Wonders Counseling Blog
49 Ways to Care for Yourself
Planning for and taking action to care for your whole self is necessary in order to feel fulfilled and content in your life. Here are 49 self care actions you can practice care for yourself: Schedule lunch breaks and take them.Slow down when you eat. Chew your food...
Successful Private Practice: 5 Essentials
When asked recently in an interview what it takes to have a successful private practice, I found myself rattling off 5 essential elements that I know for certain must be in place. I have learned from my own years of experience building my successful private practice,...
Procrastination Prevention for Private Practice Success
In the Play Therapy Practice Building Academy, my MasterMind groups and in private consultation sessions I tell helping professionals who are wanting to build their private practice that procrastination is just a fancy word for avoiding that which we most need to do....
Success Setting Exercise for Your Life and Career
You have to see it, feel it, and name it to claim it. You don't only want to work a job if you're reading my blog. You want a true professional career and I am going to bet that means you want a well-rounded life as well. Your life can be created and developed using a...
10 Ways to Use Balloons with Children & Families
One of my favorite things is to come up with creative, fun resources for therapists to use with children and families in sessions that don't break the bank. Today we are going to go through a list of 10 ways to use balloons with children and families because balloons...
Use What Irritates You to Inspire You
In a previous article I share with you a method for how you can be a client magnet and I want to expand on that basic idea in this week's article to talk more about how what you focus on is what you attract and what you spend time thinking about is what will expand....
Combating the Perfection Trap in Private Practice
This week's focus is to help private practitioners to climb out of the sticky wicket of perfectionism in order to get away from the crippling effects of this anxiety about never feeling good enough. I want to provide some actionable tips for combatingg the perfection...
5 Mindfulness Games for Children & Teens
The practice of being present with full attention is one we all will benefit from. When we are working with children it can be helpful to have some play-based ways of introducing and reinforcing mindfulness skills. I offer a 2 hour recorded training for therapists...
Mindfulness Meditation Changes Your Brain for the Better
People who regularly practice mindfulness meditation can attest to the positive effects of increasing calm, reducing stress and enhancing ability to develop insight on one’s life. Now, we have ample research to back up the positive impact meditation has. Dr....
3 Resources for Play Therapy With Trauma
I hear a lot of therapists asking for resources for using play therapy with trauma. While this short resource list is hardly comprehensive, you'll find some treasures here. Eliana Gil and Paris Goodyear-Brown are two experts on this topic when it comes to using play...
Resources for Child Centered and Directive Play Therapy in the Play Room
I recently led a live webinar now available as a recorded training called Bridging and Blending Non-Directive & Directive Play Therapy and as I explain at the beginning of that training I am passionate about operating from a prescriptive approach in order to...
Offering Group Play Therapy in Your Private Practice
Play therapy with groups of children can be a powerful modality for growth and healing. Much of the research done to demonstrate efficacy of play therapy has been with groups of children. Many children benefit from being able to participate in group play therapy....
Blending Play Therapy with Family Therapy
Therapists who have earned the credential of Registered Play Therapist through the Association for Play Therapy know the importance of including parents as an essential part of the treatment plan when we see children for play therapy. Many play therapists also provide...
Filling Your Private Practice: How to Be a Client Magnet
Often I ask groups of therapists and coaches who are starting out in private practice what they feel they most need, and a lot of times I hear, "I need to know how to get more clients,". I completely understand when you’re in the beginning of building that business,...
Busting the Blocks to Having Your Ideal Private Practice
If you are like many people you spend a lot of time thinking about your dream career. That's a very good thing because visualizing what you want to bring to life is an important first phase of manifesting what you long for in your work. The problem here is that often...
Treating Selective Mutism With Play Therapy
I remember my very first case with a child who presented with selective mutism. I was under supervision and direction. I was working at an early childhood development center provisionally licensed as an Associate Professional Counselor. When first approached by the...
Are You a School-Based Play Therapist? One Survival Skill You Need
By Guest Author Sarah Scott Dooling, LCSW, RPT-S In the public education and social work industries, we have created a culture that seems to stipulate that the more we work, the better we are. The harder we work the more validated we will be. If we put work first and...
6 Playful Parenting Strategies
The research indicates that children whose parents who actively utilize playful parenting strategies also have significantly healthy and strong bonds with their parents. It is also found that children whose parents engage in playful parenting have stronger bonds...