Whether we are trying to help people learn, connect, create, grow, or heal, play creates powerful conditions for those things to take place. It makes room for curiosity, expression, courage, connection, and movement.
My work explores play across education, adult life, organizations, culture, and the playroom. These are distinct applications, but they share a belief that people come more fully alive when rigid expectations loosen and play is welcomed back in.
I speak across three distinct areas. Each is grounded in play, but each serves a different audience and purpose.
Using playful pedagogy as a stance and philosophy to reimagine teaching, cultivate belonging, and deepen learning through curiosity, risk-taking, connection, and emergent practice.
Explore educationExploring how play supports creativity, connection, courage, wellbeing, and cultural change—and how small acts of play help people resist becoming hardened by stress, responsibility, and rigid social norms.
Explore this workDeepening clinical practice through child-centered play therapy and a narrative-informed lens for recognizing and responding to the stories unfolding in the playroom.
Explore play therapy
I’m a faculty member at the University of Colorado Denver, a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor (RPT-S™). I co-founded Professors at Play, a global network of faculty exploring playful pedagogy in higher education.
My work lives at the intersection of teaching, therapy, adult life, culture, organizations, and a healthy dose of rebellion. Through keynotes, workshops, trainings, writing, and consultation, I help people and systems create the conditions for greater connection, curiosity, courage, learning, and aliveness.
Play is what the heart does when it refuses to harden.
Learn more →Want to poke around a little? Here are a few books, articles, interviews, and projects that say more about my work.
If you’re looking for a keynote, workshop, organizational session, faculty training, or clinical training that feels thoughtful, alive, and deeply human, let’s talk.