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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1987-08-19, Page 18C o it nal ®Entertainment *Feature *Religion ®family *More SECTION GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1987 Betty Bedard -Bidwell is the only therapist in Canada who has her registration in both play and art therapy. After 13 years of study, during which time she also opened two long-term care homes for boys, started a private play -art therapy practice, founded the art therapy course at Western set to begin this fall, married and had a daughter, Bedard -Bidwell received her final registration in May of this year. She conducts her art -play therapy sessions in a cottage at RR 2, Goderich. (photo by Lou -Ann Hope) Helping kids through art and play BY LOU -ANN HOPE After 13 years of study and determina- tion, Goderich-area resident Betty Bedard -Bidwell can lay claim to the fad that she is the only registered play and art therapist in Canada. . Being the only registered play and art therapist in the country hasn't changed her life that much except for the fact that she is a little busier with workshops and is looking forward to the possibility of teaching at the University of Western On- tario beginning this fall. And if you think that would make your life busy, keep in mind Bedard -Bidwell is also the owner -manager of The Homestead Group Home. (a specialized treatment group home serving abused boys, aged six and older, and who are in the care of Family and Children's Ser- vices) and The Saratoga Residence (an extension of The Homestead Group Home in which boys aged 14 and older are taught inklependent living skills which help thefi'l with community reintegration). Along with this, she has her own private play and art therapy practices, and also finds time to instruct persons in- terested in play and -or art therapy. She is also regional supervisor, trainer and teacher for the Canadian Association For Child And Play Therapy. All of this on top of being a wife and mother. But, it is what Bedard -Bidwell enjoys and has worked toward for the past 13 years. Her interest in children began early in life when, while working at various jobs and placements (including a childcare job at the Salvation Army Children's Village and Madame Vanier Children's Service in London), she realized "One, you can't raise kids in institutions and, two, you can't do just child management. You have to deal with their behaviour and the reason why -their behaviour is that way." Those realizations led her to establish her goal — to set up a long term care facility in the country. "I also realized I had to learn therapy to help the kids," she said. So began the long and arduous task of becoming a registered play therapist. SCHOOLING She began courses in play therapy at the University of Western Ontario about 13 years ago. At that time, the course was offered at the university but it has since been cancelled. . She went from Western to Hinck's Treatment Centre in Toronto for more studies in play,therapy. It took. two years of applying before she was accepted at the centre. Play therapy is a type of therapy used in treating any child who experiences dif- ficulties in the hone, school, or com- munity. It is best used for children aged three to 12 years of age. Play therapy allows the child to express hiniself- herself through playing, Bedard -Bidwell explained. In explaining play therapy further, she noted that Virginia Axline, a leading ex- pert in play therapy, explains in her book In spite of keeping busy with the tw8 boys homes which sheowns and oeprates and her duties as a private practice therapist and teacher, wife and mother, Betty Bedard - Bidwell still finds time to look after the few farm animals she and husband Stephen recently purchased. (photo by Lou -Ann Hope) "There is not just one way to treat or work with a child or. adult. Play and art therapy isn't the only way for the client to be healthy." Play Therapy ( Ballantine, 1969), "Play therapy is based upon the fact that play is the child's natural medium of self- expression. It is an opportunity for the child to "Play Out" his or her feelings and problems just as, in certain types of adult therapy, an individual talks out his difficulties." - Bedard -Bidwell finished her play therapy training with the Toronto Psychoanalytic Association. "At the association, 1 was the only one candidate at that time who was not a J child psychiatrist. I was a pilot project at the centre to see if people not at a psychologist's level could handle the courses," Bedard -Bidwell said. "They soon