Dozens of Irish students who paid thousands of euro for a play therapy qualification have been left \u201chigh and dry\u201d after the group running the course went into liquidation.<\/p>\n
The Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy (APAC), based in the UK, runs master\u2019s degree courses<\/a> in practice-based play therapy in Ireland<\/a> every year, among other qualifications. <\/p>\n The course is facilitated here through Play Therapy Ireland (PTI), with both organisations recently, but not currently, sharing the same directors and secretaries, according to company accounts. <\/p>\n Play therapy is designed for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. It allows them to communicate with a therapist through play, helping them understand what has happened to them and how they feel.<\/p>\n Students in Ireland pay almost \u20ac10,000 for this qualification through APAC, with accreditation provided by the University of Chichester in the UK.<\/p>\n However, on Monday, students of APAC received an email from the organisation saying it had ceased training and would be going into voluntary liquidation.<\/p>\n The company said it was working on a \u201crescue and continuation plan for existing students\u201d, but no further details on this were given. <\/p>\n It is understood that more than 100 students in Ireland are affected, with at least 48 of these starting their studies in Dublin just a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n One of the students told The Irish Times that she and her classmates feel they have been left \u201cvery much high and dry\u201d.<\/p>\n In a follow-up email to the announcement from APAC, the University of Chichester said: \u201cOur immediate priority is to understand the implications for current students and to explore all available options to support students affected by this situation. We are working closely with both APAC and PTUK\/PTI to identify how to best support teach-out arrangements.”<\/p>\n The university told students to refrain from making any further payments to APAC and advised them to \u201cseek independent advice\u201d if they had \u201cany concerns regarding fees already paid\u201d. <\/p>\n Another student in Ireland, Theresa Falconer, said she has invested over \u20ac6,500 in the course through student fees, equipment and accommodation costs.<\/p>\n Falconer qualified as a primary school teacher in the UK before moving home to Waterford with her husband and three children. She felt the play-therapy qualification was her way back into the workforce and she started the course this summer in Dublin, with an intensive 15-day in-person teaching module.<\/p>\n This required her to pay for accommodation for two weeks through Airbnb, purchase a laptop and buy materials on top of the \u20ac4,500 course fee.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Irish Times on Monday, Falconer said she has \u201cno idea what is going on\u201d or what will come next for her and her classmates.<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart just sank [when I got the email]. It was a real blow to the stomach, you know, because I felt like this was my way back into doing something meaningful after taking a break and looking after my kids for the last 10 years. I was really sinking my teeth into it. I was really enjoying it. It felt like a really unlucky thing to happen,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cI have no idea what\u2019s going on. They\u2019re saying they\u2019re going to formulate a plan, but I don\u2019t understand how we\u2019re going to do our placements in September. Who\u2019s going to be monitoring it? What\u2019s going to happen with supervisors? I also feel like maybe it will just be left, and that it will have been a waste of time. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s going to be any offer, refund of money, or anything like that. I would rather they said we\u2019ll guarantee that you\u2019re going to finish the course.” <\/p>\n Play Therapy Ireland and the Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy have been contacted for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of Irish students who paid thousands of euro for a play therapy qualification have been left \u201chigh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-810198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}