The course has been designed to:
- Enhance your career/professional skills
- Increase your satisfaction in working with children
- Give you the skills to help children develop their emotional literacy
- Give you the skills to alleviate behavior and mental health problems
- Assist your own personal development
- Provide you with Profession Structure Model competencies defined by PTI to work with individuals and groups of children who have moderate to severe problems
The Certificate course is the first part of the programme leading to an MA in Practised Based Play Therapy.
The Diploma course is the second part of a programme leading (optionally) to the MA in Practised Based Play Therapy course.
This course is at stage 3 of the PTI four stage training model
The overall purpose is to enable participants to practice safely and effectively as a Play Therapist.
Upon successful completion of the course each participant will have gained:
- The competencies to work with all children (individual and group) with all problems where Play therapy is suitable and with children and young people with mild to severe problems
- To make assessments incorporating the PDM
- A sound understanding of the principles underlying play therapy and the appropriate use of techniques
- The competencies required for running play therapy sessions with groups of children as well as individuals
- An ability to assess children’s needs and set up a play therapy services unit
- An ability to make decisions taking into account the ethical issues concerning all parties involved
- Increased confidence in using play therapy with children and adolescents and communications with referrers, parents, and guardians
- The counseling, therapeutic and practical skills to carry out effective play therapy
- Awareness of your own process and development
- Comprehensive theoretical knowledge of child development and child psychology
- An ability to use the taught play therapy skills as assessment tools
- The ability to use a full play therapy tool-kit
- A basic understanding of play therapy research issues and methods
Module Descriptors (Modules 1 – 5 form the Certificate in Therapeutic Skills course
(The sequence and content may vary slightly from course to course)
Module 6 – Introduction to Working with Groups; Developing Metaphors for Group Working; Introduction to Research Methods;. Developing Expressive Arts Skills – 1 – Dance and Movement for Groups; Assessment; Special cases: Autism, Mental/Physical disability
Module 7 – Developing Expressive Arts Skills 2 – Music Working With Parents/Teachers, Assessments through observation using video case studies Special cases: adopted, fostered
Module 8 – Developing Theatre Form Skills -Therapeutic Story Telling;. EPR; Assessment methods; Special cases: Loss/Bereavement, Separation
Module 9 – Developing Symbolic Play Skills; Sand Play – Advanced Skills; Working with Metaphors; Endings, Special cases: Physically and sexually abused – children who have experienced trauma
Module 10 – Developing Expressive Arts Skills – 3 Art in child development; Special cases working with Terminally Ill and or abused children; Court Work; Student presentation
Successful participants will receive two awards:
Professional: PTI/PTUK Diploma in Play Therapy
Academic: (if registered with Leeds Beckett University): Post Graduate Diploma in Play Therapy with 60 ‘M’ points
The awards are made on the basis of:
- Two written case studies, covering the work with a child for at least 1 year and showing a clear integration of theory and practice.
- Completion of an individual practical therapeutic project, designed and documented by the participant.
- Continuous evaluation of course work, contributions and ability to work with group dynamics
- Post-training presentation
- Evidence of a further 100 hrs supervised hours of working with children using play therapy
- Completion of an essay of about 3000 words Evidence of regular play therapy supervision
- Satisfactory completion of the case work summaries and submission of pre and post outcome measures
- Satisfactory attendance on the course
Narasumber: Janet A. Courtney, Ph.D.
