Child Therapy South Devon recognises the importance of ensuring that all those working with young people- whether this be in education, healthcare, social care or childcare- have the opportunity to develop and improve their skills, confidence and knowledge, thus enabling them to offer the highest possible standards of care to young people and families.
Training and consultation not only contribute to your continuous professional development (CPD) but also to your personal development; they can bring freshness to the way you work and help you to continue to evolve and grow to fulfill your potential.
Research shows that being supported by an employer to build on and develop skills, understanding and capacity is crucial in retaining and motivating staff and contributes to providing a higher level of care to clients.
Training
Child Therapy South Devon is able to offer a range of CPD options, including training and consultation, to professionals working with children, teens and families. Training can be offered on a wide range of topics such as:
- Therapeutic Play– Learn how to use play and art to support young people with their feelings and difficult life circumstances.
- Managing Difficult Feelings– The ability to cope with difficult feelings is not an ability that we are born with. We will explore some of the factors that contribute to difficult feelings and the purpose that these feeings can serve. We will then learn and practice techniques that young people (and adults!) can use to cope with their difficult feelings more healthily.
- Helping Young People Manage Anxiety– Learn about the causes and ‘life-span’ of anxiety and how to support young people to respond in a helpful way to anxiety.
- Why Young People Misbehave– Learn more about the motives of difficult behaviours and how to respond more effectively to these behaviours.
- Understanding and Working with ADHD– This is an introductory course to help childcare professionals feel more confident in working with young people with ADHD, or with ADHD type behaviours.
The above courses can be adapted to be an hour in duration or up to a half day work shop and are appropriate for all childcare professionals. These courses can also be delivered to parents and carers, individually or in a group. Please note that if you are a qualified young people’s counsellor or therapist these courses may not meet your needs; please do contact me to discuss things further.
Training for Social Workers and Student Social Workers
I am able to deliver a training course specifically for Social Workers, including those in training, to help them respond to Professor Munro’s recommendations that social workers be given the training and tools necessary to develop productive relationships with the children they seek to protect.
As a Play Therapist I have been trained to use play to build a relationship with a child and to communicate using play (as well as words); this training puts me in a unique position to be able to support others to do the same.
This course can be 1 hour in duration, or a whole day and by the end of it participants will have learnt and practiced techniques that they can use to build relationships and gain a window into the lives of the young people and families they are working with.
It is possible to focus this training on working with children, teenagers, families or a mixture of these client groups.
I am experienced at working with emotions, mental health issues and difficult life events; if there is anything you would like some training in that is not mentioned on this page please do get in contact as I am able to deliver be-spoke training packages.
Consultation
It is possible to book a consultation session with me to discuss the issues your client is experiencing, review how things are progressing with a client and to explore the challenges that are arising in your work with clients. Sometimes it can be helpful to talk to someone who is not involved in the situation, someone who has fresh eyes and who is specifically trained in child psychology and child development. The time can also be used to discuss your professional and personal development, if this is something that you would find helpful. Please contact me to discuss things further.
Chrissie is a professional Play Therapist, offering Play Therapy, Theraplay-based interventions, counselling and therapeutic parenting support. She covers much of Devon (including Torbay, Teignbridge, parts of East, Mid and West Devon, Cornwall and Somerset). She can be contacted on 07840069
075 or childtherapysouthdevon@
gmail.
com.