Play Prescription® Certification

Learn to prescribe therapeutic play for healing and growth—through a child therapist lens.

A practical, trauma-informed framework to support healing and growth, alongside children, beyond the therapy room

What do past participants say?

Past participants say two things set this certification apart:

1. You can implement immediately—not after 16 weeks.
"You can start implementing from the start. It's not about perfection—it's about showing up for our kids and ourselves just a little more each day."
— Teacher, 10 years experience

2. The inner child work is transformational—and it's prioritized.
"Childhood experiences was profoundly life changing for me personally. It felt like a weight had been lifted off me—and I had been in therapy on and off for years. The inner child exploration just clicked for me and made my work professionally more valuable."
— Early Parenting Practitioner, 9 years experience

"I thought this certification was about learning play therapy skills for kids.What I didn't expect was how practical it would be—and how much the inner child work would transform my practice."

This Certification is for you if you:

✓ Want research-based, evidence-informed, practical tools to prescribe therapeutic play for specific childhood and parenting challenges.
✓ Are tired of PD trainings that are loaded with generic info and want tools you can use immediately
✓ Support children with their mental wellbeing, emotions and behaviour, in your current role
✓ Work with parents and want to support them when their child triggers their own stuff and support them towards living the life they actually want
✓ Are willing to do your own inner work (because supporting families brings up your own patterns too)
✓ Want a child therapist lens on behaviour without becoming a therapist
✓ Need a method that fits into your current role and uses your own experiences and wisdom

THE PLAY PRESCRIPTION® FRAMEWORK

The 5 Pillars:

1. Childhood Experiences
Our early experiences shape our lens, for how we see ourselves, others and the world.

2. Needs Underlying Behaviour
Behaviour is communication driven by an unmet need.

3. Self-Commitment
How we show up for ourselves- balancing self-compassion with self-accountability.

4. Role of the Environment
Our environment is always working with us or against us.

5. Therapeutic Play
Play therapy-based tools and how to prescribe them for specific challenges.

How the Certification transformed past students

"The inner child work was profoundly life-changing."

"Childhood experiences was profoundly life changing for me personally with the carefully intentional questions for reflection. It felt like a weight had been lifted off me—and I had been in therapy on and off for years. The inner child exploration just clicked for me and made my work professionally more valuable for clients."
— Parenting Practitioner

"I could implement it immediately—not just theory."

"The Play Prescription is a great way to boost your knowledge and understanding of supporting our little people navigate big emotions. Dr Sam provides a great balance of theory and practical. Information is delivered in a clear and concise way and you can start implementing from the start. It's not about perfection—it's about showing up for our kids and ourselves just a little more each day."
— Teacher

"This is like no other professional development."

"This course is like no other professional development I have attended. It challenges your own unconscious biases and explores inner child work as a priority before working with parents and children. This is a key element that I believe has been missing with trainings in order to build real authentic connections to build parental capacity. Loved all of the practical strategies, intentional questions and personalised feedback during Q&A sessions."
— Parenting Practitioner

"Having a clear method changed everything."

"The Play Prescription Method gave me confidence. I can assess what's happening, identify the underlying need, and prescribe play that addresses it. That's what I was missing from other trainings."

"The method is replicable. I use it with every family now. And understanding how children trigger their parents' childhood wounds made me so much more effective."

The reality of this work

All parents are not parenting from their adult self. When parents interact with their kids, their own childhood wounds are triggered. 

Like when their child has a tantrum, this triggers their own beliefs about being a 'good parent' raising a 'good child' will surface. 

Or when a child pushes back on a boundary, this often triggers parent's feelings of being disrespected.

Or even when their child is upset, the parent often feels guilty, like they need to 'fix' it. 

But we are not immune to this as professionals. We also have 'default' beliefs about kids and parents that get triggered when working with families, no matter how much training or qualifications you hold. 

This certification prepares you for all both, supporting yourself and parents with reflective processes—while giving you practical tools to prescribe play that addresses the child's underlying need.

You'll learn:

- Recognising when a child is triggering their parent's childhood experiences
- How to support parents and kids without recusing or fixing
- How to prescribe therapeutic play that targets the specific challenge (not generic activities)
- Reflecting on your own professional practice

This is what makes Play Prescription® different.
You get a clear & practical method—not just inspiration.
You learn to prescribe for specific challenges
You implement immediately—not after 16 weeks.

Why I Created This

I'm a Registered Mental Health Professional and I've been working with children and families for over 20 years. 

I went from a Year 9 graduate to gaining my PhD- which stemmed from my passion for play therapy.

My PhD was marked in the top 5% because I wasn't afraid to call out the 'elephant in the room'—the importance of reflecting on our own beliefs, bias and assumptions, especially for us professionals. What I found was no amount of knowledge or training could replace the need for self-awareness and understanding. 

Early on in my career, I found the mental health system to be broken:

Mental health training is largely inaccessible. Most trainings are targeted to mental health professionals and overlook the wisdom of those who are with children, day in, day out; their parents and the professionals that work with them. 

But even with the trainings out there, they often miss the fact that interacting with kids will bring up your own 'stuff' too- your own past experiences, trauma and conditioning. Trainings often focus on generic advice that target observable behaviour without getting to the deeper and root causes of healing and growth. 

That's why I created the Play Prescription®, Method:

I created a practical method that teaches healing and growth, alongside kids that goes beyond the therapy room. 

My expertise: Registered Play Therapist | Accredited Mental Health Social Worker | PhD in Psychology (Play Therapy) | Training in Maternal Mental Health, Perinatal Psychology & Trauma Informed Practice | Over 20 years experience working with children and families.