October 2007
Conditions
of Entitlement
for a Certificate of Registered Play
Therapist and Registered Play Therapy
Supervisor
The following conditions are derived from
the principles and goals of the Israeli Play therapy Association
, specified in the Founders Declaration of December 2004:
(a) The concept "play" includes all the
kinds of play practiced by children, adolescents and adults: symbolic,
make-believe and socio-dramatic play, motor games (e.g. jumping on a
trampoline), games with rules such as table games, social games, sports games,
etc.
Such an inclusive definition is required to cover
the needs of clients of all ages, cultures, levels of development and types of
difficulties. It is a challenge for the field of play therapy to utilize all
kinds of play for the benefit of all kinds of clients.
(b) The
concept "play therapy" refers to individual, family or group therapy
in which
play is a central, not necessarily the sole means for achieving
the therapeutic goals , and a vehicle of communicating with clients. This concept refers also to diagnostic
evaluations based on unstructured or structured observations on play.
(c) Play
therapy assumes up-to-date
integrative knowledge of all the fields relevant to the main streams and
methods of psychotherapy, such as child and adult development, child and adult
psychopathology, dynamic, cognitive-behavioral
and systemic psychotherapy, social and cultural anthropology of child
and family, etc. . Play therapy is also based on up-to-date knowledge of play,
its nature, its biological underpinnings, its functions in the child's
cognitive and socio-emotional development and its psychodynamic , social and
cultural roles. The play therapy knowledge base also includes familiarity with inter-cultural
commonalities and differences in the play modes of different socio-cultural
communities. Play therapy requires
familiarity with the therapeutic properties of play, the properties that have
the power to fortify the positive, constructive forces in the clients. The field of play therapy includes many
subfields and traditions. A play therapist has active knowledge of all these
and is able to integrate concepts, methods and techniques from all these
various subfields in
his or her practice.
(d) Play
therapy presupposes familiarity with the current world of children of various
sections of the
population. Updated play therapy is relevant to difficulties emanating from
central socio-cultural influences in present-day children's life, such as over-exposure to violent and erotic contents
in TV and computer games, fast cultural change and inter-cultural encounters
laden with tension, changes in the traditional structure of families and
weakening of parents and teachers' authority, violence and abuse within the
family, competitive pressures for educational and economical achievements, substance abuse, delinquency, direct or
indirect exposure to war, terror and
road accidents and widening socioeconomic gaps.
(e)
Children and families of all sections of the population who suffer from
difficulties whose sources are biological (e.g. ADHD, PDD and learning
disabilities), socio-cultural , educational or familial
will enjoy play therapy as a diagnostic and therapeutic instrument.
(f) Play
therapists are adults who have not lost the ability to play and enjoy playing and communicating
with children and non-children in the language of play.
(g) Play
therapists know how to use play as a therapeutic instrument in individual,
family and group settings.
Conditions of Certification as a
Registered Play Therapist (RPT)
Every
candidate for certification as an RPT by the Israeli Play Therapy Association
has to have an academic degree issued by a legally authorized institute of
higher education in one of the central therapy professions: Clinical,
consultative, rehabilitative , developmental,
clinical-medical , child clinical or
educational-clinical psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry,
clinical social work , creative arts therapy , family therapy, occupational
therapy or educational counseling.
Additionally, every candidate must be licensed to
provide independent treatment services in his profession by a legally
authorized body. Certification by a
voluntary organization like the Israeli Play Therapy Association, e.g. the
Israeli Family Therapy Association, will not be considered a license to
provides such treatment independently if the candidate does not hold also a
license to work independently by a legally authorized body, such as the
Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Welfare or the Ministry of
Education.
In order to
consider cases of candidates with respect to whom there is doubt whether they
fulfill the above and the following conditions, a Committee of Appeals will be
elected. This committee will discuss each case separately. (See below).
Academic Knowledge
Required
1. Candidates for
certification as RPT will be required to
have completed successfully (with a grade
of at least 80) a course of at least one semester, in the framework
of undergraduate, graduate or post-
graduate studies, in a legally authorized institute of higher education, in
each of the following areas of knowledge: A general introduction to psychology;
a general introduction to the sociology and anthropology of children and
families; theories of personality, and scientific methodology.