realized that I could keep up and that maybe child psychiatrists aren't the only ones who can do therapy." Training consisted of learning the theory of play therapy and establishing internship programs -with clients. ART THERAPY While still studying play therapy, Bedard -Bidwell became interested in art therapy. Art therapy, she explained, "is design- ed to utilize the non-verbal communica- tion produced with art materials in order to foster self -clarification and ensuing growth. The use of art expression as therapy is a means of reconciling emo- tional conflicts and integrating inner and outer worlds." Art therapy is used with clients aged six -years -old to adults. It is for people who "experience difficulties in either emotidnal or physical areas in which maturational growth is hampered and conflict is experienced." Art therapists work with a variety of clients. They can work with individuals, couples, families and groups of many kinds. In 1979, Bedard -Bidwell was accepted at the Ontario Art Therapy Association in London to study art therapy. Her background in play therapy helped her to gain entrance into the program. Her studies in art therapy consisted of interning with four art therapists. She was supervised by the therapists while treating clients. Her formal training was also taught by the therapists. Bedard -Bidwell noted that to become registered in either play or art therapy, 1,000 hours of direct supervised contact with clients was needed. Finally, in 1985, Bedard -Bidwell earned her registration in art therapy.' At that time, she was the l.lth registered art therapist in Ontario and only the 2.3rd art therapist registered in Canada. And, she was still studying play therapy. IN THE MEANTIME In the meantime, Bedard -Bidwell was not only studying; she was fulfilling her goal to establish a long-term care home in the country. "In August of 1981, she opened the Homestead Group Home located at RR 2, Goderich. •The home is for children with a wide range of problems and who are in the care of Family and Children's Ser- vices. Children at Homestead attend community school. The goal of the • Homestead program "is to help each child develop the skill and self-confidence needed to grow into a secure, responsible adult." In 1984, she established her own private practice in the Goderich area for art and play therapy clients. Prior to this, she had a similiar practice in London. Also in 1984, she began a training pro- gram for people interested in art and -or play therapy which was monitored by both associations. In March of 1986, she married Stephen Bidwell and that same year they became the parents of a little girl. All this while still studying toward her registration in play therapy. Finally, after 13 years of study, Bedard -Bidwell received her registration in play therapy in May 1987. "For registration in play therapy, you have to have a personal interview with three registered play therapists. The in- terview lasted for two hours. They ask you questions that make sure you know your theory and that you yourself are • 'grounded' and also to get a feeling of you," she said. "At the interview they wanted to know how I kept myself grounded. I said 'I shovel shit' (which she actually does since Homestead has a small farm)." She also told the interviewers, who were all male, that her family and not her job as a therapist, was the most im- portant thing in her life. "I first thought I wouldn't get my registration because of my answers. I knew the theory but my answers took them back a bit," she said. However, in spite of her `somewhat unusual' answers, Bedard -Bidwell was awarded her registration in play therapy in May of 1987, 13 years after beginning her studies in the field. TREATMENT Using play and -or art therapy as a treatment is one way to help a client, Bedard -Bidwell notes. But, it is not the only, way. "There is not just one way to treat or work with a child or adult. Art -play therapy isn't the only way. If I don't feel that I tan help a client, I refer the client to another agency," she said. Bedard -Bidwell accepts clients into her private art -play therapy treatment pro- gram from the Huron County Family and Children's Services, youth contracts, , other agencies, group homes, private referrals{ as well as court and lawyer referrals. "People often say clients aren't necessarily treatable. But, that isn't Turn to page 3 • WILLIAM THOMAS The Earl of Bud and rites of summer It was billed as a summer doubleheader. The Triple '-A" Buffalo Bisons baseball team would play the Denver Zephyrs and then the Beach Boys would play the four songs