449 | Should You Choose Playroom Toys Based on a Child's Trauma?

Episode summary

In this episode, I answer a question from a mobile play therapist who wants to know whether it's appropriate to add toys to her CCPT kit based on the specific experiences or trauma histories of the children she's working with. For example, should we add bathroom furniture for a child who experienced trauma in a bathroom, or a doll bed for a child with suspected sexual abuse? I explain why **we select toys, not collect them**, and why every item in our playroom should be chosen based on the established CCPT toy categories rather than the needs of an individual client. Both of those toys can absolutely belong in a child-centered playroom, but not because we're anticipating or trying to facilitate a particular kind of play. Our responsibility is to provide a fully equipped environment with appropriate representation from all three toy categories, allowing the child to determine what they need and how they use it.

I also discuss why consistency and predictability are so important in the therapeutic environment. Landreth cautions against making frequent major changes to the playroom because children need a stable, familiar space where they know what to expect. That principle applies just as much to mobile play therapy kits as it does to traditional playrooms. While adding a few toys to fill gaps in your collection is appropriate, regularly changing the environment or tailoring it to individual children can interfere with the consistency that CCPT provides. Ultimately, this is another example of a foundational truth about our model: **the child has tremendous freedom and autonomy, while the therapist operates within very intentional boundaries.** CCPT governs us, not the child.