[SPTI Admin]

#167485

We’d love to hear where you are from, when you became certified, the impact SPT has had in your life and anything else that you feel called to share!

[kimbullerlcsw]

#167750

Hey there! I am Kim and I live among the trees in Dallas, Oregon. My SPT journey began in 2013 when I met Lisa at the APT conference in Palm Springs. That 3 hour workshop revived my play therapy practice and SPT became a beautiful companion on my journey of personal transformation. I was Certified in 2016 and SPT now weaves into all parts of my life. A couple of the amazing gifts SPT has given me are the anchor of trusting everything is working FOR me, even when it is difficult to see that in the moment and creating space to welcome all parts of my experience. I am on an ever evolving growth edge to truly embody those principles. As we launched this platform last week, I noticed so many of my vulnerabilities surfacing. My role at Student Engagement Liaison has been a learning curve in so many aspects and releasing this online community out into the world brought new levels of activation. I even feel my heart racing and the tears behind my eyes as I write this. This community means so much to me and I feel so proud of what we have created. I found myself riding the waves of excited anticipation, grounded assurance, and emotional flooding when I accidentally deleted this Topic in the Forum along with a gorgeous introduction from a dear SPT soul sister, Mel Lowndes hours after we launched. Not the start I was envisioning! It was truly a practice in welcoming all parts, which meant I could embrace the moment of releasing intense emotional charge, reach out to our amazing Program Director, Kylie as an eternal regulator, and I got to experience beautiful repair with Mel as we embraced trusting it all happened as it needed to. I still feel the residue and I recognize this will feel clunky as I acclimate to new growth edges and hold grace and understanding for the ebbs and flows of my capacity within the moments of ease and uncertainty. I am truly grateful to be in a community where my vulnerability is held with safety, my authenticity is celebrated and I have trusted companions as I continue to stretch myself to new heights.

[Melissa Lowndes]

#168764

Hi Crew,
I’m Mel, I am a dreamer, a creative, a visionary, a wise one, a healer, a 12 dimensional being brought here to engage reality and transcend spirit. I fell deeply in love with SPT as I anchored for the principles whilst being a kinder teacher, a creative therapist, a yoga teacher and finally a synergetic play therapist.

I see myself as a galactic warrior, an alchemist, a shaman of truth. I am the masculine and feminine. I assist in the alchemy process, engaging high frequency starseeds. I am no longer standing in the shadows of fear. I support care givers, family members, teachers, community satsung, I show them how these children are high frequency souls here to plant the seeds of the new earth. I a starseed, I am queer, I have a wife that I deeply love, a dog that is my familiar and a community a tribe of truth, authentic and wisdom. I never hide from myself, because the truth will set us free. I love you all. Mel

[heatherfd]

#170228

So much love, Mel. <3

[perri_silvi]

#168108

Hi!
My name is Silvia, I‘m from Italy, but German is my first language. I live in Austria near the swiss and german borders at the beautiful lake of Constance and I work in Germany. I found out about SPT on my drive to work in the beginning of 2019 when I looked for a good therapy-themed podcast to listen to. I found the „Lessons in the Playroom“ podcast and was hooked right away. The teaching style of Lisa was resonating with me a lot and I sensed that this might be the right path for me. I’m a clinical psychologist and I was constantly looking for therapy related certification programs, but the ones which were available in the area didn’t really „click“ with me.
I was browsing through the SPTI Homepage, looked at the courses, I bought some of the 1 hour courses and joined the membership for monthly webinars. And soon I was sure that I wanted to take the Intro-course. I did in 2019, I tried to apply at work what I had learned, but I still was very much in my head, „thinking“ my way through the play, not really able to feel my way through it. As Covid hit I was able to take the certification program online (I was in the first cohort to do so in 2020/2021). I feel that SPT has not only changed my approach to therapy and my work, it has also changed me. And it continues to do so. I took a long break from work after having my second child (parental leave in Austria/Germany is quite long). I returned to work in December last year. I love getting back to practicing SPT every day. Before SPT I had a lot of „Shoulds“, I always felt like I wasn’t good enough in my job. With SPT I have learned that there is both: there is a lot to learn for me still but there is also a place for me where I can bring myself to the table as I am. Learning doesn’t feel like a burden anymore, I enjoy learning so much more now, because I do it from a place of curiosity and genuine interest instead from a place of duty and „should“.
I try to apply the „Offering“ in my daily live and it really helped strengthen the relationships with my kids and my husband.
I will continue my professional journey with SPT through the learning platform for sure (though I rarely make it to the live webinars because of the time difference, I watch the recordings). It doesn’t feel like work to me, it feels like being in the right place with the right people and belonging to a community that gets me. Even though I only met some of you fellow SPTers online and I‘m probably not being remembered as an individual by anyone, this communityt doesn’t feel anonymous to me. It feels like family.
I’m looking forward to continue my learning and to be part of this new platform!

Thank you, Kim, for putting it all out there for us and for being a role-model in being vulnerable and true to yourself. I recognized the „clunky“ feelings you described of being on a learning curve… it takes a lot of courage to own everything that comes with the clunkyness. I am inspired by you!
I hope to read from other SPTers soon!

Silvia

[Student Engagement Liaison]

#168197

Dear Silvia~ Thank you for your beautiful introduction and sharing your amazing SPT journey! It warms my heart to hear the personal touches of how timing aligned and resonance was felt. I sense so much spaciousness and possibility as I read about your growth through this work. I share the appreciation of “belonging to a community that gets me” and treasure that as a gift. Also, thank you for your kind words and being with me in the experience.