that made them famous and fabulously wealthy over the last 26 years and everybody would go home happy. But a funny thing happened on the way to War Memorial Stadium, a stadium that's as comfortable and familiar, as your best, oldest slippers. A record crowd of 38,211 fans, 71 surfer girls, 5 grandfatherly rock stars and 36 beer sellers who apprenticed in a midway sideshow turned the aging -forum into a rollicking home for the emotionally distracted. It was a bash .to set Buffalo talking proud again. First and foremost is The ' Butcher. He's the Bison's bat boy and mascot whose waist line you can actually see ex- pand as the game wears on. Like the not- ches on a gunslinger's forty-five, each hole in The Butcher's belt represents the killing of one jumbo dog and a plate of nachos. The Butcher's job is to catch foul balls off the backstop, throw frisbees into the stands during the seventh inning stretch andwipe out the Saran. Wrap budget at the concession booths. Then there's The Butcher's assistant bat boy and mascot The Big Guy who also doubles at hawking Miller Beer when the going gets tough and the tough get thirstier than desert island castaways. The Big Guy is a midget. His number is 7 3/8. Like The Butcher, The Big Guy wears a Bison uniform but he tops it off with a pink bowtie and a mat- ching pink cumberbun. The best things do come in small packages and in the •case of The Big Guy - gift-wrappped. The star sellers along the first base line are "The Two Cone Heads" and "Zorro" the masked and caped crusader of suds who fight injustice and the forces of evil to deliver ice cold beer to honest and de- cent people everywhere. Everywhere between homeplate and the first base Coach's box. Then there's the King of Beer Hawkers, the man that all of Buffalo has come to dance and drink with, the char- ming, the talented - The Earl of Bud. The Earl of Bud is a vision of summer /in white tuxedo, red bowtie, red and white sneakers and a Budweiser ball cap over a black and smiling face. He sings the Star Spangled Banner like the late Nat King Cole and he does The Peewee Herman Big Shoe Dance near the pitcher's mound during the seventh inning stretch better than Peewee Herman. When the crowd call's, the Earl of -Bud answers by jumping up on anything higher than himself and gyrating to a climactic round of applause. It's enough to make even the scowling Butcher • smile. As the final out of the ballgame is made, stadium staff knockdown the cen- tre field wall and a concert stage is haul- ed out to second base by tractors. I imagine this meeting of concert officials. "Okay, so we've got one hour of nothing happening between the game and the concert with a mildly inebriated crowd of say forty thousand people on a hot Sunday afternoon. How do we pre- vent a riot?" "Beach balls." "Beach balls?! Forty thousand baseball fans demanding rock and roll and you expect them to be pacified with beach balls! What kind of idiots do you think we're dealing with here?" Silence. More Silence. "Okay, so order six -,make that eight beach balls...next itemparking..." And so we all played with beach balls for an hour and it was really a lot of fun. Two 1950 model convertibles deliver The Beach Boys, who have been preced- ed by seventy-one Surfer Girls .in funny sunglasses and scanty beach clothes. By unrehearsed giggling they put this Nor- theast industrial crowd in a laid back Southern California mood. There are no I.Q. requirements to be a Surfer Girl. Three of them tripped over third base upon entering the field. - But it works, wonderfully so, and this huge crowd, soothed by the sun and bath-, ed in Budweiser lapses into a 1950's trance and responds as one body to urg- ings of America's , band. They are, to steal from a Montana cowboy, slicker than deer guts on a door knob. Nobody sits, nobody is untouched by the mystic mood or the madness of the 50'srnanifest in Surfin' U.S.A., Little Deuce Coup, Bar- bara Ann,.Four-O-Nine and Surfer Girl. They flash the words of the songs. on the scoreboard and in a single voice the masses beg: Help me Rhonda, help, help me Rhonda!" Everybody stands on their seats, everybody • dances in .the aisles and everybody sings the thirty-year old slangs like the 60's, 70's and 80's never happen- ed. And everybody behaved like the con- cert was taking place in the family room. For two and a half hours this warm, nostalgic energy surged through the stands enveloping everyone in a plea- sant, childlike stupor on one fine day in Buffalo. It was fun, fun, fun till The Beach Boys took their ball and went home. •Oh yeah, and the Bisons lost 7-1 to Denver.