Therapy-informed skills, practised through play.
10-minute guided journeys that help young and vulnerable people move
from overwhelmed to regulated — built with clinicians.
For psychologists, OTs, counsellors and speech pathologists working with young people, including neurodivergent young people.
Practitioners
Free to recommend
- A free practitioner account
- Assign guided Regulate, Prepare and Build journeys to each client
- Follow each client’s practice and before/after self-rating
- One-page guides for every journey, plus the handbook
- Clients get the Supported Practice licence — $249/year, NDIS-claimable where eligible (NDIS details)
Using it in your own sessions? In-Session Plan — $99/month for up to 10 client profiles. Start the In-Session Plan
Organisations
Supported pilot from $4,500
- A six-week supported implementation inside one existing program
- Discovery session and a one-page practice map
- Staff training with a professional development certificate
- Accounts set up for you, weekly check-in, support within one business day
- A week-6 review report for your managers and funders
- Credited towards an annual partnership if you continue
Built on neuroscience and clinical expertise.
Developed from the research of clinical psychologist Steven Albert (UNSW), in partnership with the SPHERE TECH Platform (an NHMRC-accredited Research Translation Centre), leading universities and health services — and currently in an active independent study at the University of Technology Sydney, led by A/Prof David Lim.
Translating therapy into playful, measurable growth.
Six evidence-based therapy frameworks — CBT, ACT, DBT, MBSR, CFT and DNA-V — are translated with clinicians into specific, actionable skills. Each skill becomes the action at the heart of a short guided practice activity, so the child isn’t learning about a technique — they’re practising it, through play.
The science frames the design. The clinicians shape the skills. The play delivers the practice.
HOW IT WORKS IN YOUR PRACTICE
1. The child checks in.
They tell Evolving Play how they’re feeling that day — stressed, sad, worried or angry.
2. A state-change journey is built.
The activities are sequenced into a 10-minute journey designed to move the child from their challenge state back to a regulated, present, response-ready one.
3. They play. You track.
Skills build in session or between appointments — while privacy-first analytics show you how those skills form, consolidate, and become part of everyday life.
What People Say About US
The program is highly successful for two reasons…When talking about mental health, youths are often shut off to the idea of exploring their feelings. But when talking about pressure in your favourite sport, the boundaries are broken down.
This program provides a safe place for young people to explore stress and anxiety. The program is entirely practical as the theory is discussed and then applied straight away … the research shows that young people are more likely to learn through play.”
Christopher Agostino, Headspace Physiologist — Bondi outreach programme, 2023
The Evolving Play Program “provided an outlet for some of our young people struggling with their mental health to learn new skills, both mental and physical in a social, supportive and safe environment… We had very positive feedback from both attendants and their families and good engagement with the schools and University (of New South Wales).”
Sally Corry, Headspace Centre Manager – Bondi therapy engagement programme, 2024
Since participating in the Evolving Play Program, we have observed positive changes in our target students, particularly increased perseverance, and the ability to manage failure.
When surveyed, students have reported feeling more confident, more resilient, and have identified strategies that they can independently use to manage anxiety in difficult situations.
This has positively impacted their participation in a range of areas. I would definitely recommend this program.”
Rebecca Price, Speech Pathologist
“Thank for your patience & efforts with Jasper this year. The last few weeks were a real breakthrough for him confidence wise. He overcame some personal challenges and this sets a really good foundation for him mentally moving forward. The feedback for him was spot on and you did a great job coaching the group.”
Kathy, Headspace client
“The group was fantastic. I find it very hard to motivate Laura. She came home so happy and told me the best part was that she felt for the first time when doing therapy that she did not feel like a problem because it was done in a fun way, not in a room. She was really pumped and looking forward to going again.”
Jo, Headspace parent
“This was the first time Sarah said she learnt about mental health without feeling like there was something wrong with her. She really enjoyed the class and said learning through play made the training easy to apply to normal life.”
Shirley, Headspace parent
“I loved all of the class. My favourite bit was the meditation. I have been using the body anchor to help me relax when normally I feel stressed. I can’t wait to do it again. “
Jordan, Headspace participant
Book Your 10 Minute Walkthrough
Works anywhere. Web-based — any device with a browser. Nothing to install.
Telehealth-ready. Use it live in session, or assign journeys between appointments.
Personalised for every challenge or emotion. The journey adapts to what each child is bringing that day.
Private by design. Anonymous child profiles. No email required for kids. Analytics that explain skill growth without compromising privacy.
Service Examples
How Evolving Play is Helping People in the Real World
Service: Organisation — Re-engaging Disengaged Students
An education support service needed to re-engage a group of disengaged Year 8 students. Evolving Play delivered its full organisation model — in three parts:
1 · Consultation with the support workers. We sat with the team to understand each young person — what disengages them, how they react under pressure, and what a good outcome would look like for the cohort.
