We create this content from the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish Nations. As settlers providing therapy in Vancouver, we acknowledge that play has existed in Indigenous communities worldwide long before clinical approaches were developed. We’re committed to moving beyond acknowledgment into active accountability.
This post is part of our “Therapy Beyond Walls” series, exploring how healing happens beyond traditional office settings. Other posts in this series examine art therapy, EMDR, and animal assisted therapy in Vancouver.
Overview: Play Without Permission reframes play as a birthright rather than something that needs clinical or cultural approval, particularly for SDQTBIPOC+ folx whose ways of playing, moving, and expressing joy have historically been “corrected” or pathologized. At Venturous Counselling, play therapy is approached through disability justice, mad liberation, and decolonial frameworks that treat different bodies playing differently as valid, not something to fix.
In This Guide:
- Who Needs Permission to Play? A Critical Analysis
- Capitalism’s War on Joy: Beyond Productivity
- Decolonizing Play: Beyond Cultural Commodification
- Play as Political Resistance: Theory and Practice
- Collective Play & Community Liberation
- Making Play Accessible (No, Really)
- Liberation in Practice
- Resources for Collective Liberation
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Next Steps
As a provider of culturally responsive counselling in Vancouver, we’re reimagining play therapy through anti-oppressive and decolonial frameworks. This isn’t about getting permission from colonial systems or medical models, it’s about reclaiming play as a birthright, particularly for SDQTBIPOC+ folx who’ve been told their ways of playing, moving, and expressing joy need to be “corrected” or “managed.”
Who Needs Permission to Play? A Critical Analysis
The very concept of needing permission to play emerges from intersecting systems of oppression: capitalism, colonialism, and ableism. These systems work together to control not just how we play, but whether we believe we have the right to play at all.
As an anti-oppressive therapy practice in Vancouver, we’ve witnessed how these systems impact our relationships with play and joy. Through disability justice and mad liberation frameworks, we understand that:
- “Appropriate play” often means conforming to white, ableist, capitalistic standards
- Different bodies play differently, and that’s not a problem to fix
- Joy doesn’t need clinical approval
- Play has always been a form of resistance
- Stim toys, movement patterns, and joy are valid without permission
Capitalism’s War on Joy: Beyond Productivity
Capitalism’s relationship with play reveals a fundamental contradiction: while it commodifies play through the “wellness industry,” it simultaneously devalues play that doesn’t serve productive ends. In Vancouver’s therapy landscape, this creates a double bind where:
- Play becomes another form of “self-improvement”
- “Therapeutic” play must demonstrate measurable outcomes
- Joy is only valid when it increases productivity
- Rest and “unproductive” play are pathologized
- Cultural play practices are appropriated and marketized
Through our anti-oppressive therapy practice in Vancouver, we’re actively challenging these narratives. When we play without permission, we’re not just engaging in personal healing, we’re participating in a broader resistance to capitalist control of our joy.
Decolonizing Play: Beyond Cultural Commodification
Colonization has always targeted play as a means of cultural control. In providing culturally responsive counselling in Vancouver, we must acknowledge how colonizers systematically:
- Criminalized Indigenous play practices
- Imposed “civilized” forms of recreation
- Pathologized cultural expressions of joy
- Commodified and appropriated cultural play practices
Through anti-oppressive play therapy in Vancouver, we’re actively working to decolonize how play happens in therapeutic spaces. This means:
- Centering SDQTBIPOC+ ways of playing and healing
- Honoring cultural play traditions and ancestral wisdom
- Supporting different ways of moving and being in space
- Recognizing play as political resistance
- Creating spaces where permission isn’t needed
Play as Political Resistance: Theory and Practice
In Vancouver’s SDQTBIPOC+ communities, play has always been resistance. Through decolonial therapy practices, we recognize that joy itself becomes radical when it challenges systems of oppression. Something is revealed when the first thing a colonizing force uses to destabilize a population is to tear away their play and practices of community.
