I did not anticipate a first aid kit would be such a great hit in the playroom. The kit just sits around the playroom and many children have enjoyed discovering all the items in the kit.

The first aid kit has been helpful for purposes such as:

familiarise a child with injection due to the covid vaccination program

discussing with parents about challenges going to the doctor and familiarise the child with the process

promoting child-parent interactions such as close proximity when the child is testing the parent

giving the opportunity for the child to be in charge of doing injections and tests to a parent when it is typically the opposite when unwell

being playful when exploring big feelings about being ill, covid, vaccinations

expressing emotions through play

explore tough experiences in a safe environment

process difficult experiences with related objects which facilitate thinking and language

The kit was just a quick purchase from a popular shop. I realise now how timeline the purchase was considering all the challenges experienced with covid-19. Children are really benefiting from playing it out and exploring big emotions through play in the safety of the playroom.

There is also an easy link here to make for children in terms of health and mental health. The doctor kit being more particularly related to physical symptoms needing to be looked at and then linking to how to look after mental health which is not necessarily visible or have a specific and tangible kit. The conversation can then be extended to building a mental health kit and developing coping cards to fit in the kit.

For parents, playing doctor can also be easily be done at home. Through play, children explore and create constructs of their world so giving them the opportunity to process big and current topics can be helpful for them to process big emotions related to health. Discussions can also be extended to include a mental health kit.

A number of resources are being developed at 3P. For more information, visit our website: https://3ppsychologies.com/products/

The playroom is working like a treat so I wanted to share a few resources that I am enjoying working with in the playroom.

The Postbox has been very popular for a range of purposes either in directed activities or child directed play. Activities have varied such as:

1. to write how we feel and post this message to someone special
2. writing a message to someone we no longer see or miss
3. write a message or make a drawing to the therapist to explain how one feels
4. post an activity when finished
5. thinking about writing a letter of thank you to someone
6. sending a postcard to someone about our life adventures and how one is having a good time
7. sending a message to someone about one’s strengths and skills and/or a success
8. sending a message to someone about a change one would like to make
9. exchanging messages about a difficult event that happened in the week
10. write a message about the session and what we would do next time

The Postbox is certainly a great resource in the playroom. This one was purchased at a popular store. With creativity, a postbox could be easily made with a box. Additionally, postcards and message cards can be created for children to take away messages with them.

As children do not necessarily have literacy skills develop for long messages, encouraging drawings, images, keywords and codes is as successful as writing a message. Processing thinking visually can be helpful in mapping thought and feelings.

When working online, a postbox could be created using the whiteboard during sessions.

Parents can also create a postbox in the house for children to post messages or big emotions about specific events. This can help children express their thoughts and feelings in a different way to talking. As talking can be developmentally challenging for children, a different way to express thoughts and feelings can work well. The process of thinking and writing is also a different process to talking, and can be helpful to children who have challenges in expressing emotions verbally.

The Postbox and narrative therapy activities feature in The Therapist Backpack, see the link below for more information about this concept.

It has been incredibly busy at 3P in the last few months. As well as opening our new premises, we have had a number of referrals and growing the team.  We are welcoming many new team members… Meet Melissa, admin support, and Lisa, psychologist, who are starting this week! and a growing team! Jade started a couple of weeks ago. She is Masters of Counselling student from Monash University completing a yearly placement at 3P. Jade will be responsible for individual and group programs at 3P. Candice is a provisional psychologist and started a few weeks ago and is completing her final placement at 3P. She is mainly doing assessments at 3P and hoping to offer support too. Sasha will start at 3P very soon. She is also a provisional psychologist currently. Both Candice and Sasha are completing their PhD in Educational and Developmental Psychology at Monash University and hoping to publish their first articles soon so they can become fully registered psychologists and support many children, adolescents and families at 3P. Kathryn is also a provisional psychologist who started a few weeks ago and is currently helping with assessment work on Saturdays. Kathryn is finishing her Masters in Clinical Psychology at Cairmillar and will continue to work at 3P once she is fully registered. Tracy and Hanna have been part of the team for a little while now and support functions at reception. Hanna will be doing her provisional psychologist placement for 2 years at 3P as soon as she completes her psychology degree at Cairnmillar Institute this Spring.

At 3P, we continue to implement our vision of training the workforce and supporting learning and skills development in the child and adolescent psychology space! In the mix, Covid continues to impact on face to face work which can be challenging. We continue to offer services online via telehealth and our unique virtual therapy rooms. We also apply the criteria from the government when making decisions about who is coming on site: appointments can’t be postponed due specific timelines or a number of previous cancellations due to restrictions or/and a person’s wellbeing is at risk or deteriorating and care is required.  You can contact us to discuss this further. 0391194433 At 3P, we aim to be creative and offer a range of support. We are now developing different individual and group programs. Jade will be supporting these and also Sasha when she starts art 3P. These can be delivered at the clinic (online and individual only) or in schools. Here is some information below about these packages.

To come Third Culture Kids (TCK)/Cross-Culture Kids (CCK) wellbeing online support groups for adolescents across Australia Wellbeing online support groups for autistic children and adolescents across Australia For expression of interests, give us a ring at 0391194433 or send us an email at admin@3ppsychologies.com

https://mailchi.mp/0d99af236a39/news-at-3p

Due to lots of requests in supervision sessions, we have set up this live event for strengths-based and person-centred reports as a workshop/presentation.

This is set up as a low cost and mainly for administrative purposes.

Recording will be available after the live event as well as all resources such as templates and tools.

You can register for the event at this link 

https://learning.3ppsychologies.com/courses/psychologists-writing-a-strengths-based-report-for-funding-purposes