Play Therapist

[zeldasmum]

I have been in school today to meet a play therapist who will be working with DS and I am quite concerned.

 

She asked if other people were involved with him and I said yes Paed, physio, EP etc for suspected autism her reply was well we all have traits and that she herself could be autistic.

 

He always draws the same pictures very busy with lots of violent scenes, I took one in to show her. I wish I hadn't now because she insinuated that he must be playing or watching violent scenes. I told her I never allow this plus he has no actual interest and would be terrified of watching something violent. She insisted that he must have had access that I don't know about. They are related to video games but Mario, Zelda etc. She also seemed to think that it was relevant that he drew using red and black pens.

 

I was explaining what he was like as a baby and toddler (aggresive, violent head banging screaming etc) but I wish I hadn't because he isn't like that AT ALL now and I feel like I have given a false impression of him alongside the drawing.

 

I explained what he is like with other children i.e he wants to play but on his terms bad loser etc. She said "it sounds like he isn't able to be himself anywhere" this has upset me beacause he LOVES his home and is a happy loving boy just very emotional if he feels he has been 'Naughty' or he can't do something.

 

His obsession is with the wii and xbox, we have been trying to limit his time by using marble reward system and he has to exchange them for time on the console but I know I have let him play on them more than I should.

 

Also I should mention she is a qualified counselor and is doing a MSc in play therapy so as of yet is not qualified in play therapy which is why the school have got her services for free.

 

I am really worried now I thought it was going to be a positive experiance. What should I do if anything. Should I be asking what experiance she has of working with ASD's. I find that school although they agree he is having problems whenever I mention aspergers or HFA they just say well it might not be.

 

I must add I am not trying to self-diagnose this was suggested to me by another proff who has been working with him and now he is in the process of dx. It was something I hadn't considered but that was due to my own ignorance of Autism. Once I had actually looked at the criteria and read up on it it fits perfectly.

 

Sorry if the post is long and rambling, I can never be as succinct as other posters on here.

[cmuir]

Hi

 

Since my son was very young I've often been shocked at some of the things he says - has a tendency to make threats, etc. In addition, drawings, etc are all very 'unsual' shall we say. At the time, people did have a tendency to assume that R must have picked up things from tv, etc. However, asking R to provide a summary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was telling - despite his DVD collection being mainly Postman Pat and Scooby Doo at the time, it was clear that his interpretation of that book was colourful. R has even told me that he'd like to cut his headteacher's head off. I reported this to my son's consultant, whose a well respected ASD specialist, who advised that she has encountered children who have particularly colourful imaginations, which are not necessarily down to tv, etc. So, I guess we're not alone! In truth, I can completely understand why people used to think that kiddo was watching inappropriate DVDs/TV programmes (guess people have to start with the obvious i.e. work out why that child says/does inappropriate things), but that's not always the case.

 

In terms of the play therapist - I think's she's very dismissive. It angers me a great deal when people make comments like 'we're all have autistic traits'. In fact, I believe that whilst we all have idiosyncrasies, there's a world of difference between a few 'funny little ways' and having an ASD (which is a neurological life-long disorder). My feeling is to trust your instincts - if you're heart and your head tell you something isn't quite right, you've every right to establish a reason why that's the case. I found that my GP and HV were very dismissive and even suggested I cut my working hours from full-time to part-time (i.e. first time parent who wasn't coping!). It was only after a couple of years of hitting rock bottom and realising that my son's behaviour wasn't down to poor parenting, that I was eventually able to insist on a referral to a specialist. A Paed told me outright that R didn't have AS, yet I have doubts (R ticked nearly every box). We were then passed from pillar to post, before finally seeing a specialist who diagnosed AS. Have to say, 5 years on, there's no doubt that R has AS.

 

My advice would be to be wary of so called professionals with pre-conceived ideas. Sometimes specialists do get things wrong (we all do!) and sometimes it's a case of pushing to get a second opinion, etc. I'd also keep a diary of any that strikes you as being odd.

 

Best wishes

 

Caroline.

[Kazzen161]

Do you know what they are expecting of this play therapist?

 

As far as I am aware play therapy is like counselling via play (my son had some and his drawings and play revealed what he felt about his Dad leaving home). It is not where someone comes in and teaches a child how to play (like social skills training). So she might be looking at his red and black pens as a sign of repressed anger, whereas it may just be because he likes those colours.

