Play Therapy: Speaking to Kids in Their Own Language

By Conor Lobb 04.2020

 As Susan Muhoro was earning her master’s degree in counseling back in 1997, Angela Marshall was just graduating from high school. They wouldn’t cross paths until seven years later, but they were connected by a common desire to help those in need through their work at an outpatient facility in Lynchburg. Twelve years ago, they became co-workers.

Susan began working with at-risk teenagers at HumanKind (then called Presbyterian Family Services) in 1984, and left after two years to start a family. She returned to the field in 1997, and earned a master's degree in counseling from Lynchburg College (now the University of Lynchburg), where she resumed her work at HumanKind, serving at-risk adolescents.

Susan became a licensed therapist in the fall of 2004, and then ventured out on her own. She and Lavinia Garbee founded Wishing You Well Counseling Center in the spring of 2004. Susan believed such a facility would benefit her community. She says there was a need in Lynchburg for therapists who focused on services for children. In the early years of business, Susan and Lavinia did everything from answering phones to mowing the grass. “We often worked fifteen-hour days, if not more,” Susan says.

Angela Marshall graduated from the University of Lynchburg at about the same time Wishing You Well Counseling Center opened. She then enrolled in a master of education in community counseling program, where she completed her fieldwork at HumanKind. Some of Angela's clients needed more advanced treatment, so Angela brought them to Wishing You Well Counseling Center, where she met Susan.

Susan was Angela’s supervisor for two years while Angela was completing her residency to become a licensed professional counselor. Angela decided that after finishing her master’s degree she would join the staff at Wishing You Well rather than work for a large company. 

“That was a leap of faith,” she says. “Susan and Lavinia were looking to add another therapist in the building, and offered the office space to me.” Susan says that she felt Angela would fit right in, and the pair began working together professionally. 

Photo of Susan Muhoro

Both clinicians used play in their therapy sessions, and wanted to become formally trained play therapists. In 2019 there were 185 registered play therapists in Virginia, and 4,224 in the United States, according to the National Association for Play Therapy. Since most children aren’t able to verbally express complex emotions, therapists and counselors use play therapy to help them communicate. “If you’re going to work with kids, there is no other way to do it,” Angela says. “Because [play is] the language of kids. It’s how they learn, how they express themselves, and how they perceive the world.”

To become a registered play therapist, licensed mental health professionals must complete requirements outlined in the national Association for Play Therapy’s credentialing standards. There are a few institutions in Virginia that offer the appropriate training to meet those requirements. Ultimately, Susan and Angela decided on a play therapy program at the Virginia Commonwealth University Office of Continuing and Professional Education (VCU OCPE).

“I had been interested in [play therapy] for years, and had gone to lots of different trainings and learned nothing, or little to nothing,” says Susan. “[I] spent lots of money trying to find what I was looking for, and didn’t find out until I came to the VCU program.” 

The VCU OCPE is an approved continuing education provider of play therapy and has been offering weekend workshops for the past five years. The workshops meet the play therapy training requirements for becoming a registered play therapist (RPT) as established by the national Association for Play Therapy. To date, the VCU OCPE has offered training in 33 weekend workshops to 215 mental health professionals. Tracy Whitaker, LCSW, RPT-S, leads many of the workshops and is a founder of the VCU OCPE play therapy program.

“Teaching play therapy is incredibly exciting,” Tracy says. “I get to be a part of helping amazing clinicians leave with new skills they can use the next day to help kids do better.”

Susan and Angela finished all six of the workshops two years ago, and both became registered play therapist supervisors after completing practicums under Tracy.

“Tracy was very open to [talking] during breaks [and] to staying late, to us picking her brain,” Susan says. “We would come in with cases and say, ‘Can we talk to you when we have a break or at the end of the day?’ And she was very open to that. So you’re getting that peice in addition to the trainings." 

Tracy's dedication illustrated how helpful play therapy can be to the life of a child when Susan sought advice on a case she was having difficulty with.

“I had this five-year-old boy coming in, and the referral came through the school system because he had out-of-control behaviors,” Susan says. “Tracy was able to help me see that something was going on inside of the home, and so I met with mom alone and there was domestic violence going on inside of the home. Before play therapy, I would’ve just dealt with the kid's behaviors and how to manage his behaviors from a parent perspective; from discipline and how to work with it with coping skills.” 

Play therapy has done more for Angela and Susan than making them better clinicians. Susan says the experience helped her become a more compassionate person. “I am more flexible even in my personal life,” Susan says. “More flexible with people, more patient with people, and able to see things from different perspectives, where I could not before.” 

Providing play therapy as a trained RPT has given Angela and Susan a sense of confidence when they interact with their clients. “I would say now that we know how play therapy really works—it takes pressure off of us.” Angela says. “All I really have to do is show up and be the container to hold that safe space for a kid.”

When these therapists can show a child that they are loved and can be helped, it makes the time, money, and effort they put into their education and training well worth it. 

“There are no words to describe that—when a kid has that [lightbulb] moment,” Angela says. “Because it just encompasses everything that we strive for. It’s the most valuable proof that you’re doing the right thing, or that this is where we’re supposed to be at in life.”

Photo of Angela Marshall