324 | Art of the Session: Tracking Behavior—The Skill You Can Always Use In Any Given Moment

In this episode of the Art of the Session series, I focus on one of the most foundational yet misunderstood CCPT skills: tracking behavior. I explain what it is, when to use it, and why it matters—even when it seems like “nothing is happening” in the playroom. I walk through examples of how to track behavior using simple, child-centered language, and I break down the structure of an effective tracking response. This episode is full of reminders about staying present, engaged, and adherent to the model, even during quiet or ambiguous moments in session.

I also talk about the importance of remaining verbally active throughout the play session, even if you’re not physically participating in the play. Tracking behavior helps the child feel seen without feeling watched, which protects the therapeutic relationship and keeps us aligned with the CCPT model. Whether you’re a new or seasoned therapist, this episode reinforces the idea that mastering the basics—especially tracking—is essential to doing great work.

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!

Topical Playlists! All of the podcasts are now grouped into topical playlists now on YouTube. Please go to https://www.youtube.com/@kidcounselorbrenna/playlists to view them.

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 ‪[phone]‬, or email: [e-mail]
Brenna's CCPT Hub: https://www.playtherapynow.com
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APT Approved Play Therapy CE courses: https://childcenteredtraining.com
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Common References:
Cochran, N., Nordling, W., & Cochran, J. (2010). Child-Centered Play Therapy (1st ed.). Wiley.
VanFleet, R., Sywulak, A. E., & Sniscak, C. C. (2010). Child-centered play therapy. Guilford Press.
Landreth, G.L. (2023). Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship (4th ed.). Routledge.
Landreth, G.L., & Bratton, S.C. (2019). Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT): An Evidence-Based 10-Session Filial Therapy Model (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315537948
Benedict, Helen. Themes in Play Therapy. Used with permission to Heartland Play Therapy Institute.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr. Brenna Hicks,
your source for centered and focused play therapy coaching.
Hi,
I'm Dr. Brenna Hicks,
The Kid Counselor.
This is the Play Therapy Podcast where you get
a master class in child-centered play therapy
and practical support and application for your
work with children and their families.
In today's episode,
we are continuing the Art of the Session series.

(00:23):
And last episode,
we talked through 11
options
on your
toolkit.
11 tools in your toolkit.
And essentially what that does is that equips us with
all of the options for how we're going to respond.
And as we talked about at the very beginning of this series,

(00:44):
this is designed to give you start to finish,
A to Z.
Everything that you need
so that you know exactly how to handle
the beginning of starting working with a child,
taking them all the way through their work with you,
and then wrapping up at the end.
So we are now in the playroom
and we are now looking at what are the responses that we are able to provide

(01:06):
that are child-centered and adherent to the model
while we're engaging in dialogue with kids while they play.
So we are going to start with the basics,
and we're gonna talk about tracking behavior today.
Before we get there,
I want to make you all aware
there's some requirements though,
so let me share with you the requirements first.
If you are actively in private practice and or you want to

(01:29):
be in private practice in the next 1 to 3 years,
and you would like to know how to build and grow a thriving private practice,
and you would like to be more confident in child-centered play therapy skills.
On August 28th,
Thursdays at 5 p.m. Eastern,
I am starting another Six-Figure Play Therapist coaching group,
and there are a couple spots left.

(01:50):
So if you are interested in going into private practice,
maybe you already are part time,
maybe you are full time,
but you want it to be more efficient
and you want to be able to make more money and thrive serving your community.
Then Six-Figure Play Therapist is something that you need to look into.
So starting August 28th,
Thursdays at 5 p.m. Eastern,

(02:10):
make sure that will fit.
And if that's the case,
go to playtherapynow.com to schedule a discovery call with me.
I'll be able to chat with you,
find out what your goals are,
make sure it's a good fit and get you plugged in if you decide to move forward.
Alrighty,
so
let me
talk through tracking behavior now.
So let me go back a little bit beyond that though before I dive into the specifics.

(02:30):
Tracking behavior is one of the three reflective responses.
And at any given moment,
you can do any of the reflective responses,
at least one of them.
And tracking behavior is the one tied to behavior.
So the easiest way that you can think about the
tracking behavior skill is to say what you see.
In other words,

(02:51):
you're going to discuss out loud
what you observe the child doing.
It really is that simple.
Say what you see.
And
one of the things that becomes a hang up for a lot of people
is the frequency of the responses.
So let's unpack this for a second because I said you can
do one of the three reflective responses at any given moment,

(03:13):
but sometimes you can only do one.
So let's say we're just talking about tracking behavior
and in that scenario we know that the child is not saying anything.
Therefore we cannot reflect content and the child is not emoting anything,
so therefore we cannot reflect feelings.
So that leaves us with tracking behavior as the option.
That's how it's always going to be one of the three.

