News Highlights - the latest developments in Irish & International play therapy, therapeutic play and filial play.
New Blended Learning Route for the MA in Practice Based Play Therapy
New Leaflet for Members Use
Chief Executive Officer of Play Therapy Ireland
Ireland Play Therapy Demand Model Published
2007 Conference - Brief Report
Latest Research Results as at April 2007
New! Filial Play Coach/Mentor Certificate Course
Play for Life Beats Its Target Again
This page is your opportunity to announce events, jobs, express views etc. Just send them to
ptireland@aol.com - we
reserve the right to publish or not!
APAC has developed a new route for stage 3 (modules 7 and 8) of the programme by which you may gain your MA in Practice Based Play Therapy.
Stages 1 and 2, The Post Graduate Certificate in Therapeutic Play and Post Graduate Diploma in Play Therapy remain delivered as experiential exercises,
clinical work and face to face presentations and demonstrations. The route started on 5th November 2011.
The advantages of this new 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 For details see:
http://www.playtherapy.ie/CareersandTraining/Training/MAInPBPlayTherapy.htm
'Resolving Children’s Troubles through Play Therapy & Creative Arts'
A Four colour leaflet has been produced about Play Therapy
Copies may be requested by email from:
ajgregan@iol.ie
Chief Executive – Play Therapy Ireland is Audrey Gregan. She has worked as Senior Play Therapist in St. Paul’s Hospital and Special School for children with
ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) for 32 years and was very involved with the in-house training of staff in the use of therapeutic play i.e. floor time and intensive interaction,
this includes care staff, nurses, teachers, special needs assistants and parents as well as having individual and group sessions with the children.
She was a founder member of the Ballymun Community Play Groups Dublin, and play group leader for 5 years, 1974 – 1979. Her background is
Dip Ed, Dip Child Development, IBECPT Certification, PTI, CPT, and CPT-S.
Audrey has been involved in the community working with colleges, giving workshops in Play Therapy in the HSE, D.I.T., and I.T.B. and for people training in
Social Care; nursing and special needs assistants around the country, parents of children with ASD valued her work with the children and also multidisciplinary
team whom she worked with. She may be contacted for private practice at: 087-202 7460 or
ajgregan@iol.ie.
Play Therapy Ireland has just constructed a
model showing the potential demand for Play Therapists in each of 180
areas and the 26 counties of Ireland. This was programmed by Play
Therapy International using data sourced from the 2006 Census obtained
by a student attending the Postgraduate Certificate in Therapeutic Play
Skills run by APAC at All Hallows College. The design is based on
the PTUK model that has helped students and members present a case for
funding over the last four years.
The model shows that the two counties with
the highest need are:
Cork County 139 and Dublin City 134
estimated Play Therapists required.
The area with the highest demand is: Mulhuddart, Fingal, which is estimated to need 22 therapists.
The total estimate for Ireland is 1531 therapists. We believe that there are less than 200 play therapy
practitioners - so there's a long way to go!
Members may obtain the statistics for their local area by emailing
jefferyht@yahoo.co.uk
The conference held in Dublin was well
attended with 299 delegate days.
The key note address by Margot Sunderland
was outstanding in content and presentation. It was given a
rapturous reception by the delegates. Margot provided a concise
review of neuroscience research relating to child development and the
importance of play as a way of developing and rectifying problems that
occur in the healthy growth of the brain. (Full report in the Summer
2007 issue of the 'Play for Life' journal).
The conference was opened by Monika
Jephcott, President of PTI. She presented the latest PTI
research results, based on over 700 cases, in Ireland and the UK, where pre and post therapy
measures have been obtained, as summarised below. These confirm
the main previous finding that 70% of children receiving play therapy
from therapists trained to PTI and PTUK standards of competencies will
show a positive change.
An overwhelming case for
the use of play therapy is made by combining the neuroscience research and PTUK's
practice based evidence research.
Our fourth research report is based upon the
total dataset (as at April 2007) held in,
the PTI 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 PTIrl members who have been trained by APAC to the PTI
competency standards.
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 show that the percentage of cases showing a positive
change increases with the severity of the pro-social issues
The 2007 Conference saw the launch
of the APAC Filial Play Coach/Mentor Certificate course conforming to
PTI'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.
Timing and venues have yet to be set for Ireland. 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 +44 (0) 1825 761143 or email
mokijep@aol.com
With 136 A4 pages published in 2007
'Play for Life' editions, the journal has again beaten 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 and is a record number for a year. Worldwide, it has the highest content of
material for the play therapy practitioner of any journal.