2 A candidate for certification as a Registered Play
Therapist will be required to have completed successfully (a grade of at least
80) courses of at least one semester in each of the following subjects, in the
framework of graduate of post-graduate studies, in a legally authrized academic institute: The physical, psychomotor,
cognitive and socio-motional development of children and adolescents;
psychopathology, neuro-psychology and
psychopharmacology of children and adolescents; an
historical survey of the field of
psychotherapy and all its branches, and professional ethics.
3. Every candidate will have completed at least 150
course hours in play theory and play therapy. These studies include:
a.
Updated, in-depth
knowledge and understanding of play theory and research: The
nature of play, its biological underpinnings and functions, its
place in the child and adolescent development , its psychodynamic, social and
cultural functions. Acquaintance with inter-cultural communalities and
differences in play patterns of different socio-cultural groups will be
required too. Candidates will have acquired tools for observing and analyzing
observations of individual and social play behavior of children, adolescents and adults. (At least 60 hours)
b. Updated, intensive knowledge of the history of
play therapy, its different schools with their principles, theoretical and
methodological foundations and intervention techniques (at least 30 hours)
c. Knowledge and understanding of integrative models
that attempt to synthesize current knowledge in play theory and research and
play therapy on the theoretical, methodological and practical planes, for the purpose of multi-faceted diagnostic evaluation of cases,
bases on observations of play and for play- therapeutic interventions in individual, family and group settings,
with respect to a wide scale of difficulties presented by children, adolescents
and adults of various socio-cultural groups, whose sources are genetic,
developmental, emotional and environmental (at least 60 hours)
Supervised
Practice
Each candidate will be required to earn at least two
years of experience as a therapist (not just play therapist), under individual
or group supervision, by legally authorized supervisors, in a full post
requiring at least five therapeutic contact hours a day, five days a week,
during ten months (or four years in a half-post), in the framework of an institute legally
authorized to provide supervised therapy services. Hours of supervised
practicum in the framework of graduate studies in a therapy profession will be
recognized as hours earned under this title
Five hundred
hours out of these supervised practice hours will be devoted to providing play
therapy - individual play therapy (200 hours), group play therapy (100 hours)
and family play therapy (200 hours), with at least two cases, in the framework
of a legally authorized institute. On these 500 hours the candidate will get 50
hours of
Individual live supervision by a supervisor authorized by the
Israeli Play therapy Association (RPTs), or,
alternatively, 100 group supervision hours by an authorized supervisor. The
individual or group supervision will include submission of written reports with
respect to all the stages of therapy, discussions and role play simulations, observation and
analysis of live or videotaped play
therapeutic interventions. Each candidate will have to acquire
at least three hours of live or
video supervision in each play therapy framework - three hours individual,
three hours group and three hours family.
In the
supervised practice , each candidate will be required
to prove play therapy specific skills and abilities such as: Ability to use
play as an in-depth diagnostic tool,
ability to use play as an instrument of therapeutic communication and as a tool
for effecting therapeutic change, creativity in the use of play, etc.
Readiness
A candidate will be
certified only if he or she has
fulfilled all the above conditions and has provided proofs of his or her
readiness. Such proofs include:
a. Good marks (at least
80) in all the theoretical courses
b. Good evaluations of
his or her supervisors concerning his or her professional abilities and personal- professional
qualities, in general and in particular concerning his or her qualities as a
play therapist.
A standard
questionnaire will be formulated for this purpose
c. Letters of reference
from the candidate's play therapy relevant work places
All these materials will
be submitted to the certification committee or to an ad hoc committee that will
be appointed by the certification committee
Duration of Certification and Renewal
An RPT certificate will
be issued by
the Israeli Play Therapy Association for five years. After five years, if the RPT wishes to renew
the validity of the certificate, he or she will have to fulfill the following
conditions:
a. That he or she has
actually and actively
provided play therapy
during these five years (letters of reference from the work places will be
asked for), proofs of participation in continuing education activities relevant
to play therapy (courses, workshops, conferences, etc.) , at least ten hours
each year from the date in which the RPT certificate was issued, and other proofs of professional development
(publications
and other contributions to the field).
