Dramatherapist, Counsellor, certified Theraplay Practitioner, Supervisor and Trainer, Transpersonal and Integrative Supervisor Trainee: working for Northamptonshire County Council as their Therapy Services team manager. Jo has a wealth of experience in a variety of settings, working for 20 years in Adult Mental Health before moving to Children’s services in 2003.
As Therapy Manager she has firmly established Theraplay services in Northamptonshire, especially in a number of Primary Schools settings. Her continuing initiative is to spread the Theraplay knowledge and skill base. She leads numerous learning events and conferences, has devised team building events and supervised the professional development of teams and colleagues. Jo is held in high regard for her enthusiastic style and has been the catalyst for many service departments for Northamptonshire. She supports local professionals and organisations in developing their Theraplay skills base and assists their desire to develop Theraplay as a leading edge practice initiative.
Back to Our Supervisors
is a BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor and Certified Theraplay® Practitioner, Trainer and Supervisor. In the past she worked in a highly specialised CAMHS team for Looked After and Adopted children as well as working in Education settings. Now she has a private practice providing psychotherapy and Theraplay to children whose early experiences of attachments have been disrupted as well as consultation, supervision and training to other professionals in this field. She also provides generic schools counselling. She is a Teaching Associate at University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education teaching Psychotherapeutic Counselling for Children and Adolescents up to MEd level. She is a contribution author to McLaughlin & Holliday (2014) Therapy with Children and Young People and to two of the modules in the MindEd programme (https://www.minded.org.uk) and co author of Fostering Good Relationships (Richardson & Peacock 2016). Currently she is also studying for an EdD at Cambridge researching into the experience of Theraplay. Contact details: [email protected]
Back to Our Supervisors
is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Music Therapist. She is also a Certified Theraplay® Practitioner and accredited in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy®. Vivien has been working as a Clinical Psychologist within the NHS in the UK for over twenty years specialising in therapeutic work with families and in the area of fostering and adoption. She has a longstanding interest in trauma and has worked in various roles in the field, in therapeutic communities with adolescents and leading national research into the impact of the Asian tsunami.
Alongside part time NHS work, Vivien is Clinical Director of The Family Place www.thefamilyplace.co.uk, an independent organisation providing flexible therapeutic interventions for families. Her main area of interest is in children with severe difficulties in forming relationships, arising from histories of abuse, neglect and trauma. Her clinical approach centrally includes foster carers and adopters in interventions and combines approaches to address complex difficulties. Vivien has many years experience delivering training. She has contributed to publications in the area of self-harm and the impact of trauma. Vivien can be contacted at [email protected]
Back to Our Supervisors
A Certified Theraplay® Practitioner, Trainer and Supervisor as well as Social Work England (SWE) Registered Social Worker, Certified Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Practitioner, and a Therapeutic Play Practitioner. Helen has worked in social work with children and families for 25 years, working in child protection, family support and residential care with 12 of those years specialising in adoption and providing therapeutic services, including Theraplay to children in foster and adoptive families. For the last six years, Helen has worked independently, providing Theraplay, DDP and Therapeutic Life Story Work to adoptive, foster and kinship families in Norfolk. Since completing the Level One, MIM and Group training in 2007, Helen has worked with a wide age range of children and families. As well as working directly with families, Helen provides advice, guidance and consultation to parents, carers, schools and other professionals on the impact of trauma on children. Her clinical experience includes helping children who have experienced trauma through all forms of abuse and neglect and also children with additional complexities such prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol, children on the Autistic Spectrum, ADHD and Sensory Processing conditions. Helen can be reached at [email protected].
