Karla Burley

Karla Burley is a Certified Independent Therapeutic Life Story Work Practitioner, Certified Play Therapist, Clinical Supervisor, and a TLSWi Trainer, based in Kent, UK. She provides Therapeutic Life Story Work interventions, clinical supervision, and consultation internationally and is a member of the TLSWi Board. Karla has developed and co-designed the Creating Therapeutic Stories Programme with Suzanne McGladdery, endorsed by Professor Richard Rose. Karla is an Accredited Member of BACP, former Course Director for Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma in Play Therapy and has a Masters in Practice Based Play Therapy and has presented her research of working with children who have been diagnosed with Selective Mutism at international conferences.

Karla is the founder of The Open Toy Box (2002), offering Play Therapy and Psychotherapy to children/adolescents, from the ages of 18 months to 82. Karla has designed, developed, and delivered programmes of therapeutic play skills and techniques, child development, child protection, trauma, and attachment training to support parents, foster carers, social workers, potential adoptive parents and pioneered play therapy for over 22 years with a team of over 75 qualified therapists and placement students to over 70 schools to enhance staff’s confidence in supporting children with emotional/behavioural challenges. Her commitment to professional development, relationships, mentoring new TLSW students continues under TLSW South/South East underpins her holistic approach to promoting and supporting individuals’ well-being.

Karla is known to be perceptive, and this supports her straightforward natural reflective way of working that can stimulate deep thought and self-understanding. Karla’s passion has always been to build a therapeutic relationship of safety creatively and collaboratively in a protected space for a child’s emotional healing and development to take place.

Karla’s focus is on TLSW, training, developing TLSW tools, writing the ‘Handbook of Therapeutic Life Story Work: The Rose Model’, with co-author Suzanne McGladdery to be published in 2024, assisting Professor Richard Rose with the TLSWi Conference 2024 in London (6-8^th June) and in the future development of Trauma, Health, Education International Academy (THEiA).