Training for Therapists
Training Overview
Your Instructor(s)
Geraldine Thomas
Geraldine Thomas MSc. MA. is a Play Therapist and a Filial Therapist and Instructor specialising in attachment across the lifespan, cross cultural dimensions of parenting and preventative family interventions. She has provided Filial Therapy for children and their families for almost 20 years. She earned her undergraduate degree at Vassar College and her post graduate degrees at University College London, the Anna Freud Centre and the University of York. She is the author of ‘Filial Therapy: Forming Therapeutic Partnerships with parents to achieve intrapsychic, interpersonal and neurobiological change for families’ (2018) and ‘Understanding Attachment in Family Relationships, Assessment, Research and Intervention’ (2013) among others. The principles of Filial Therapy underpin the way in which she approaches every aspect of life.
Dr Virginia Ryan, PhD
Trained in the US, and has lived in England for many years. She was a Chartered Child Psychologist and Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) until recently, and currently is a qualified Play Therapist and Play Therapy Supervisor with the British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT). She also is a Filial Therapy Supervisor and Filial Therapy Instructor.
Virginia’s clinical practice involved frequently working with adoptive and foster families, as well as with other families presenting a variety of difficulties. Virginia is the former director of the MA/Diploma in Non-directive Play Therapy at the University of York, UK--with the course offered, before finishing, in both England and Ireland. Virginia was honoured to receive BAPT’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 ‘in recognition of an outstanding contribution to Play Therapy’, and regularly gives international and national conference addresses, workshops, and training days on play therapy, filial therapy and related topics. Virginia’s books and journal articles on play therapy, filial therapy and statutory issues include the co-authored book with Louise Guerney, Group Filial Therapy (2013), and two books with Kate Wilson, Case Studies in Non-directive Play Therapy (2000) and Play Therapy: A Non-directive Approach for Children and Adolescents, 2nd Edition (2005).