PLAY PRESCRIPTION® CERTIFICATION
Think like a child therapist. Beyond the therapy room.
A practical, trauma-informed framework for people who work with children, parents or families, including those who support or coach parents in any field. Learn to look beyond behaviour, understand what is going on for a child, and use therapeutic play that fits the challenge they are facing. You will look at your own reactions in difficult moments, and how they can shape the support you offer a child.
These are professionals who already work with children and families. The Certification gave them a clearer way to understand what they were seeing — and what to do next.
“This course is like no other professional development I have attended. It challenges your own unconscious biases and explores inner child work as a priority before working with parents and children. This is a key element that I believe has been missing with trainings in order to build real authentic connections and build parental capacity. Loved all of the practical strategies, intentional questions and personalised feedback during Q&A sessions.”
— Sarah, Early Parenting Centre practitioner
“The Play Prescription is a great way to boost your knowledge and understanding of supporting our little people to navigate big emotions. Dr Sam provides a great balance of theory and practice. Information is delivered in a clear and concise way and you can start implementing from the start. It’s not about perfection. It’s about showing up for our kids and ourselves just a little more each day.”
— Chloe, Prep teacher
MORE THAN BEHAVIOUR STRATEGIES
You see the child who refuses to join the group. The child who is always seeking attention. The child who suddenly shuts down. The child who seems to be doing everything they can to keep it together.
You know there is more going on — but knowing what to do next isn’t always clear.
Most professional learning gives you information, strategies or activities. This Certification gives you a way to think — so you can understand what matters for this child, in this moment, and respond with intention.
Not generic activities. A clear method for deciding what play to use, when to use it, and what it is designed to support.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN TO DO
Behaviour usually tells us something. Learn to slow down and notice the fuller picture.
Connection, safety, play, autonomy, regulation and more — understand what may matter most.
Choose or design play with a clear purpose, rather than relying on generic activities.
Know why you are doing what you are doing — and feel confident explaining it to families and teams.
Use the Method in your setting: at school, in private practice, in community work or with families.
Build confidence in your own judgement and bring the Method into your everyday practice.
WHO THIS IS FOR
The Play Prescription® Framework is designed to deepen the support you already offer. The same five pillars can be applied differently depending on who you work with and where you work.
This Certification is for you if you:
For teachers, educators, early-learning professionals and practitioners who want to understand what may be going on for the children they see every day. Look beyond fear and worries, separation struggles, explosive behaviour, dysregulation or withdrawal, and use therapeutic play with purpose for the challenge in front of the child.
For parenting practitioners, family-support professionals, counsellors and others who want to help parents respond with more confidence and less blame at home. Make room for stress, shame, defensiveness or past experiences that can make a new response hard to access, while helping parents take practical, compassionate steps.
For coaches, facilitators, educators, practitioners and entrepreneurs building 1:1 services, groups, workshops or resources for parents and families. The child therapist lens gives you a deeper, trauma-informed way to understand common childhood challenges and create more informed support in the business you are building.
Not therapy training. A practical child therapist lens for the professional role you already hold.
THE FIVE PILLARS
The Play Prescription® Framework is a trauma-informed, five-pillar method grounded in psychological theory and evidence-based play therapy principles. It attends to safety, relationship, the child’s experience, the adult’s response and the environment around them. Each pillar helps you understand the child’s challenge more fully and make more intentional decisions about the support and play you offer.
Our early experiences shape our lens for how we see ourselves, others and the world. You will explore emotional defaults, attachment patterns, trauma beyond diagnosis, shame, guilt, inherited parenting manuals, reparenting and inner child work.
Behaviour is communication driven by an underlying need. You will learn to see challenging behaviour as adaptation rather than defiance, understand development in context, and stand with the child against the problem rather than against the child.
How we show up for ourselves shapes how we show up for children and families. You will explore psychological flexibility under stress, self-compassion alongside accountability, inner critic patterns, stress literacy and the capacity to respond intentionally.
