In order to provide support for as many children as possible, who have
emotional, behaviour and mental health problems, Play Therapy UK (PTUK) welcomes entrants
from many different professional backgrounds as well as those embarking
on their first career. Personal qualities are very important
(
see below).
PTUK offers careers advice for anyone interested in developing their
career using therapeutic play skills or in becoming a Certified Play
Therapist. Phone Monika Jephcott on 01825 712312 or email:
ptukorg@aol.com.
If you are seriously considering
play therapy
training but would like to experience it without making a major
commitment we suggest that you attend a PTUK approved
one-day introductory course.
These courses are more than 'open days' because you will receive
experiential training in basic therapeutic play skills as well as
meeting tutors and be able to ask about the issues that are most
important to you.
The other factor that you need to take into
account is the possibility of regulation of the play therapy profession
through registration -
see latest
position.
New Entrants & School Leavers
Mature Entrants
Arts, drama, music, movement and other creative arts therapists
Counsellors, psychotherapists, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists
Health Professionals
Teaching Professionals
Social Service Professionals
Care Professionals
Mapping Educational Levels
You will need to have the following attributes
if you are to work effectively and ethically with children:
| Empathy - the ability to
understand how others feel - to put yourself in the client's position |
Experiential training will
increase your understanding of what the children are feeling during play
therapy. You will also need to empathise with parent/carers, referrers
and others involved. |
| Sincerity -
‘you do what you say’ |
To gain children's trust. |
| Integrity -
straightforwardness, honesty and coherence. |
| Resilience - work without
being personally diminished. |
You must not let the
,sometimes harrowing children's experiences 'get to you'. |
| Respect -
show appropriate esteem to others |
Never
patronise the children. |
| Humility - acknowledge own
strengths and weaknesses |
No one is perfect, the
children will respect your admission of mistakes and weaknesses. |
| Competence - effective
deployment of skills |
Play therapy competencies must
be acquired through experiential training that is practice based. |
| Fairness - consistent
decisions and actions. |
Treat all children equally -
they will soon find out, if you don't |
| Wisdom - sound judgement. |
This comes through experience,
clinical supervision, reflection on practise, clinical governance and
continuous professional development. |
| Courage |
Being able to take decisions
and act in spite of known fears, risks, uncertainty and opposition. |
| A sense of
humour |
Working with
children requires a sense of fun. The therapist should not be
afraid of 'making a fool' of themselves. |
| Positive outlook |
Play therapy and filial play
are comparatively recent developments. You will almost certainly
encounter resistance to change. |
School leavers who are interested in making a
career in this field are advised to first undertake a degree course with
some relevance such as childhood studies, psychology or social sciences
ideally with an option involving children's development. They should
then arrange to attend a
one-day introductory course in order to decide if they wish
to proceed to a post graduate Certificate, Diploma or MA programme
accredited by PTUK/IBECPT.
Mature entrants who have considerable
experience of working with children but no relevant formal
qualifications or a first level degree are also welcomed into the
profession via perhaps stage 1 foundation or conversion courses.
Because circumstances vary considerably it is best to seek advice using
PTUK's free career advisory service.
The
profession badly needs your experience adapted to working with children.
A Play Therapist requires a range of tools so that you will also be able
to add other ways of working creatively to your existing skills.
You may be able to commence your play therapy training at Diploma
stage according to your experience and aspirations. For more details see
Career Development Paths
Play therapy offers you an opportunity to develop non talking therapy
skills which you will be able to use with adults as well as children.
Therapeutic play skills will also be useful systemically in, for
example, working with families where children are an important issue.
You may be able to commence your play therapy training at Diploma
stage according to your experience and aspirations. For more details see Career Development - Part 1
(Practitioner paths)
professionals may use play
therapy to assist children in transition and to support children who
have suffered abuse, trauma, attachment problems and loss. Play
therapy is valuable for children on the autistic spectrum and with other
physical / developmental disabilities.
For more details see Career Development - Part 1
(Practitioner paths)
There is often confusion about educational levels in the UK. Two other frameworks in
widespread use are the University and QCA models. See table showing
PTUK's view on approximate
correspondence and matching between stages and levels.
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