Description
ADVANCED CLINICAL CONSULTATION: STRENGTHENING THERAPEUTIC PRACTICE WITH CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Background
Working as a child therapist in private practice can be very rewarding, supporting children, parents, and families to grow together through difficult times and move to a place of thriving. Child therapists are deeply passionate about children, committed to becoming a highly skilled allied health professional. However, the nature of private practice can mean isolation from colleagues and supervisors that is felt more acutely in tricky situations or complex cases. This is true even for experienced therapists.
Supervision is invaluable in talking through cases in depth; however, there are fewer opportunities to connect with like-minded peers to discuss ethical issues common to practice that can erode confidence and undermine competence.
To address this, we are offering low-cost consultation groups for any allied health professional working as a Play Therapist, Child Psychotherapist, Child Counsellor, or Therapeutic Practitioner wanting to inquire more critically on their own practice with a focus on ‘Strengthening Therapeutic Practice with Children and Families‘. Given the professional diversity, we use the collective term, ‘Child Therapists’.
BIOS
Dr Emma van Daal
Emma is a trained and experienced infant and child psychotherapist with additional qualifications in Master of Counselling and Professional Doctorate in Therapeutic Arts Practice. Passionate about supporting the mental health of children and families, Emma splits her time between a thriving practice, as Director of the Centre for Infant Wellbeing, providing clinical supervision and consultancy, as well as research in the field of parent and infant mental health. She currently convenes the Infant, Child, and Young People interest group with PACFA with a particular interest in strengthening the competency standards for child counselling in Australia. She is the lead researcher investigating Australia’s first national competency standards for child counselling.
Emma’s practice is strongly grounded in a relational philosophy framed by trauma responsive, neuro-affirming, and decolonising practice. Emma enjoys her own arts-based practice including illustration and creating graphic novels, and travelling to cold, wintery places when time allows.
Jane Parkinson
As a Registered Play Therapist (APPTA), Registered Play Therapist Supervisor (APTA), and Certified Synergetic Play Therapist Supervisor® and Consultant, Jane currently balances her time between private practice, providing supervision to play therapists and counsellors, and supporting students embarking on their learning journey as a SPT Consultant. Jane is also a Clinical Counsellor (PACFA) with extensive specialist training and experience in working with complex trauma and families who have experienced family violence.
Jane’s therapeutic approach is attachment focused, trauma-responsive as well as neuro-affirming and sensory-inclusive in practice. Jane holds a strong commitment to promoting best practices, ethical standards, and encouraging ongoing professional development within the Australian Play Therapy community. Outside of the playroom, Jane is based in Melbourne, Australia, and enjoys all the regulating benefits of living 10 minutes from the beach.
Overview
Each workshop will focus on a specific theme and include interactive and experiential activities designed to extend competence and boost confidence, collectively and individually. Of interest is inquiring into the tricky matters that require closer thinking and deeper inquiry.
Capped at 10 attendees per group, workshops are structured to ensure there is adequate time to connect, communicate ideas, and learn experientially. Framed by the theories central to Play Therapy and Child Psychotherapy, Jane and Emma will draw from their own experience to support attendees to work through their own questions.
To get the most out of the workshop, attendees are invited to send through 1 question specific to the topic at the time of booking. To ensure workshop coherence, Jane and Emma will use the questions to develop several broader questions to guide the discussions in a meaningful way. Attendees can then overlay their individual concern.
The overarching learning objectives include:
To connect with colleagues to discuss challenges, concerns, and ideas on a particular topic with a view to strengthen practice competence and feel confident collectively and individually.
To engage in an active inquiry process of self and group reflection through dialogical, creative, and play-based approaches that contemplate multiple perspectives.
To participate in a structured consultation process that values relationships and information sharing in ways that are collegial, ethical, and accessible.
- To demonstrate a commitment to centring children as co-therapists and upholding their intrinsic rights, whilst decentring language, concepts, and ideologies that perpetuate pathologising, ableist, and oppressive practices.
REGISTRATIONS
Group 1 Nov 24th 10am-12noon AEDT: Going home to adversity
https://events.humanitix.com/advanced-clinical-consultation-group
Group 2 (Dec 8th): Embodying Coregulation
https://events.humanitix.com/strengthening-therapeutic-practice-with-children-and-families-group-2-embodying-coregulation
