Newsletter: February 2025
This months top news
During January we completed the final day of our Once Upon a Trilogy® training.
We finished the trilogy with Once Upon an Archetype. Everyone who attended was brilliant and threw themselves into all the activities and discussions. Together we explored the history of fairy tales and the archetypal symbolism of the fairy tale characters. We wrote post cards to fairy tale characters we had met. We laughed and debated difficult concepts and applied them to our therapy practice. By the end we were in agreement that stories are so important for us, our clients and our society.
A big thank you to all who attended. This is some of the feedback we received
“The breadth of things considered and the resulting stimulating conversations was excellent.”
“This exceeded my expectations.”
“It was well paced and rich with opportunities for discussion and laughter.”
“(We were able) “ …to discuss applications to the playroom. I thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you”.
Once Upon a Trilogy is now going to be sold as a complete three-day online CPD event accredited by CPD Standards Office
03/05/2025
22/06/2025
28/06/2025
“Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.” A Maslow
We have been astonished by the interest in the New L6 Diploma Relational Play and Creative Therapy courses due to commence in Bedford and Bristol. We were joined by enthusiastic participants with the common interest in supporting children and young people’s mental health through play and creative therapy.
Children’s Mental Health Week -03/02/2025 to 09/02/2025
This year the topic for children’s mental health week is Know Yourself, Grow Yourself with the aim of empowering children and young people to develop self-awareness and their identity.
International Play Therapy Week – 02/02/2025 to 08/02/2025
“Play Therapists: saving the world one child at a time” Alun John 2018
Let’s all celebrate the therapist you are. The amazing and inspiring work you do with children and young people. The relationships you develop with your clients, sowing seeds for future relationships to be grown. You hold the confusion, the mess, the emotions from the wounds they carry with them. The advocacy you offer to support the children and young people who you work with.
“Once the child has established confidence in the therapist and has accepted the therapist even as she has accepted him—he shares his inner world with her and, by the sharing, extends the horizons of both their worlds.” Virginia M. Axline, Play Therapy
Coming soon...
One Small Step Forward into Your World of Private Practice.
Manoeuvring through the logistics of setting up a business may feel daunting! This course will explore, equip and empower you with all you require for these next steps of your quest into Private Practice. In addition, you will be able to take away templates of contracts and seven essential policies to utilise within your new practice.
Online
When: 08/02/2025
Accredited by CPD Standards Office
L6 Certificate, Relational Play and Creative Therapy, Young People
Booking closes 08/02/2025
Relational Play and Creative Therapy for Young People Qualification provides the essential theoretical knowledge and practical skills required to work ethically with an older age range. This course will explore the legal requirements of working with an older age range of clients, including consent, risk assessing and safeguarding responsibilities.
Accredited by CpCAB.
In person – Bedford
When: 14/02/2025 – 20/02/2025
AutPlay® Therapy Training
Booking closes 03/03/2025
AutPlay® Therapy training is a neurodiversity paradigm informed framework for implementing play therapy with neurodivergent children and their families. This course will enable you to better understand neurodivergence in addressing the unique needs of neurodivergent children and adolescents.
In-Person & Online
When: 08/03/2025 – 09/03/2025
Join us for a Complimentary Sound Bath for those attending in person on the Saturday after training.
Web Therapy: Supporting families in Crisis
Working with traumatised children and their families requires specialist training. Web therapy takes you through a system that will empower you to work with clients who have experienced complex trauma and parents and professionals who are caring for them.
Online
When: 15/03/2025 – 16/03/2025
Creative Therapeutic Life Story Work
This 8-day comprehensive programme offers a clear framework for professionals who want to develop their therapeutic skills offering Life Story Work to children and young people who have been adopted or are in foster care.
Online
When:
29/03/2025 – 30/03/2025
27/04/2025 – 28/04/2025
31/04/2025 – 01/05/2025
14/06/2025 – 15/06/2025
Quarterly tutorials: Dates and times will be agreed with the cohort
L6 Diploma – Relational Play and Creative Therapy, Children and Young People.
This innovative exciting programme will teach you the fundamentals of play and creative clinical practice with children and young people 4-18 years old, up to the age of 25 years for young people who are Care Leavers or those who have Special Educational Needs.
Taught over 2 years, commencing:
05/04/2025 in Bedford
10/05/2025 in Bristol.
Accredited by: CpCAB
Something to ponder on...
“I spy with my little eye”
I love watching spy dramas. The old type cold war spy drama where clandestine meetings are set up and identification codes are used.
One spy will say something like, “The moon is hidden behind the clouds”
The other spy will reply “Behind the clouds the moon is still bright”, and so they know they are talking to the right spy! They have safe houses and flight funds, ciphers and codes and check point Charlies etc.
I remember in one old film (I can’t remember which), there was a discussion between an old spy and his younger trainee who had just failed a mission. The older spy said, “Your problem is that you think the Russians think like you. They don’t, they think like Russians. You need to learn to think like a Russian”
As a supervisor I have had supervisees tell me things that go a bit like this. “The sessions are going really well. I have a real rapport with the child. They are always happy to see me. They smile a lot. There doesn’t seem to be any movement in therapy. The sessions are stuck”.
Is it possible that we think our clients think like us? Perhaps we need to think like them? There are times when the client is masking their true feelings. A traumatised child may smile and appear charming but deep down it is because they know that adults can’t be trusted… Any adult… Even you! And so, the smile and the charm are a defence/survival strategy that is designed to keep them safe from us (adults). Their thought patterns are, “If you like me, you are less likely to hurt me, If I smile you will like me, If I’m charming you will leave me alone”. Some children/young people don’t think like us at all! It is as if they have a completely different culture.
It is always good to get as much information about your client in order to understand them more and then, like a clever spy, we can interpret the behaviours and make sense of it. We need to think like our client and not like ourselves. Oscar Wilde once said, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” This is especially true with children that are masking their feelings and trying to survive in a dangerous world. They will do anything, be anyone and say anything to keep themselves safe. A smile may not be a smile, it’s up to you to figure it out.
Spotlight
Please share and recommend the School of Creative Therapies https://schoolofpact.com/news/ with your colleagues and friends, so our community can continue to grow.
Share now:
Subscribe
Stay up-to-date with news, new courses and events.
Our Courses
Explore our courses, unlock the power of play, and make a lasting impact on children's lives – enroll today.
