NEAPT 2025 Award Recipients

Play Therapy Supervisor Award: Kim Mossman

Kim has been an incredibly supportive, knowledgeable, and inspiring mentor and RPT-S™ to me personally and to so many others. Her steadfast commitment to supporting and cultivating the skills of the next generation of play therapists is absolutely amazing. Through her personal enthusiasm, she inadvertently inspired myself and my colleague to attend the annual Play Therapy conference in Atlanta, GA this year, which has invigorated our work and determination to provide play therapy services at our practice, both of us being on the journey towards becoming RPT™s. Kim's clear commitment to ongoing training herself, and her dedicated approach to supervision has propelled me to finally take the steps toward becoming an RPT™, as she holds the value of this type of work so close to her heart and is an amazing wealth of knowledge and experience, the ideal combination for a supervisor! 

Although I have been a social worker for 15 years, I feel like I am now able to take the journey towards becoming an RPT™ with the support of Kim, whose approachable, genuinely caring and kind nature, as well as firm knowledge of the field, along with her support with navigating complex case dynamics, make her an outstanding supervisor! 

Innovation Award: Sarah Wintman

Student Award: Emily Manning

Emily Manning is a student of BayPath University and Child and Family Services intern at Church Street. Emily is in school to become a licensed mental health counselor with a focus as a school adjustment counselor. She does that while working full time in a stabilization program for adolescents and children. Since starting her internship, Emily has shown huge motivation and growth. She joined our program asking to take on anything she could, even before the start of her official internship role. Emily has been flexible to work in several different schools and has been flexible to meet the needs of children.

Emily has also embraced learning about play therapy. Emily has reflected on children’s play in supervision. She regularly attends our groups supervisions that look at counseling and play therapy work.  Recently, Emily has started to ‘play around’ with directive and non-directive approaches. She is seeing how play allows kids to grow their trust and show what they need. Emily is making great contributions to our communities and to the world of play therapy. She deserves recognition for her efforts! Play on, Emily!

Distinguished Member Award: Brooke Hackett

Brooke has many years of experience working with children, adolescents and young adults.  Her colleagues always compliment her hard work and commitment to the clients she serves.  In her current role as the director, Brooke supervises and shapes the careers of other clinicians entering the field of play therapy.  She also contributes to the profession as a Certified Facilitator for Raising Kids with Baffling Behaviors, a training program that teaches parents how to communicate more effectively with their neurodivergent child. Brooke is very enthusiastic and committed to the success of the organization and the clients she serves. She plans on expanding her practice by opening The Play Therapy Training Center in the Fall of 2025. Brooke is exceptionally deserving of the Distinguished Member Award. Her contributions are both inspiring and impactful to the profession.

Leader in Play Therapy: Wendy Monahan

Wendy Monahan, M.S., RPT-S™, is the school counselor at Stowe Elementary School. Her nearly 30 years of professional experience includes counseling children in the school setting individually and in small groups. Wendy was awarded the Vermont School Counselor of the Year for 2008-2009 by the Vermont School Counselor Association. She has taught play therapy at the graduate level, provided play therapy training locally, regionally and nationally, as well as offered workshops for school counselors, and supervised clinicians from a variety of settings. Wendy is accompanied daily by her therapy dogs, Lulu and Peanut, who have shown her the therapeutic powers of loving animals. Wendy has adapted play therapy techniques to fit the challenges of school schedules, diverse groupings, and the unique demands of a school setting.

Wendy has served in many capacities for the play therapy community. She assists others in receiving contact CE's by providing in-person trainings. She has worked tirelessly to support needy families in Vermont. Wendy's passion about supporting play and play therapy is not unnoticed.

Service Award: Ines Schroeder

Ines served as the president of the NEAPT for many years, donating countless hours of her time and resources. She is also a play therapy educator at the University of Hartford, and a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor™. Ines is a clear advocate and leader for play therapy in New England and has served this community well.

Where to start in describing Ines' contributions? She leads and listens. She is willing to go outside of the time allotted to make things work out. She brings people together and she clarifies the purpose and expectations. Ines has led the board of directors from and stayed on to support the transition to our current president. Ines is always willing to volunteer her abilities to review a presentation or place an order. She invites others and makes folks feel belonging. Ines speaks up. She follows through. She assisted us in setting up new activities as a branch including NEAPT 'swag', after she learned what that is. She helped us do in-person trainings in the region. She helped us onboard many new board members. Ines helped us to re-establish after the rocky times of the pandemic closures and now we are event stronger due to her efforts! Thanks for your awesome service, Ines!!