The idea of Hopeful Play emerged from a time when I was thick in a world of religious obligations, parenting multiple children, spousal expectations, household and budget responsibilities, managing extended family relationships, teaching acting and movement classes, directing children’s musical theatre, and supervising the night staff of a behavioral health company. I was also navigating body image and identity issues, diving in to different therapy modalities, learning about holistic health practices, gentle conscious parenting, and other self help practices among the endless information available from books, podcasts, and classes.

I was grasping for everything outside of myself for relief as my internal world was swirling and crumbling.

It all felt like too much and not enough at the same time!

I became desperately confronted with my own trauma, patterns, and beliefs. If I wanted things to change, I had to be willing to actually change, not just employ fix after fix. I decided to attend school for trauma processing and become more informed about Internal Family Systems, neuroscience, and somatic practice.

A couple house moves, a relationship separation, a complete deconstruction of my religious foundation, and some really deep looks into motherhood ultimately led me to a deeper sense of internal love and acceptance.

While in processing sessions with myself and with clients, I often observed an intriguing pattern relating to play When arriving at a point where a part of myself or a client experienced some level of relief, upon being asked what that unburdened part wanted to do, the answer was almost always some version of play!

Additionally, something I often observed when working with children was that anything seemed possible in the world of play.

Putting those observations together brought me to a beautiful realization: Play invites hope and hope invites play.

As we continue to unburden within, we build internal trust, bringing back play within ourselves, and ultimately, the world. Hopeful Play…What a gift!