Back to Our Supervisors
is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner in the Training Practicum. Catherine completed a degree in Psychology and Linguistics at UWE, Bristol alongside working with young people and adults with mental health and substance misuse problems. Catherine went on to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work at Bristol University and has worked as a Social Worker in the area of Fostering and Adoption since 2005. Catherine has over 20 years experience in working with children in a range of roles including play work, social work, childminding, and starting the journey to become a Theraplay Practitioner in 2011. Catherine is registered self employed as Theraplay South West providing Theraplay inervention with a specialism in children who have experienced developmental trauma, Adoption, Foster Care and Special Guardianship. Since April 2018 Catherine has worked at The Centre for Adoption Support and Education in Bristol as an Adoption Support Therapist in an equivalent Tier 4 service for Adoptive families who have complex needs. The focus of the work here has been to prevent adoption disruption and crisis intervention for families, working in a multi disciplinary team including DDP, NVR and Theraplay Informed Practitioners. Catherine has completed Sensory Attachment Intervention (SAI) Level 1 training and has a particular focus on integrating the principles of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and SAI into her practice. From January 2020 Catherine will be employed by Bath and North East Somerset Local Authority as Lead Theraplay Outreach Worker, responsible for Peer Supervision and delivery of Theraplay across four Childrens’ Centres, wider Local Authority Teams and Schools. Catherine has a particular interest in working with; schools; Early years settings; Group Theraplay; Sunshine Circles; with a focus on ensuring awareness of how a child’s experience of developmental trauma can impact on their needs, sensory integration and behavior in the classroom. Catherine can be contacted at [email protected]
Back to Our Trainers
is a certified Theraplay Practitioner and trainer and an associate supervisor. Ali specialises in providing child and family Theraplay interventions with children 10 years old and under. Ali has completed an MA module in Attachment and Learning with Bath Spa University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Wellbeing with Tavistock and Portman where she completed a dissertation on thinking psychoanalytically and systemically on a Theraplay intervention with an adoptive family. Ali is currently studying Infant Observation and Psychoanalytic Studies with the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy. Ali has over 20 years of experience of working with children and families in a variety of capacities including child minding, respite care for disabled children, emergency foster care, home education for children on the autism spectrum, Flying Start practitioner and Theraplay practitioner. Currently Ali is employed by Bright Start Children’s Centres providing Theraplay interventions for children in their pre-school year who are at risk of not successfully managing the transition to school due to emotional and behavioural difficulties, attachment disruptions or experience of early trauma. Her role also includes running Peer Support Sessions and supervision to Theraplay-informed and Foundational Level practitioners. Ali works within schools and Early Years settings modeling Group Theraplay and Sunshine Circles as well as promoting the role of a Key Adult in supporting children who have experienced disrupted attachments and trauma. Ali can be contacted for peer support and supervision at [email protected]
Back to Our Supervisors
is a certified Theraplay Practitioner and Trainer and a Registered Play Therapy Supervisor with almost three decades of experience working with children, adolescents, and their families. As well, she is a site reviewer for Children’s Mental Health Ontario. She has a B.A. in Psychology with Distinction from York University, and an M.Ed in Counseling Psychology from the University of Toronto. Joan has trained extensively in dyadic developmental psychotherapy with Daniel Hughes. In her private practice and as a team leader with a children’s mental health agency, Joan focuses her efforts on attachment and trauma work using Theraplay and DDP. Play therapy, expressive arts, narrative, and brief solution-focused modalities add to the range of services she offers to children and families.
Back to Our Supervisors
Lorie Walton, M.Ed. RP is the Executive Director of Theraplay Canada. Lorie is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner, Trainer and Supervisor and Certified Child Psychotherapist Play Therapist Supervisor. Lorie is also the owner of Family First Play Therapy Centre Inc, in Bradford, Ontario Canada, a center focused on assisting children and families dealing with attachment, trauma and emotional and developmental issues. She has extensive training in working with adopted and foster care children who experience attachment related issues and trauma. She provides internship opportunities as well as clinical consultation, play therapy and Theraplay supervision to practitioners across Canada.
Back to Our Supervisors
MAMFC, MARE, LPC-S, LMFT-S, RPT-S
is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner and Trainer. She received a B.S. in Special Ed. with Emotionally Disturbed Children from University of Houston in 1973. She taught school for various ages and grade levels during 1976 to 1981, before earning her Masters in Marriage and Family Counseling. Mary worked as a marriage and family therapist with the Union Baptist Association for 7 years and since 1999, has worked as a Marriage and Family counselor for The Juliana Poor Memorial Counseling Center at Houston’s First Baptist Church. She is clinical coordinator of the family team and guides 8 therapists through the process of a structured family treatment program developed over the last 10 years. The work of the team has expanded to include hosting family camps (both biological and foster/adoptive). This has extended into a ministry of providing training for those going on mission from Houston’s First Baptist Church to support orphan care all over the world. Mary is trained in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and took training under Drs. Karyn Purvis and David Cross in Trust-Based Relational Intervention. Mary has led workshops for parents and therapists using Theraplay, Play Therapy and Play Parenting materials here in the United States as well as overseas in Latvia, United Kingdom and South Africa. She will soon complete the certification of Theraplay Supervisor. Mary has completed Basic EMDR training and is now in the process of being certified. She is in the certification program for Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. Most important of all, she and her husband Earl, married for forty-three years, have three grown children, two of whom are married. They thoroughly enjoy the times they get to spend with their six grandchildren.
Back to Our Supervisors
