Interview a Play Therapist

The Assignment:
Interview a registered play therapist (this does not mean only an LPC. The play therapist interviewed must have the play therapist credentials (RPT), which is indicated in the assignment report). The written paper will compare and contrast various aspects of the roles and functions of the professional interviewed.

Assignment Guidelines
The guidelines are as follows:

1. Select a play therapist by googling the Association of Play Therapist, calling DePelchin Children’s Home, or utilizing whatever professional organization that is involved in play therapy.  
2. Call ahead to schedule an appointment. Ask for 45 minutes to an hour of the professional’s time. You may audio tape your interview provided the participating professional gives his/her permission. Should the individual offer to show you around the facility, this would be beneficial for information gathering.
3. Questions you may consider for the interviews should address the focus of the interview and provide relevant information for the paper you will write. Some questions you may want to ask are:
· What is your job title?

· What is your training/education and experience? In what ways did your training prepare you well for the job? In what areas was your training lacking?

· To whom do you report? What is the attitude of your superior/s (e.g., principal to counselor) about counseling?

· To what professional organizations do you belong? How are they useful/helpful to you?

· What is the typical salary range for a position such as yours?

· What is your client/case load? How are clients assigned to you? What types of clients do you typically work with? What kinds of problems or concerns do the clients most frequently bring to you?

· What referral sources do you use? What types of clients/problems do you typically refer?

· Who are your professional peers? Do you work with other “counselors” or do you work alone?

· What is your theoretical orientation? How did you select your particular orientation?

· What counseling techniques do you typically use? What techniques do you avoid using? Why? How would you describe your counseling style?
Format for Reporting Interviews

Use a NARRATIVE style to report what you have learned. The paper will consist of four sections (use the following headers in your report):

a) An introduction to the assignment/paper that includes an overview of the paper contents

b) Descriptive information for each counselor

· date of interview
· length of interview
· type of setting
· description of counselor
c) Interviewed Registered Play Therapist Information:

· education/training
· work experience
· describe the typical day (e.g., hours worked, client time, record keeping, on-site visits)
d) Conclude with your personal reactions (Conclusions)

· what appeals to you about the work of play therapist.
· what you see as drawbacks or problems inherent in working in the setting
· what you learned that surprised you. Use “I learned” statements which summarize what you gained from this interviewing experience, which will serve as the summary for the paper.
Students will be required to interview registered play therapist (LPC, RPT) and then write a paper on the various aspects of the roles, functions, nonverbal behavior, etc. of the counselors’ interviewed. See Appendix A (in syllabus) for specific instructions. This summary should be a minimum of five pages (Not including coversheet or reference page), doubled-spaced, grammatically correct using APA style manual guidelines.