Every Cloud Play & Creative Arts Therapy

17/04/2026

Our Clinical Directors, Naomi Murray and Kay Tibbles are offering Cheltenham primary schools a limited number of fully funded training places, supported by Gloucestershire County Council and No Child Left Behind.

This one off training for professionals – Square Peg / Round Hole – is designed for teachers, teaching assistants and Senco's working directly with children, particularly where SEMH, neurodiversity or low emotional wellbeing are impacting engagement or are barriers to accessing school.

Please get in touch if you would like to book a place 😊☁️

16/04/2026

😊☁️

A dysregulated child needs more repetition to learn the same social and emotional skills as a regulated child.

Play therapy gently honours this.

Within a safe, attuned relationship, children are given the time and space to repeat, revisit and rework their experiences through play. These repeated moments of expression, co-regulation and connection help build new neural pathways and support emotional growth.

What may look like “just play” is actually the brain learning, again and again, that it can feel, cope and recover.

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15/04/2026

Some great signposting here 😊☁️

Having seen the BBC's article about men's mental health (https://orlo.uk/7Br7X), we wanted to share some great charities helping men in Gloucestershire 👇

Men in Sheds - where men meet regularly in a workshop to bring a range of skills and ideas to many activities that can involve carpentry, community projects, repair and paint furniture and recycle things https://orlo.uk/men-in-sheds_8cQJQ 🪚
Man Up Glos - giving men who are struggling an opportunity to chat to likeminded individuals, in an effort to offer support as a coping tool https://orlo.uk/man-up-glos_eRIBi 💬
Men walking and talking - join a walk, meet great people and enjoy open conversations https://orlo.uk/men-walking-and-talking_K3lHO 🚶‍♂️
Home Start Gloucestershire's Dad Matters - helping men better understand their baby, their role as a dad and how the transition to fatherhood may affect them and their family https://orlo.uk/dad-matters_tmqtM 🍼

Whoever you are, wherever you are, your mental health matters. Reach out if you're in need. You can also visit Be Well Glos's list of local and national help 👉 https://orlo.uk/mental-health-support_Rxeex

09/04/2026

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When children feel overwhelmed, their brain shifts into a survival mode. This part of the brain, sometimes called the lower or subcortical brain, is focused on staying safe, not thinking clearly.

In this state, you might see:

• Big emotions
• Fight, flight or freeze responses
• Difficulty listening or following instructions
• Seeming ‘out of control’

This is not a choice. It is the brain trying to protect them.

At the same time, stress hormones like cortisol increase, making it even harder for the child to feel calm or think things through.

Play Therapy helps gently change this.
Through safe, attuned play, children begin to feel secure. As they feel safer:

• The brain can shift out of survival mode
• Stress levels begin to reduce
• The thinking part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, comes back online
• The child becomes more able to regulate, connect and engage

This is why play is so powerful.
It is not just fun.

It is how children move from fear to feeling safe.

From overwhelm to regulation.

From surviving to engaging with the world around them.

06/04/2026

😊☁️

Children experience the world through their bodies first.

Somatosensory experiences are how children make sense of touch, movement, pressure and physical sensation. These experiences play a vital role in how a child develops regulation, body awareness and a sense of safety.

For some children, especially those who have experienced stress or trauma, the body can feel overwhelming or unpredictable. Sensations may feel too much, too little or difficult to interpret. This can show up in behaviour, but it begins in the nervous system.

Play therapy works with the body, not just the mind.

Through carefully attuned somatosensory play, children are supported to explore and organise their sensory experiences in a safe and relational space. This is not random play. It is meaningful, responsive and guided by the child’s needs.

In play therapy, somatosensory activities might include:

• sand, water or messy play to explore texture and sensation
• squeezing, pushing or resistance play to support proprioceptive input
• rhythmic activities such as tapping, rolling or bouncing
• use of soft materials, blankets or weighted items for deep pressure
• movement based play that supports balance and coordination

These experiences help to:

• support nervous system regulation
• build body awareness and interoception
• create a sense of safety within the body
• process sensory and emotional experiences
• develop the foundation for learning, relating and self regulation

Play therapy offers children the space to reconnect with their bodies in ways that feel safe, supported and meaningful.

05/04/2026

😊☁️

Children learn about the world, and about themselves, through relationship.

Mirror neurons are part of the brain that help us understand and connect with others. They fire not only when we act, but when we see someone else act. This is how children begin to read emotions, develop empathy and feel understood.