(03:35):
Now there are times when you can do all three,
you don't need to,
but I'm just saying there are moments where the child says something,
emotees something and does something all at the same time,
and then you could use any of the three.
But in a scenario where the child is
not saying anything and not expressing an emotion,
then we're down to tracking behavior.
So in that scenario
we are going to

(03:56):
want to be pretty consistent in our acknowledgment of what the child is doing
and what happens when I watch play session videos
is sometimes there are 30,
45,
60 seconds or more
where the therapist says nothing.
And I think where we get caught up is,
well,
the child's not saying anything and I
don't know what feeling they're experiencing,

(04:19):
so I just kind of wait it out.
Well,
the danger in that is if we are not verbally active,
if we are not involved
in communication verbally with a child.
The danger is they feel that they're being watched.
And that is never the tone
of a child-centered session.

(04:40):
We are
active participants in their play,
whether we've been invited to participate or not.
We're always verbally active,
even if we're not physically active.
And therefore we do not ever want to sit in silence
because the concern is
that the child is like,
are you just sitting there staring at me while I play?

(05:01):
The antidote to that is to be verbally engaged because as we're commenting on what
the child is doing and what we're noticing and how we're observing the play,
they don't feel watched,
they feel like you're very much a part of it.
So that's why we have to be careful to track behavior,
even if that's the only thing we can do,
and we want to strive for every 5 to 6 seconds

(05:23):
to have a response.
And
I've actually,
I've had a couple of play sessions in the last
2 or 3 months that I've watched in my coaching groups
where one of the participants is like,
Brenna,
I heard you say that and I was like,
no way.
I mean,
sometimes I'll go 2 minutes without saying anything.
There's no way I can get to 5 seconds.
You can.
You just have to become very proficient and comfortable

(05:44):
with the three reflective responses,
and tracking behavior is the one
that is the default
because a child is always doing something.
A child may not be always talking and a
child might not be always expressing an emotion,
but they are always doing something.
And I know some of you right now are going,
that is not true.
Sometimes a kid comes in and does nothing.

(06:05):
That is still doing something.
They're choosing to do nothing,
which is something you can track.
Sometimes kids come in and they just sit down and they stare at the wall.
That is still a behavior you can track.
Sometimes they go hide in the corner and they won't even let me see them.
That's still a behavior you can track.
So we have to get out of this notion that we get stuck without anything to say

(06:29):
because we can always track behavior.
So that should be an encouragement.
It should make us go,
oh,
OK,
well at least I have that.
If I can't figure out what else to do,
at least I can track behavior.
So what are we going to
kind of unpack here together?
Well,
you want a simple explanation of the action.
In other words,

(06:49):
you observe what the child does,
and you give a simple explanation of what you noticed.
The simplest framework for this is you.
Then the verb
And then a noun or a pronoun?
So I'll make sense of what I mean by that.
So just like with the other skills,
they almost always start with you,

(07:09):
you,
you'll see the pattern.
You
and then
whatever the child did as the action verb.
So
you colored that in.
OK,
there's your verb,
there's your pronoun,
that.
And
it's just that simple.
It's very basic,
an explanation of what you noticed,

(07:31):
you,
action verb,
noun or pronoun.
So,
for example,
child grabs the jump rope out of the cubby
and
looks at it,
decides they want to do it,
and they
loop it under their feet 5 times.
So you say
you jumped 5 times in a row.

(07:53):
OK,
now you don't have to say 5 times in a row,
you could just say you jumped.
That is also a tracking of behavior,
but similar to other skills,
you can add that optional qualifier,
you can add that little bit of extra at the end for clarification.
It's not necessary,
but sometimes helpful.
Another scenario,
child wants a game,

(08:13):
it's on a higher cubby than the child can reach.
They grabbed the stool
from the desk.
And walk over
and
stand on it
to get the game.
You stood on the chair to get that.
Notice you,
action verb.
It's,
by the way,
unless you're tracking while they're doing it,

(08:34):
it's going to be in past tense.
So if the action has been completed,
it's always going to be in past tense if they're actively doing it.
So maybe the child hasn't gotten the game yet,
you could say you're standing on the chair so you can reach.
So,
in the moment,
you're going to be.
Active verbs.
And then in

(08:54):
the past,
it's going to be past verbs.
So,
you stood on the chair to get that down.
Another scenario,
child takes all of your
Lincoln logs or blocks or
building
materials,
and they stack them into some kind of configuration.
You stacked those

(09:15):
You are stacking those,
either one.
Another scenario,
they pick up your bow and arrow.
And they
shoot either at a target
or at the wall,
or at
miniatures on the shelves,
whatever the scenario is.
You shot that.
Simplest tracking of behavior.

