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News Highlights - the latest developments in UK play therapy


This page is your opportunity to announce events, jobs, express views etc.  Just send them to jefferyht@yahoo.co.uk - we reserve the right to publish or not!


This exciting programme of seminars and workshops is presented by your colleagues – experienced practitioners who are grappling with similar issues to yourself. The wide variety of topics are all practical and proven, with mostly new material. You’ll come away with ideas that you can put into practice immediately. There’s new ways of working with your clients, a major opportunity to extend your client base and how to make the most of the recession. Because of the financial climate the fees have been reduced this year to make the two days even better value and you can stay on site at budget hotel rates.

For progamme and booking form click HERE.

New Sandplay Therapy Course using on-line and experiential learning methods
In response to requests for creative arts therapies training that can be used with adults and families, as well as children, APAC have launched a new course for mental health professionals who wish to become Certified Sandplay Therapy Practioners.  It has been designed to be effective and cost efficient.  The considerable body of theoretical knowledge required is taught through nine on-line courses.  Participants can study at home, at their own pace and self test their progress. This is complemented by 7 days of experiential training in two parts to be held at the lovely Salomons and Wentworth Castle venues.

See more details:

 

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Our fourth  research report is based upon the total dataset (as at April 2007) held in  SEPACTO, the UK's database of play therapy clinical outcomes, developed and managed by PTUK.    It includes cases covered in previous reports.

The data has been supplied by 167 PTUK and PTI members.

Gender
The clients are two thirds boys, one third girls. This proportion has been remarkably consistent during the six years we have been recording data.

Girls 32%   Boys 68%

Age
The figures show that:
* The majority of clients being of primary school age.
* However some play therapists work with young people

Type of Intervention
This is a the second time we have carried out this analysis.  The results are similar to the last time.  The majority of the sessions are 1:1 with 48% being short term (1 to 12 sessions) and 36% being long term (over 12 sessions). Only 16% of the recorded cases used group work. It is rather surprising that group interventions are not used more frequently in the climate of cost effectiveness and throughput targets.

Changes in Total Difficulties

N

%
Improved

524

68.59%
No change

61

7.98%
Worse

179

23.43%

764

100.00%

The 68.59% of cases showing a positive change is lower, by about 2%, than predicted from previous data. It was hypothesised that a large batch of data received from students contained cases who were initially assessed as ‘normal’ and where it would be difficult to effect a positive change – indeed providing therapy might stimulate dormant issues from the unconscious. An analysis of changes was undertaken using initial assessment scores of 10, 20 and 30. This shows that the percentage of cases showing a positive change increases with the severity of total difficulties problems.

As shown in the table below, by excluding the children who were in the 'normal' classification, 73% of the children showed a positive change.

Change in Total Difficulties –Clients With a Pre Therapy Score of 10+

N

%
Improved

453

72.95%
No change

40

6.44%
Worse

128

20.61%

621



Changes in Pro-Social Scores

N

%

Improved

385

54.77%

No change

162

23.04%

Worse

156

22.19%

703

100.00%

As with total difficulties it was decided to test the hypothesis that cases with the more severe pro-social problems would show a higher percentage cases exhibiting positive change.

Changes in Pro-social – Clients Pre Therapy Score <5

N

%
Improved

226

77.13%
No change

39

13.31%
Worse

28

9.56%

293

100.00%


The data again shows that the percentage of cases showing a positive change increases with the severity of the pro-social issues

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The 2007 Conference saw the launch of the APAC Filial Play Coach/Mentor Certificate course conforming to PTUK's recently set competency standards. It  was an experimental 3-day course designed for experienced Play Therapists.  It was rated highly by the participants who felt that an extra day would have been beneficial.  Accordingly the next version of this course will be four days and some minor adjustments in content will be made.  See more details. Timing and venue have yet to be finalised.  Members interested in extending their play therapy practice and skills should email mokijep@aol.com  The emphasis is on the development of coaching and mentoring skills to enable parents to use non-directive play.

