As this strange year draws to a close everyone at COOPT wishes you as peaceful and joyous a midwinter season as possible in your particular circumstances. For some this may mean isolation and the disappointment of not being with family and friends when you had planned to be while for others it may mean being able to meet briefly to celebrate before there are more restrictions on Boxing Day. Some of you may be sitting with sadness at the illness or loss of someone close to you and needing to find strength and stillness. But wherever you are and whatever you are doing, everyone here at COOPT sends warmest wishes and will hold you in mind over the coming days and weeks.
Our own plans for a rescheduled Easter 2021 campover conference may well get scuppered , but we live in hope, and are determined to go ahead with it whenever we can. The pull of the shared campfire is too great to ignore!
And finally, some exciting news for 2021…….
Firstly we are launching our Certificate of Best Practice in Outdoor Play Therapy in the New Year and will send more details during January. Essentially we will run a number of units based on the ideas that came from members during our recent on-line network meeting. Each unit can be completed as a ‘stand alone’ training or used to complete the full certificate course and will include sessions on basic setting up, underpinning theory and professional requirements. We are including a unit about developing our own relationship with nature but will only run this when we are able to meet and be together safely outside. In addition we will be looking at what new areas of working outdoors would make for an interesting training session for more experienced outdoor therapists so please let us know if you have any suggestions or feel you can offer something.
Secondly, The Routledge International Handbook of Play, Therapeutic Play and Play Therapy has finally been published. Edited by Sue Jennings and Clive Holmwood and with chapters by several BAPT members including myself, it contains many and varied chapters from practitioners across the globe and will be an invaluable resource for institutions offering training in all aspects of play and play therapy It is currently available in hardback or as an e book.
We will be back in 2021 and wish you all a Happy New Year with many outdoor adventures and may the light of spring and summer bring us all some respite from the dark days of 2020.