- Using play to build community
- Engaging in cultural play practices
- Creating community play spaces outside institutional control
- Refusing to make play “productive”
- Celebrating “inappropriate” joy
Anti-oppressive practice within these theoretical frameworks draws from:
- Disability justice’s emphasis on joy as resistance
- Mad liberation’s reclamation of “inappropriate” expression
- Black radical tradition’s celebration of joy as survival
- Queer theory’s embrace of play as world-making
- Feminist critiques of “appropriate” behavior
Collective Play & Community Liberation
The individualization of therapy under capitalism obscures a fundamental truth: healing happens in community. Play therapy in Vancouver doesn’t have to be an individual journey. Through transformative justice approaches, we understand that healing happens in community, and play creates pathways for collective liberation.
- Creating collective play spaces that honor different access needs
- Supporting community-led play initiatives
- Building solidarity through shared joy
- Challenging individualistic approaches to healing
- Centering mutual aid and collective care in play spaces
Making Play Accessible (No, Really)
Providing accessible play therapy in Vancouver means understanding that accessibility is about more than physical space. Through disability justice frameworks, we recognize that true accessibility includes:
- Multiple ways to engage with play materials and spaces
- Respect for different sensory needs and processing styles
- Language justice
- Recognition of different energy levels and play styles
- Virtual and hybrid options for different access needs
- Moving beyond compliance to liberation
Liberation in Practice
Here’s how we embody these principles in our practice (details changed for privacy):
- Community play circles centering SDQTBIPOC+ joy and resistance
- Integration of cultural play practices in healing work
- Digital play spaces for different access needs
- Movement-based play that honors all bodies
- Collective joy practices that challenge isolation
Resources for Collective Liberation
For deeper engagement with justice-oriented therapy approaches in Vancouver, explore:
- Disability justice writings on play and joy
- Mad liberation perspectives on expression
- Decolonial approaches to healing
- Transformative justice resources
- Community-led play initiatives
- Anti-oppressive clinical supervision frameworks
Frequently Asked Questions
Is play therapy only for children?
No. This approach centers play and joy as valid, useful therapeutic territory for adults too, particularly for SDQTBIPOC+ folx whose play has historically been policed or dismissed as “not serious.”
What does “playing without permission” actually mean in a session?
It means not needing to justify or clinically validate joy before it counts. Stimming, movement, silliness, and cultural play practices are treated as legitimate parts of the work, not things to explain away.
How does disability justice connect to play therapy?
Disability justice frameworks emphasize that different bodies move, process, and express joy differently, and that none of those ways need to be corrected to be valid. That principle runs through how play is approached here.
Is this only relevant for SDQTBIPOC+ communities?
The framing centers SDQTBIPOC+ experience because play has specifically been policed for these communities, but the underlying approach (joy without needing to prove its worth) is relevant more broadly too.
Can play therapy be done virtually?
Yes, through digital play spaces and movement-based practices adapted for online sessions.
Next Steps in Your Play Journey
Ready to explore how liberation-focused play therapy in Vancouver might support your healing? Book a free consultation to discuss how our integrative therapy approaches might support your healing journey, or take our 3-minute questionnaire to receive personalized therapist recommendations. Explore our free resource database for more information about justice-oriented therapy approaches.
Have questions? Text us at 778.775.7504 or email [email protected].
Your play doesn’t need permission. Whether you’re seeking therapy in Vancouver or exploring different ways of expressing joy, we’re here to support your journey toward collective liberation.
Healing and self-discovery don’t have to be rigid processes. At Venturous Counselling, we embrace creativity and joy in therapy. The Revolution Will Be Playful explores how play can be a powerful tool for liberation, particularly for SDQTBIPOC+ communities.
Work with a Venturous Counsellor
Julianna Lei, MCP, RCC, works with youth and adults on identity, bicultural experience, and life transitions, with walk-and-talk sessions available in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Port Moody.
