MEMBER STORYTELLING
I Like You Just the Way You Are: What I learned from Mr. Rogers
about Meeting the Child
Where They Are | AMANDA MORENO, LCSW-S, RPTTM
I
I perceived something was wrong with me by how the adult world spoke to me and how they whispered about me. I recall pitched voices, furrowed brows, and exasperated sighs as my desk was pulled up close to the teachers’, then steered to a wall-facing position at the back a bother to the children who were able to behave. The other girls' socks stayed folded nicely, their mouths remained closed while their hands went up, and their pigtail parts held even. Not me. I was a mess and a nuisance. I knew it and so, it seemed, did everyone else.
Except for Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers looked me square in the eye and spoke directly to me. He talked to me in a way that I understood. He did not talk over my head to other adults, nor did he look down on me. He did not expect me to act older, be quieter, be neater, or even kinder. He
Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was a public television program that I watched daily as a child. The show was designed to use play, unconditional positive regard, empathy, authenticity, and congruence to create a space for children like myself to feel invited into a special time and setting where we were met right where we were. We did not have to be better or different in any way during the 30 minutes that we
Throughout my years of schooling, I have returned to what I gained from Mr. Fred Rogers and the impact that his way of being had on my who felt adrift in the world of adult expectations. I found an avenue for this in my direct care work at a residential treatment center serving children who had experienced trauma. Here, I began to learn about the healing powers of play as well as the importance of the relationship. A therapist at the program suggested Clinical Social Work and Play Therapy as a potential path for me. I took her advice, and in my initial semesters of undergraduate work, I began to learn about person- centered theory and Carl Rogers. I couldn’t help but link the two Mr. Rogers’ in my mind, envisioning both great and compassionate men sitting like bookends on either side of the knowledge I had gained
30 | PLAYTHERAPY March 2025 |
www.a4pt.org
between elementary school and graduate school. As I became a licensed clinician and moved towards the Registered Play Therapist designation, I had the fortune of attending a summer conference at the Center For Play Therapy at the University of North Texas in Dallas where I heard Garry Landreth speak. I sat stunned in the audience as I watched a person who embodied an approach that I had long felt so aligned with from Team Rogers as I was introduced to Child-Centered
These mentors, whom I have looked up to and learned from along the way, sit like leaves on the tree of my counseling career. The theories that they espouse and embody continue to speak to me and guide me. can now share that with the children that I serve through the power of
play therapy. ABOUT THE MEMBER Amanda Moreno, LCSW-S, RPTTM , practices
treatment center in Austin, Texas, serving children in the foster care system who have complex and chronic trauma.
22amoreno@gmail.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
