A story written by Carolyn Kelly, a Play Therapy UK registrant, for a little boy who just couldn’t ask for help. It starts:
Once upon a time there was a sailor called Mallory Twitch who lived on a little red boat in Pebbletown. Mallory Twitch was a very talented sailor and his skills were admired by everyone who saw him.
All the sailors moored their boats in the safety of Pebbletown Harbour. But Mallory Twitch kept his boat anchored outside the harbour because Mallory Twitch did things his own way. He spent every morning sailing and every afternoon eating cheese and chutney sandwiches.
But there’s much, much more to play therapy than being able to tell a story. Every child is different so different therapeutic stories must be produced individually. Some children in therapy will choose sand tray or clay or puppets or music or other media so the therapist must be trained to communicate with the child (not just observe) in all of these.
It’s essential that schools only employ or contract Play Therapists that are on a register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority and clinically supervised, to quality assure their work. www.playtherapyregister.org.uk
Otherwise the school is taking a big risk.
Overall 20% of the UK’s children have issues that are effectively treated by play therapy. Investing in training a member of your teaching staff will soon be repaid through less disruption in classes, motivated pupils, better learning, reduced staff stress, happier parents and a better deployment of the pupil premium funding.
If you want to know the rest of Mallory’s story, how play therapy is already working in over 2000 primary schools in the UK and the training that is available in 13 centres all over the country, please email Monika at mokijep@majemail.com