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About

Information can tell us what is healthy. Experience helps us practice it.

Portrait of Dr. Leslie Cary, PhD, LMFT, founder of Play More. Thrive More., smiling in a bright living room

Dr. Leslie Cary, PhD, LMFT · Founder

Meet the founder

Dr. Leslie Cary, PhD, LMFT

  • Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Educator
  • Author
  • Minister
  • Whole-person wellbeing & relationship professional

Play More. Thrive More. was founded by Dr. Leslie Cary — a licensed marriage and family therapist, educator, author, and minister whose work sits at the meeting place of mental health, physical wellbeing, relationships, nervous-system regulation, spiritual life, lifestyle, purpose, community, and human flourishing.

Across years of sitting with couples, families, students, and congregations, one pattern kept surfacing: most people already know much of what they “should” do. Sleep more. Move more. Eat more whole foods. Slow down. Put the phone away. Pray. Call a friend.

Yet knowing rarely feels like enough. Information alone doesn’t tend to create sustainable change — especially when we’re tired, stressed, and trying to do it all alone.

What changes things, again and again, is doing it together.

This site is an invitation born from that conviction — offered humbly by Leslie, as one person still learning and practicing alongside you. It isn’t a clinic or a program to master. It’s a place to find something simple, turn to someone you love, and say: “Come with me.”

This work explores

  • Mental health
  • Physical wellbeing
  • Relationships
  • Nervous-system regulation
  • Spiritual life
  • Lifestyle
  • Purpose
  • Community
  • Human flourishing

Why shared experience

Healthy habits become more human when we practice them together.

Shared experience makes healthy practices…

  • Relational

    Practices become part of how we love each other.

  • Enjoyable

    Joy makes healthy choices easier to return to.

  • Memorable

    Experiences stay with us longer than advice.

  • Repeatable

    Simple invitations fit into ordinary days.

  • Sustainable

    Shared rhythms outlast solo willpower.

What we believe

Receive life from God, steward it wisely, and grow in wholeness.

  • Human beings were created by God as whole persons.
  • We seek flourishing in spirit, soul, and body.
  • We care for physical health without worshiping it.
  • We value emotional wellbeing without making feelings the final authority.
  • We cultivate relationships because we were created for connection.
  • We practice healthy rhythms not to earn worth, but to steward what we have received.
  • We depend on the Holy Spirit for transformation that human effort alone cannot produce.

And we want increasing wellbeing to make us more available for

  • God
  • love
  • relationship
  • service
  • purpose
  • fruitfulness

FLOURISHING IN SPIRIT, SOUL, AND BODY.

PLAY MORE. THRIVE MORE.

Flourishing in Spirit, Soul, and Body.

We’d love to hear your story — or simply walk alongside you.