Play Therapist
in British Columbia
DYLAN SPRADLIN, MA, MSW, RCC
N PERSON ON PENDER ISLAND • ONLINE THROUGHOUT BRITISH COLUMBIA
Hi, I’m Dylan.
And I genuinely like being with kids.
My job is to create a relationship where your child can become more fully who they already are.
Healing begins in relationships
Children make more sense when we understand what’s happening underneath.
Yelling, shutting down, refusing, running away, melting down over the wrong colour cup—these aren’t just behaviours to get rid of. They’re telling us something about what a child is experiencing and what they can manage in that moment.
That doesn’t mean we have to calmly decode every difficult moment while it’s happening. We are human beings, not nervous-system interpreters available 24 hours a day.
Believe me: when a textbook is thrown at your head after some particularly difficult math problems at 5:46 p.m., staying steady is both particularly important and particularly hard.
But when children experience relationships where all of who they are can be welcomed—not just the easy parts—something begins to shift.
There’s more room for connection, more capacity for what feels hard, and more options for what happens next.
Why I do this work
Like many therapists, my professional path grew out of my personal one.
I am AuDHD, and that has shaped the way I understand difference, adaptation, masking, overwhelm, and what it’s like to move through systems that don’t always fit.
My own experiences with early trauma, grief, loss, and healing eventually led me to this work—and to a deep respect for the ways children adapt when something is too much, even when those adaptations are inconvenient, confusing, or really hard to live with.
I’ve also never been particularly good at fitting myself into systems that don’t make sense to me. I tend to question them, push back, or find another way.
That probably shapes my work with kids, too.
I don’t think childhood should be about becoming easier for adults. I want kids to have more room to become themselves.
And I try to live what I ask of the families I work with.
Returning to Pender has been, in part, a coming home to myself—returning to a pace, landscape, and way of living that my nervous system knows. I think of it as living nervous-system-forward: paying attention to what helps me stay steady, connected, and present, and building a life that supports that.
Because that helps me show up well for your child, too.
I want your child to have a relationship with someone who is steady, deeply regulated, and genuinely glad to see them.
And I want therapy to be a place where nothing is being asked of them.
Think about how rare that is for a child.
Most of their day is filled with expectations: get dressed, get in the car, sit down, pay attention, answer the question, finish the assignment, use your words, calm your body, brush your teeth, go to sleep.
For one hour, they get to come into a relationship where there is nothing they have to accomplish. They don’t have to perform, explain themselves, make me happy, get therapy “right,” or become easier to manage.
They can show up as themselves.
That doesn’t mean there are no boundaries. I’ll keep both of us safe, and I’ll hold the structure of our time together.
But your child doesn’t have to earn my delight in who they are.
That’s the relationship I want to offer them—and it’s where some pretty important things can begin to happen.
What it’s like to work
with me
MY GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Authenticity.
No performance required. I want kids to have a place where they don’t have to hide, mask, please, or become a more convenient version of themselves.
Safety.
Safety comes first—not just physical safety, but the felt sense that big feelings, messy moments, and the unexpected can be met with steadiness rather than shame.
Respect.
Children are whole people. I offer them dignity, agency, and respect for what their behaviour, bodies, and nervous systems are already communicating.
Play & Creativity.
Play is how many children explore, express, experiment, connect, and make sense of their world.
They don’t have to explain everything in words for meaningful therapy to happen.
TRAINING & EDUCATION
I’m committed to ongoing education and training so my work keeps growing, too.
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Master of Clinical Social Work;
Walla Walla University, Missoula Campus
Master of Clinical Psychology;
Santa Barbara Graduate School
Specialization in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology (Primary Psychology) & Infant and Child-Centered Play TherapyBachelor of Arts
The Evergreen State College;
focus on Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology.
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Certified Synergetic Play Therapist™
learn about Synergetic Play TherapyCertified NARM™ Therapist
learn about NARMCertified Grief Informed Professional for children, adolescents and adults
Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP)
Certified Clinical LCSW Supervisor
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Play Therapy, Youth & Family Work
Playing Perfectly: A Play Therapist’s Guide to Working with OCD
Working with Siblings in Play Therapy
Infant and Child-Centered Family Therapy
Infant Play Therapy
Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach to Integrating Intensity
Creative Play Therapy Interventions for Grieving Children, Youth, and Families
Grief, Loss & Medical Trauma
Traumatic Grief: Cognitive, Behavioral, and Somatic Approaches
Mastering the Complexities of Traumatic Grief
Cultivating Post-Traumatic Growth
Reproductive, Infant, and Pregnancy Loss
Medical Trauma, Injury, and Illness
Grief in Foster and Adoptive Children and Families
Attachment, Neurobiology & Early Experience
Embodiment & Neurobiology of Secure, Insecure, and Disorganized Attachment and How to HealCultural Responsiveness
Building Cultural Inclusivity in the Playroom
Working with Native People and Communities -
Outside the therapy space
I’m nonbinary, AuDHD, and a little allergic to prescribed ways of being a person.
I also hold opposites pretty comfortably. I love science, evidence, and understanding how things work — and I make room for the sacred, for mystery, for astrology, crystal magic, and the things we may not be able to neatly explain.
I don’t need one to cancel out the other.
Outside of my work, I’m drawn to theatre — both sides of the curtain — song, wild water, pollinator gardening, and stories: the ones we tell ourselves, the ones we live, the ones we share, and the ones we sing.
I love river otters and guinea pigs.
I love dogs and am particularly drawn to Newfoundlands, but will probably always have rescue dogs of whatever improbable combination of breeds finds its way to me.
I believe healing and grief both live close to beauty.
And I believe people deserve spaces where they can tell the truth without fear of judgment.
Selected Publications
“Fall of the Fairies”, Mothering Magazine, Mar/Apr 2008 (print edition, under the name Dylan Emrys)
“February 16” (poem) and “Spirit of the Child” (essay), in Our Stories of Miscarriage: Healing with Words, anthology edited by Rachel Faldet and Karen Fitton, 1997 (under the name Dylan Emrys)
