• Access My Courses
  • Courses For Professionals
  • Login
  • Cart
  • My Account

Clair Mellenthin

Child and Family Therapist

  • Services
    • Supervision
    • Play Therapy
    • Therapy – Individual, Family, or Group
    • Toolbox for Therapists
  • Media
    • Book Clair to Speak
  • Events
  • Shop
    • Webinars
      • Intro To Attachment Centered Play Therapy
      • Healing Wounded Hearts
      • Play Therapy Across the Lifespan
      • Power Of Parents in the Playroom
    • Books
  • Contact
    • About Me
    • Schedule An Appointment
  • Blog
    • Newsletter Archives

Do you know the secret to great play therapy?

April 30, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

I am a play therapist. All of the work I do comes back to one purpose, and that is helping children overcome challenges and the effects of trauma. As I have worked with hundreds of families as a therapist, taught play therapy around the world, studied and taught at universities, there is a huge missing piece in work done for children recovering from trauma. Traditional treatment focuses on an individual child. Yet, it is impossible for a child to make lasting changes alone. One of the most important realizations I made is that the parents of my clients are my clients too.  Parents have to be an equal partner of the healing team. Rapport has to take place with kids but parents must be involved with treatment as soon as it’s appropriate. The parent is as much as your client as the child.

Recognizing that there was a missing anthology of tools in the play therapy library, I wrote a book that bridges the gap between academic theory and practical tools to ultimately repair and work to heal the relationships between parents and children.  Secure attachment is the long term solution to pick up the broken pieces after a crisis occurs. For the mostly healthy parent, they can quickly become a resource for the child to learn healthy ways of communicating and connecting. Attachment fosters a sense of safety and security. For the parents who are the trailblazers and are changing the generational cycles of abuse or maltreatment, this book can offer you a roadmap to help guide them in learning new ways of engaging with their child, the importance of attunement, and managing their own affect and anxieties so they can help their child manage theirs.

My new book Attachment Centered Play Therapy gives you the tools to do just that. My invitation is that as clinicians you come to understand parents, provide education to them, and invite them to be part of the treatment team and important members of the play therapy process. Let them know that they aren’t going to be in therapy for the rest of their lives, but that its okay for this process to take time. Learn how to take the shame out of the experience of healing. When we know more, we can do better.

My new book launches on May 6th! Order now at a pre-launch price and save!! Click here to buy now! I want to hear from you!! Tell me what you think. How are you using what you learned in your practice? How can I be of service? Connect with me on social media and let’s keep this conversation going!

Do you work with kids in a therapy setting?

April 30, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

As children, we learn from our parents how to cope with challenges in our lives with their model as our example. A child learns if they have value from the first interaction with parents, and as well as how to navigate obstacles along the way. If the family has an unhealthy approach to managing the ups and downs of life, if they do not acknowledge the bumps and bruises, if they pray it away, or ignore it, the child learns there is not any room for their big feelings. They think, “something must be wrong with me!”

If you work with children in a therapy setting, one of the best discoveries to make is that the parent of your client is your client too. Working as a play therapist for the last nineteen years,  I have learned a few things about what parents of my clients want and need. I know for sure that they want to feel like they have a voice and can be seen. They matter. I want parents to understand how critical it is for them to be present for their child. If parents had any idea how much they matter, it would change everything. They have to be involved and be willing to allow for change, for the entire family unit.

Attachment Centered Play Therapy was written with you in mind – centering on the different types of traumas we see in our play therapy room and mental health clinics.  It was written to help you, the therapist, understand the nature of trauma – from natural disasters to divorce to violence in the homes to prolonged separations between parent and child.  How these experiences change the nature of the relationship and most importantly of all, what you can do to help repair, rebuild, and create lasting security and change. Parents are the only person who has the power to create lasting changes. If we do not involve them as we work with children in therapy, we are missing the kid. This book will give clinicians the tools to help parents recognize that if they feel powerless or scared, they do not have to have all the answers, they can know change is possible. This book not only dives into the attachment theory but also has practical application and interventions that empower parents to have awareness and tools to make permanent improvements with their relationship with their kids.

