/ Short Courses /

Play Therapy Foundation Course

Start date:

October 2024
January 2025

Places:

Places are awarded on a "first paid first serve" basis due to demand

Cost / delivery:

£875 / 10 weeks, online or on-campus

Intermediate:

On-campus: 19 October - 14 December 2024
Online: 20 October - 15 December 2024
8 x two-hour Wednesday evening classes plus two Saturdays

Advanced:

On-campus: 11 January - 8 March 2025
8 x two-hour Wednesday evening classes plus two Saturdays

Online: 12 January - 9 March 2025
9 x two-hour Thursday evening classes plus two Sundays

Introduction

These workshops will be facilitated by a qualified and experienced BAPT-registered Play Therapist.

Experiential activities form the core of the course, providing students with an opportunity to explore and reflect on the process of Play Therapy on a personal level.

Connections and links will be made to the theories that underpin Play Therapy as this emerges from the practical component, enabling students to learn from theory that directly relates to their experience.

Please note that whilst the emphasis of the workshops is on an educational not a therapeutic experience, students should be aware of potential tensions between their personal and professional responses and should be prepared for a degree of self-exposure.

Seminars and Lectures

The seminars and lectures are integrated into the workshop experiences. Each workshop will be part experiential play therapy and part seminar/lecture.

The seminars will often comprise presentations of clinical / therapeutic work and opportunity for group discussions. Visiting experts from different fields will lead seminars/lectures on particular specialist areas of play therapy practice.

Details

Assessment Timetables Suggested reading Materials required

Assessment

Course attendees will be expected to keep a Reflective Log of their experiences while on the course which constitutes a record of their personal psychological journey including photographs of images created in the experiential workshops.

As such the Log itself will be a highly personal manuscript and will not be assessed. In the last workshop of the course students will present a dramatised, artistic or narrative Story of this journey to share with the class.

The Journey Story will be approximately three minutes long and may be presented in the play media of the student's choice.

Participants will need to complete a minimum of 80% of the course and a satisfactory final Journey Story in order to receive an electronic attendance certificate. This will not automatically ensure a student’s entry to the Roehampton University MA in Play Therapy; however, individuals considering applying for Professional training are encouraged to complete a Foundation Course.

On-campus timetable

This timetable is provisional - dates and times may be subject to change.

Date	Time	Title
21 October	10am-4.30pm	INDUCTION DAY Introduction to the course and to one another. Course overview, boundaries and expectations Discussion of the Play Therapy profession and entry into training and the professional organisation: the British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT)
25 October	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 1 Why Play? The central importance of play in child development
1 November	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 2 Historical overview of the development of Play Therapy in the UK. Comparison of different models of Play Therapy, including Non-Directive Play Therapy, Social Constructionist and Narrative Therapy appraoches
8 November	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 3 Sensory or embodiment play in Play Therapy - using clay, play-dough, slime, sand and other sensory materials
15 November	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 4 Projective or symbolic play in Play Therapy - using toy figures etc to create symbolic stories
22 November	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 5 Dramatic role-play in Play Therapy
29 November	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 6 Using art in Play Therapy
6 December	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 7 Providing a therapeutic environment – the therapist’s role. Developing reflective listening skills etc
13 December	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 8 Building self-esteem through Play Therapy
10 January	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 9 Where are we now? Review of the journey so far
17 January	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 10 Attachment and Loss part 1
24 January	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 11 Attachment and Loss part 2
31 January	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 12 Sand play therapy & Mosaics - An introduction to Lowenfield Techniques
7 February	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 13 Using Stories in Play Therapy
14 February	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 14 Trauma and abuse in relation to Play Therapy
21 February	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 15 Limit-setting
28 February	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 16 Therapeutic play with children with special needs
6 March	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 17 Play Therapy and the Bereaved Child
13 March	7pm - 9pm	Workshop 18 Play Therapy and Looked After Children
16 March	10am - 4.30pm	PLENARY DAY Endings Including shared presentations of ‘Journey stories’

Online timetable

This timetable is provisional - dates and times may be subject to change.

Date	Time	Title
22 October	10am-4.30pm	INDUCTION DAY Introduction to the course and to one another. Course overview, boundaries and expectations Discussion of the Play Therapy profession and entry into training and the professional organisation: the British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT)
26 October	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 1 Why Play? The central importance of play in child development
2 November	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 2 Historical overview of the development of Play Therapy in the UK. Comparison of different models of Play Therapy, including Non-Directive Play Therapy, Social Constructionist and Narrative Therapy approaches
9 November	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 3 Sensory or embodiment play in Play Therapy - using clay, play-dough, slime, sand and other sensory materials
16 November	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 4 Projective or symbolic play in Play Therapy - using toy figures etc to create symbolic stories
23 November	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 5 Dramatic role-play in Play Therapy
30 November	6.30pm -8.30pm	Workshop 6 Using art in Play Therapy
7 December	6.30pm -8.30pm	Workshop 7 Providing a therapeutic environment – the therapist’s role. Developing reflective listening skills etc
14 December	6.30pm -8.30pm	Workshop 8 Using stories in Play Therapy
11 January	6.30pm -8.30pm	Workshop 9 Sand play therapy & Mosaics - An introduction to Lowenfeld Techniques
18 January	6.30pm -8.30pm	Workshop 10 Building self-esteem through play
25 January	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 11 Where are we now? Review of the journey so far
1 February	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 12 Attachment and loss part 1
8 February	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 13 Attachment and loss part 2
15 February	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 14 Trauma and abuse in relation to Play Therapy
22 February	4.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 15 Limit-setting
29 February	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 16 Therapeutic play with children with special needs
7 March	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 17 Play Therapy and the Bereaved Child
14 March	6.30pm-8.30pm	Workshop 18 Play Therapy and Looked After Children
17 March	10am-4.30pm	Plenary Day Endings including shared presentations of ‘Journey stories’

Materials required

If studying the online course, you will need:

Felt-tip pens, pastels, coloured pencils or crayons
A4 and/or A3 paper/card
Small sandtray/paper plate with sand, rice, flour, lentils or anything participants have at home
A small handful of minatures (figures, animals, vehicles, little houses, fences etc) or natural items such as stones, sticks, leaves etc
Playdough or clay

Tutors

Elisa Fontana

Tutor

Elisa Fontana, MA in Play Therapy, BSc (Hons) Early Years, BSc (Hons) Art and Drama Studies, BAPT-reg Play Therapist, Registered Member MBACP, trained in Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT).

Tiwone Mtonga

Tutor

Tiwone Mtonga is a registered Play Therapist and Clinical Supervisor (BAPT and BACP). She is also a Therapeutic Life Story Practitioner and uses Theraplay Informed Practice.

Filipa Alvarez

Tutor

Filipa is a highly experienced and qualified practitioner in the fields of Psychology (clinical area) and Play Therapy (with children, adolescents and adults). She completed a Master Degree in Forensic Psychology.