Nurture, Play & Healing

Did you see we now offer Art Therapy for kids aged 3-18 years? (See the comments to find out more)

Art Therapy is an effective therapeutic discipline that helps to address a range of experiences and challenges.

Art Therapists are trained to guide clients in navigating, solving problems, finding meaning in and healing through the process of art making.

Artistic processes are used to support the child’s experiences, discover insights and achieve growth in their social and emotional wellbeing.

The process of art making provides a safe and distanced way of exploring problems in life and testing possible solutions.

Through the art making process new neural pathways in the brain are built, which allows for more flexible ways of thinking and behaving.

Finding solutions in a creative way expands our sense of what is possible and opens us up to new ways of understanding and engaging in the world around us.

Our practitioner, Imogen, only has a few spaces for new families left =)

We offer many things here at Nurture, Play and Healing with our aim to support the social and emotional wellbeing of kids AND parents.

🌼 Counselling for kids, young people and their parents.
🌼 Art Therapy for kids and young people.
🌼 Play therapy for kids and parents.
🌼 Outreach Play Therapy.
🌼 Therapeutic Response Plans.
🌼 Parenting Education and Support.
🌼 Circle of Security Parenting Program.

If you'd like to hear more about us, our story, what we offer and how to get started, please grab a copy of our Information Handbook for Parents (by visiting the link in the comments).

We're looking forward to working with you.

Ashleigh 🌼

You'll find these in our playrooms. What do you think they could be? (Besides pool noodles!)

Did you see we now offer Art Therapy for kids aged 3-18 years? (See the comments to find out more)

Art Therapy is an effective therapeutic discipline that helps to address a range of experiences and challenges.

Art Therapists are trained to guide clients in navigating, solving problems, finding meaning in and healing through the process of art making.

Artistic processes are used to support the child’s experiences, discover insights and achieve growth in their social and emotional wellbeing.

The process of art making provides a safe and distanced way of exploring problems in life and testing possible solutions.

Through the art making process new neural pathways in the brain are built, which allows for more flexible ways of thinking and behaving.

Finding solutions in a creative way expands our sense of what is possible and opens us up to new ways of understanding and engaging in the world around us.

We're expanding!

I'm absolutely delighted to welcome, Imogen, to the team!

Imogen is a qualified Art Therapist. She enjoys working with children and adolescents, bringing play, creativity, drama and dance to her work.

For more information about how Art Therapy can help to support children's social and emotional wellbeing visit the link in the comments.

Ashleigh 🌼

Hello 👋 its so lovely to meet you. I'm Ashleigh, the founder of Nurture, Play and Healing.

My dream is for every child to grow up where they’re accepted for who they are and can experience the joys of childhood.

So back in 2020 I opened a clinic to help kids do exactly that.

Since then I have:

🌼 helped so many children and parents
🌼 completed over 600+ sessions of play therapy
🌼 grown my team
🌼 now I lead, teach and mentor other child practitioners

Me, along with my team are looking forward to supporting you and your kids to thrive.

Ashleigh 🌼

We’ve made a little gift for you.

It’s a quick and easy go to list full of ways you can help your child regulate through the chaos.

Click the link in the bio, grab your copy and go on, pop it on the fridge!

Ashleigh 🌼

Hey! I’m Ashleigh, the founder of Nurture, Play and Healing. It’s so lovely to meet you!

One of our services we offer is play therapy for children and families. Play therapy is a effective modality for children aged 3-10 years.

We offer a range of play therapy modalities for children and parents depending on your needs as a family. Our modalities of play therapy include:

- Child Centred Play Therapy
- Interplay
- Theraplay
- Filial Therapy
- Learn to Play

To work with us, complete our referral form via our website and we’ll be in contact to schedule a first appointment.

I’ve been told if I don’t have my morning coffee I have a permanent grumpy face for the day *insert hubby’s expression of my grumpy face*.

Anyone else relate?

Every now and then (more so when I remember!) I use my morning coffee as a way to bring myself back to the here and now rather than getting caught up in ‘stuff’ (you know, the thoughts of what I need to do for the day, the past, what might happen in the future, whatever I might be worried about)

After all, the only thing we really have is the present moment or the here and now.

Use your five senses as a way to help make yourself present.

What does it look like?
What does it taste like?
What does it smell like?
What does the texture and temperature feel like?
What can you hear when you eat or drink it?

Have you ever mindfully ate or drank before?