 

I would ask the schol what the play therapist's role is.

[BusyLizzie100]

Do you know what they are expecting of this play therapist?

 

As far as I am aware play therapy is like counselling via play (my son had some and his drawings and play revealed what he felt about his Dad leaving home). It is not where someone comes in and teaches a child how to play (like social skills training). So she might be looking at his red and black pens as a sign of repressed anger, whereas it may just be because he likes those colours.

 

I would ask the schol what the play therapist's role is.

 

 

Kazzen's right.

 

My second son saw a play therapist at CAMHS when he was nine; after three sessions of him sitting on the sofa with a blanket over his head, she said it was pointless to continue because he wouldn't engage with her. The reality of the situation was that he was stressed and anxious and trying to block out the world (this was when his school placement was breaking down) and actually needed professional input urgently. She was absolutely pants and knew nothing about autism. (Things have improved now he is at a different school and his needs are being met).

 

Hope you have a better experience!

Lizzie x

Edited February 22, 2011 by BusyLizzie100

[justine1]

Kazzen's right.

 

My second son saw a play therapist at CAMHS when he was nine; after three sessions of him sitting on the sofa with a blanket over his head, she said it was pointless to continue because he wouldn't engage with her. The reality of the situation was that he was stressed and anxious and trying to block out the world (this was when his school placement was breaking down) and actually needed professional input urgently. She was absolutely pants and knew nothing about autism. (Things have improved now he is at a different school and his needs are being met).

 

Hope you have a better experience!

Lizzie x

I agree with what's been said above.Dan went to a CAMHS play therapist and she said they (play therapists) cannot dx ASD,so I would not worry at all about this person is saying.She also did'nt see Dan again as generally on our side(Beds and Bucks) they do not have anything to do with ASD kids unless they have additional mental health problems.

 

Even if she was qualified he needs to be assessed using a diagnostic tool such as ICD-10 criteria for autism,which was what they used to dx my son's.

[bid]

I also think that if you are not happy with this woman, and feel she has no real experience or knowledge of ASD, you are quite within your rights to say you don't want her working with your son.

 

Personally, I would have concerns that if she is inexperienced (and as you say she isn't even qualified yet) she might upset or confuse your son.

 

Bid

Edited February 23, 2011 by bid

[carolplaytherapy]

Hi Mikey's Mum,

 

I am sorry to hear that you and others have had some bad experiences with Play Therapy, this upsets me as I am a qualified Play Therapist who works on a daily basis with children who have ASD and I know the benefit that Play Therapy can have if you have a Therapist who is knowledgeable regarding what is a very specialised condition.

 

Play Therapy should be non-judgemental, I have worked with children who draw what can seem to be aggressive pictures and it is not until you sit with that child while they are drawing that you get a feel for the possible reasons for it whether it be that they have an anxiety they wish to express or that they just enjoy the activity/colours. Therapist's should not make snap judgements on any pictures they are shown without an insight into their creation.

 

Yes Play Therapist's help children with their anxieties and problems but I have found that if a non-directive approach is used then Play Therapy is very effective in developing play skills also, I run groups and individual sessions in developing naturalistic play and interaction skills, however I have over 20 yrs experience of being with children who have ASD.

 

A Play Therapist should create a safe space where the child can feel relaxed and play or engage in activities in order to express themselves at their own pace wih no demands or expectations from the therapist

 

It would be a shame for your son to miss out on play therapy if available, I have found that many student Play Therapists who have no experience of ASD learn as much from their clients as their clients do from them.

 

Maybe you could suggest that the Play Therapist reads some relevant books on ASD so that she has more of an understanding of her clients.

 

And most importantly communicate with her, you know your son the best - she could learn so much from you!

[zeldasmum]

Thany you for taking the time to reply

 

I have been to speak to the HT today and feel a little bit better about it. I made it quite clear that he doesn't need pyschoanalyzing and that wasn't what I signed him up for.

 

He has always been the way he is, There is no trauamatic event in his life bereavment etc and he has been 'different' since he was a baby. To apply relevance to the the colours he drew with and the fact that creepy music scares him to a particular event I don't feel is relevant. I am sure it with some children but I don't believe that there is always a reason WHY sometimes things just ARE. If that makes sense.

