DrSiobhan Casey

“Play Matters” is a monthly column in the Geelong Advertiser dedicated to exploring the vital role of play in everyday life. Its purpose is to inform and inspire readers by highlighting how play supports emotional wellbeing, creativity, and connection across all ages. Each article offers practical insights, research-based perspectives, and real-life examples that demonstrate why play is more than fun. By championing the value of play, the column encourages readers to embrace playful moments as a powerful tool for stress relief, learning, and living well.

This award recognises the Play Therapy team for their inspiring, person-centred teaching that fosters deep engagement, emotional connection, and transformative learning. Through playfully creative pedagogy, compassionate, responsive teaching, and innovative and digital resources, they empower students to thrive, personally and professionally, within a supportive, values-driven learning community.

Conference presentation with Bridget Sarah, Judi Parson, and Mary Anne Peabody Title: Decoding Play: Curiously Critiquing the Discourse This interactive workshop examines the complex intersection of play development theory and assessment methodologies in play therapy settings. The workshop is structured into two complementary parts, designed to give opportunity for the curious critique of play theory and assessment within an international forum. Consisting of small working groups, this workshop will give rise to the discourse of decoding play. Part A delves into opportunities to discuss contemporary play development frameworks, critically analysing dominant theoretical perspectives while exploring emerging neurodevelopmental insights. Participants will discuss and explore both classic and current research from international perspectives and examine how sociocultural contexts shape both the conceptualisation and understanding of play development. Part B focuses on assessment, offering an opportunity to reflect and discuss the nuanced exploration of observational methods, standardised and non-standardised assessments, and innovative approaches to evaluating play and understanding the child. Special attention will be given to the challenges of measuring play and understanding the child in their play therapy journey. Throughout both sessions, participants will be encouraged to critically examine their own assumptions and practices, engaging in reflective discussions that bridge theory and clinical application. This workshop aims to deepen practitioners' discourse of play and assessment whilst decoding and demonstrating sensitivity to diverse cultural expressions of play. Participants will leave the workshop with enhanced theoretical understandings from a global context and practical reflections for conducting meaningful play assessments in clinical practice, enhancing both the teaching and learning, and supervision of play therapists.

Presented by Dr. Siobhan Casey Developing resilience, a capacity to adapt positively despite adversity, to navigate resources and negotiate a developing understanding of self is viewed an active process of engagement rather than an assumed persistent capacity. This presentation describes how pretend play and self -regulation development supported the maintenance of resilience for children, across rural, regional and metropolitan Victoria during their transition from pre-school to formal schooling. Educational transition can represent significant developmental challenges requiring children to adapt to new expectations, environments, and social dynamics. These transitions can either strengthen or undermine developing resilience capacities. Unique stressors during these periods include shifts in instructional approaches, increased performance expectations, and evolving peer relationships. Within a framework of doing, being, belonging and becoming play creates a developmental bridge that allows children to process and integrate new experiences through familiar symbolic representation and peer connection. Children use play to make sense of the world around them and support their connection with people and place. The continuity of play is critical for maintaining the self-regulatory foundations established in early childhood, such as emotional regulation, attentional control, and behavioural inhibition, which can otherwise deteriorate during transitional stress. Central to the discussion is the process through which resilience is actively maintained. This presentation identifies specific mechanisms within pretend play that preserve resilience during transitions: increased use of symbolism in play while constructing a logical sequence, increased use of object substitution with reduced imitation of others’ actions, and the development of seven key self-regulatory skills supporting play relationships. A multiple case study design demonstrates how developing play and self-regulatory capacities successfully maintained children's resilience trajectories supporting their sense of self and wellbeing. The findings of this study support the notion that early pretend play experiences remain accessible to children as they navigate the increasingly complex demands of formal education.

Therapeutic relationships are central to effective occupational therapy practice. As graduate therapists transition into professional roles, exploring how to build safe, responsive, and meaningful connections with clients becomes essential. This presentation explores the role of play and attunement in strengthening therapeutic relationships, drawing on principles from occupational science, play therapy, and relational neuroscience. Play will be examined as a medium for enhancing the therapeutic relationship, leading to better outcomes in the core dimensions of human occupation: doing, being, becoming, belonging, and connecting. Attunement, defined as the therapist’s capacity to be emotionally present and responsive, will be discussed as a mechanism for fostering safety, trust, and therapeutic alliance. Through experiential reflection and discussion, participants will explore how integrating play and attunement can enhance co-constructed therapeutic relationships and support meaningful engagement in therapy. This session invites graduate occupational therapists to reflect on therapeutic relationships as dynamic, shared spaces that evolve through intentional presence and playful interaction, key elements in supporting client transitions, growth, and occupational participation.

Invited speaker - 2 hr seminar for pop. Pop. has been providing high-quality, consistent speech pathology services via telehealth since 2016.

Revisiting Winnicott and the transitional space: Informing clinical decision making.

This Play Therapy Supervision Masterclass offered an engaging and reflective space to strengthen supervisory practice. Participants explored the purpose of supervision, deepened self-awareness as a supervisor, and examined the roles and qualities that shape effective relationships. The masterclass introduced models and tools to guide supervision, while fostering practical skills through creative and playful approaches. Through experiential activities and collaboration with peers, strategies to enhance supervisory processes and support ethical, reflective practice were gained. Combining theory with creativity, this interactive session ensured supervision remains dynamic, meaningful, and responsive to the needs of both supervisors and supervisees.

This Life World Narrative Training equipped practitioners with a structured, creative approach to therapeutic life story work. Participants reviewed key principles of attachment and child development, and then learnt a scaffolded process for sequencing sessions from intake to completion. Through case studies and practical exercises, innovative techniques to engage children and young people in constructing their narratives was explored. The training emphasised reflective practice, supporting the therapeutic use of self as an agent of change. Finally, participants considered how to adapt interventions to meet developmental needs within the fluid context of emotional presentation, ensuring responsive, meaningful outcomes.

This interactive workshop equipped therapists to extend play therapy practice by offering CPRT to families, strengthening parent-child bonds, improving communication, and fostering trust. Through experiential learning and facilitated discussions, participants gained practical strategies and psychoeducational tools to empower caregivers and enhance therapeutic outcomes for children and their families.