A couple of months ago I stepped out of my comfort zone.

I stood up in front of, what felt like 1000 practitioners, and provided a foundational training in Child Centred Play Therapy and it was INCREDIBLE!

I loved being able to talk about the wonderful modality of CCPT for 3 hours, sharing my knowledge and wisdom to others.

I absolutely LOVE that CCPT is becoming more widely known. One day it will become the modality of choice for practitioners supporting children’s mental health.

If you’re curious about play therapy, please download a copy of our Information Handbook available on our website.

Alternatively, let's book in a chat!

Knowing where your child’s at can help give context to what they’re needing, how they may be feeling, adjust our expectations of them and navigate challenges in a different way.

Did you know we can know all this simply by reading and understanding your child’s body.

Your child’s body is made up of complex systems that all work together to create a feedback loop of communication. We call this the ‘platform’.

Your child’s platform is CONSTANTLY responding to the world, moment to moment.

Sometimes it may perceive something that’s threatening (unsafe, disconnected or too much in their system to regulate) that makes their platform feel vulnerable.

Other times, when they’re feeling safe, regulated and connected, their platform is more sturdy.

Over the week try practicing becoming curious. Ask yourself whether your child’s behaviour is telling you their body platform is vulnerable or sturdy.

Meet our practitioner Sue!

Sue brings her incredible wealth of knowledge of childhood development and education from her years of experience as an Early Childhood Educator in Child Care Centers and Family Day Care.

Sue has incredible passion for and a particular interest in strengthening the parent child relationship in her work here at Nurture, Play and Healing as our Interplay Facilitator. She’s passionate about building parent skills and repairing attachment relationships so the growth from her work is long lasting, well into adulthood and generations to follow.

To work with Sue, complete our referral form via our website and request Sue as your practitioner.

I was so excited to stumble across this video! Through advocacy, passion and support from families like yourself, Play Therapy is being spoken about and advocated for in Parliament.

One day it will become the modality of choice to work with children aged 3-12. One day our systems will invest in early intervention to help prevent mental illness as children grow into adults.

90 second statement on the importance of play therapy | Dr Sophie Scamps MP | 18 March 2024

We offer many things here at Nurture, Play and Healing with our aim to support the social and emotional wellbeing of kids AND parents.

🌼 Counselling for kids, young people and their parents.
🌼 Play therapy for kids and parents.
🌼 Outreach Play Therapy.
🌼 Therapeutic Response Plans.
🌼 Parenting Education and Support.
🌼 Circle of Security Parenting Program.

If you'd like to hear more about us, our story, what we offer and how to get started, please grab a copy of our Information Handbook for Parents (by visiting the link in the comments).

We're looking forward to working with you.

Ashleigh 🌼

One of your kid’s most important needs is to be and feel connected with a safe and secure adult.
In fact, it’s a biological imperative for our species survival.

If we’re not connected, we die.

A simple way to meet your child’s need for connection is to eat together. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as sharing a snack together.

Ruptures happen in all types of relationships - Parent-child relationships, partner relationships, friendships, work relationships.

Ruptures are common and an inevitable part of relationships that happen on the daily.

But in parent-child relationships, it’s not the absence of ruptures that lead to children feeling safe and secure, it’s the healthy repairing of ruptures that lead children to feel safe and secure.

Over on the blog I explain what a rupture is and how they happen. I explain what a healthy repair looks like and take you through the steps of how to nail the repair when ruptures do occur so you can feel armed with the tools to respond to ruptures in ways that not only feel good to yourself, but for your kids as well.

Ashleigh
Nurture, Play and Healing founder.

Have you visited our online store?

We have some wonderful resources to help you parent in ways that not only feel good to yourself, but for your kids too.

Over in our store we have ‘The Brain and States of Regulation’ Ebook and Handouts that will help guide you in how you can parent in ways that promote safety, connection, attunement using your new understanding of the brain and body.

Ashleigh
Nurture, Play and Healing founder.

Keeping on top of our Shark Music and regulated yourself can be SO HARD.

Especially when you’re being screamed at, hit and kicked and all you want to do is scream or hit back in your own threat response.

We help stressed out parents reconnect with themselves, so they can hold space and co-regulate with their kids.

Because kids learn how to regulate their own big feelings by watching how others regulate theirs.

If you want to learn how you can hold space and offer opportunities of co-regulation with your kids book an appointment with one of our practitioners via our website (see comment below)

Ashleigh
Nurture, Play and Healing founder.

