Welcome to Arizona Branch of the
Association for Play Therapy!

I am honored to be serving the Board as President this year as this organization strives to provide education, networking and the highest quality of care for the children and families which we serve. As my friend and colleague Liz Parker-Johnson steps down from her role, I am looking forward to following in her capable footsteps with compassion, efficiency, laughter and joy. In collaboration with the AzAPT Board, I am committed to continuing our mission of providing quality play therapy education to the Arizona community along with our sister organization in Tucson, SAZAPT. We jointly support licensed mental health professionals in pursuing their Registered Play Therapist credential and/or those seeking opportunities to enhance their knowledge of the use of play as a healing modality for children and families.

There have been some changes to the Board this year. I want to extend a thank you to the past Board members for your service and dedication as well as welcome our new Board members. We are looking forward to working with each of you.

I would like to review some of the activities in which AzAPT has been involved with over the past year. The 2011 AzAPT Annual Conference was a success, featuring J.P. Lilly with his dynamic, informative presentation. There were a wide variety of vendors and exhibitors, as well as many opportunities to network and win raffle prizes. Thank you to all who attended and volunteered your time to help make this year's conference a success. Mark your calendars for next year's conference, featuring Sueann Kenney-Noziska, MSW, LISW, LCSW, RPT-S, on February 24th & 25th, 2012.

Last March, the Board and several volunteers enjoyed selling 50/50 raffle ticks at the last Coyotes game before the playoffs. We raised a significant amount of money in addition to having an opportunity to educate the community about Play Therapy. Thank you to the Coyotes Charities for allowing up participating in this fundraising event for the past four years. Join us next year as we hope to do it again.

The AzAPT Education Series Committee has been working hard to continue to offer opportunities to provide ongoing education for AzAPT members and the community. The format has been changed from the past several years. We will be offering 5 trainings this year, on Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, with three (3) CEU's offered for each training. The first training is scheduled for May 20, 2011. Feel free to visit our website, azapt.org, for specific topics and times as well as other features, such as Find-A-Therapist and a list of community resources.

AzAPT's goal is to provide services which meet the needs of our members and the community. We appreciate your ideas, feedback and willingness to volunteer; we are all in this together. With your assistance, we can continue to achieve that goal. I look forward to hearing from you and working with your over the next year.

Thank You for Your Support,

Jacqueline Aranda
President 2011-2012