Messy Play: What it is and why is it therapeutic?

28 August 2024, 5:00pm - 8:00pm AEST

Therapeutic Messy Play can be summed up in one word – SPLODGE!  Just as childbirth itself is a messy, slimy and sticky process, so infants need to be able to explore mess before they can move towards form. The world started in chaos and darkness and the human infant starts in slimy water and darkness! 

Many children are experiencing life as a mess with lack of attachment, unpredictable day-to-day activities, confusing relationships.  Messy play gives them a means of externalising this mess as they commence their healing journey through play.

Presenter:

Professor Sue Jennings PhD is an anthropologist, therapist, performer, and author. She is Senior Research Fellow, The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham Distinguished Scholar, University of the Witwatersrand, Honorary Fellow of the University of Roehampton, and Professor of Play - awarded by the European Federation of Dramatherapy. She has been a pioneer of Dramatherapy and Play Therapy in the UK and overseas.

Professor Jennings' paradigm ‘embodiment-projection-role’ is integrated into education and therapy world-wide. Having worked as a clinician in psychiatry, forensic settings and special education, she has focussed her recent practice and research on early years development and developed ‘Neuro-Dramatic-Play’ as a basis for attachment and empathy. She emphasises the importance of ‘play from conception’ for healthy emotional and social growth. Her doctoral fieldwork was with a tribal community in the Malaysian rain forest, which she believes underpins all her childhood theory and therapy.

Sue is a prolific author with over fifty publications on theory and application to her name. She believes passionately in ‘playing for peace’ with a rule of ‘no guns in the playroom’.

This course counts towards 3 hours of category A CPD.

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