1KHO 905: Play is the Essence of Parenting | Dr. Kim Van Dusen, Parenting Through Play

**Ginny Yurich** (0:00)
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Welcome to The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast.
I'm the founder of 1000Hours Outside, and the parentologist is here today, Dr. Kim Van Dusen. Welcome.

**Dr. Kim Van Dusen** (1:14)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here.

**Ginny Yurich** (1:17)
You have quite the background. A doctorate in psychology, a mom of two young children, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and a registered play therapist. You have so much experience. You're also the CEO, founder of The Parentologist, which is a family and lifestyle brand. You have your own podcast. So I'm sure I'll put all the links in here to where people can find you. But you have written a book. It is called Parenting Through Play, and this is about dealing with our kids' behavior.
There's more than this, but I thought it was such an interesting premise.
We're so concerned about their behavior, and the book is giving alternatives. How can you deal with it? You can be more playful. So I would love to hear a little bit of your background if you are up for telling us. You became a licensed in marriage and family therapist, doctoral level licensed, nationally recognized as a registered play therapist. Where was the interest sparked in researching and helping parents use play? I would imagine in marriage too, right? Parenting and marriage.

**Dr. Kim Van Dusen** (2:21)
Yeah. That will be book number two, right? Yes. Because we need that too in our relationships.

**Ginny Yurich** (2:25)
Yes.

**Dr. Kim Van Dusen** (2:25)
Book number three might be tweens and teens. I get asked that a lot too. So we have lots of things to talk about later on. But I first got started in loving play therapy. In the very first time I took a play therapy class, I was in my doctorate program. There wasn't many electives to take at the time.
One of my friends was taking a play therapy class and she said, you should really try it. When I was in my program, my first thought or my first goal was to work with adults. I actually wanted to do couples therapy. And I had read the book years and years ago from Dr. John Gray, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. And that was kind of my pivotal point about going back and to getting my doctorate in the first place after years and a different career. And it wasn't fulfilling. I was single at the time. I had no experience with marriage even firsthand. And it was a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be. It was very draining. And I thought, gosh, working with adults is hard. I'm gonna give this play therapy class a try. And I did. And it was just like love at first sight, honestly. I loved it. And then from then on, I started doing my internship in schools and then worked in schools for 10, 15 years. Most of my experience has been working in schools with children. And then I had my own kids and became a mom and started using these practices at home.
And yeah, it just clicked. And I never felt drained. I never felt exhausted. It just, it was so actually invigorating to work with kids. And there's not many of us that do that. I mean, if you look at all the marriage family therapists in the world, it's few and far between that work with children. And I just absolutely love it.