Sonia Murray

Play Therapist/ Behaviour Support Consultant

Sonia Murray is a Behaviour Support Consultant and Registered Play Therapist with over 40 years of experience. She holds a diploma in social work (Social Work England registered) and is a strategic attachment lead for schools. Sonia specialises in attachment, child abuse, social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, children’s mental health, childhood trauma, parenting programmes and play therapy.

Sonia delivers training nationally and internationally on attachment, trauma, play therapy, understanding behaviour, play, communicating with children, behaviour management and positive parenting. Her extensive work history includes roles as a childcare social worker, parent worker and play therapist in education, social care and health settings. She spent 22 years at a specialist school for children with complex social, emotional, mental health and behavioural difficulties. Sonia also provides consultation, supervision and training in both statutory and voluntary children and young people’s services.

Additionally, Sonia has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Roehampton and the University of Northampton. She has authored a number of publications including:

• The Behaviour Toolbag – Practical Strategies & Interventions (with J. Murray, 2024). Northampton: Hinton House Publishers
• Obtaining and Analysing Play Therapy Process – An Example from Practice (with K. Stagnitti, 2023), British Journal of Play Therapy, 17, 32-44
• Play Therapy: The Ideal Environment for Play Development and the Repair of Play Deprivation (2021) in S. Jennings & C. Holmwood (Eds.), *Routledge International Handbook of Play, Therapeutic Play, and Play Therapy* (pp. 327-340). Routledge
• Telemental Play Therapy in Schools (2021) in J. Stone (Ed.), *Play Therapy and Telemental Health: Foundations, Populations and Interventions*. New York: Routledge
• The Therapeutic Use of Stories in Play Therapy (2020) in H.G. Kaduson & C.E Shaefer (Eds.), *Play Therapy with Children – The Modalities for Change*. Washington: American Psychological Association
• Therapeutic Games to Treat Anxieties and Fears: Game Play Therapeutic Use of Games with Children and Adolescents (2019)
• Play Therapy in Schools: Becoming and Being a Play Therapist (2019)
• Symbolic Solutions: Establishing a Sense of Safety for Relationship Repair Turning Points in Play Therapy and Emergence of Self: Applications of the Play Therapy Dimensions Model (2019)
• Exploring the Play Therapy Process Through the Lens of Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental Stages (with Dr. Nick Banks, British Journal of Play Therapy, 2018)
• Stories Used Therapeutically with Children in Education: The Therapeutic Use of Stories (1997)
• Obtaining and Analysing Play Therapy Process – An Example from Practice (with K. Stagnitti, 2023), British Journal of Play Therapy, 17, 32-44

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Sonia Murray has an employment relationship with Jogo Behaviour Support Ltd. She receives royalties as a published author. Sonia Murray receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Sonia Murray is a member of the British Association of Play Therapists.