APAC are also currently delivering the first 6-day Filial Play Coach/Mentor course for an Education Authority.  This is designed for those with little or no play therapy skills but have experience of working with parents and families.  This includes: Social Workers, Health Visitors and Family Liaison Officers.  The course teaches both  non-directive play skills and coaching and mentoring techniques in an in-house environment.  Organisations who have at least 16 staff who would benefit from this type of training should contact APAC on 01825 761143 or email mokijep@aol.com

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PTUK is developing a full set of guidelines for primary school Head Teachers who wish to address their pupils emotional and behaviour difficulties.  Any PTUK Member or Head Teacher interested in participating should contact ptukorg@aol.com


With 104 pages published in 2006 'Play for Life' beat its own target of 100 pages for the year. This is well ahead of the minimum commitment to provide 64 pages per year for members.   Worldwide, it has the highest content of material for the play therapy practitioner of any journal.

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In her opening address at the 2007 PTUK conference reiterated that PTUK wholeheartedly supports the government in its wish to regulate play therapy as a profession. She then declared that the "progress is DISGRACEFUL. The  government wanted the psychology professions regulated by title by 2008. There’s no chance that this will happen. Our latest forecast is 2010 at earliest.

Even worse the  government is paying lip service to consultation by only taking into account what it wants to hear rather than the measures that are really necessary to protect the public. So the process is DISGRACEFUL as well.

PTUK's  position is still that we welcome regulation provided that:
  • The registration body sets adequate standards that are based on competencies that have been shown to be effective.

  • It is recognised that play therapy may be safely delivered by other professionals in a multi role position. To implement this it may be necessary to have more than one title.
    •  The government shows no sign of listening or understanding these.

    I said last year that the Health Professions Council - the HPC - as currently set up is not currently fit to regulate play therapy. If the competency standards set by the HPC for the currently registered Arts Therapists are a precedent they are far too low. Our current standards are way ahead.

    PTUK has been engaged in discussions with the DoH and the HPC led by BPS and UKCP representing the counselling and psychotherapy professions.

    Some professional titles, such as Arts Therapists, already registered with the HPC require a Masters degree qualification but others do not.  It is far from clear what the requirements will eventually be.  Any statements made that suggest that HPC standards have already been set for Play Therapists are not true and are misleading.

    The training programme offered by APAC to PTUK standards covers all likely eventualities. We encourage all students to complete the Post Graduate Certificate in Therapeutic Play Skills and the Post Graduate Diploma in Play Therapy courses, including a total of  200 hours clinical work, to become a PTUK Certified Play Therapist and then to reach a total of 450 hours to become a PTUK Accredited Play Therapist. We also require evidence of clinical governance.

    We suggest that students may wish to complete the MA in Practice Based Play Therapy, by dissertation,  if they have a particular interest in play therapy research, to advance their career prospects or for personal satisfaction.  At present it is not necessary to have an Masters level degree to become a Play Therapist. To suggest otherwise would be dishonest.  There is no evidence, at the moment, to show that play therapy practitioners with an MA  produce better clinical outcomes than those who do not have one.  It may or may not be a future HPC requirement. 

    If however, you wish to 'cover all bases' by all means continue onto APAC's MA part of the programme.

    HPC's policy is to set 'entry level' standards to safeguard the public.  Professional organisations such as PTUK may then set their own higher standards.  We believe that our current standards originally set in 2000 are at a higher level when compared to professional titles already registered by the HPC.

    There has been progress in joint discussions with BAPT who agreed to our suggestion, made on the 7th August 2006, that a preliminary meeting to discuss a possible joint application for regulation should be held. A meeting was held on 23rd June with positive results towards working together on regulation of the profession.  A number of issues and differences in approach were identified which need to be discussed further.

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    APAC plans to open two new centres in Autumn 2007 - Edinburgh and Manchester.  This follows the successful start of PTUK accredited play therapy training programmes in  the Bristol, Cambridgeshire and Leeds (Barnsley) areas in 2006 to cope with the increased demand due to the popularity of the programme in producing safe and effective play therapy practitioners.

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