All you need to know about the Treasure Time Podcast, Growing Up Happy
Click here to listen to Episode 01
An introduction to Sophia Giblin and Nicole McDonnell, Founders of Treasure Time, talking about what listeners can expect from the Treasure Time podcast and how we can help parents support children to develop resilience through play and connection.
About our hosts:
Sophia Giblin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiagiblin/
A creative entrepreneur who focuses on ways to tackle the root of children’s mental health through play and secure relationships. Due to her own challenging experiences in childhood, Sophia went on to establish a thriving Play & Creative Arts Therapy charity to support other children who have experienced trauma. Her focus is on helping therapists, businesses and charities have more of an impact for children and families that they work with through coaching, strategy, fundraising and mentoring.
Nicole McDonnell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcdonnellnicole/
Nicole is a mum to two young boys, who also has over 20 years of brand marketing experience. She is a previous Chair Trustee at Clear Sky Charity and has past experience on the Ella’s Kitchen board. Her roles have included Marketing Director, Head of Ella’s-ness, Global Brand Director with responsibility of creating and building one brand inside and out – including the wellbeing and culture of the team. Nicole was instrumental in growing Ella’s into a multi-million pound international business, driven by the mission of creating healthy children.
About Treasure Time
Our vision is to drive connected, happy parent-child relationships, for the benefit of the whole family. Our mission and passion is to educate parents in how to become happy, mindful and confident in connecting with their own children through play.
Resources
Visit @treasuretimeuk on Instagram and Facebook!
Value bombs and tweetables:
1. “On reflection after working with Sophia, I realised that I was actually quite a frazzled parent because I was trying to be too much to too many.” Nicole McDonnell
2. “After I lost my Mum as a teenager, I was expected to be able to talk about it in the same way that an adult would, and I just didn’t have the words.” Sophia Giblin
3. “I recognise that my boys are still just little children. And they need a childlike way to work through their feelings.” Nicole McDonnell
4. “Nicole and I strongly believe that we can equip parents with vital therapeutic play skills that they can use at home, anytime, anywhere, with any child.” Sophia Giblin
Transcript
Sophia
Welcome to our Treasure Time Podcast: growing up happy. You’re here with me, Sophia Giblin
Nicole
and me, Nicole McDonnell, Founders of Treasure Time. We’re here to offered support on building your children’s resilience at this really difficult time, as we’re all struggling to adjust to the impact on our families and local communities.
We’ll be providing you with two episodes a week. Listen out for Sophia Nicole on a Tuesday and Thursday for a bite size tips and activities that you can really easily implement straightaway at home to help support your family’s mental and emotional health and well being.
Sophia
Nicole and I came together working for Clear Sky Children’s Charity, which is a Play & Creative Arts Therapy charity that I set up in 2010.
I set up the charity to support children who have experienced trauma because I wanted to help them find new ways of expressing themselves and any difficult feelings. and experiences that they might have had in a playful and creative way.
After all, children only have limited vocabulary and experience to express themselves. I set up the charity because I have my own experience of childhood trauma after losing my Mum as a teenager, there wasn’t enough support around for myself or my younger siblings at the time when we needed it the most. And even as a teenager, I was expected to be able to talk about things that were difficult for me in the same way that an adult would, and I just didn’t have the words.
So I went on to train as a Play Therapist.
As a Play Therapist I’m always interested in how we can help children to grow up healthy and happy, especially looking after their mental health in challenging times during their young lives.
Nicole
And as a Mum of two boys at primary school, ages six and eight, I’m always interested in how best to support them in growing up happy too.
So when I met Sophia, it was when I joined Clear Sky Children’s Charity and I was in the position and role of Chairman on Sophia’s Board of Trustees.
We worked together for three years and I was trying to do my bit volunteering after I just left Ella’s Kitchen. I was sales and marketing director there on the boards of of that business.
I didn’t expect to gain so much myself from the experience of working at Clear Sky. Sophia really helped me to see and reflect my own parenting style.
I learned a lot and on reflection, I realised that I was actually quite frazzled because I was trying to be too much to too many. It was really helpful and I went on to learn lots of tips that I implemented with my boys resulting in big changes way better behaviour, much closer relationship and and genuinely calmer day to day lives.
As a Mum, I’m still keen to learn more and always looking out for the most effective ways to help my boys deal with difficult feelings, whatever they might be arising from. So whether that’s their friendships or challenges within the school environment or their own behaviour. Yet I realise they are still just little children. And they need a childlike way to work through these feelings.
Sophia
That is exactly why I studied Play Therapy. That’s why I went on to set up a children’s charity that is all about helping children to grow up healthy and happy through play.
But there are only so many children’s therapists out there. Nicole and I strongly believe that we can equip parents with vital therapeutic play skills that they can use at home, anytime, anywhere, with any child.
Nicole
So basically, in each episode, I’ll be asking Sophia questions on topics that are really close to all our hearts as parents, especially those united challenges we’re facing, that are presenting themselves much more acutely right now in these unprecedented times, so that we can all get a really playful and practical perspective on how we might manage these feelings for the benefit of everyone in our family.
Sophia
We also have a Treasure Time course, which is actually something that I studied as a research piece for my Master’s in Play Therapy.
You can access this course through our website, treasuretime.co.uk.
Over the next six weeks, you can actually enter a competition to win access to the course. We’ll be giving away one every week to our listeners. In this podcast series, you can expect us to be covering topics which cover the six pillars of Treasure Time. These six pillars are things that all children need to grow up healthy and happy, and they are curiosity and creativity
empathy and understanding,
self esteem and confidence,
independence and initiative,
managing feelings and resilience
cooperation and kindness.
And if you want more content, including live q&a with me, Sophia, you can join our exclusive Facebook community membership.
Thank you so much for listening. We hope you’ll join us and tune in to our Treasure Time Podcast to help your children to grow up happy.
Keywords
Children parents play feel happy home-schooling calm resilience therapy parenting relationship connection