time,
so I want you to know
that first of all you're not alone.
Second of all,
there are so many
instances where we can go look at what CCPT has done.
And yes,
(20:59):
we're involved in that,
but really we trust the model
and we trust the process.
And ultimately we have to believe
that when we remain adherent,
these are the things that we can expect.
There's freedom and there's peace
in that
because the alternative is
we're constantly scrambling.
(21:21):
And CCPT has a framework.
It has a system.
It has grounding
where we know we just fall back on the model and we remain adherent
and we watch kids self-actualize
and we watch parents go,
oh my gosh,
things are so much better.
wow,
like he's completely regulated now.
He hasn't gotten a note home from school in months.
(21:43):
He never throws tantrums anymore.
What a gift.
What a gift,
and we know that that happens.
We just remain adherent.
So,
that's,
that's kind of where I wanted to share the journey of from one listener to thousands,
and
really quickly,
I have 4 other really quick little things that I just want
to touch on and then we're going to dive into Q&A.
(22:05):
I get asked a lot,
what,
what makes you want to do this?
What keeps you recording every week?
What gets you behind that mic,
you know,
you sit by yourself in a room and you talk to a microphone,
like how,
how does this,
how does this do something for you?
If I could,
I could give you 100 reasons,
but if I'm going to give you one.
I really,
every time I record,
(22:26):
I feel like I'm talking to each one of you.
And it's just,
it's conversations about something that I love.
I could talk about CCPT all day every day until I take my last breath.
Why?
Because it's all consuming.
And
I truly love knowing that
we just sit and chat about stuff,
and I envision you like talking back to me.
(22:48):
I imagine your facial expressions.
I imagine the things that you say to me when we're it
it feels like a conversation to me.
So that's why I do this because it's interactive,
it's collaborative,
and I love that.
Another thing that I get asked is what,
what do I think is something that CCPT has to offer the world right now?
Well,
(23:09):
so many things,
but I think above all hope.
Parents and kids need to believe that transformation is possible.
And I think they just want to have hope
that their current state does not have to be their future state.
And when we're not adherent,
when we're eclectic,
(23:29):
when we're integrated,
when we're doing all kinds of things,
we don't know what the outcome will be.
I can't guarantee hope for someone
with CCPT.
I absolutely can.
I say
I know what
will happen as we go through the process.
It happens over and over and over again.
We have the four universal outcomes to fall back on.
I mean that's,
(23:50):
that's important enough,
but then
a highly anxious kid comes in.
I know they're going to have a reduction in their anxiety.
And as a result of highly anxious behavior,
they're also going to be grasping at control.
They're not going to need as much control.
I can predict that too.
They're going to build self-confidence.
I can predict that too.
(24:10):
They'll feel better about themselves.
They'll feel that they can problem solve.
They'll have more coping.
Why?
Because I know the outcomes.
So I think CCPT above all else,
it does a lot,
but it offers hope,
and I think that that's really powerful because a lot of
times many parents come in and they feel absolutely hopeless.
And then
(24:31):
another thought.
I believe that CCPT has become a movement.
Not
just a method.
And I want to touch on that really quickly.
I talk about the wave of CCPT on episodes a lot and that's true,
but I believe that this is a movement
because
we've had a movement away
(24:52):
from.
Adherence,
we've had a movement away from pure theory.
We've had a movement away from training in grad
courses.
do you know how many therapists email me,
reach out to me,
message me,
whatever,
and they say
I was never even made aware of play therapy until after I graduated.
There is so much tragedy in that statement.
(25:12):
I,
I can't even wrap my head around it.
You're training therapists and a fraction of those
people are going to work with children.
We have to have children's therapists in the world,
right?
So we know that a portion of every grad cohort is going to work with kids
and they're not even being exposed to play therapy.
There's been this shift away from it,
(25:33):
and I think the movement,
everything comes full circle,
right?
So I think the movement has become
everyone's running back to CCPT
and I'm so excited about that.
It's not just a method,
we get it.
When once you get CCPT,
it gets you
and you just,
you're gonna ride the wave with us and I'm so excited about that.
And then finally,
(25:54):
I wanted to kind of
finish out this discussion part before we get into Q&A.
If you've only even listened to one episode,
I know many of you,
I,
I get,
I get comments about this all the time that you've listened to every single episode.
You are 299 of 299.
Thank you,
hug and high five.
For those of you that have maybe only listened
(26:16):
to one or you're at any point in between,
I had a discovery call with someone earlier and she said she's on 132.
So I was like,
you're almost halfway there.
I know regardless of how many episodes you've listened to.
That
this podcast is about all of us.
So whether you've listened to one or all of them or anywhere in between,
(26:36):
this is our
journey,
this is our path,
this is our podcast.
And
that is very,
very special to me that
we can create a community
around
talking through a mic
and
all of the engagement and the interaction that is incredible and so
really,
(26:56):
really excited for our 300th episode.
Thank you for being here.
All right y'all,
well it was so good to be with you.
Thank you so much for attending.
I know we went an hour and a half,
so I appreciate those of you that were on the
whole time and those of you that came on late.
Thanks for joining.
For those of you that were not on at the beginning of the call,
if you would like to be in a raffle to have a 30 minute Zoom call with me,
(27:17):
please send your CCPT story to me via email.
And if you attend the call and you send me your CCPT journey and story,
we'll draw 3 names and we'll schedule 3 30 minute Zoom calls
for whatever you want to talk about.
So you can ask me questions,
you can,
whatever,
it's up to you.
30 minutes,
your choice.
(27:37):
So please,
if you want to be considered for that,
please send me an email brenna@thekidcounselor.com.
Y'all mean so much to me.
I'm so grateful for each and every one of you.
The 300th episode is a huge milestone.
Thanks for celebrating it with me.
Thanks for hanging out with me.
And I appreciate y'all.
If you want to reach out about anything,
please do.
You know that my email door is always open,
(27:58):
and I hope you all have a great weekend.
Bye,
everyone.
Thank you for listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr.
Brenna Hicks.
For more episodes and resources,
please go to www.playtherapypodcast.com.
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