The Play Prescription® Institute:
Making Healing and Growth Practical
A trauma-informed framework grounded in research, Play Prescription® equips professionals to move beyond theory and use play as a tool for real-world healing, growth, and cycle-breaking — outside the therapy room and in everyday life.
Registered Play Therapist | PhD ranked in top 5% | 19+ years experience
Why Play Prescription®
Families don’t need generic advice or surface-level strategies.
They need support that sees beneath behaviour — and creates space for parents and kids to grow together.
Play Prescription® brings therapeutic insight out of the therapy room and into everyday life, giving professionals a framework that is trauma-informed, integrative, and designed to address real-world challenges.
👉 Learn the Framework
Is Play Prescription® for you?
Parents →
Those ready to do the inner work alongside their children.
Professionals →Â
Educators, parent coaches, support workers, allied health — anyone working with kids, parents, and families.
Organisations →
Teams and leaders addressing family wellbeing or workplace emotional labour.
The 5 Pillars
Childhood Experiences → Our early experiences shapes our lens
Needs underlying behaviour → Behaviour is communication driven by an unmet need
Self-Commitment → Balancing self-compassion with self-accountability
Role of the environment → Our environment is always working with us or against us.
Therapeutic Play → Play therapy based tools and how to adapt them for specific challenges.
How You Can Work With Play Prescription®
Resources & Kits →
Practical tools you can use right away.
Certification →
A 16-week program for professionals.
Workshops &
Speaking →
For organisations and leaders.
New to Play Prescription®?
Start with Prescribe Play 101.
Prescribe Play 101 is your introduction to the Play Prescription® framework.
In this short, practical course, you’ll learn the foundations of therapeutic play and how to begin prescribing play with confidence — no therapy degree required.
Whether you’re a teacher, coach, support worker, or parent, this course gives you the tools to take the first step toward making play a powerful part of everyday healing and growth.
👉 Enrol in Prescribe Play 101
What Others Are Saying
Senior Early Parenting Practitioner, 9 years experience
"This course is like no other professional development I’ve done. The childhood experiences and inner child work were life-changing — for me, my daughter, and the families I support. The practical strategies, intentional reflection prompts, and supportive Q&As gave me tools I could use straight away in both my personal and professional life."
Teacher, 10 years experience
"The Play Prescription® gave me clear, practical ways to support little people with big emotions. Shifting my language, adapting my classroom environment, and making space for play completely changed how I show up as a teacher. It’s not about perfection — it’s about showing up differently every day."
Grounded in Research. Informed by Practice.
From Practitioner to Pioneer
I’m Dr. Sam Casey — a registered play therapist and registered mental health social worker with 19+ years in child and family work. My PhD was recognised in the top 5% for challenging what few in the field were willing to say: real change doesn’t come from piling on more knowledge, it comes from creating space for ongoing reflection, self-understanding and growth.
But through my own journey of self-discovery, I realised something powerful — play therapy had been locked inside clinical practices. Families were left struggling in everyday life, and professionals outside the therapy room felt they couldn’t touch healing and growth because they weren’t “therapists.”
That realisation changed everything. I stepped outside the traditional “therapist box” and built something new: Play Prescription® — a framework that makes therapeutic play practical, accessible, and powerful for professionals and parents.
Now, through the Institute, I teach others how to prescribe play with purpose — so healing and growth can happen where it matters most: in real life, alongside children and families.
👉 Read My Story
Join a Global Network of Practitioners
Play Prescription® isn’t just a method — it’s a movement. Our growing community of professionals is committed to breaking cycles and reshaping how families heal and grow.
