Identifying supervision resources available to recently qualified play therapists working from a Gestalt approach in South Africa
Gehle, April Angela
In South Africa the Center for Child Youth and Family Studies is training practitioners yearly to
work as play therapists from a gestalt approach. Once these practitioners successfully complete their
training and qualify they could begin practicing play therapy from a gestalt approach. Each of these
recently qualified play therapists is then responsible for organising and committing to their own
supervision.
Therapists who do not attend supervision risk stagnation and burn out due to a lack of positive
interaction in relation to receiving knowledge and support from those more experienced in gestalt
play therapy and from their peers. At present there is a perceived lack of supervision resources
based on a gestalt approach particularly for those recently qualified play therapists working from a
gestalt approach that are geographically distant from the areas where training takes place.
This study sought to answer the question of what supervision resources are currently available to
recently qualified play therapists working from a gestalt approach in South Africa. In order to
answer this question combined quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used. An
internet survey questionnaire was completed by recently qualified play therapists working from a
gestalt approach which formed part of the quantitative section of the research. Structured interviews
were conducted via Skype with professionals experienced in the field of Gestalt therapy theory and
supervision from a gestalt approach and this formed part of the qualitative section of the research.
Overall the results from the merged data indicate a lack of supervisors qualified to give supervision
based on a gestalt approach. This factor contributes to the overall lack of supervision resources
based on a gestalt approach for recently qualified play therapists working from this approach.
Geographical distance from supervision resources places financial and time constraints on recently
qualified play therapists that prevent them from accessing supervision based on a gestalt approach.
Despite this results indicate those recently qualified play therapists working from a gestalt approach
are attempting to meet their responsibility and requirement for supervision.
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