Colleen The Play Therapist

Only 3 more days! Are you ready?

A Woodbridge mother's struggle to help her 8-year-old son reveals how broken New Jersey's children's mental health system has become, with some families waiting years for relief.

https://www.njhcqi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/NHC0300-Childrens-Mental-Health-Report-FINAL-Web-1.pdf

Critical shortages of mental health professionals prepared to do specialized work with children in New Jersey.

Co-regulation begins long before children can self-regulate.

In the early years, children borrow safety from the nervous systems around them, through rhythm, connection, predictability, play, movement, and presence.

The Early Years Guidebook was created to help educators, caregivers, and parents understand behavior through a Polyvagal and nervous-system-informed lens, and to offer practical, embodied ways to create more regulation, connection, and felt safety for children birth-age 7. Nervous system regulation isn’t taught through punishment or pressure. It’s built through repeated experiences of being safe with someone else.💛✨

Amazing things happening in Ramapo College of New Jersey’s Social Work Program!

I’m so proud of the work we do, and of our fantastic students.

A New Mission: Disabled Veteran Earns MSW May 26, 2016 By Lauren Ferguson Before pursuing social work at Ramapo College of New Jersey, U.S. Navy Veteran Jerry DiLauri ’25 ’26 worked as a professional chef. In his last chef position, he followed the PGA Tour, setting up kitchens on golf courses, and feeding tour sponsors. But when the di...

This FREE online training looks great!

7th Annual Innovative Child Therapy Symposium A free online event for clinicians working with children, teens, and families who want deeper, more creative, nervous-system-informed ways to support healing beyond the limitations of words.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by every nation on Earth — except the United States. That means American children have no formal treaty-level guarantee of their right to play, rest, and cultural participation.

IPA USA is advocating to change that. Will you join us?



🔗https://ipausa.org/advocacy/un-convention-on-the-rights-of-children/

🔗 Sign up to participate in International Day of Playhttps://forms.gle/SypqKtiaWsSeaFvYA

Did you know there is a UN treaty that protects children's right to play? Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees every child's right to rest, leisure, play, and participation in cultural life. 196 countries have ratified it — except one. The United States. 🤔



🔗 https://ipausa.org/advocacy/what-is-article-31/

Sign up to participate in International Day of Play🔗 https://forms.gle/SypqKtiaWsSeaFvYA

Imagine if kindergarten were actually built for children.

More movement. More play. More joy.
Fewer delays. Fewer referrals. Fewer “behavior issues.”

Brains would wire the way they’re meant to.
Teachers could breathe again.
Children would love school instead of surviving it.

It’s not radical. It’s developmentally appropriate.

We don’t need to invent a new solution. We just need to return kindergarten to what worked, before we complicated it into something it was never meant to be.