[johanna]

#168220

Hi,

I’m Johanna and I live in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I was introduced to Synergetic Play Therapy when the British Columbia Play Therapy Association held a conference and Lisa was one of the presenters. That was in 2014. I embarked on the SPT journey in 2017(I think) and have not looked back since. I am now an SPT supervisor.

SPT has changed not only the way I work but also the way I live. It has deepened my connection to myself and helped me discover myself. It has deepened my connection to others and enriched these relationships.

These days, I am supporting parents instead of working directly with their children, and providing parents with a new way to view their children and their behaviours (through an SPT lens). The positive responses from the parents and the positive changes that they see in their children is amazing. Parents now feel confident and empowered in parenting their children. I wish I had had this information when I parented my children!

I’m glad this forum exists and thank you Kim for being the voice behind this platform.

[Student Engagement Liaison]

#168234

Hello Johanna! It is so inspiring to see how your work has transformed into supporting parents and the incredible ripple effects that has. What a gift! I am grateful to be on this journey with you.

[Student Engagement Liaison]

#168844

Mel~ Thank you for introducing us to all parts of your incredible Being! I am in awe of you. You truly are a healer and change maker with your authenticity and the way you live your truth. Your light radiates and I love the energy you bring to our community.

[Andrea Greer]

#169311

Kia ora and hello from NZ! I live in the south of New Zealand. Originally from Singapore, I migrated to NZ about 16 years ago. I am a Social Worker by training and run my own training, consultancy & practice called Nurturing Relationships. A large amount of my caseload are children & adolescents. I wanted to dive deeper into my therapeutic work with children and was looking into play therapy. One of my friends and ex colleagues had heard about SPT and introduced me to it. I started with the podcasts by Lisa and my spirit resonated so deeply with everything she was saying! SPT felt like it was ‘me’and so I took the dive into the intro in 2020 and totally loved it and my supervisor Mary Hagen …. and then dived again into certification and graduated last year! I have been loving the impact it has made in my practice and also my awareness and acceptance of my authentic self. ❤️

I am so glad to have found this community and I am looking forward to dive deeper into all things SPT. 🙌

[Student Engagement Liaison]

#170019

Dear Andrea~ Welcome and thank you for your beautiful introduction! It is always inspiring to learn how the resonance of SPT manifests and I love that you just kept following your heart to keep going deeper. How lovely for that to include a deeper awareness and acceptance of YOU and all you bring to our community, your practice and the ripple effects out into the world.💚✨

[heatherfd]

#170227

Andrea is amazing! Andrea, I’m so glad that you’re here.

[heatherfd]

#170226

Hi everyone! I’m Heather FD (pronouns: she/her/hers) and I was certified in 2019. I have been deep in the process of finding out I have to move, looking for a house to buy (!!), having an offer accepted (!!), and getting ready to move. WOW, things change fast. I live in Portland, Oregon, and work my agency job as a therapist and clinical supervisor just over the river in Vancouver, Washington. My time in the SPT Certification program quite actually informed on everything else that I’ve done in my career since then. I have a consultation practice called Playful Integration and I teach workshops and do individual and group consultation from an SPT perspective and I LOVE IT – doing consultation pretty much barely even feels like “work” to me, because my nerdy neurodivergent brain LOVES getting to talk about my special interests to people who want to hear me talk about them! haha. My primary area of specialty is making strong connections with parents and looping them into play therapy in a radical and deep way for the maximum amount of transformation in the parent-child relationship, and teaching other therapists my approach for how to do this. I’ve been working on this approach since 2019 – when it was my presentation topic for the SPT certification retreat! I just finished creating an outline for what may turn out to be a book on it, we’ll see what happens with that. I am also a proud cat mom of a little guy named Choo-Choo who is sleeping next to me right now (as usual.) I’m married to my awesome wife and have a sweet boyfriend who some of you may have seen me post about during the Advanced SPT Retreat last year, since I did the Demartini Method on some of my old attachment stuff that was getting in the way of that relationship. We made it through! One more way that SPT Certification has affected my life.Yesterday we went to the Holi Festival at Topaz Farm on Sauvie Island, and played in the sun and threw beautiful natural powder dyes at each other and danced and it was such a playful beautiful time. More about me: I have 2 best friends, and one of them is a therapist who works with me at my agency job so we have lunch together and see each other almost every day (highly recommend this if you can make it happen.) The other one is a fellow neuroscience nerd and we email, text, and call each other to talk about journal articles and our theories about how humans work and SPT and polyvagal theory and so much more – it’s the best. My favorite band is the Mountain Goats. I have 9 tattoos: 5 are music related, 2 are life event related, 1 is a portrait of my little baby kitty who passed in 2016, and 1 is my own remembrance of a certain child I worked with who changed the way I understood therapy, and life, and everything. So glad to be here – sending much love and SPT hugs to all of you!

[Student Engagement Liaison]

#170592

Oh Heather, I just love any opportunity to learn more about you, your gorgeous heart and the incredible work you are doing in the world! Thank you for inviting us in and sharing all of the ways SPT has supported transformation in your life! Congratulations on your new house…sending wishes for a smooth transition. 💚 You are a radiant beacon of light and such a special part of our community.✨✨

[Author]

Posts