About

I am an Accredited Play and Creative Arts Therapist, Creative Clinical Supervisor and Registered SandStory Therapist®. I have experience of delivering therapy sessions with 4-16 year olds in mainstream primary schools, Pupil Referral Units and Specialist schools, as well as in private practice in Shropshire.

The children and young people have been referred for a number of different reasons including:

Withdrawn behaviours
Anger
Bereavement
Anxiety
Identity issues
Hyperactivity
Controlling behaviours
Domestic violence
Trauma
Attachment disorders
Specific phobias

Prior to becoming a therapist, I worked as a primary school teacher, and spent my first 3 years teaching in a British Forces School in North Germany. It was during this time that I Iooked further into the mental health issues surrounding young people today, and the services that were available to them. In 2010, I made the decision to return to England to train in Play Therapy.

Alongside my training, I worked with children and young people in many different settings. I worked as a Development Tutor with The Princes’ Trust with young people aged 13-25, building personal and social skills through artistic and outdoor activities with the aim of getting them back into education or employment. I also spent a year as therapeutic support worker in a residential home with young people aged 13-18 with mental health issues. I used many of my therapeutic skills with these young people although not in formal sessions. From 2013, I worked part time as a teacher, in upper primary (age 9-11) as well as in the Early Years Foundation Stage (age 3-5). I qualified as a Play Therapist in 2014 and divided my working week between therapy and teaching until July 2016 when I left teaching to work as a therapist full time.

I have a strong interest in the healing power of nature and have been exploring ways in which to extend Play and Creative Arts Therapy into the outdoors. I have attended a week long immersion course on Nature Based Therapy as well as a course on Nature as Co-Therapist. I am a member of the Collaboration of Outdoor Play Therapists (COOPT) and have undertaken training in Best Practice in Outdoor Play Therapy. I also qualified as a Level 3 Forest School Leader in 2016. My private therapy space has free-flow access from indoors to outdoors, from a fully equipped Play Therapy room to a private, contained semi-wild outdoor space.

I am a licensed Baby Bonding Practitioner, through which I aim to help parents and carers build secure attachments with their babies and toddlers, supporting healthy development and emotional well-being from the outset, as well as a Parent-Child Attachment Play practitioner, working with parents to help build, or re-build, relationships with their children.

As a Clinical Supervisor, I can offer supervision to trainee and qualified play therapists, as well as others working with children and young people. I work in a process-led way, integrating creativity and the outdoors into our sessions, creating an open, non-judgmental, and congruent space allowing the supervisee to develop their autonomy and authentic self.

I co-founded Play To Thrive – a pathway to play based therapies in Shropshire - in 2017 which is now growing in strength and becoming recognised across the county.

Qualifications

SandStory Therapist® (2022)
Creative Clinical Supervisor (2021)
Emergency Youth Mental Health First Aider (2019)
Parent Child Attachment Play Practitioner (2018)
Accredited Play Therapist (2018)
Licensed Baby Bonding Practitioner (2016)
Level 3 Forest School Leader (2016)
Outdoor First Aider (2016)
Post Graduate Diploma in Play Therapy – Certified Play Therapist (2014)
Post Graduate Certificate in Therapeutic Play (2012)
BEd (honours) in Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status (2007)

Quality Assurance

I am a member of Play Therapy UK (PTUK) – The UK Society for Play and Creative Arts Therapies – and, therefore, abide by their Ethical Framework.

Fulfilment of this framework includes:

A minimum of 1 ½ hours of Clinical Supervision per month
A minimum of 30 hours Continuing Professional Development (CPD) per year
Professional Liability insurance
Enhanced DBS check
Registration with the Information Commissioner’s Office for Data Protection
Yearly revalidation with PTUK to remain a member and to be listed on the PSA Register for Play and Creative Art Therapists: Membership Number 201010764 view here

You can view the PTUK ethical framework here

Currently, ‘Play Therapist’ is not a protected title (as opposed to an Art Therapist for example), and therefore anyone can call themselves a play therapist without undergoing any training and without adhering to an ethical framework. Please protect yourselves and your children by ensuring any therapist you work with is operating safely and ethically.