(09:36):
With a little bit more explanation,
you're shooting the arrows at the wall.
And final example,
child comes in and
starts
playing with Bobo.
Bop bag for those of you that may not have the same term.
You're punching Bobo

(09:56):
and kicking him.
Or you punched him and kicked him back to back.
All right,
now,
related aside,
I know you all are used to me saying that you you email
me and you all say also related aside with a smiley face.
So I realized that's one of my idioms that I must say frequently,
even though I don't know it until you email me.

(10:17):
It's it's very interesting,
y'all,
what you find out about your speech patterns when you
put your speech patterns out on the airwaves and then
Over and over and over again,
people give you your phrases back to you when they reach out to you and you're like,
do I say that that much?
Anyway,
Related aside is one of those that I get a lot,
so I must say it a lot.
There are worse things.

(10:38):
OK,
so,
a related aside,
you do not name objects
or what the child is using or picking up or
getting down or playing with until the child has.
So I know I'm kind of on the tracking behavior scale,
but this is a bonus freebie.
You don't want to say.
You
stood on the chair to get

(11:00):
snakes and ladders.
You don't want to say,
you
shot the bow and arrow to hit a bull's eye.
Those are specific details that the child has not given you the metaphor yet.
So that's why earlier I said it's either going to be a noun or a pronoun.
You want to make sure that you are not identifying what is being used

(11:23):
until the child has told you what it is,
so as much as possible
you want to just give very neutral benign types of commentary,
so you got that
you picked it up.
You moved it.
You got that down.
And then if the child goes,
yeah,
for example,

(11:44):
the,
the shooting of the bow and arrow.
So you say,
oh,
you shot that over there.
And he goes,
yeah,
at the bull's eye.
Well,
now you're gonna follow the metaphor.
You shot that at the bull's eye.
And now,
interestingly,
you have content to work with.
And we're gonna get on,
we're gonna get into reflecting content next week.
So hold that thought.
But
notice that if the child then says something to you,

(12:04):
you're not stuck with only tracking behavior,
now you can move into reflecting content as well.
But be mindful,
we do not want to name or identify what it is until the child has given us the word.
Otherwise,
we just want to remain really neutral and not particularly use anything that's
especially identifying.
So there's your bonus freebie.

(12:24):
So be mindful that as we go through all of these skills.
This is so that you always know
what you should be doing at any given second in the playroom.
And for those of you vets that either have coached with
me or you've listened to every episode of the podcast,
thank you,
by the way,
all of you that have been with me on this journey for so long,
thank you to those of you that are new,
we're very glad you're here.

(12:45):
But for those of you that have been around the block with me all these times.
I'm hopeful that you're still getting something out
of this Art of the Session series because
we,
there is never a time when we don't go back to fundamentals.
There's never a time that we don't need to be reminded of the basics.
Professional baseball players still run fundamental drills and still do basic

(13:08):
skill training every single day.
That's part of their standard and they are at the highest level of athleticism.
Why?
Because you still need the basics,
no matter how advanced you get.
You have to be reminded and practice.
The foundational components of whatever it is that you're trying to master.
So yes,

(13:28):
tracking behavior is a simple skill.
Many of you that have been doing this for a long time can do this in your sleep,
but it is important to just be reminded of
all of the foundational components here.
Tracking behavior is your go to.
Unequivocally,
if you don't know what you should be doing
and you have no other options,
if you get in the playroom and you're like,

(13:49):
My mind is completely blank.
I have absolutely no clue how I'm supposed to respond at any given moment.
Track behavior.
That is your default.
You can't go wrong with that.
And as we continue in these next couple weeks we'll cover
the other two reflective responses which
are reflecting feelings and reflecting content
and then we're gonna move into some of the

(14:09):
other skills and go through all of those 11 options
of what we can be doing in sessions.
So hopefully this is giving you a blueprint if you will.
And
it will seem much more manageable
rather than overwhelming because I know many of you have reached out and said,
I'm all in on this,
but I just feel so overwhelmed.
My hope is that this doesn't feel as overwhelming as we go through this.

(14:32):
So you know how much I love y'all,
reach out if you would like to communicate.
I would love to hear from you,
[e-mail].
We'll talk again soon.
Bye.
Thank you for listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr.
Brenna Hicks.
For more episodes and resources,
please go to www.playtherapypodcast.com.