Meet Cathi

Play Therapy and Expressive Arts

Play Therapy and Expressive Arts

Meet Cathi

Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S

It is my greatest desire to help families heal by empowering mental health professionals to learn how to integrate play therapy and expressive arts using the therapeutic powers of play into clinical practice with confidence and nurturing hearts so they can …

Our communities are only as healthy as the families in our communities.

I’ve enjoyed a long career of helping children and their families since the early 1980’s first as a special educator for children with emotional and learning challenges and then as a mental health professional. Since childhood, I dreamed of helping families overcome life’s challenges to learn how to thrive. This desire to help children and their families led me to pursue my professional goals to become a mental health professional focused on helping children, teens, and their families to heal.

This attachment-based model teaches parents specific attachment-based skills using Family SPACE and the Three R’s of Relationship skills. It’s been my experience that many therapists shy away from family play therapy because they feel ill-prepared. This treatment model provides a structured framework to help therapists work effectively with clients and their families. It’s my firm believe that children heal best within a treatment process that safely incorporates their caregivers and siblings. After all, these are the people with whom they will be with them for the rest of their lives.

My experience and training also includes Child-Centered Play Therapy , Filial Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, using art and sand tray therapeutically as well as numerous directive play therapy interventions for individual, family and group therapy sessions.  

Cathi Spooner, LCSW, RPT-S

It is my greatest desire to help families heal by empowering mental health professionals to learn how to integrate play therapy and expressive arts using the therapeutic powers of play into clinical practice with confidence and nurturing hearts so they can …

Our communities are only as healthy as the families in our communities.

I’ve enjoyed a long career of helping children and their families since the early 1980’s first as a special educator for children with emotional and learning challenges and then as a mental health professional. Since childhood, I dreamed of helping families overcome life’s challenges to learn how to thrive. This desire to help children and their families led me to pursue my professional goals to become a mental health professional focused on helping children, teens, and their families to heal.

Over the course of my career working with children and their families as a special educator and mental health professional working in outpatient and residential settings, I have worked with children, adolescents, adults and families who struggled with anxiety, depression, trauma, abuse, attachment issues, adoption, divorce/separation, grief/loss, major life transitions, behavior problems, anger problems, and relationship issues. Now, at this point in my professional life, one of my favorite things to do is to allow my “inner psychotherapy nerd” to share what I’ve learned with other mental health professionals through consultation, supervision, and teaching.

My vast experience has allowed me the privilege of helping other professionals to increase their skill level to more effectively help their clients. As a licensed clinical social worker and Registered Play Therapist Supervisor (RPT-S), I’ve supervised mental health professionals seeking to learn and implement play therapy and expressive arts to help them achieve this goal. I’ve provided clinical consultation to organizations working with juvenile offenders and traumatized families. I’ve worked with community based organizations to better understand and address the mental health needs of children and families through workshops and consultation. As a life long learner, I’ve found that as I share my knowledge with other mental health professionals it challenges me to continue learning as I also learn from others I meet along the way.

I’ve been an active member in the Association for Play Therapy (APT) since 2003. I am a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor through APT and have provided play therapy supervision to many mental health professionals since 2007. One of my favorite play therapy modalities to teach therapists is attachment-based family play therapy using a model I developed to help parents become the therapeutic agent of change for their children experiencing social-emotional challenges. 

This attachment-based model teaches parents specific attachment-based skills using Family SPACE and the Three R’s of Relationship skills. It’s been my experience that many therapists shy away from family play therapy because they feel ill-prepared. This treatment model provides a structured framework to help therapists work effectively with clients and their families. It’s my firm believe that children heal best within a treatment process that safely incorporates their caregivers and siblings. After all, these are the people with whom they will be with them for the rest of their lives.

My experience and training also includes Child-Centered Play Therapy , Filial Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, using art and sand tray therapeutically as well as numerous directive play therapy interventions for individual, family and group therapy sessions.  

This attachment-based model teaches parents specific attachment-based skills using Family SPACE and the Three R’s of Relationship skills. It’s been my experience that many therapists shy away from family play therapy because they feel ill-prepared. This treatment model provides a structured framework to help therapists work effectively with clients and their families. It’s my firm believe that children heal best within a treatment process that safely incorporates their caregivers and siblings. After all, these are the people with whom they will be with them for the rest of their lives.

My experience and training also includes Child-Centered Play Therapy , Filial Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, using art and sand tray therapeutically as well as numerous directive play therapy interventions for individual, family and group therapy sessions.  

Over the course of my career working with children and their families as a special educator and mental health professional working in outpatient and residential settings, I have worked with children, adolescents, adults and families who struggled with anxiety, depression, trauma, abuse, attachment issues, adoption, divorce/separation, grief/loss, major life transitions, behavior problems, anger problems, and relationship issues. Now, at this point in my professional life, one of my favorite things to do is to allow my “inner psychotherapy nerd” to share what I’ve learned with other mental health professionals through consultation, supervision, and teaching.

My vast experience has allowed me the privilege of helping other professionals to increase their skill level to more effectively help their clients. As a licensed clinical social worker and Registered Play Therapist Supervisor (RPT-S), I’ve supervised mental health professionals seeking to learn and implement play therapy and expressive arts to help them achieve this goal. I’ve provided clinical consultation to organizations working with juvenile offenders and traumatized families. I’ve worked with community based organizations to better understand and address the mental health needs of children and families through workshops and consultation. As a life long learner, I’ve found that as I share my knowledge with other mental health professionals it challenges me to continue learning as I also learn from others I meet along the way.

I’ve been an active member in the Association for Play Therapy (APT) since 2003. I am a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor through APT and have provided play therapy supervision to many mental health professionals since 2007. One of my favorite play therapy modalities to teach therapists is attachment-based family play therapy using a model I developed to help parents become the therapeutic agent of change for their children experiencing social-emotional challenges. 

This attachment-based model teaches parents specific attachment-based skills using Family SPACE and the Three R’s of Relationship skills. It’s been my experience that many therapists shy away from family play therapy because they feel ill-prepared. This treatment model provides a structured framework to help therapists work effectively with clients and their families. It’s my firm believe that children heal best within a treatment process that safely incorporates their caregivers and siblings. After all, these are the people with whom they will be with them for the rest of their lives.

My experience and training also includes Child-Centered Play Therapy , Filial Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, using art and sand tray therapeutically as well as numerous directive play therapy interventions for individual, family and group therapy sessions.  

Check out Cathi in these Podcast Episodes!

Attachment-Focused Family Play Therapy: An Intervention for Children and Adolescents After Trauma

Check out my book for mental health professionals using play therapy with children and adolescents who've experienced trauma. This attachment-focused, neurobiology informed framework integrates family members into the treatment to help children heal within the context of their most important relationships