My new book launches on May 6th! Order now at a pre-launch price and save!! Click here to buy now!

Play Therapy Tools That Bridge Gap From Sessions to Connecting Families

April 30, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Families across the globe experience heartache and joy, separations and reunions, loss, and celebrations throughout their lifespan.  The manner in which a parent is able to attune to and connect with their child serves as a template for all future experiences and the ways in which a child views themselves, their own capabilities, and their seeking for and seeking out love and connection with others.  

In traditional child therapy, the majority of the training for clinicians focuses on the individual child client. I believe that we are giving children unrealistic expectations that they can be the only or main agents of change within their family system. We cannot expect the least powerful player to make long-standing improvements in the family unit and the dynamics that rule it. We are not addressing the critical relationship between parent and child.  Since you work in the mental health world, you understand that the relationships between parents and their kids can either fuel success and security or foster chaos and uncertainty. If parents had any idea how much they matter, it would change everything.

That is one of the reasons I wrote the book Attachment Centered Play Therapy. As I have been traveling the globe training play therapists, teaching up and coming graduate students-therapists at Universities and working with my own clients, I recognize that there is a huge missing piece in the work done for children after trauma. We have a duty, not just to work on the immediate behaviors that often brought desperate parents to receive help, but to create transformations in the hearts and homes, including working on the parent-child relationship. Parents are the only people who have the power to create lasting changes. If we do not involve them, we are missing the kid.

Attachment Centered Play Therapy was written with you in mind – centering on the different types of traumas we see in our play therapy room and mental health clinics.  It was written to help you, the therapist, understand the nature of trauma – from natural disasters to divorce to violence in the homes to prolonged separations between parent and child.  How these experiences change the nature of the relationship and most importantly of all, what you can do to help repair, rebuild, and create lasting security and change.

If you are a therapist and in any way, your work touches the lives of children,  directly, or through the parents, this book is a must-have in your library! My hope for clinicians is that by reading and implementing what is this book, that you can see what is really in front of you, not just the problem or the behavior of the child. I hope to pique your curiosity and courage to delve into what is under the surface with the kids you work with, and their parents!  This book starts the process of learning how to do that. It is not a model of doing; it is a therapeutic model of being and of including and inviting the parent into the therapeutic process. As a wise play therapist once said, “You are the most important toy in the playroom”. It is all about being present. It is about being brave. It takes vulnerability on the part of you as the clinician to do that. But if not you, and if not now, we are going to miss that kid. And that is too high a price for anyone to be left behind.

My new book launches on May 6th! Order now at a pre-launch price and save!! Click here to buy now!

Seeking a Path to Safety – KSL Podcast

April 9, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Originally aired: Saturday, March 31, 2018

“Seeking a Path to Safety” is a conversation between KSL’s Amanda Dickson and the leading thinkers from law enforcement, mental health, government and family about how we can keep our schools safer – and not just our schools, but our churches, theaters and other public places. How do we help the young people who have grown up never knowing a time when “school shooting” was not a thing? What can we do when we know someone who seems dangerous?   What part of the puzzle is arming our teachers or ourselves? What role does the media play, and lastly, what can each one of us do today to make a difference. Commissioner of Public Safety Keith Squires, Director of Child and Adolescent Therapy at Wasatch Family Therapy Clair Mellenthin and Former Chief of Staff to Senator Mike Lee/Current Opinion Editor of the Deseret News Boyd Matheson help us as we seek a path to safety. Click here to listen.

Next Page »

Clair Mellenthin, LCSW, RPT-S, Director of Child and Adolescence Services, Past President of UAPT. As an experienced play therapist,
and sought after presenter, she frequently appears on local and national media as an expert on child and family issues.