 

I am going to give it a go, HT reassured me that she will be supervised not only by himself but by her supervisor.

[carolplaytherapy]

Thany you for taking the time to reply

 

I have been to speak to the HT today and feel a little bit better about it. I made it quite clear that he doesn't need pyschoanalyzing and that wasn't what I signed him up for.

 

He has always been the way he is, There is no trauamatic event in his life bereavment etc and he has been 'different' since he was a baby. To apply relevance to the the colours he drew with and the fact that creepy music scares him to a particular event I don't feel is relevant. I am sure it with some children but I don't believe that there is always a reason WHY sometimes things just ARE. If that makes sense.

 

I am going to give it a go, HT reassured me that she will be supervised not only by himself but by her supervisor.

[carolplaytherapy]

"Sometimes things just are..." Makes perfect sense to me!

 

Glad to hear you've decided to go ahead, Hope it all goes well.

Edited February 23, 2011 by carolplaytherapy

[baddad]

Hi -

don't know anything, really, about play therapy, but many of the things you say the therapist has told you would worry me deeply, as would the fact that she's only 'training'.

As far as qualified therapists go, the reality is that qualifications often aren't worth the paper their written on, and neither are the 'therapies' they are endorsing. Have not a clue whether that's the case for play therapy (or not), or this therapist (or not) but to make the point there was a cat recently featured on QI that had the most impressive list of qualifications you could wish to see - all of them 'genuine' in the sense that other than not stating he/she was a cat they had been bought and paid for by legal means and channels... just googled and found this on QI's cat:

- You should not consult Dr. Zoe D. Katze Ph.D., C.Ht., DAPA because she is a cat with bogus qualifications including hypnotherapy. Academic Steve Eichel wanted to prove just how easy it was to get qualifications over the internet. Once you get one then you can use the others to parlay until you get a whole list of them. Zoe has a doctorate in counselling psychology from a mail-order university, she has a C.Ht. meaning she is a certified hypnotherapist, she is in the National Guild of Hypnotists, and is a Diplomat of the American Psychotherapy Association. Zoe also has qualifications that allow her to be an energy therapist, a past-life regression therapist and an alien abduction therapist.

 

I've a friend (well, she's the mum of one of my son's friends) who is a 'fully trained counsellor'. Unfortunately, knowing the woman personally, I know she is also a very judgemental 'Born again' (don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking 'born again's' - just the judgemental aspect of this individual) with about as much empathy as your average, erm, cat! She's very good at patronising, though, and this probably goes down very well with the people who consult her because all they are really looking for is confirmation that whatever is wrong in their lives isn't their fault and they have no control over it.

 

Hope that's helpful

 

L&P

 

BD

[bid]

MM, did you find out exactly what the school is hoping for from this play therapy?

 

If you are going ahead, I would just keep a very close eye considering the things she said to you at your initial meeting.

 

I do think it's worth finding out more about this woman...you say she's a 'counsellor'...in what sense exactly? It's a bit of a woolly area I think. On the one hand, I had some extremely helpful support from a Relate counsellor experienced in AS, but then equally I worked with a young woman who was 'qualifying' as a counsellor, and honestly the thought terrified us all!

 

Hope it proves helpful for your son.

 

Bid

Edited February 23, 2011 by bid

[carolplaytherapy]

Always ensure that any Play Therapist you come across has been trained by PTUK or BAPT (see websites) as these are recognised Play Therapy Professional bodies and all therapists have been qualified to Post Graduate Diploma level accredited by a university.

 

These courses are all practice based and so all student Play Therapists are expected to carry out sessions while completing their qualification. However, as stated earlier, all students PT's have to have very regular supervisions with a qualified Play Therapist to ensure that their input is appropriate.

 

Play Therapy really is a beneficial and worthwhile approach for children.

[baddad]

Always ensure that any Play Therapist you come across has been trained by PTUK or BAPT (see websites) as these are recognised Play Therapy Professional bodies and all therapists have been qualified to Post Graduate Diploma level accredited by a university.

 

These courses are all practice based and so all student Play Therapists are expected to carry out sessions while completing their qualification. However, as stated earlier, all students PT's have to have very regular supervisions with a qualified Play Therapist to ensure that their input is appropriate.

 

Play Therapy really is a beneficial and worthwhile approach for children.

