Psycho-educational Training

Play can be used in schools, universities or workplaces to improve relationships, communication and creativity. I adapt the way I work depending on the environment.

Stage One

The Playful Practitioner is designed for adults who work with children and would like to improve their play skills to be able to deliver animated and focused sessions. No acting ability is required. We are all naturally playful, but sometimes being a grown up means play isn't "allowed". But it's vital for us as adults to stay playful. Children develop better when adults are involved in supporting them at play and in their education. The Playful Practitioner helps give a better understanding of the importance of play for children, and the skills to develop a more playful environment.

Stage Two

This is for practitioners who have completed The Playful Practitioner stage one.

Coaching will take place on site and the aim is to support staff in implementing their learning from Playful Practitioner stage one in their work place whether it is a nursery, children’s centre, library, or school. 

Objectives & Outcomes

For Practitioner:

• Staff empowered to feel confident using play as a means of developing children’s language, communication, socialisation, thinking and creativity.

• Staff able to link children’s experiences to educational outcomes.

• Staff better able to engage hard to reach children.

• Staff able to cascade learning to other members within their teams.

• Ongoing presence of a therapist can alert staff to developmental problems, neglect and child protection issues.

• Staff provided with additional opportunities to reflect on practice.

For Children:

• Develop child’s vocabulary and ability to listen.

• Achieve a better relationship between adult and child.

• Inclusion of isolated children.

• Moderation of aggressive play.

This is one of the only projects that work with parents and children together and is underpinned by the qualities of Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (PACE) by Dr Dan Hughes. This is booked as a minimum of 6 sessions over 6 consecutive weeks.

What are the aims of an M-Power© Play?

• To build individualised healthy and trusting parent-child relationships by supporting attachment through play in a structured and safe environment.

• To help make children’s behaviours more manageable by using parenting strategies that are Playful, Accepting, Curious and Empathic (PACE).

• To help develop emotional regulation and expression. 

• Opportunity for parents to see therapeutic parenting strategies from PACE in action.

• A shared positive experience for parent and child that can be employed in the home environment.

• Improved mental health and well-being for parents and children.

• Create a parenting support network.

This is a workshop for parents to give them the opportunity to play and develop their communication, storytelling and parenting skills.

The objectives are:

• To give parents an increased awareness of the importance of play to support attachment and learning in children.

• To give parents sense of what is needed to develop a playful and creative environment in order to understand their children’s needs and to get to know them as individuals.

• To empower parents by providing strategies and skills to cope with their children’s behaviour. 

• To develop relationships between participants.

These workshops develop creativity and spontaneity and develop trust and collaboration, building resilience.

For people in the workplace, using play for maximum impact requires asking staff to step outside their comfort zones, to take risks and to push boundaries. Play can provide a safe environment for introducing new ideas about market opportunities, generating debate about important strategic issues, challenging old assumptions and building a sense of common purpose. Play activities provide dynamic staff development activities that encourage participants to step outside the box and examine themselves, their organisation and its most fundamental challenges in new, perhaps previously unimagined ways. Thus, the imaginative, symbolic and metaphoric processes of play - a vital and creative human activity at any age - can produce grown up insights and tangible benefits for staff and organisation alike.

Get In Touch

For more information or to book your free 20 minute consultation get in touch today.