The environment is always working for us or against us. You will look at how your surroundings, routines, support and resources help you or get in your way—and what you can change so the environment works for you.
Learn play therapy-based principles and how to prescribe therapeutic play for specific challenges. You will explore child-centred and directive approaches, how to decide which philosophy fits the moment, and how to design therapeutic-play responses for challenges such as fears and worries, separation anxiety, explosive behaviour, dysregulation and attachment struggles.
YOUR PATH TO CERTIFICATION
Work through 16 weeks of content at your own pace, including short video lessons, five-pillar resource packs and a marked assessment with written feedback.
Fit the short lessons and reflection questions around your existing role.
Practical tools and guides help you bring the Method into your everyday work.
Bring the Method to a real challenge and receive personal written feedback from Dr Sam Casey.
Use the reflection questions to notice what the work brings up and keep putting the Method into practice.
Complete your assessment and become a Certified Play Prescription® Practitioner.
Use the Framework again and again in the role, setting or business you already have.
INVESTMENT
PAY IN FULL
Includes
✓ 16 weeks of content, completed at your own pace
✓ 5 Pillar Resource Packs
✓ Marked reflective assessment
✓ Personalised written feedback from Dr Sam Casey
✓ Play Prescription® Certification on successful completion
Payment plan: 6 payments of A$450 (A$2,700 total)
PAY IN FULL
Includes
✓ Everything in Self-Paced Certification
✓ Fortnightly live Q&As with Dr Sam Casey
✓ Session times rotate to support different time zones
✓ Q&A recordings available after each session
6 payments of A$650 (A$3,900 total)
PAY IN FULL
Includes
✓ Everything in Guided Group Certification
✓ Four private mentoring sessions with Dr Sam Casey
✓ One 60-minute session each month for four months
✓ Personalised support to integrate the Framework into your current role, setting or business
6 payments of A$900 (A$5,400 total)
WHAT MAKES PLAY PRESCRIPTION® DIFFERENT
When a child is distressed, explosive, withdrawn, worried or struggling to separate, it is tempting to reach for a familiar strategy. But behaviour management alone cannot always tell you what is driving the pattern, what the child needs, or which play-based response may actually help.
The Play Prescription® Method gives you a clear, trauma-informed way to slow down and look beneath the surface. You learn to consider the child’s experience, needs, relationships and environment — then use therapeutic play intentionally rather than as a generic activity.
This work also recognises that professionals are not separate from the work. Children and families can bring up our own beliefs, emotional responses and past experiences. Reflection helps you notice this, so you can respond with greater intention instead of automatic reaction.
YOU WILL LEARN TO:
That is the Play Prescription® difference: a clear, practical method that helps you understand the child in front of you and respond with purpose.
A NOTE FROM DR SAM CASEY
I created the Play Prescription® Method because too much learning about children focuses on surface-level behaviour, generic advice or strategies that do not hold up in the real moments. My work in child therapy and play therapy showed me the value of a different lens: understanding what may sit beneath the behaviour, creating the conditions for healing and growth, and using play intentionally to support the challenge in front of the child.
But this understanding should not stay locked inside the therapy room. Parents and professionals are with children every day. They need practical, evidence-informed ways to support children’s emotional wellbeing, behaviour, relationships and development within the roles they already hold.
That is what this Certification teaches: how to think like a child therapist, reflect on how you show up, and prescribe therapeutic play with greater clarity and purpose.
Registered Play Therapist | Accredited Mental Health Social Worker | PhD in Psychology (Play Therapy) | Training in Maternal Mental Health, Perinatal Psychology & Trauma-Informed Practice | Over 20 years of experience working with children and families.
View Certification Pathways →
PLAY PRESCRIPTION® CERTIFICATION
Get a practical, repeatable method for understanding what is going on for a child and using therapeutic play to target the issue they are facing.
Take this lens into the work you already do with children, parents and families.
View Certification Pathways →Enter your name and email below to be first to hear when enrolment opens.