 

Hi carolplaytherapy -

It is reassuring to see training standards applied to any sort of therapy, but the problem is for most people they're just a string of impressive looking letters (much like the ones Dr Catz has)... Using the info you gave, a quick search took me to the website for PTUK, which advises that the University accreditation they offer is for IBCEPT (The International Board of Examiners of Certified Play Therapists), which itself arose from the Canadian therapy centre developing the system. In effect, what's being offered is an accreditation offered by the people who developed and market the 'system'. There's no external monitoring whatsoever, just a round robin of interested parties offering endorsements for other interested parties...

None of which is to say, of course, that play therapy isn't everything they/you tell us it is - I'm just stating the fact that however impressive all those initials and university endorsements look they all arise from the same source - the canadian clinic that developed the therapy in the first place.

And while it would be easy to dismiss the OP's play therapist as 'unprofessional' or whatever, she is described as a 'qualified counsellor' doing an 'Msc' in play therapy which appears to be a qualification endorsed by the very same Uni (Canterbury Christchurch) mentioned by PTUK, so on that basis the qualification itself can't be taken as evidence of consistent practice across the board(?)

 

Please appreciate I'm not 'dissing' play therapy or any practitioners or training courses, and I do think 'play' (with or without the word 'therapy' attached) is a hugely important part of child development.

 

L&P

 

BD

[carolplaytherapy]

I can see how you would come to that conclusion Baddad but believe me, PTUK standards are high

 

Hey, I just know it took me two years to get the qualification and from practicing I know it works.

 

Talks are currently taking place with the Health Professions Council for Play Therapy to be registered, this should help to give more credit to the profession.

Edited February 23, 2011 by carolplaytherapy

[coolblue]

Hi -

don't know anything, really, about play therapy, but many of the things you say the therapist has told you would worry me deeply, as would the fact that she's only 'training'.

As far as qualified therapists go, the reality is that qualifications often aren't worth the paper their written on, and neither are the 'therapies' they are endorsing. Have not a clue whether that's the case for play therapy (or not), or this therapist (or not) but to make the point there was a cat recently featured on QI that had the most impressive list of qualifications you could wish to see - all of them 'genuine' in the sense that other than not stating he/she was a cat they had been bought and paid for by legal means and channels... just googled and found this on QI's cat:

 

 

I've a friend (well, she's the mum of one of my son's friends) who is a 'fully trained counsellor'. Unfortunately, knowing the woman personally, I know she is also a very judgemental 'Born again' (don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking 'born again's' - just the judgemental aspect of this individual) with about as much empathy as your average, erm, cat! She's very good at patronising, though, and this probably goes down very well with the people who consult her because all they are really looking for is confirmation that whatever is wrong in their lives isn't their fault and they have no control over it.

 

Hope that's helpful

 

L&P

 

BD

 

Not really.

 

Would you apply this proviso to occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychotherapists as well?

 

cb

[baddad]

Not really.

 

Would you apply this proviso to occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychotherapists as well?

 

cb

 

 

Not sure which bit you mean 'not really' about?

 

I'm a little bit less cynical about more established things like OT and physio, but it depends on the context, the claims being made for it, and the individual practitioner... I do think, though, that you get lousy OT's and lousy physio's etc (just as you get good ones), and that it's as much to do with the 'mindset' of the individual as the qualification they've got... same applies to any other professional.

Q: What do you call a medical student with the lowest pass in his year?

A: Dr

 

When you get to 'alternative' medicine - sorry, but most of it is just so much 'woooooo' (and no, it's not about keeping an open mind to the idea that just because you don't understand/can't prove it it doesn't mean it can't work, it's more a case of keeping an open mind to the idea that if you can't understand or practically demonstrate that it does work then it's probably a mixture of self delusion and wishful thinking).

 

L&P

 

BD

 

PS: Not sure if your suggesting that not applying the same proviso to (insert name of established, recognised intervention) as i would apply to alternative interventions equates to some sort of double standard, but I really don't see it that way at all. Suppose I was to come up with 'sausage therapy' (whereby you fed children sossidges 3 times a day) and a load of old psychobabble to back up my claims that it had 'worked miracles and cured my son' would that be a good enough reason for other people to put it on a par with, say, OT?

