Our Story - THE FIRSTPLAY® Café

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A Note from the Founder and Editor

Janet A. Courtney, PhD

Welcome!  to the first issue of  

The FirstPlay® Café 

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The inspiration for this new FREE e-magazine for the 21st Century came about with the desire to bring together parents with a multi-disciplinary group of international health care professionals to share knowledge, resources, and start helpful conversations for parents with children ages womb to six years of age. The professionals who are invited to write for this e-magazine are from a wide-range of fields including Mental Health Professionals, Play Therapists, Pediatric Nurses, Sleep Specialists, Speech and Language Therapists, Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Infant Mental Health Specialists, Music Therapists, Art Therapists, and others. We invite you to subscribe to our FREE mailing list and enjoy Quarterly yearly publications. We hope you enjoy reading and learning from this amazing group of practitioners.  

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About Dr. Courtney 

Janet A. Courtney, PhD

Founder & Editor of FirstPlay® Café

Dr. Courtney is an internationally recognized Play Therapist and Storyteller. She is Founder of FirstPlay Therapy® (an infant & child attachment based storytelling model), a Registered Play Therapy-Supervisor, and a TEDx Speaker. She is presently Chair of the Association for Play Therapy Ethics and Practice Committee and past President of the Florida Association for Play Therapy.

She is author of "Infant Play Therapy: Foundations, Models, Programs and Practice," and "Healing Child and Family Trauma through Expressive and Play Therapy," and "Touch in Child Counseling and Play Therapy: An Ethical and Clinical Guide," and her research into touch is published in the American Journal of Art Therapy and the International Journal of Play Therapy. She is a contributing author in the books, “Play-based Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders and in the book, Environmental Expressive Therapies and is published in the Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture.

She offers a Certification to practitioners in FirstPlay Therapy® (including FirstPlay® Infant Story-Massage & FirstPlay Kinesthetic Storytelling®) and provides training to professionals in the Ethical and Clinical Competencies of Touch, Family Play & Expressive Therapies, and Ecopsychology Play Therapy, among other topics. She is a sought after speaker and has been invited to speak nationally and internationally including the Cayman Islands, England, Ireland, Morocco, Russia and the Ukraine. Invite Dr. Courtney to speak at your next conference. 

Janet A. Courtney, PhD 

Founder FirstPlay® Café

E-Magazine Editor