Welcome to the Play Therapy Circle Podcast

For our very first guest interview on The Play Therapy Circle Podcast, host Kylie Ellison sits down with the incredible Dr. Jodi Mullen, a professor in the counselling and psychological services department at SUNY Oswego, where she has worked as a counsellor educator for nearly 30 years. Jodi is the founder and director of Integrative Counselling Services, a registered play therapy supervisor, a CCPT Master, an internationally sought-after trainer and speaker, and the recipient of the Association for Play Therapy's Key Award for professional training and education. She has also been Kylie's own clinical supervisor for several years, and it shows in the ease and honesty of this conversation.

Jodi reflects on entering the play therapy field back in 1994, at a time when the profession was barely known, even within the mental health community. She talks about how far things have come since then, with a growing evidence base, wider public awareness, and more practitioners specialising in theoretical approaches like child-centred play therapy. She's candid, though, that calling yourself child-centred and actually practising with fidelity to the model are two very different things, and that fidelity is what makes the approach genuinely evidence-based.

Kylie and Jodi trace the emotional and professional journey of becoming a play therapist, including the vulnerability required to sit with a child's story, the discomfort of learning skills like limit setting for the first time, and the deep self-acceptance work that underpins being able to accept a child exactly as they are. Jodi shares moving stories from her decades in the same community, including former child clients returning to see her as adults, and small, unforgettable moments in the playroom that reveal just how much children pick up on connection and care, even without ever being able to name it themselves.

The conversation moves into some of the more complex clinical territory play therapists face: children who present as selectively mute, children who seem almost too compliant and hard to ”find” in the room, and the growing pattern of learned helplessness Kylie is noticing in her own practice in Brisbane. Jodi offers a compassionate, curious lens for understanding these presentations rather than viewing them as problems to fix.

They also dig into supervision, talking about the qualities Jodi looks for in a supervisee who is going to thrive in this work, including vulnerability, self-awareness, the ability to take feedback, and a genuine sense of humour. From there, the discussion turns to countertransference, which Jodi describes not as something to be avoided or feared, but as a consultant in the room, a signal from the child that deserves attention and care rather than personalisation.

Toward the end of the episode, Jodi and Kylie talk openly about compassion fatigue and burnout, and why regulation, boundaries and self-care aren't optional extras in this profession, they're essential to being able to keep showing up for clients. Jodi's advice is simple but sits with you: protect your non-negotiables, learn to say no, and find an accountability partner to help you stick to it.

This episode is warm, funny, and full of hard-won wisdom from someone who has spent over three decades in the playroom and still finds it as meaningful as the day she started. Whether you're brand new to play therapy or years into your own practice, there's something here to sit with.

Jodi will be joining us in person at the Play Therapy Circle Conference, 24-25 October at Rydges South Bank, Brisbane. Come learn, laugh, and connect with her and the wider play therapy community over two full days. Details and tickets are in the show notes.

Play Therapy Circle Conference 2026 – Kylie Ellison Therapy & TrainingCircle Subscriptions – Kylie Ellison Therapy & Training