 

Oh, BTW - they're SPECIAL sossidges of course - my own recipe. I'm running workshops in how to make them, and if you attend one you can get the recipe and acreditation as a sossidge therapist in your own right. POA...

Edited February 23, 2011 by baddad

[bid]

 

Would you apply this proviso to occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychotherapists as well?

 

 

To be completely fair, certainly OTs and Physios are accredited and registered with their respective professional organisations, and clients have a means of complaint if they feel there has been any misconduct, etc. I'm pretty sure there aren't similar safeguards with play therapists, but I'm happy to be corrected on this point. I'm also sure play therapists can provide a valuable service, but personally I would have significant concerns at this particular trainee therapist's comments made to MM at their initial meeting.

 

Bid

Edited February 23, 2011 by bid

[carolplaytherapy]

To be completely fair, certainly OTs and Physios are accredited and registered with their respective professional organisations, and clients have a means of complaint if they feel there has been any misconduct, etc. I'm pretty sure there aren't similar safeguards with play therapists, but I'm happy to be corrected on this point. I'm also sure play therapists can provide a valuable service, but personally I would have significant concerns at this particular trainee therapist's comments made to MM at their initial meeting.

 

Bid

 

Yes there are the same safeguards with Play Therapy as long as the Play Therapist is registered with PTUK or BAPT. Some people call themselves Play Therapists but they are not, unless they are registered with one of the above organisations. Play Therapy is a relative new but progressive profession which is gaining respect within Schools, Cahms and Social Services all over the country.

PTUK has the largest database of results on the effectiveness of Play Therapy and unlike 'Sausage Therapy' Play Therapy does not claim to 'cure' autism, I believe that is impossible!

Edited February 24, 2011 by carolplaytherapy

[bid]

Yes there are the same safeguards with Play Therapy as long as the Play Therapist is registered with PTUK or BAPT. Some people call themselves Play Therapists but they are not, unless they are registered with one of the above organisations. Play Therapy is a relative new but progressive profession which is gaining respect within Schools, Cahms and Social Services all over the country.

PTUK has the largest database of results on the effectiveness of Play Therapy and unlike 'Sausage Therapy' Play Therapy does not claim to 'cure' autism, I believe that is impossible!

Thanks for clarifying that point Carol

 

I'm not against play therapy at all, more concerned at the comments made by this particular trainee about ASD.

 

Bid

[baddad]

To be completely fair, certainly OTs and Physios are accredited and registered with their respective professional organisations, and clients have a means of complaint if they feel there has been any misconduct, etc. I'm pretty sure there aren't similar safeguards with play therapists, but I'm happy to be corrected on this point. I'm also sure play therapists can provide a valuable service, but personally I would have significant concerns at this particular trainee therapist's comments made to MM at their initial meeting.

 

Bid

 

 

Picking up on this point, and just to reiterate in case my post last night about 'alternative therapies' is taken out of context... I also was raising concerns about some of the assumptions that appear to be being made by the OP's therapist - I was not 'dissing' play therapy across the board. I wouldn't do that, because I do not know enough about it, but that doesn't detract from the inconsistencies I noted about accreditation either. It's also completely realistic to recognise that a: worthless qualifications do exist, and b: earning a qualification is no indication of how the person achieving it conducts themselves in practice. The difference between a 'good' GP and a 'bad' GP (or teacher, or therapist, or solicitor, or......) isn't necessarily the qualification, and it isn't even in how they interact with their patients/clients/students etc - their effectiveness can only be measured by the results that they get, and that measure only has any value if it also considers their 'failure rate'. Even that is inherently difficult, because a brilliant, cutting edge surgeon working with profoundly at risk patients is going to fare less well than an average (or even poor) surgeon working with an inherently low-risk client base. (That latter consideration is one well exploited by Drs with practices that rely on highly regarded postcodes and hugely inflated consultation fees to add gravitas to their practices image, by the way - the 'Emporer's New Clothes' effect).

 

Now having said all that, the kind of training and the kind of accreditation applied to it does (or should) at least provide a baseline for comparison, and it has to be said, that accreditation by 'self-assessment' (i.e. by people with a vested interest in the marketing of a therapy 'product') is nowhere near as reliable as a recognised and controlled method of independent assessment, because the former is in many senses just a heavilly disguised form of pyramid selling.

