Retraining to be… a play therapist? Educational psychologist? Any other ideas or advice?

[Careerchanger88]

I used to be a primary school teacher, then I retrained and have been working in advertising (as a copywriter) for the last 10 years.

I miss working with children and having a people-job. I don’t enjoy working from home and I am feeling disillusioned by writing advertising copy selling stuff to people.

I’m considering going back into education part-time to retrain.

I’m thinking about retraining to be a play therapist or a child psychologist or something similar?… but haven’t started researching yet!

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thank you!

Play Therapist - MA

Educational Psychology - PhD

Big difference in focus.

Here is some info on becoming an Educational Psychologist www.aep.org.uk/interested-career-educational-psychology the government has just announced funding for 200 places in 2023. Competition is usually high.

I'm also interested in becoming a play therapist or music therapist. Hope you don't mind if I lurk.

I started looking at the Masters courses/fees for these last night. Loans are available and some places offer bursaries. They are full on courses (not like my previous MA which although was officially 'full time' was anything but...)

Have a look at the amount of play therapist jobs actually available - it’s very small. Have you considered SALT?

How about working in a hospital classroom as a teacher?

Occupational Therapy - OTs work in many many different areas and with different age groups, including with children and in schools / with families.

Thank you! All this is very interesting.

I definitely have the energy for another masters in me, but maybe a phd would take up too much time out of full time work… I am not sure! Thank you for that link on places! I bet competition is high.

I hadn’t thought about being an OT, I’m going to look into that! Nor had I thought about how few play therapy jobs exist.

Hospital schools - that’s a really interesting thought! I am going to research!

Nor had I thought about SALT. I will look into that too!

Thank you!

Is anyone on here a play therapist? I would love to hear what the job is really like.

What about Senco?