Deakin University’s Play Therapy Master’s course will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
Play Therapy is an evidence-based specialist therapeutic area that uses play – children’s natural form of communication – to allow children to express, understand, and process challenges, and learn skills.
The ground-breaking course remains Australia’s only tertiary degree for play therapy, paving the way for a new approach to child psychotherapy in Australia.
Practicing play therapist and father of three, Jesse Velik, a graduate and now staff member on the course, will be a guest speaker at the 2025 Play Therapy Creativity Innovation and Research Forum.
There he will be discussing filmmaking therapy, a new foray into play therapy that he continues to develop in association with Deakin University.
With a background in the arts and arts education, Jesse has seen firsthand the therapeutic power of filmmaking – an environment where children can learn skills, process challenges, and work toward a common, creative goal.
Every child has strengths and filmmaking, with its myriad of departments offers a pathway for so many personalities and presentations.
Jesse believes it is important that our idea of play, and avenues into it, continues to expand.
All children play and interact differently, and all children deserve to have their play language heard.
In 2025, under the umbrella of his play therapy practice, Therapy Through Play, Jesse will be
offering The Young Filmmakers Club, an afterschool group-based play therapy program utilising the avenue of filmmaking.
The program is neuroaffirming and strengths-based, celebrating all those who participate. Therapy Through Play has rooms in Malvern, Prahran., and Surrey Hills.
The Young Filmmakers Club will be taking place in the Stonnington area.
If you would like to enquire about The Young Filmmakers Club or Play Therapy sessions, please contact Jesse on 0411 746 313 or jesse.therapythroughplay@gmail.com.
NDIS participants are welcome.
