Integrate your knowledge and step into your therapist identity for a sustainable future in children’s psychology with our professional development workshops, clinical supervision, and consultancy options
“The work with the kids is the easy bit! It’s working with the adults and systems arounds kids that’s exhausting! I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do this work.”
Sound familiar?
You’re not the only one thinking this way.
We hear it all the time from psychologists, counsellors, play therapists, social workers - in fact all mental health clinicians working with kids.
Let’s face it. When you choose to work with children, you’re not just working with one client.
You’re working with the child, the parents or carers, the school, and any other support services.
You’re acting as an advocate, helping others to get that glimpse into the child’s internal world that you’re so privileged to have. Trying to help them understand the need that drives the behaviours.
You also have to manage the disappointment of the adults when they realise you don’t have a magic wand.
And you’re often defending your therapeutic approach when it’s criticised or minimised because you dare use play in your interventions.
Is it any wonder you might be feeling full of self-doubt? Or overwhelmed? Or exhausted, dissatisfied, and isolated?
Before you know it, you’re lost in a cycle of grasping for the next PD workshop, searching for more tools and strategies that might somehow make things better.
But you’re not alone.
And it doesn’t have to be this way.
We’re at the forefront of integrating best practice psychological and play therapy approaches that are structured in a neurobiologically sensitive manner to meet the specific therapeutic needs of individual children.
This means we can give you the means to integrate child development and attachment theory with neurobiology and play therapy to provide the cornerstone of your practice with children.
And we weave in the latest research of the neuroscience of psychotherapy - the hidden keys that will help you truly unlock the art of the therapeutic process.
Continuing Professional Development Scholarship
Psychology and Play Therapy Australia is a leading provider of play therapy supervision and training in Australia.
You will have the opportunity to work directly with our Director, Psychologist and Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor (RPT-S™), Katherine Olejniczak, and her 16 years’ experience in the play therapy field.
2 Scholarships are available for individuals for the 2025 year
You must be completing your Deakin Master of Child Play Therapy by December 2024.
Learn more about the scholarship and apply by clicking the button below.
Child and Play Therapist Reflective Practice Program
A 6 Month Program for Child and Play Therapists
Receive therapist reflection prompts delivered into your inbox on a weekly basis plus 2x free online group consultation sessions with Katherine Olejniczak.
Themes covered:
Our Therapist Self
Our Practice Frameworks
Process of Child Therapy
Working with Parents/Caregivers/Systems around the Child
Self-Care
Child & Play Therapy: Essentials for Effective & Sustainable Practice
This free workshop will explore topics such as understanding your system and how it shapes your practice, conceptualising children’s therapeutic needs, the role of parents/caregivers in child therapy, the principles of child therapy and structuring services to support sustainability into the long-term as a clinician working with children.
Dynamic Case Conceptualisation Framework eBook
Download this free eBook to learn more about the Dynamic Case Conceptualisation Framework.
The Dynamic Case Conceptualisation Framework was developed to broaden and deepen therapists’ capacity to understand their client, and consider, with greater nuance, the:
Factors that have brought the individual to therapy
Function and context of presenting concerns, and therapeutic needs
Key changes processes for the individual, informing therapist selection of therapeutic procedures to support positive movement in the change processes
Cognitive Reprocessing of Maladaptive Self-Schemas in Play Therapy with Traumatised Children Journal Article
Download my recently published article around cognitive reprocessing in play therapy with traumatised children.
Learn more about the Play Therapy Dimensions Model–Revised (Olejniczak, 2013, 2019) by watching Katherine Olejniczak’s presentation at the 2018 International Childhood Trauma Conference – “Play therapy and the therapeutic dance in supporting a child’s meaning-making in trauma therapy”
All the training and integration support you need to succeed AND thrive as a children’s counsellor or play therapist
If you’ve been searching for a supervisor or trainer who can support your professional career or organisation, then you’re in the right place.
Katherine Olejniczak is a passionate and experienced leader, trainer, and advocate in the field of play therapy and children’s counselling.
And she’s dedicated to supporting the development of mental health professionals right across Australia.
With Katherine’s support, you’ll be able to achieve valuable insights into your clients and practice, and ways of harnessing these in the therapeutic process to support transformative change for your clients.
Not only that, but she’ll also guide you through the reflective processes that’ll give you the means to become a more effective therapist. And to develop YOUR therapist identity.
Which means greater confidence and satisfaction in your work, less exhaustion, a more ideal work-life balance, and less risk of burning out.
Your career in children's counselling should be both deeply satisfying AND sustainable.
As a children’s therapist, are you VISION-rich but RESOURCE-poor?
Looking for clinical supervision, training, or consultancy?
Take advantage of Katherine’s wealth of knowledge and experience.
Throughout her career, she’s been committed to shaping dynamic therapists, developing effective services and systems, and building strong communities.
Katherine offers a range of services, such as professional training, clinical supervision, and consultancy, to professionals and organisations in the fields of:
psychology
play therapy
counselling
social work
education
child safety
out-of-home care services
child and family support services