Play therapist Ahou Line ('23 Ph.D.) runs on a tight schedule.

She works with clients the first three days of the week, fills the latter half with consulting work, speaking engagements, writing, supervising and managing a private practice. One moment, she may be in an online conference with play therapists in Turkey, and the next, she may be working on her book. All this, in addition to being a parent.

Still, Line's enthusiasm shines through. She has found learning and encouragement in many of the experiences that have shaped her journey from undergrad to professional practice. Those experiences, combined with her passion for the field, have led to significant achievements. Line is the founder of Parent Partnership Consulting and has been selected as a recipient of a $20,000 Allstate Main Street Grant, which she plans to use to deepen parent engagement.

Building Blocks

After graduating from college, Line joined Teach for America and was assigned to teach English at a Title I middle school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was difficult, but she loved working with her students. However, as Line learned more about her students' social and emotional needs, she began to see how significantly children's circumstances affected their fulfillment and academic success.

Once her two-year commitment was fulfilled, Line opted to continue working with Teach for America for an additional four years as the director of learning and development while simultaneously pursuing her master's degree at Southern Methodist University. She was still trying to decide between school counseling and clinical mental health when she took her first play therapy class, and she felt like something just clicked.

"Because children may not cognitively be able to 'talk out' their emotions or process their difficulties, play therapy allows them an opportunity to 'play out' their significant experiences and internal beliefs," Line says.

The approach play therapy took to behavior change was different from the approach Line had learned as an educator, where the needs of the classroom came before the individual.

"It felt like magic," she says. "Like, 'Wait, I can just go sit in a room with a child and use all of these skills and create this safe and genuine environment, and they heal?' My play therapy class was the first time I felt like children were celebrated as unique individuals, and that it was our role to help them 'become' who they were meant to be, not who we think they should be."

That ability to heal became one of her driving motivators. After getting her graduate degree, Line worked in clinical mental health for four years at a private practice in Dallas.

However, as she worked with clients, Line still found herself struggling to support and help parents.

"It was a gap in my knowledge and something I knew I wanted to grow in."

She felt there was more to learn and desired more confidence in her practice. This challenge inspired her to apply to UNT's Ph.D. in counseling program.

"UNT is world-renowned for play therapy," Line says. "It felt like the right fit to go there."

As soon as she entered the program, she knew she was in the right place.

"This is where I'm meant to be. Everything I was so interested in, now I got to not just practice it, but I could teach it, research it and write about it. It all came together in my time in the doctoral program."

She wrote her dissertation on the topic of involving parents in play therapy. Line also had the chance to develop a course for undergraduate preservice educators about using play skills in the classroom.

Line cites her mentor and dissertation chair, Dee Ray, Regents Emeritus professor, as a significant inspiration to her. Ray inspired Line to challenge herself and raise the bar.

"She sees the potential in you," says Line. "And so then you're like 'I have no choice but to rise to that potential.'"

Putting Theory to Practice

After graduating from UNT with her doctoral degree in 2023, Line continued to teach there. Eventually, she realized that she missed clinical practice and joined with her business partner, Kristina McCook, to co-found a private practice in Dallas. From there, Thread Counseling Group was born.

Getting her Ph.D. opened many new opportunities for her -- including speaking engagements, which led to consultation with others in private practice. From there, Line decided to found her consulting firm, Parent Partnership Consulting, and is developing additional on demand training and materials to help therapists engage with parents.

She also recently completed writing Working with Parents: A Resource Guide for Play Therapists, a textbook with Routledge that will come out in April. She wrote it essentially for her younger self -- the book is one she wished she could have read when she first started out, as it ties together everything she's learned about how to engage with parents and make them a part of the therapeutic process. Balancing the work of textbook-writing with her professional and personal lives has been especially difficult, but Line is intent on refining her skills and trying new things.

"It is so wonderful to get to meet with parents and hear about how things have shifted for children from the start of play therapy to the end, and it's often a palpable difference," Line says. "My favorite experience is when I hear back from parents months later, and they tell me that their child won an award for their behavior or initiated a play date for the first time. It really is a gift!"