The decision concerning
the renewal of the RPT certificate will be taken on the basis of such proofs by
the certification committee or an ad hoc committee appointed by the
certification committee.
Conditions for Certification as Registered Play Therapy Supervisor
(RPT-s)
Only
an RPT certified by the Israeli Play Therapy Association (or by APT, see below)
will be entitled to be trained for the status of RPT-s.
A candidate for the
status of RPT-s will have to participate in a 24 hours course of theory and
practice relevant to play therapy supervision, taught by at least one RPT-s.
The
candidate will have completed at least three years of experience as a therapist in the framework of a full post (five hours a
day, five days a week, ten months a year) from the date in which his or her RPT
certificate was issued. In the framework of these three years he or she will
provide each year 50 hours of play therapy, 60 individual, 60 family and 60
group play therapy, in the framework of an institute legally recognized as a therapy provider. During the last
of these three years the candidate will have provided at least 30 hours of
supervision in individual , family and group play therapy (12 individual, 12
family and 6 group) for at least one trainee, and will receive at least 10
hours of supervision on this supervision from an RPT
Proofs of Readiness
A candidate will be
issued a RPT-s certificate if he or she
has fulfilled all these conditions, and provided proofs of his or her readiness
- good evaluation of his or her supervisoors as to his or her abilities as a
supervisor of play therapy. Standardized questionnaires will be formulated for
this purpose.
Duration of certification as RPT-s
A RPT-s certificate
will be issued for five years. After five years, if the candidate wishes to renew his or
her RPT-s certificate, he or she will be asked to provide proofs that he or she
has actually provided play therapy and play therapy supervision during these
years (at least one supervisee and at least one supervision hour a week each
year). proofs of participation in continuing education
activities relevant to play therapy
(courses, workshops, conferences, etc.) will be also asked for , at
least ten hours each year from the date in which the RPT certificate was issued.
Other proofs of
professional development ( publications and other contributions to the field)
will be also required.
Recognition of APT certified Play Therapist and Supervisors
A certificate of RPT and a certificate of RPT-s issued by the Association for Play
Therapy (APT) will be recognized by the Israeli Play Therapy Association as a
certificate entitling its carrier to become certified also as an RPT or an RPT-s
by the Israeli Play Therapy Association
First Generation
of RPR-s ("grandparents")
Since the
Israeli Play Therapy Association is a new organization and there are for the
time being no formally certified supervisors of integrative play therapists in
Until then the
Israeli Play Therapy Association will approach Israeli professionals
whose knowledge, skills and achievements make them suitable for creating and
providing such training programs. Some senior professionals will be recognized
by this certification committee as first generation RPT and RPT-s
("Grandparents") in view of their long range experience as therapists
who work with children, adolescents and families using play therapy,
as supervisors and teachers, researchers
and developers of programs, whose
achievements have won national and international recognition and prestige.
So far only
two professionals have been recognized by this committee as such RPT and RPT-s
"Grandparents": Dr. Shlomo Ariel and
Professor Stanley Schneider
The Accreditation
and Certification Committee
This committee was appointed by the Chairperson of
the Israeli Play Therapy Association as a temporary Task Force for the purpose of creating the above
criteria for certification. By January 2009 this committee will be replaced by
a committee elected by the Board of Directors of the Israeli Play Therapy Association.
Any changes
introduced in this document by further elected certification committees will
not apply with respect to candidates who began their training as RPTs prior to the introduction of the changes.
An appeals
committee will be elected by the Board to discuss appeals concerning the committees decisions with respect to individual cases.
We, members of the Certification and Accreditation
Committee of the Israeli Play therapy Association, confirm this document by our
signatures:
Dr. Ofra Ayalon
Dr. Shlomo Ariel
Dr. Cynthia Carel
Professor Mooli Lahad
Professor Stanley Schneider