 

Hope that all makes sense and doesn't put any hackles up, but in a nutshell I'm not knocking anyone or any therapy, and the comments I made about the OP's therapist are made on the basis that the OP's subjective account of their conversation is an accurate one.

 

L&P

 

BD

 

Oh PS: Just seen carol's post, made as I typed. Carol, the problem I have with PTUK is that it's not independent. The acreditation it offers, as I have already said, is an endordement from the IBCEPT, which is effectively the clinic developing the 'system'. And again, to reiterate my earlier post, the OP's therapist is taking exactly the same degree (probably through the same university) that the PTUK recommend. Admittedly, the clinic where Play Therapy was developed has gone to some trouble to structure itself in a way that disguises it's connection with the (self) monitoring process, but the connections are there, under the umbrella charities that also enable them to claim 'non-profit' status without attracting too much scrutiny.

Edited February 24, 2011 by baddad

[coolblue]

Not sure which bit you mean 'not really' about?

 

The 'hope that's helpful' bit.

 

I'm a little bit less cynical about more established things like OT and physio, but it depends on the context, the claims being made for it, and the individual practitioner... I do think, though, that you get lousy OT's and lousy physio's etc (just as you get good ones), and that it's as much to do with the 'mindset' of the individual as the qualification they've got... same applies to any other professional.

Q: What do you call a medical student with the lowest pass in his year?

A: Dr

 

That's what I didn't find helpful. We, of all people, know how unprofessional professionals can be. Not sure what point you were trying to make.

 

When you get to 'alternative' medicine - sorry, but most of it is just so much 'woooooo' (and no, it's not about keeping an open mind to the idea that just because you don't understand/can't prove it it doesn't mean it can't work, it's more a case of keeping an open mind to the idea that if you can't understand or practically demonstrate that it does work then it's probably a mixture of self delusion and wishful thinking).

 

That would depend on why the medicine was considered 'alternative'. I think it's a false distinction. Just because medicine is orthodox doesn't make it good, and just because it's alternative, doesn't make it 'woooo'. As you say, what's important is the evidence base.

 

PS: Not sure if your suggesting that not applying the same proviso to (insert name of established, recognised intervention) as i would apply to alternative interventions equates to some sort of double standard, but I really don't see it that way at all. Suppose I was to come up with 'sausage therapy' (whereby you fed children sossidges 3 times a day) and a load of old psychobabble to back up my claims that it had 'worked miracles and cured my son' would that be a good enough reason for other people to put it on a par with, say, OT?

 

Oh, BTW - they're SPECIAL sossidges of course - my own recipe. I'm running workshops in how to make them, and if you attend one you can get the recipe and acreditation as a sossidge therapist in your own right. POA...

 

I just wasn't clear why you had such reservations about the title 'therapist'. I can understand querying the practice of say, play therapy, if you had doubts about the accreditation of the qualifications or a series of encounters with poor practice, but you appeared to be dismissing 'therapists' in general. Since there are a lot of different therapists, I wasn't sure what you meant.

 

cb

[puffin]

One thing that I don't get - and that might concern me personally - is the exact nature of her relationship with the school as she is by her own admission not qualified as a play therapist

- is she working with your son as a work experience placement as part of her training? Will her work be supervised in that case?

- or have the school chosen her merely because she is unqualified and therefore very cheap

 

I guess what I would be wondering is who will ensure the quality of the work done by this unqualified therapist when she is working alone at school with your son?

 

I would be concerned given the rather judgmental statements she has made about autism

[baddad]

The 'hope that's helpful' bit.

 

 

 

That's what I didn't find helpful. We, of all people, know how unprofessional professionals can be. Not sure what point you were trying to make.

 

 

Ahhh... well the 'hope that's helpful' was aimed more at the OP than you. That'll be the reason, I'spect... (with the 'helpful' being that yes, I agreed the therapists obs seemed rather presumptious and that it seemed sensible to proceed with caution)

 

That would depend on why the medicine was considered 'alternative'. I think it's a false distinction. Just because medicine is orthodox doesn't make it good, and just because it's alternative, doesn't make it 'woooo'. As you say, what's important is the evidence base.

