Return To Play: Rebuilding Resilience, Risk and Reconnection

We are biologically driven to play, yet with the best of intentions, we’ve made life more structured, scheduled, and supervised - and something has changed.

We have become less comfortable with uncertainty and the unexpected, less willing to take risks, less able to stay steady under pressure.

We changed how we grow, and it’s starting to show.

Brandi Heather blends research with lived experience to show how perfectionism and our drive for predictability are quietly reshaping how we create, connect, and respond to change.

And how to return to play.

“Play is a willingness to not win and still be ok with the journey.”
Seth Godin, in conversation with the author

“If we rehabilitate play, we might simultaneously resurrect our ability to get along and trust each other.”
Daniel Pink, New York Times bestselling author, in correspondence with the author

Brandi Heather is the CEO of Playful Intelligence™, an award-winning educator and entrepreneur helping organizations rebuild the human systems that keep people “in play”.
With over 25 years of experience across education, healthcare, and business, Brandi blends the science of play with the soul of lived experience.
She is trusted by people and organizations around the world who are ready to return to play.

Known for her humor, hopefulness, and depth of experience as a college professor, therapeutic play specialist, and speaker, best-selling author Brandi Heather brings a unique and valuable perspective to growing organizations that want to restore, retain, and reengage their caring workforce.

With 25+ years of experience in education, human services, and healthcare, she is tackling fatigue, burnout and disengagement in the compassionate workforce by utilizing the serious science of play.

Her ground-breaking strategies and research delivered in high energy, high impact keynotes and workshops drive innovation, inclusion and productivity by taking care of people who take care of people!

With an emphasis on mental wellness and the often-underappreciated superpowers of creativity, courage, and connection, Brandi shares her work from the heart of an educator, entrpreneur and practitioner who has been there. As a women living with a disability who teaches disability inclusion, she has taught thousands of people how to take care of themselves so they can take care of others.
 
With a master's degree in physical education, a B.Ed. in Special Education, and advanced certification in Play Therapy, Brandi is dedicated to getting the caring professionals back "in play".