Play therapy postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

My interest in play therapy grew out of the ordinary business of sitting on the floor with children. As a nursery practitioner, and now as a learning support assistant in a Year 2 class, I have spent a great deal of time alongside children who cannot yet put difficult feelings into sentences but who will show them readily in a sandpit, a home corner or a repeated game about somebody getting lost. Learning that this showing is itself meaningful, rather than a preliminary to talking, is what moved me from general interest towards wanting formal training.

My psychology degree gave me the groundwork I will need. Developmental and social modules introduced attachment theory and the limits of children's self-report, and a research methods strand taught me to be careful about what evidence can and cannot support. For my final-year project I designed a small study asking adults with and without childcare experience to interpret a set of children's drawings, then comparing their descriptions with what the children had said about their own pictures. The results were modest, but the process was instructive: I had to manage consent carefully, code open responses reliably, and accept that much of what adults confidently read into a drawing was their own. That finding has stayed with me and shapes how I want to approach practice, where the temptation to interpret quickly seems strongest.

I also worked on a collaborative piece in my second year, where three of us produced a short guide for student volunteers on supporting children in reading groups. My part was drafting the section on responding to a child who becomes distressed or refuses to take part. Writing it forced me to find wording that was honest about uncertainty rather than offering scripts, and I learned a good deal from arguing with my two colleagues about tone.

My current post involves supporting three children with education, health and care plans, including one child with significant speech and language needs. I keep observation notes, attend review meetings and work closely with the class teacher and a visiting speech and language therapist. I have seen how much can change when an adult tolerates silence, follows a child's lead and resists filling the gap. Equally, I have seen the boundaries of my role: I can offer consistency and attention, but not therapeutic work, and referrals to specialist services are often slow. That gap is a large part of why I want to train.

Outside work I volunteer at a Saturday play session at a community centre, mostly setting up messy play and helping with tidying, which has given me experience of unstructured play with siblings and mixed age groups. I have read widely in preparation, including Virginia Axline's Dibs in Search of Self and Play Therapy, and more recent introductory texts on non-directive practice. Axline's account of permissiveness within firm limits has been useful in clarifying what I do not yet understand, particularly how limits are held without the relationship becoming corrective. I am aware that reading is not practice and that supervised clinical hours, personal therapy and honest reflection on my own reactions will be the real work of the course.

I expect to find some of that uncomfortable. I am naturally organised and inclined to plan, and non-directive play therapy asks something different of the practitioner. I would like to develop into a play therapist working in school or community settings, where children can be seen early and close to home. Postgraduate training seems to me the only responsible route into that, and I am ready to commit to it seriously.

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