We view behaviour a little differently here at Nurture, Play and Healing.

Rather than viewing behaviour as actions that need to be stopped based on other’s desires, feelings and perceptions, we view behaviour as a clue.

And we like to get curious.

Is the behaviour we’re seeing a clue as to whether a person is:

- feeling safe, threatened or in danger.
- feeling stressed, dysregulated or overwhelmed.
- attempting to find safety or anchoring themselves in safety.
- needing a sense of autonomy or safety, prediction and connection.
- trying to get their needs met in the best way they know how.
- trying to get their needs met but every other way they’ve tried isn’t working.
- experiencing a mismatch between their developmental level and other’s expectations of them.
- needing sensory input or output.
- acting out on their thoughts or feelings.

When we become curious about the behaviour, its purpose, what it’s telling us and work to meet the needs underlying the behaviour (which ISN’T your kid’s responsibility), we’re setting kids up to feel safe, to be themselves, to feel good about who they are and we’re setting them up to do well.

Are you ready to get curious about what’s going on under your child’s behaviour and learn how to parent in ways that help kids feel good about themselves AND set them up to do well?

🌻 Follow us on our socials!

🌻 Or work with us by booking an appointment with one of our practitioners via our website.

Ashleigh
Nurture, Play and Healing founder.

Children want to feel seen and their feelings validated as much as us adults do.

Here are three ways you can help your child feel seen and validated during times of stress and emotional distress:

1. Get down on their level - this helps to reduce the power imbalance, supports anchoring in your safe presence, supports co-regulation and helps mirroring more regulated body language.

2. If safe, connect through eye contact and touch - Eye contact and touch is one of the ways we connect with another. You may want to pick your moment here (as in look for the shift in energy from anger and rage to ‘I need you and need your help’.)

3. Reflect their feelings and be curious about what may be behind it - just like what we do in the playroom, reflecting their feelings helps children feel seen and validated, even more so when you express curiosity about the driving thoughts or need under the feeling.

Need more help? Purchase our ‘Brain and States of Regulation Ebook’ in our online store to learn how you can become a more attuned and emotionally responsive caregiver.

Ashleigh
Nurture, Play and Healing founder.

One of the best protectors for your child’s future mental health and wellbeing is your parent-child relationship full of safety and connection.

Learn more from this article from the Australian Childhood Foundation on why healthy and happy childhoods make for the best futures.

Ashleigh 🌼

New blog: Healthy and happy childhoods make for the best futures Research shows that parenting is the single most important influence on a child's wellbeing and healthy and happy childhoods lay down a strong foundation for development.

Have you been thinking about working with us? Download a copy of our information handbook for parents - find the link in the comments section 😁

Over on the blog I share a bit of a personal and vulnerable story about my experience finding safety and feeling anchored by another's grounded and connected presence a couple of weeks ago.

The gifts and the wisdom from this experience were too good not to share. Children feel exactly the same as I did.

In this blog post I share how you can use your grounded and connected presence as an anchor for your child, communicating safety when your child is feeling unsafe and dysregulated.

I share three ways that you can use your body and your presence including:

🌼 Grounded and regulated nervous system
🌼 Soft body expressions and tones
🌼 Mirroring

Head on over to the blog to learn more.

Hello! I’m Ashleigh, founder and registered play therapist here at Nurture, Play & Healing.

We’re a counselling and therapy practice located in Hobart, Tasmania, who support the social, emotional and behavioural wellbeing of children and parents.

We offer a range of services including:

🌼 Counselling for children and parents
🌼 Play Therapy – Child Centred Play Therapy, Theraplay, Learn to Play, Filial Therapy and Interplay
🌼 Mobile Play Based Therapy
🌼 Therapeutic Response Plans
🌼 Parenting Education – Psycho-Education, Emotional Coaching and Training
🌼 Parenting Programs such as ‘Circle of Security Parenting’

Our therapeutic approaches are informed by evidenced based practices, attachment theory, child psychology, childhood development and the latest research in relational neuroscience.

Our team of practitioners come from a range of backgrounds and disciplines, such social work, counselling and early childhood education.

We value safety, connection, attunement and playfulness in how we work together and how we support the communities that we work with.

We’re looking forward to working with you in 2024 in whatever way that may be!

Please check out our new information handbook to find out more about how we help (link in the comments section).

Ashleigh 🌼

I was THIS close to getting hit with a kids broom handle during a child’s play.

