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Our Constitution

Play Therapy International’s constitution reflects the principles of its founding members:

  • A wide range of therapeutic interventions using play or creative arts therapies can be used to benefit many children. A qualified practitioner requires a range of ‘tools’ including: art, creative visualisations, clay, dance/movement, drama, masks, music, puppets and sandplay.
  • Many practitioners, working in a variety of settings, as well as ‘Play Therapists’ can use these interventions safely and effectively if supported by an appropriate professional infrastructure.
  • The infrastructure must include a modern ethical system that embodies clinical governance as well as the provision of ethical guidelines, a professional conduct procedure and a register of certified members.
  • PTI must provide a lead and meet all of the obligations required of a profession.
  • The varied needs of the children, their carers, commissioning organisations and users of the therapies together with the existing skills, aspirations and resources of potential and existing practitioners must be realistically accommodated in setting standards of competence and training. The emphasis must be on what a practitioner can do not merely what a practitioner knows. The implementation of standards must be evaluated in four stages: trainees’ reaction to training, the amount of learning achieved, changes in the trainees job behaviour and the results obtained.
  • The organisation structure must be sufficiently flexible to enable decisions to be taken quickly, reflect the needs of the public and practitioner members, enable innovation to take place and alter according to growth and changing needs. We do not want to be bogged down by numerous committees or bureaucratic procedures that so often hamper the progress of other professional associations. We believe that the majority of members are content to be consulted on important issues but do not have the time to be closely involved in decision taking. The direction of some professional organisations, with a traditional organisation, can be high-jacked by a small cabal using ‘democratic’ procedures. PTI believes that liberty is an even more important principle than democracy in corporate governance. We encourage our affiliated organisations to adopt a similar streamlined structure, but the choice is theirs.
  • PTI will work collaboratively with any organisation that aims to benefit children.

As a result of the pioneering work of our sister organisation, the Register of Play and Creative Arts, managed by Play Therapy UK (PTUK), was the first in its field to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority in April 2013. The Authority oversee the regulation and registration of all health and social care professions in the UK. The PTUK Register is the largest for Play Therapists in the UK. It also includes registrants working in 40 other countries. PTI administers the registration of Play Therapists in countries where there is no government approved register for Play Therapists using the PTUK ones as de facto standards.

Further evolution needs to happen. PTI and PTUK intend to lead the way in improving the quality and safety of practice of therapy with children in line with the principles of Right Touch Regulation, the modern foundation of health and social care policies.