Written by Dee Keller, LPC, in collaboration with Dr. Karen Fried, Psy.D., M.F.T
At Teleo, we believe therapeutic connection can stay creative and expressive, even through a screen. The Online Sandtray, Online Puppets and Online Dollhouse are three interactive tools, created by Dr. Karen Fried, Psy.D., MFT, that bring the richness of play into virtual sessions for clients of all ages. They can become a staple feature of your own Teleo therapy room.
By including these interventions into your Teleo room, they become built right into your sessions. No more links to share or extra tabs to manage. When an activity is placed into your Teleo space that means you or your client can open the activity, and interact in real time — arranging, creating, and playing together. Teleo makes virtual sessions more fun and engaging while helping you keep the focus on the meaning of the intervention rather than figuring out the tech.
This article gives an overview of how to use Dr. Fried's Online Sandtray, Puppets and Dollhouse activities, the therapeutic benefits of each and a short video tutorial to help you get started.
Online Sandtray
The Online Sandtray allows clients to create symbolic scenes using a wide variety of themed miniatures. A sandtray is a common feature of play therapy rooms, and within Teleo you can add this sandtray to as many rooms as you need.
Even if you offer hybrid or fully virtual therapy sessions, your clients can benefit from experiencing a familiar therapeutic space. Teleo's interactive rooms recreate this continuity—when clients enter your customized Teleo room, they'll recognize familiar tools, like the Online Sandtray. Clients can manipulate miniatures directly within the Teleo room, creating an engaging virtual therapeutic experience that feels smooth and intuitive.
✨Therapeutic Benefit
Children and teens often express more through scenes than spoken words. This can be a directive or nondirective activity.
Especially userful for nonverbal processing, trauma work, and exploring inner worlds through metaphor.
How It Works
Click on images to add to the sandtray.
Use tabs to browse categories (e.g., people, animals, objects).
Invite your client to build a world based on a prompt or nondirective open play.
Try prompts like:
"Create a tray about something you would do differntly if you had the chance"
"Create a tray about what you'd like your life to look like in 3 months"
"Create a tray about a day at school"
After completion of the tray, guided processing or reflection helps deepen the client's insight into their thoughts, feelings, or experiences.
View Dr. Fried's detailed how-to guide and watch the tutorial below.
Online Puppets
The Online Puppets give your client a variety of puppets who can speak, move, and act out feelings or stories on an array of backgrounds.
In Teleo, unlike traditional screen share, both client and clinician can move characters, making role-play more dynamic and collaborative. This shared platform keeps kids engaged while continuing to see each other face-to-face, without ever breaking the flow of play.
✨Therapeutic Benefit
Puppets are powerful for emotional expression, storytelling, role-play, and even practicing social skills.
Especially useful for kids who are shy, resistant, or need space from intense feelings.
How It Works
Choose a puppet and a background.
Puppets can talk, hug, jump, or react with simple clicks.
You can narrate or let the client take the lead.
Try prompts like:
“Can you show me what happened today?”
“Which puppet is feeling worried?”
View Dr. Fried's detailed how-to guide and watch the tutorial below.
Online Dollhouse
The Online Dollhouse brings play therapy to the screen in a seamless way. Within Teleo, clients can step into their [play] world as soon as they enter the room, no extra links or setup needed. Because it’s interactive, you can choose to co-create with your client, or they can jump right into building their dollhouse, moving furniture, and arranging spaces, all while staying connected and tracking their play through video.
✨Therapeutic Benefit
Perfect for exploring family roles, routines, relational dynamics, or creating fantasy spaces. Clients can externalize internal experiences with symbolic play.
Especially useful for kids processing their home environment, family roles, or transitions like foster care or divorce.
How It Works
Click to add images to a room.
Resize, rotate, or flip characters to customize the scene.
Use prompts like:
“Build your morning routine”
“Show your safe place.”
Ask the client to describe the scene or take on a character’s perspective.
View the detailed how-to guide and watch the tutorial below.
⭐Quick Tip
Because Teleo has these tools built right in, there is no more juggling links or tabs. You can interact in real time, save client creations directly to their record, and even help younger clients when they get stuck, all without leaving the session
Want to save client creations HIPAA-compliant way? Learn how to take Snapshots here.
Ready to give it a try?
Check out more tips for using Play Therapy in Teleo and share your own favorite ways of using these tools with other clinicians, like you, in our Teleo Community.
✍🏼 Dr. Karen Fried, Psy.D., MFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist, educational therapist, and global trainer in the Oaklander Model of Child Therapy. She supports children, teens, adults, and families through psychotherapy and educational therapy, blending modalities like EFT, EMDR, mindfulness, and Gestalt. Karen is President of the Violet Solomon Oaklander Foundation and brings decades of experience in the intersection of learning, emotions, and growth.
Learn more about Karen's work at karenfried.com
✍🏼Dee Keller, LPC, is a licensed therapist, supervisor, and owner of Sunnyside Counseling, a hybrid therapy practice based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dee specializes in anxiety and perfectionism as it shows up across girlhood, womanhood, and motherhood. She is dedicated to helping girls, teens, and women uncover their strengths, find balance, and step into their lives feeling more calm, present, and authentically themselves.
Learn more about Dee's work at Sunnyside Counseling.