The Therapist

Josephine Downs (Formally Martin)

Bachelor of Arts: Psychology (APS) and Sociology

Josephine grew up in Melbourne, and at an early age began helping disadvantaged people. From 1988 through to 1995 she helped organise and conduct sailing voyages for disabled people on the Young Endeavour sailing ship. During this time she studied Psychology (APS) and Sociology at Latrobe University in Bendigo. Josephine first started her career in counselling as a youth worker for the Department of Human Services (DHS) and Anglicare in Melbourne. In an effort to expand her experience, she spent the last 6 months of 1996 working as a social worker at Hillside Houses in London, England.

On her return to Australia, Josephine went back to work for the DHS and in June 1997 transferred departments within DHS into the Child Protection branch. While there, she was trained in a variety of fields including Sexual Abuse and Child Suicide counselling.

In November 1998, Josephine took up the role as an after hours child protection worker. Much of her work included attending and dealing with crisis situations and domestic violence. During her time as a child protection worker, she realised the need for specialist child counselling.

Josephine created a small non-profit business called SSNAP (Supporting Smart Normal Adolescent People) in 1999. The objective of SSNAP was to provide a therapeutic experience away from home for groups of 10 to 16 challenging adolescents. During school holiday periods, SSNAP would organise and run a camp for these children, giving them a chance to express themselves in a safe friendly environment. As part of these camps, Josephine learned a lot about the issues that young children really faced.

In 2003 Josephine studied at the University Of Northern Texas (UNT), the leading training facility for Play Therapy in the United States.

In May 2004 Josephine along with Dr Steve Armstrong (RPT-S) ran Melbourne Play Therapy's first full day workshop.

In June 2004 Josephine spent a further two weeks at UNT's Summer Institute and was privileged to be one of the 12 world wide participants to do the Summer Intensive program that involves 30 hours of direct Play Therapy work in sessions and supervision.

Josephine is a member of the Australian Institute of Professional Counselling, the Victorian Family Therapy Association and the American Association for Play Therapy. She has also authored articles in Play Therapy that have been published in the British Association for Play Therapy and soon to be published in the American Association for Play Therapy Newsletter.

In November 2004 the First 2 Day Filial Therapy training workshop was held in Australia conducted by Dr Steve Armstrong and Josephine Martin.

In March of 2005 Josephine, at the request of the Palmerston City Council studied and wrote a report on what the young children of Palmerston liked and disliked about the suburban area they lived in. This studied involved contact with 225 children.

Further training was held in May 2005 and Josephine has made a commitment to provide training to therapists and counsellors when international guest speakers come to Australia.

Josephine has been writing for the "Top Ender", an Australian Defence Forces magazine since September 2005, she provides a parenting advice column.

2007 has seen Josephine conducting a number of presentations and workshops for Darwin Family Day Care and Breathing Space, a Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services project to support parents who do not have extended families or other networks to assist them.

In March and April 2007, Josephine held "Challenging behaviours and on How to be a better play mate" presentations for Breathing Space and Good Beginnings, an Australian family support service.

Josephine convened the first Australian Play Therapy Conference. Running from the 21st to the 24th of May, it was a huge success with a number of Australian and international speakers.

Since 2007 Josephine has volunteered a significant amount of time in working on the foundations of the Australia Asia Pacific Play Therapy Association. There have been 3 sucessful conferneces held by APPTA now.

The beginning of 2009 saw sucessful "Introduction to Play Therapy" training days held with Catholic Centre-Care, Darwin. These training days have been followed up with monthly supervision.

Also in 2009 Josephine and a number of other volunteers undertook crisis training in "Introductory Play Therapy" training skills to assist and support the children who were affected by the "Black Saturday" Bush Fires. Josephine has authored an article about this expereince and the outcomes of this work which has been published in Austrlia and in American Play Therapy Magazine.

2009 Also saw Josephine Present via Skpe her practical findings about the use of the "CPRT manual" at the APPTA conference held in Tasmania.

For more information on training Click Here

Academic Background:

Advanced Diploma in Family Therapy - Systems Coordinators Family Therapy - 2001-02.
Diploma in Professional Counselling - Australian Institute of Professional Counselling - 1995-97.
Bachelor of Arts: Psychology (APS) and Sociology - La Trobe University, Bendigo - 1991-05.