Study Task 7 - Play Therapy Interview

Play Therapy Interview - Lynne Souter-Anderson

What is your job?

A psychotherapist with a doctorate in clay therapy

• client sessions
• clinical supervision (every therapist gets 1.5 hours minimum of support per month because it is such an emotionally taxing job)
• consultant on interview panels
• trains qualified therapists to enhance their art therapy
• author

Works in a private practice called 'Bridging Creative Therapy Consulancy'

Called this because art therapy works by stimulating the creative right side of the brain to make the left part of the brain figure out whats going on and another part of the brain bridges the gap

Private Practice can be very lonely... can't talk about work... sometimes working at home/ older

What could a typical day look like?

Works 5 hours max (definitely enough) of contact time (including skype) - with half an hour in between to clean up and extra time to write up documents

Strange hours because in private practice children come after school

Sessions can range from 6 sessions (councilling) to longer 12 sessions or 2 year sessions (psychotherapy)

What have you found the hardest?

Tiredness - need a buffer between work and home, exhausting

Ethical side - can't talk through problems at home can just say you've had a hard day

People suffering with lack of self love - brownie promise gets people to think of other people before yourself but 'love thy neighbour as thy self' is better

What do you find most enjoyable?

Seeing someone blossom - very rewarding

See them growing through the weeks

Women 

You might not be interested in using art... it could taint your love for art... its a different thing creating art personally and using it with other people

What do you think are important qualities to have?

People normally have suffered themselves and therefore are more open to peoples troubles - pick up on the vibes and have deeper understanding

Could I tell this person if I had a worry?

• warmth
• kindness
• respectfulness
• insight
• not too narrow minded
• TRUST
• GENUINE

Do I like you?

Being young and being older both work well in different ways

Are there lots of positions/jobs?

Teaching assistants sometimes follow the same routes

Its an opening up field

A lot of the time schools have seen benefits of play therapists and hire them internally

There is a divide between employed and volunteer people

Payed less (don't use a therapist title) if through the NHS

Need to chose a specialty:

• child
• adolescence
• adult
• couples
• elderly

PT UK - Apac

Certificate and Diploma

What route did you take?

Art teacher first of year 11s. For their GCSE art project they needed to make a piece about themselves. Lots of children chose sadness and death - stunning. Almost working as a therapist through these problems which caused them to be quite troublesome. 

Picking up the problems - 6th sense

Promotions meant could re-write +add +amend +pastoral

Couldn't pay way through psychotherapy at the time. Pleased that didn't take that route because it was a very narrow field.

A few years ago the NHS made all art therapists redundant.

What qualifications are necessary?

Undertaking different qualifications to compliment. Balance and combine... therapy with councilling

PTUK Buckden have a play therapy induction day.

Derby have a good play therapy/ creative arts therapy (adult version) course... more practical based than at Cambridge... train through diploma and masters

Training - only face to face learning (450 hours of client accreditation) count

Councilling skills course Level 2 (45 hours long evening classes) Basic active listening