Continuing Professional Development
CREATIVE COUNSELLING WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Commencing February 2016
*Possibly leading to UKCP Child Proficiency Marker
As part of our Continuing Professional Development Programme, Matrix is offering
a certificate course in creative counselling with children and young people for
qualified counsellors and psychotherapists and senior trainees. All five units must
be attended in order to gain the Certificate.
VENUE:
These workshops will take place at Age UK, Hillview Business Park, Old Ipswich
Road, IP6 0AJ
TIMES:
9.30am - 5.00pm
COSTS:
Matrix Members
£1,500 (inc. VAT)
Non-members
£1,800 (inc. VAT)
DEPOSIT:
£300
Please contact Clemmie Gleeson to apply. Your place will be secured by payment
of the deposit. All applicants will be interviewed prior to being offered a place.
Please apply early as demand is high and places are limited.
Continuing Professional Development Coordinator:
Clemmie Gleeson
Phone: 01692 402313
clemmie@matrix-training.org
COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT:
UNIT ONE: Systems and Play. How do we start?
Date: 6 & 7 February 2016
Assessment, problem formulation and contract setting in child counselling work will be
addressed in this module. We will look at different dimensions of contracting including a focus
on the systems we are working with when we work with children and young people in relation to
assessment. We begin the planning of appropriate therapeutic interventions such as play.
UNIT TWO: Child Development and Art. Shall we paint and not talk?
Date: 12 & 13 March 2016
In this module we will look at the process of child development, including the different emotional
and relational tasks required at different ages. We will explore creative ways of working with
young people using art. Participants will be given tools for understanding and exploring
developmental delay, and behavioural difficulties.
UNIT THREE: Trauma and Abuse. Who calls the tune?
Date: 9 & 10 April 2016
This module will focus on helping young people develop communication skills and emotional
fluency about difficult experiences. Participants will be encouraged to experiment with and
experience different ways of facilitating emotional contact and tools for understanding the
impact of trauma and abuse on child development, notably through the use of drama and
storytelling.
UNIT FOUR: Behaviour and attachment: What happens when it all goes
wrong?
Date: 7 & 8 May 2016
The concept of relationship building and the likely impact of key transitions such as divorce and
family break up; adolescence and school moves will be explored in this module. Suggested
ways of working with sand trays and models will be demonstrated.
UNIT FIVE: Ethics and safeguarding principles: Let's keep it safe!
Date: 4 & 5 June 2016
This module will take the form of a work seminar where participants can draw together the skills
and knowledge they have gained on the course and place them in a secure legal and ethical
framework. Participants will have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills with individual
presentations and get constructive feedback to support their development.
PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATE REQUIREMENTS:
Candidates for the Certificate must fulfil the following:
 Be either qualified as a counsellor or psychotherapist who has completed at least 250
hours of supervised practice
 Attendance at the 10 days training of the Course series
 Willingness to share work and to participate in the group discussion
 Following the presentation, participants will submit a written 'case study' – a maximum of
3,000 words – that describes and provides a reflection on the candidate's practice linking
this to what they have learned in the training
 Completion of a minimum of 20 hours of child and young people practice either during or
after the training, on submission of clinical log with the case study
 A learning journal describing the training attended and the counselling practice of the
practitioner with young people
 A record of the supervision received on this work supported by a supervisor’s report
COURSEWORK & PRESENTATION:
During their presentation and in their written submission, candidates will:
 Evidence their ability to establish an effective working relationship with a young person
 Briefly comment on their assessment of the problem presented by the YP in terms of a
model for understanding young people
 Provide a statement of a core integrative framework for counselling with children and
young people
 Evidence their ability to hold the tension of working with their clients in a range of
professional situations and within a multi-professional context
 Evidence their ability to reflect in writing on their experience of this work
 Discuss their development as a result of the course and what impact and influence this
has had on their style and abilities as a practitioner
 Reflect on the way supervision of a child case load is used to develop and reflect on
ways of working with children and young people
*UKCP Child Proficiency Marker
Successful candidates will be able to apply for the UKCP Child Proficiency marker on
completion of this course. The application process currently involves self certification and a
grand-parenting application process. Details of this will be available on the course. The
application is made to C-CAP (UKCP College of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy) who
endorse that registrants with this marker meet professional requirements to ensure that their
practice conforms to professional standards of safety, safeguarding and minimum proficiency for
work with young people under the age of 18.
Applicants for the marker will need to :
 be UKCP registered
 adhere to UKCP Code of Ethics


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hold a current clear DBS Check
own a professional insurance for working with children
have supervision with a qualified UKCP supervisor with experience of providing child
therapy themselves
TRAINER PROFILES:
Alison Dart MSc Integrative Psychotherapy, UKCP Registered, PGCE, MBACP
Alison has maintained a private practice for over 16 years working with individuals and groups
and as a supervisor for both qualified clinicians and those in training.
She has worked as a counsellor with children and young people in a number of different
settings, previously establishing three school counselling practices, working with the Suffolk
youth offending team, and teaching a HE Diploma in Counselling Child and Young People with
Anglia Ruskin University.
She is currently Deputy Head of Training at Matrix College. In addition to teaching on the BSc.
(Hons) Integrative counselling course she is the programme lead for the Diploma year. Her
recent interests are research into supervision and the supervisory dialogue.
Email: alison@matrix-training.org
Philippa McInerney MSc, Integrative Psychotherapy, B.Soc.Sc, CQSW, Dip.SW.
UKCP and BACP Accredited Psychotherapist
Philippa has worked in private practice since 1990 as a psychotherapist, counsellor, supervisor
and trainer. She has worked with children and adults, both individually and in groups and has
been a supervisor at child and family centres, youth projects and rape crisis centres. She was
based in Ireland until 2005 and now has a private practice in North London.
She has trained in creative therapies, including psychodrama, play therapy and sandtray
therapy and has run workshops on Creative Supervision. She is particularly interested in
working with trauma and currently works with an international aid agency as a therapist,
supervisor and trainer. She has also previously worked as a Child Care Social Worker.
She is a part-time tutor and viva examiner on the Integrative Psychotherapy MSC course at
Metanoia Institute in London and is a Primary Course tutor on the BSc (Hons) Counselling and
Psychotherapy course at the Cork Counselling Centre Training Institute.
Jim Rymer BSc Integrative Counselling, MBACP
Jim Rymer has worked in variety of mental health settings; SRB’s (School Resource Bases) for
children with emotional, aggressive and disruptive behaviour; in Forensic Low secure Units for
the NHS and specialist residential homes for adults with long term and enduring mental health
problems. At one time Jim was Norfolk’s only PATHS Coach, (Promoting Alternative Thinking
Strategies) with the department of Education and regularly consults on child and adolescent
mental health for Norfolk Children’s Services.
Jim was a tutor for Matrix College of Counselling and Psychotherapy on the BSc. (Hons)
Integrative counselling course for a number of years. He also taught the HE Diploma in
Counselling Child and Young People with Anglia Ruskin University. He is currently a Clinical
Supervisor for the NHS, CAMHS, and runs a private practice in Norwich.