From the earliest moments of life, children rely on attuned adults to reflect their experiences back to them. A look, a tone of voice, a shared moment of joy or calm. These interactions shape how a child understands safety, connection and themselves.

When a child has experienced stress or disruption in relationships, these systems can become less integrated. The world can feel unpredictable or unsafe, and connection can feel harder.

Play therapy supports this from the ground up.

Through consistent, attuned and responsive relationships, the therapist becomes a regulating and reflecting presence. Facial expressions, tone, rhythm and shared play experiences all provide opportunities for the child’s brain to experience connection in a safe way.

Over time, this helps to:

• strengthen the child’s capacity for connection and empathy
• support emotional understanding through lived, relational experience
• build trust in others and in themselves
• develop a sense of safety within relationships
• integrate social and emotional processing

As Daniel J. Siegel highlights, “The brain is a social organ, and our relationships shape the way it develops.”

Play therapy uses this knowledge to support healing, growth and connection, not through words alone, but through relationship and play.

05/04/2026

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A child’s brain develops from the bottom up. Before thinking, reasoning and problem solving can happen, the nervous system needs to feel safe.

The bottom up, whole brain approach recognises that behaviour is not just about choices. It is about the state of the body and nervous system first.

When a child is dysregulated, their lower brain is in charge. This is where survival responses live. Fight, flight, freeze or fawn. In these moments, the thinking brain is much less accessible. So reasoning, consequences or logic often do not work.

Play therapy works with this, not against it.
Instead of expecting children to “think their way” out of distress, play therapy supports regulation from the bottom up. Through sensory experiences, rhythm, movement and relational safety, the nervous system begins to settle. Only then can higher level thinking and reflection start to come online.

In play therapy, the child is not pushed to explain or analyse. They are given space to express, experience and process through play, which is their natural language.

This approach helps to:

• support nervous system regulation before cognitive demand
• build felt safety through consistent, attuned relationships
• integrate emotional and sensory experiences
• strengthen connections between the lower and higher parts of the brain
• enable children to access thinking, learning and relating more effectively

As Bruce D. Perry reminds us, “Regulate, relate, reason.”

Play therapy honours this sequence. It meets the child where they are and supports development in the way the brain is designed to grow.

30/03/2026

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In play therapy, we don’t just see behaviour
we see the nervous system underneath it
Polyvagal Theory, first developed by Dr Stephen Porges, helps us understand how the autonomic nervous system responds to safety, danger and threat.

Building on earlier work in neuroscience and attachment, including theorists such as John Bowlby, this framework offers a relational way of understanding children’s behaviour.

We understand that children move through different states of their autonomic nervous system.

🟢 Safe and Connected (Ventral Vagal)
A child feels calm, curious and able to engage in play and relationships.

🟠 Alert and Mobilised (Sympathetic)
A child may appear anxious, restless or dysregulated and their system is preparing to fight or flee.

🔵 Shutdown and Withdrawn (Dorsal Vagal)
A child may seem flat, disconnected or disengaged and their system is conserving energy to cope.

✨ In the playroom, children don’t need to explain these states in words.

Through play, they show us where they are and gently, safely we meet them there

Play therapy offers:

💛 A regulated adult nervous system
💛 A safe, attuned relationship
💛 Opportunities for co regulation
💛 Space for the child to move back towards connection

Because healing doesn’t come from fixing behaviour.

It comes from feeling safe enough to be understood.

27/03/2026

Useful guidance for the consultation for the future of the ASGSF. 😊☁️

📢The DfE has opened a consultation on the future of adoption support, including the ASGSF, following months of campaigning by Adoption UK, alongside adoptees and their families.

The deadline is 5th May and anyone with an interest in adoption and kinship care can take part.

Proposal 2 seeks to strengthen peer and community support for adopted children and parents.

However it is strongly suggested that funding currently ring-fenced for the ASGSF could be used to fund this.

How will this impact your family?

🔗We've put together a guide which explains each proposal in more detail here: https://ow.ly/JIft50Yz27n

🔗Take part in the consultation directly here: https://ow.ly/4xec50Yz27l

Adoption UK will also be responding to the consultation and engaging with our members to feed into the submission.

24/03/2026

Bookings now being taken 😊☁️

22/03/2026

Whilst it was launched back
In Feb, this campaign has only just come up on our feed, despite it being a huge concern for a long while….

😔☁️

22/03/2026

Some key tips here…



😊☁️