2 · A cognitive-design training session. The support staff learned the method behind the program: how the brain builds skills through attention, practice and feedback, and how clinical approaches are translated into experiential, playful practice they could reinforce themselves.
3 · A personalised playground for every student. No two pathways were the same. The student who freezes after a mistake, the one who disengages when it gets hard, the one who deflects with humour — each had their pattern under pressure mapped to specific clinical and cognitive skills (anchoring attention, reframing, distress tolerance, self-compassion) and matched to the games that build them, with a private account and reporting.
Delivery blended short in-person sessions with guided digital practice, so skills were trained live and then built between sessions. Staff received a personalised profile for every student, plus a cohort dashboard.
This is the closest example to the service available now — consultation, cognitive-design training, and a personalised playground for each client, set up so a support team can keep it going.
Service: Organisation – Psychologist Support
Working with the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, Headspace. This program helped psychologists support young people aged 12 through 22 who were struggling to apply therapy in everyday life.
The program translated therapeutic elements into playful practice, equipping clients with the skills to navigate challenging experiences like pressure, failure, anger and anxiety.
Over 12 weeks:
- Therapeutic elements from CBT, ACT and MBSR were applied in safe learning environments including sport and digital play.
- Education modules on cognitive development and neurological processes involved in skill acquisition helped to frame the learning approach.
“The group was fantastic. I find it very hard to motivate Laura. She came home so happy and told me [that] the best part [of the program] was for the first time— when doing therapy— she did not feel like a problem because it was done in a fun way, not in a room. She was really pumped and looking forward to going again.” Jo, Headspace.
“This was the first time Sarah said she learnt about mental health without feeling like there was something wrong with her. She really enjoyed learning through play, it made the training easy to apply to normal life.” – Shirley (parent)
Practitioner Feedback
Ms Zein, Teacher, New South Wales.
“It’s a great way to use technology in a positive way … I would definitely use it in my classroom.”
Service: Practitioner – At Risk Youth
Rebecca is a speech pathologist working with vulnerable students in a low-socio economic area in Western Sydney. She and her team run programs to help students struggling with academic engagement, behaviour and bullying. This program was provided with the support of Mission Australia.
Rebecca and her teaching team received staff training on cognition, experiential learning and translation of evidence into practice. We met once a month for the duration of the program and engaged students with in-person and online training.
Sessions included safe learning environments, requiring students to navigate challenges using application of therapeutic practice, while allowing for mistakes, repetition, feedback and support.
“We have run the Evolving Play program with Jamie for 2 years in a row now with our Year 8 High School students. Jamie has delivered the program with care, empathy, and flexibility to suit the needs of our students. Our school is located in a low socio-economic geographic area of South-Western Sydney, and the students present with quite complex backgrounds in terms of their social emotional needs, learning and home-life.
Jamie’s approach has shown a depth of understanding of the cognitive neuropsychological needs of children who have experienced trauma early in their development, and the many ways it can manifest as a young person in high school.
Since participating in the Evolving Play Program, we have observed positive changes in our target students, particularly increased perseverance, and the ability to manage failure. When surveyed, students have reported feeling more confident, more resilient, and have identified strategies that they can independently use to manage anxiety in difficult situations. This is positively impacted their participation in a range of areas.
I would definitely recommend this program and we will continue to work with Jamie and the Evolving Play program in the future.”
Rebecca Price Speech Pathologist
“I very much enjoyed the program, it’s a great way to start the day instead of watching youtube.” Hannah
“I practice before my assessments, it calms my mind” Sophie
“I’ve started applying the strength of mind skills when I’m doing my homework” Lisa
Service: Individual Service – Parent and Child
Kai was 12 when he first came to us. His mother was concerned, as Kai was a talented athlete, but had shown a lack of confidence and motivation for sports and life in general. Withdrawal from activities he appeared to enjoy was becoming increasingly common. .
Kai worked with us on a sport based training program, the focus of the training was on physical and mental health skills.
We gave Kai a mental and physical health toolkit which included a simple platform to create training programs based on his emotional state at the time of use, as well as 10 digital play experiences that helped him to acquire specific therapeutic skills relevant to his experience.
Using play and sport as the methods of delivery, Kai happily engaged with the program and enjoyed building these skills. Our goal was to give Kai a grounding in mental and physical health skills that became part of his daily routine and were there to support him during times of stress and pressure.
Interviews at the end of this program, with Kai and his mother, indicated that he had adopted mental and physical health practices as part of his normal day. Kai’s mother stated Kai appeared noticeably more relaxed, was more communicative with her and had expressed a desire to re-engage in sport and social activities at school.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
Evolving Play acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the land where we live, learn, grow and play. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and future and recognise their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. We acknowledge the importance of Indigenous knowledge and experiences and their essential contributions to our research, resources, and communities.
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STRUGGLING
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