Accredited Programme - MA in Practised Based Play Therapy
This play therapy training programme has been clinically
accredited by PTUK, PTI. The programme at Masters level is validated for
academic standards by the Leeds Beckett (formerly Leeds Metropolitan)
University as part of the MA in Play Therapy programme run in a collaborative
partnership with APAC.
(Phone 01825 761143 for Career Guide & full
Brochure)
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your play therapy resources from
Developing innovative and excellent evidence-based play
therapy practice
A recognised MA (Masters) degree awarded by Leeds Beckett
(formerly Leeds Metropolitan) University will:
- Provide considerable satisfaction through the achievement of
the award
- Establish you as an authority on your subject
- Continue your career and personal development
- Be attractive to employers and commissioners of play therapy
services
- Increase your chances of an increase in remuneration and
promotion
- Open up new opportunities in training and academic careers
- Enable you to do something about your passion for a topic
Blended learning methods
APAC has developed an online route by which you may gain
your MA in Play Therapy. Our next course starting date is 11th May, 2019.
The advantages of the blended learning route are:
- Work at home, at your own pace – study is more enjoyable
- No travel and accommodation costs – save money
- No time away from home needed – less hassle in your domestic
life
- Personalised Academic Supervisor and Tutor support – based
on your individual learning style
- More efficient drafting of your research proposal and
dissertation including access to the unique PTI/PTUK database of play therapy
clinical outcomes - less time required and better quality work
The blended learning methods, include on-line availability
of structured course material, electronic transmission of assignments and
feedback, personal tuition and support by your Academic Supervisor by phone,
email or Skype, electronic discussion group, etc. These replace the
conventional lectures and seminars that are used on the traditional routes.
Specialist Academic Supervisors and Tutors for topics such
as sandplay, art, music, dance and movement, clay and working with infants, are
available for your support - via the internet wherever you live.
Get
your play therapy resources from
The course is designed for Play Therapists, or those with an
equivalent qualification, wishing to receive the academic MA in Play Therapy
award from the Leeds Beckett (formerly Leeds Metropolitan) University by means
of a dissertation.
- Counsellors
- Psychotherapists
- Clinical Psychologists
- Primary School Teachers/Assistants
- Nurses
- Nursery School Teachers/Assistants
- Social Workers
- Play School Teachers/Assistants
- Care Home Staff
- Adoption/Foster Agency Workers
This course is the third part of a programme leading to
an MA in Practised Based Play Therapy by dissertation. It is at stage
4 of the PTUK Four
Stage Training Model
This exciting programme, a world first, has been designed to
improve the learning experience of participants. It is based on our six years
of delivering a Masters programme using conventional teaching methods. For
example: the task of preparing a high quality, detailed research proposal and
plan, which to some has appeared at first sight to be overwhelming, is now made
much more straightforward by breaking it down into easier stages, each with
personal tutor support. Our APAC Learning Management System (ALMS) makes it
easier for you to manage your work with the help of your Academic Supervisor.
Our experience shows that getting the research proposal
right is absolutely crucial.
By helping you to concentrate on the comprehensiveness and
quality of the proposal's research methods you will need less time to carry out
your research and draft your dissertation.
The course will provide a springboard for students to
understand and apply research methodology to a variety of play therapy related
scenarios, and understand approaches to evidence-based practice. For instance,
how can research be used to inform policy and practice and evaluate the
effectiveness of interventions and programmes? As play therapy is an emerging
profession, it is essential that practitioners enhance its establishment by
developing high quality research capability to create new models of practice
that serve to improve the quality of therapeutic interventions for some of the
most marginalised and troubled children.
Students will explore the purposes and values of research by
studying a hierarchy of positivist, qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods
techniques to analyse practice experiences. The course will provide the
knowledge and skills for postgraduates to: produce a research proposal for
ethical approval and research governance; design and implement a research
programme, choosing the most appropriate methods to produce a play and creative
arts therapy related dissertation.
- Further develop students' conceptual, theoretical and
methodological models in the design and implementation of play therapy-related
research at MA level.
- Refresh informed play therapy practice by extending the
understanding of research methodology and differing approaches learned at
Certificate and Diploma stages.
- To provide methodologies for Master's level research to
answer a unique question(s) that will take the play therapy profession forward
- To encourage students to debate the nature of play and
creative arts therapies research, including therapeutic media, conditions,
settings, systemic factors and related topics
- To enhance students' ability to appraise the literature
underpinning the evidence base for children's therapeutic interventions
- To integrate and apply research principles to a play and
creative arts therapies related topic
The course consists of two modules:
Developing a Research Proposal
A 4000 word research proposal. Working within the limits of
what is viable within a nine month or year long, dissertation-based research
project; the proposal will address a subject of the student's own choosing,
highlighting the philosophical, conceptual and strategic processes necessary to
design and implement a robust and ethical research study.
By the end of the module students will be able to:
- Identify an area of play and creative arts therapies
research (education, health and social care practice) that needs systematic
investigation and present a clear rationale for the proposed research
- Critically analyse the ethical dimensions of research,
highlighting methods of engaging participants in ways that respect their rights
and needs
- Defend the aim of the proposed study and the research
question(s) and selection of a research paradigm and research approach
- Anticipate the type(s) of data that are likely to result
from the proposed study and critically evaluate their relevance to the aim of
the study and the research question/s
Producing a Research Dissertation
A dissertation/project report of 12,000 words which is
organised into discrete chapters to meet the learning outcomes.
