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Ethical Framework - The Personal Qualities Required To Be A Play Therapist
The practitioner's personal qualities are of the utmost importance to clients. Many of the personal qualities considered important in the provision of services have an ethical or moral component and are therefore considered as virtues or good personal qualities.
It is inappropriate to prescribe that all practitioners possess these qualities, since it is fundamental that these personal qualities are deeply rooted in the person concerned and developed out of personal commitment rather than the requirement of an external authority. Personal qualities to which practitioners are strongly encouraged to aspire include:
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Empathy |
Sincerity |
Integrity |
Resilience |
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| Respect |
Humility |
Competence |
Fairness |
| Wisdom |
Courage |
Sense of Humour |
Positive Attitude |
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Each of these qualities is explained below
| Empathy with children, adolescents and their carers: |
The ability to communicate understanding of another person's experience from that person's perspective. ‘Carers’ is used generically to include anyone who has a responsibility for looking after a, is responsible for and/or cares for a child at anytime. It includes for example nurses, teachers and social workers as well as parents.
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| Sincerity |
A personal commitment to consistency between what is professed and what is done.
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| Integrity |
Commitment to being moral in dealings with others, personal straightforwardness, honesty and coherence.
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| Resilience |
The capacity to work with the clients' concerns without being personally diminished.
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| Respect |
Showing appropriate esteem to others and their understanding of themselves - not to patronise - especially important in working with children.
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| Humility |
The ability to assess objectively and accurately acknowledging one's own strengths and weaknesses.
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| Competence |
The effective deployment of the skills and knowledge needed to do what is required given the resources available. (See also the Profession Structure Model which includes a competency framework)
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| Fairness |
The consistent application of appropriate criteria to inform decisions and actions.
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| Wisdom |
Possession of sound judgement that informs practice and is based on sound Clinical Governance procedures (quality management).
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| Courage |
The capacity to act in spite of known fears, risks and uncertainty.
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| Sense of Humour |
Play therapy, therapeutic play and filial play involve playing with children, at their level to bring some fun and laughter into their lives as well as to alleviate their problems. There is no room for pomposity. Minor mishaps will happen – you must have a sense of humour.
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| Positive Attitude |
Therapists strive to bring about change despite many obstacles from many sources. There will be set backs. Play therapy is a different method of bringing about change which many people will not understand and in some cases will oppose. There is considerable negative thinking in public sector services and a resistance to anything that is not traditional. It is vital to continuously present a positive approach that assumes that there always ways to solve problems and that many of these lie in our power.
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