No, but alternative medicine does fall into the category of 'wooooo' far more often than orthodox medicine, and tends to be backed up more often by anecdotal and/or biased evidence - often from very vulnerabe people who have invested a huge amount of money into finding someone (anyone) who'll tell them everything's going to be alright in the end. Show me any 'wooo' therapy with reliable evidence based on proven, replicable results that can't be explained in any other way than as arising from the intervention and that'll be fine by me. But then it wouldn't be an 'alternative therapy' - it would very quickly become mainstream, accepted practice.

 

 

I just wasn't clear why you had such reservations about the title 'therapist'. I can understand querying the practice of say, play therapy, if you had doubts about the accreditation of the qualifications or a series of encounters with poor practice, but you appeared to be dismissing 'therapists' in general.

 

Not quite sure how you arrived at that 'appeared to be dismissing therapists in general'? I quite clearly stated I wasn't.

 

If you want to comment further on the OP that would seem fine. If you just want to pick apart what I've said, send me a PM, because at the mo we seem to be wandering off topic(?)

 

L&P

 

BD

 

Oh ps - and again, just in case of misinterpretation, I am in no way suggesting that play therapy falls into the category of 'wooooo'.

Edited February 24, 2011 by baddad

[zeldasmum]

My concerns re: the play therapist stemmed from her comments regarding Autism and that she seemed to be analyzing everything.

 

To give a further example - Because I thought (subjective) she was misunderstanding his drawing i gave her two more examples. The children in his class would play a educational game on the comp. If they failed blood dripped down the screen and a voice shrieked. He was obssessed with the game and talked constantly about it, However he would never play himself and could only cope if they played with headphones so he couldn't hear the music. On the rare occasion they were allowed to play on the whiteboard with volume he would hide in the toilets. Example two At a particular theme park to get to some of the rides you have to walk past a zombie figure with red flashing eyes that shrieks. He is terrified and so we are unable to visit the rides in that area.

 

To these examples her response to me was "which came first his fear of the game or the theme park" This seemed to me that she was analyzing WHY when the point I was trying to make was that he has a fear of scary sounds, sights etc therefore not only would we not allow him to watch/play violent things but he would have no interest because he would be terrified.

 

In response to q's The play therapist is a trainee but a qualified counselor. The HT has clarified that she does have experiance of working with children although not SEN. She is working with him to improve his play skills, and will be supervised.

 

Thank you for all your replies, I have found them all helpful and it has helped me put things in perspective.

[bid]

I think the main thing to remember MM is that if you're not happy, you don't have to agree to her working with him...or you can stop things at any stage if you feel concerned.

 

Let's hope she has just been a bit clumsy with her comments, and she helps develop his play.

 

Bid <'>

[zeldasmum]

I find it really hard whenever I have appointments.I always feel that I have not given a true reflection of my son and its all negative (a bit like filling in the DLA form, I gave up). As shown from the OP.

 

What I wish I had told her is that He see the world in HDTV, what frightens him terrifies him what he loves he adores.

He cannot find the words for emotions but feels the emotions of music so strongly. He can see the beauty of nature and shows me details I would never see without him. <'>

[bid]

Could you maybe write some bullet points to summarise your son's characteristics and main difficulties?

 

Bid

[Sally44]

I haven't read all the posts on this thread, so please excluse me if I repeat something already said.

 

Typical Play Therapists use play for emotional trauma etc. That is not the kind of Play Therapist you want.

 

I used a private group of Play Therapists for my son a few years back and they were very good. But they were all qualified and experienced in using play with children on the autistic spectrum. The Play was not to 'unearth' any traumas or emotional upsets, it was all about "learning to play" and socialise by meeting the child at the level they were at and "labelling" their emotions etc that they displayed through play. They "modelled" social interaction and would progress onto helping children to join in play with other children. They also taught the parents how to use play in the home as a very specific tool to help the child identify their emotions and responses and to mirror their behaviour and model appropriate skills and responses and build on joint attention etc. All very very useful.

 

Personally I would want to know what specific training or experience they had with ASDs. I would want to know what the Aim of her Therapy was, and to give me some ideas of what she would be doing and what 'skills' she would be teaching. If the whole point of this is to try and find some trauma, then it may be a waste of everyones time.

Edited February 25, 2011 by Sally44

[coolblue]

The OTs who assessed my son had a play therapist working with them who was excellent. She did a lot of work on developing motor movements, anticipating what the other person was going to do, developing strategies, extending his repertoire of activities and so on.

 

cb