By the end of the module students will be able to:
- Organise documentation to convey clearly and accurately
the processes undertaken and what has been achieved
- Critically evaluate relevant literature utilising an
appropriate theoretical framework and prior empirical studies
- Select and justify an appropriate research design, sample
population and data collection instruments and adopt a critical, ethically
sensitive stance towards the conduct of the research study
- Summarise, analyse and interpret data using suitable
statistical or other tools where appropriate
- Synthesise findings in relation to theoretical
perspectives, prior empirical studies and professional practice issues
The Dissertation takes the form of a final professional
paper of approximately 12,000 words. Students are required to develop a
clinical philosophy based upon an integrative approach using both non-directive
and directive perspectives. This is to be related to an understanding and
implementation of preferred therapeutic models. Students are required to apply
this clinical philosophy to a specific aspect of working therapeutically with
children. Original research may be either qualitative or quantitative in
nature. Students have up to 2 years to complete their dissertation.
In addition students will be expected to present and submit
dissertations in accordance with accepted conventions of academic writing and
in accordance with the requirements set out in the University's published
Dissertation Guidelines.
The Dissertation must be of publishable quality in terms of
written accuracy.
This blended learning course will be offered through a
series of online sessions which will deliver the core material. Each session
will be of indeterminate time as students will be able to work at their own
pace but, in general, each session will have enough material requiring at least
5 hours of study. In addition, the course will be supported by a series of
directed learning tasks to allow practical exploration of analysis and
interpretation of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches to
research. Additionally, there will be online group work, including formative
presentations of research papers and case study approaches to play and creative
arts therapies interventions. Students will also have ready access to an online
tutor for regular discussions and supervision.
Students will be required to read around the topic before
each session. Suggested texts will be given against the session content.
Optional assessments will be used to check their knowledge as a part of
progressive monitoring.
Online learning is a well established technique and allows
students the opportunity to work at their own pace but have regular contact
with each other and their tutor. Work may be posted on a regular basis and
tasks allocated. When undertaking learning over the internet students access
and share information, and engage in discussions through online chat session
using Skype or similar.
Blended learning, which includes E-Learning can be described
as an approach that offers a third medium for learning. It is different from
distance learning courses that require students to work alone at home
processing information that has been posted to them. E-learning is more akin to
the classroom experience because it involves students working together
synchronously and asynchronously, learning and sharing experiences as part of
an online community of learners. Although the technology exists via the use of
web cams and conferencing for students to physically observe each other online,
e-learning students are not physically together but rather virtually together
online. In e-learning the lecture hall is replaced by the virtual lecture hall.
E-learning, therefore, is qualitatively different from distance learning or
classroom based learning.
The Dissertation may be written at your own pace, typically
taking 12 - 18 months but remember that it must also be completed within 6
years of starting your PG Certificate course.
The course also includes 1 group and 3 individual
supervisions (per year) to provide guidance upon the topic. Specialist optional
advanced 3 day modules will be available for further support in the chosen
subject areas.
Developing a Research
Proposal - (20 M Points)
Session
|
Session Outline
|
Pre course
|
Prior reading to prepare for session
1
|
1
|
Overview of the programme – concepts
of research
Course requirements
The current state of play and
creative arts therapies research?
Revision of Certificate & Diploma
research material
Keeping a research diary
The systemic view of play therapy
Choosing a research topic
The importance of questions
|
2
|
Searching for information
Internet search methods
Effective and efficient reading
Storing citations (RefWorks or
EndNote)
Writing a literature review - good
practice ... and pitfalls!
|
3
|
Epistemology and Research Design
Overview of Qualitative, Quantitative
and Mixed Methods: using theory to generate a research problem; designing a
study, design problems
The importance of data triangulation
Ethical considerations and research
governance
|
4
|
Qualitative Research Methods
The ethics & logic of qualitative
research; phenomenology; ethnography; interviews and discourse analysis;
grounded theory; transcripts and conversation analysis.
|
5
|
Quantitative & Mixed Research
Methods
The ethics of quantitative research;
hypotheses; observation; surveys; questionnaire based research
The Single Case method
Linking to the PTI database of
clinical outcomes – using the PTI taxonomy (comparison with the DSM &
ICD)
Sampling strategies and questionnaire
design
Psychometric instruments –
availability and design considerations
Data conversion
|
6
|
Validity and reliability; claims to
validity in field research; testing hypotheses.
Analysis and synthesis
|
7
|
Reflection/feedback on proposals
|
8 - 12
|
Writing a research dissertation;
structure: title, abstract, contents, introduction, method, design, subjects,
procedure, results and recommendations
Presentation requirements
Individual tutorial support and
academic supervision
|
MA in Practised Based Play Therapy awarded by the Leeds
Beckett (formerly Leeds Metropolitan) University.
The successful completion of the dissertation carries 60 'M'
points. Students successfully completing all three parts of the programme
(Post Graduate Certificate in
Therapeutic Play, Post Graduate Diploma in Play
Therapy and the MA by dissertation) will be awarded a total of 180
'M' points.
Since this course uses blended learning methods the venue is
your home or office!
Faculty/Facilitators
Selected from APAC's faculty.
APAC
Download the application form in either Microsoft Word or
Adobe PDF format:
MSWORD
PDF
UK Courses
£3400 plus £370 University registration fee.
If you need more supervision for your dissertation, you may
make private arrangements with your Tutor at an average additional cost of
about £50 per hour.
If you need additional years the cost is £1400 per
year.
After successful application you can pay online at Play
Therapy Shop
Venue
|
Date
|
Next Blended Learning
Course
|
11th May, 2019.
|
Dates are correct at the time of publishing but maybe
subject to change so please check with the office on 01825 761143 before
booking
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