top of page

From Roots to Growth

Uncover the passion, purpose, and people driving our collaborative vision forward. Learn about our mission, values, and the dedicated professionals that have come together to support play therapists, forest school leaders, playworkers and those wishing to work therapeutically outdoors.

COOPT UK 07.webp

Our Mission

At COOPT, we're on a mission to empower professionals passionate about therapeutic work with children and young people OUTDOORS. Through networking, training, and collaboration, we strive to elevate the practice of outdoor play therapy, sharing expertise, resources, and inspiration to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve.

Our Story

In 2014 Ali published the first book specifically on Play Therapy in the Outdoors with the second, A Practical Guide to Play Therapy in the Outdoors coming in 2017. 

 

By now, through the response to her books, she was aware that other play therapists were also either working outdoors or looking to take their practice out there.

 

Later that year, at a workshop in Dorset, in a discussion with Kate Macairt and member Loz Foskett, the germ of an idea came into being. After much deliberation and planning, endless coffees and a wee bit of cake, Ali, Kate and former member Sarah Holden formalized the idea of a non-profit making, democratic, networking community for outdoor play therapists.

Group of professionals at an outdoor therapuetic play training event
Play Therapists discussing den building

Thus COOPT was born...

Over the years, the COOPT community has grown considerably and to date we have trained nearly 200 play and creative arts therapists on our courses, including those from Australia, Ireland, Israel, and the United States.

As well as providing a meeting space and training opportunities, COOPT aims to support ‘best practice’ in outdoor play therapy. We are pleased to say that BAPT officially endorses our Certificate of Best Practice in Outdoor Play Therapy course for CPD.

Read our Blog Post - A Short ‘History’ of Outdoor Play therapy - or the story of the conception by  Ali Chown.

Meet Our Team

COOPT is coordinated by a Steering Group that help with the day to day running of the collaboration. We are currently made up of five volunteers and we welcome others to join us.

Interested? Get in touch! 

Photograph of Ali Chown - Outdoor Play Therapist & Author

Ali Chown

Ali started her career as a teacher before moving to become a SENCO and finally a specialist advisory teacher for children and young people with SEMH needs. She qualified as a play therapist from Roehampton in 2004 and has worked in schools, PRUs and specialist PMLD settings.

 

She is an experienced Trainer and Supervisor and has presented at the BAPT Annual Conference, Brighton University, the Romanian Institute for Play and Drama Therapy and lectured on the impact of trauma on learning to teachers from the MYME Mobile Education Project in Myanmar (Burma).

Ali has written for various publications including the BAPT magazine and the British Journal of Play Therapy and is the Author of Play Therapy in the Outdoors – taking play therapy out of the playroom and into natural environments (2014) published by JKP and A Practical Guide to Play Therapy – working in nature (2017) published by Routledge. Ali also has two chapters in The Routledge International Handbook of Play, Therapeutic Play and Play Therapy published in November 2020, and one in the forthcoming Handbook of Neuro Dramatic Play (NDP). She is the director of Phoenix Play and the co-founder of COOPT which she now facilitates.

She loves just ‘being’ in her garden, on the hills, on the beach or in the sea!

Ali holds a PG Dip SEN, a PG Dip Play Therapy and an M. Ed.

Photograph of Kate MaCairt - Creative Play Therapist and Child Counsellor

Kate MaCairt

Kate is an experienced Creative Play Therapist and Child Counsellor with a background in expressive Arts Education with 18 years’ experience as a Faculty Leader. Her interest in the significance of the creative instinct led her to her M Ed research about the connection between creative thinking and learning.

Kate’s journey led to the discovery of Play Therapy when she retrained and opened her own therapeutic practice - Creative Spark. Kate has over 15 years’ experience of working therapeutically with children and young people and particularly supporting those children in the UK care system.

She was a Senior Course Director for the Academy of Play and Creative Psychotherapy (APAC) for 10 years and has extensive experience teaching the Post Graduate Diploma in Integrative Play Therapy in S.E Asia, Ireland and UK.

Kate’s passion and love of ‘Mother Nature’ is integral to all her work. She has facilitated training for several Outdoor Education programmes including Circle of Life Rediscovery, Cornwall Forest School Association and Dry Arch Family Centres NI.

She teaches on the Best Practice Certificate in Outdoor Play Therapy and is a co-founder of COOPT.

Creative Spark training, established in 2009 provides CPD for play therapists and creative counsellors including Landplay - nature connection therapy and Activating Archetypes - deepening understanding of themes which manifest in sandplay and roleplay.

Photograph of Leone Ellis - Founder of Wild Hearts Services

Leone Ellis

Leone is an MA-Accredited Play Therapist, Supervisor, Filial Play Coach, Creative Arts Counsellor for Children and Young People and Forest School Leader and has also completed Dyadic Developmental therapy training (DDP) level 2.  

 

She has worked in Exeter for the past 10 years as an independent child therapist with the majority of client referrals coming from the Kinship Care team. She has now founded a Community Interest Company (CIC) called Wild Hearts Services and runs therapeutic forest school programs with a team of play therapists who are also forest school leaders.

Leone is also a certified Environmental Arts Therapy practitioner. Take a peek at what I do!

Photograph of Molly Hopkinshaw - Play Therapist & associate trainer for Transforming Conflict

Molly Hopkinshaw

Molly is a qualified Play Therapist from the BAPT accredited Master’s Degree in 2022 and has since worked in a variety of settings, both indoors and outdoors, mainly with children who have SEMH needs or Neurodiversity. She has worked outdoors with young people in a range of capacities for over ten years. This has been in the form of environmental education, sustainable travel, and in a farm and woodland based Alternative Provision in south Oxfordshire.

 

She runs camps with the children's charity Forest School Camps, an 80 year old organisation with a rich history of working in and with nature and community. She is also an associate trainer for Transforming Conflict, a restorative and relational justice in education non-profit, and is a qualified Mountain Leader and Cave Leader

Photograph of April Light-MacFarlane - Nature based, integrative and Holistic Creative Arts and Play therapist

April Light-McFarland

April, formerly a Nursery Nurse is a Graduate with a Dip SW from the University of Ulster and 28 years’ experience across voluntary, statutory and private sectors within Family Services. She has experience of working in Residential, Adoption, Special Needs, Family Prevention (Barnardo’s), Mental Health and Early Years.

After 11 years in Adoption Services, April became aware of the need for direct therapeutic interventions for children and young people and so gained a PG Dip in Creative Arts and Play Therapy from NUI Galway, Ireland.

 

She has also undertaken Ace and Safeguarding Training, an Introduction to Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Theraplay level 1 & 2 and has a particular interest in Attachment and Trauma Informed Filial Practice for children and young people   .

April has completed the COOPT Best Practice Certificate course and is an Approved play therapy Supervisor.


She now works as a nature based, integrative and holistic creative arts and play therapist in the Ards Pennisula, County Down, Northern Ireland. Her specialties include attachment related interventions and working within the 5 elements of fire, water, earth, air and ether. She also runs Wild at Art summer camps and Nature based holistic retreats, yoga, sound healing, meditation, and coApril is a member of NIFSA and IFSA.


Her special interests include yoga, art & community gardening!

bottom of page