Entry to the Play Therapy Profession
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 advice for anyone interested in developing their
career using therapeutic play skills or in becoming a Certified Play Therapist.
Contact PTUK CEO Monika Jephcott and her team on 01825 761143 or email:
contacts@apac.org.uk
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 must take into account is the
regulation of the play therapy profession through the Professional Standards
Authority -
see latest
position.
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 & Integrity - straightforwardness, honesty and coherence
- To gain children's trust.
Resilience - work without being personally diminished
- You must not let the 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 practice, 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.
New Entrants
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.
Mature Entrants
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.
Arts, drama, music, movement and other creative arts
therapists
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.
Counsellors, psychotherapists, clinical psychologists and
psychiatrists
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)
Other Care and Social Services
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)
Mapping Stages to Other Models
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.