‘Sally, I’m not for hitting,’ I said to her calmly.

I’m not 100% sure WHY she was wanting to hit me with the broom handle.

For whatever reason, it was IMPORTANT for her to let me KNOW what it FELT LIKE to feel scared that I was about to be hurt.

Sally paused and looked at me, before choosing to express her feelings in a different way.

(Phew, thank goodness for that!)

In Play Therapy we help children learn ways to express their feelings and needs in ways that are safe.

One way we do this is through the therapeutic use of communicating limits and boundaries.

Of course, IT’S OKAY for Sally to feel scared, but IT’S NOT OKAY to go and hit people with sticks.

Limits and boundaries help to promote:

- physical, relational and emotional safety.
- opportunities to build skills in regulation and remain connected to self while feeling uncomfortable feelings.
- making choices and taking responsibility for their choices.
- building skills in controlling impulses and self-control.
- learning how to be in a relationship with others.

Do your kids find it hard to express how they feel in ways that are safe and are curious about how play therapy could help?

🌼 Visit our website www.nurtureplayandhealing.com.au
🌼 Download a copy of our information handbook for parents https://bit.ly/Playtherapyhandbook
🌼 Request a call
🌼 Complete our referral form www.nurtureplayandhealing.com.au/referralform

We have open availability.

At Nurture, Play & Healing we help your kids thrive with play!

What if your child could express how they’re feeling without hurting others or could feel safe enough to leave the safety and comfort of you to go out and explore the world?

What if they could have a space where they could be themselves and not feel shame about being the ‘naughty’ kid and actually feel good about who they are?

We know you’d feel relieved. That’s exactly what parents have told us.

Play is a big part of how we help kids to thrive. Play helps us to meet kids where they’re at and takes us far beyond where the spoken language can go.

We use play to help children to:

🌼 express feelings: play helps kids to express feelings and share stories about their lives.

🌼 build confidence: play helps kids to build confidence, self esteem and their sense of worth.

🌼 strengthen relationships: play helps kids to strengthen their relationships with others including their parents.

If you’re curious to find out more if counselling or play therapy could help please check out our new free handbook https://bit.ly/Playtherapyhandbook

Ashleigh
Nurture, Play and Healing Founder

I made a new free resource for you! Its a must have guide for parents who are curious about all things play therapy and what we do.

Please grab a copy and share with others who might find it helpful 😁

I'll pop the link in the comments.

Ashleigh 🌼

We help parents parent their kids in ways that not only feel good to them, but for their kids as well.

One of the ways we do this is helping parents promote environments that support a felt sense of safety for their kids, because when kids feel safe, connected and regulated, they do well.

Being softer can offer non-verbal cues of safety to our kids.

Softer posture and body language.
Softer facial expression.
Softer tone.

Why does it work?

Being softer limits you matching your child’s energy. Instead of offering co-regulation, you’re co-dysregulating and that's the path leading to rupture.

Being softer allows yourself to be an anchor for your dysregulated child.

Being softer gives your child cues that you’re safe and not threatening.

Being softer limits you matching your child’s energy.

One of my favourite feel good, rich in connection memories as a family, was something simple, found in the everyday.

We weren’t doing anything exciting. Oliver was helping me get dinner ready, helping to chop up the veggies, his dad was mucking around.

It ended up with all of us mucking and dancing around the kitchen laughing.

Enriching moments don’t need to be fancy. It’s the little moments that are full of connection that have a big impact.

What little moments can you make the most of this week?

In one of our playrooms we have the perfect pillows.

The most perfect pillows for snuggling, cuddling and for making pillow sandwiches!

Pillow sandwiches are a great deep pressure activity that not only supports regulating the body, but are playful and fun.

Deep pressure has benefits in regulating the activity in the Autonomic Nervous System in the body - think of a newborn baby being held or even swaddled and how regulating and calming this is.

Here’s how you can do it:

◾ grab yourself two large cushions (couch cushions are great). I found some large cushions that I’ve been wanting to add to the playroom.
◾ place a cushion on the floor and have your child lay on their belly on top.
◾ add your spreads by using firm stroking motions with the palm of your hand over their back (if they say it tickles, be firmer).
◾ place the other cushion on top of their body.

Some kids like the feel of the added pressure by having you put some of your body weight on top.

Please make sure that they can breathe and are not being crushed though!

Grab your cushions and start making pillow sandwiches!