Why NDP?
People carry the effects of personal and systemic trauma in our inner worlds, affecting our thinking, our behaviours, and our relationships. Practitioners often hold these stories at close range — supporting children, youth and adults who face ongoing emotional and developmental challenges.
To meet these complex needs, we need approaches that are relational, culturally resonant, and grounded in the somatic and neuro sciences.
What is Neuro-Dramatic Play?
Developed by Dr. Sue Jennings, NDP is a profound approach of applied playfulness grounded in developmental neuroscience, attachment theory and the innate human need for imagination and play. NDP helps restore empathy, connection and resilience.
Facilitated by Vasintha Pather — South Africa’s only accredited NDP practitioner and trainer — this training programme extends beyond the formal framework. Vasintha has integrated decolonised, culturally resonant approaches to understanding trauma and therapeutic play, recognising that healing is relational, embodied and deeply shaped by collective history.
NDP works not by fixing, but by reawakening. Through sensory play, embodiment, rhythm, role and story, practitioners learn to meet clients where they are — gently rebuilding attachment, expanding emotional range, and nurturing resilience.
This training is an invitation to reclaim the healing power of play, to work with trauma in ways that honour dignity and culture, and to support the restoration of what is essential in the human spirit.
NDP supports the restoration of:
- Healthy attachment
- Empathy and emotional expression
- Sensory integration
- Resilience and social engagement
Who Should Attend?
Ideal for professionals in:
- Mental health therapy practices
- Education
- Social work and community development
- Counseling
- Facilitation and Coachin
What You'll Gain
Participants will leave with practical, creative strategies to apply immediately in their work — including tools that strengthen sensory integration, relational safety, emotional engagement and resilience.
A total of 42 CEUs/CPDs have been applied for, including 4 ethics points, for practitioners registered with the Health Professional Council of SA (HPCSA); and information to support international conversions will be available
Format, Dates and Investment
This programme will run over six months virtually. We will meet on the 3rd weekend of each month, commencing March 2026. Saturday and Sunday, from 1:30 pm to 6 pm CAT / 11:30 am to 4pm GMT. The course runs from March to August.
The investment is R8 500.00 / GBP 375.00 and R 1 500 / GBP 66 per module. Foundations of NDP is a mandatory module in order to participate in any of the other modules
In the spirit of addressing historic and systemic inequalities, all BIPOC participants will receive a 35% reduction in rate. Also, individuals from marginalised communities, including LGBTQ+ individuals and individuals living with disabilities, please contact vasintha@vasinthapather.com with a motivation for a reduced rate.
Dates:
- 21-22 March – Foundations of NDP
- 18-19 April – Sensory Play and Messy Play
- 30 – 31 May – Rhythm and regulation
- 20-21 June – Embodiment, Projection and Role
- 18-19 July – Narrative and embodied dramatisation
- 22-23 August – Systemic trauma and restorative play
- Art-making
- Drawing
- Psycho-dramatic techniques including role-play
- Storytelling and Archetypes
- Symbolic play using images and objects
- Mask-making
- Family constellations (aka Systemic Constellations)
- Ritual
Underpinned by a solid and vital wellspring of theoretical knowledge, including Drama Therapy, Jungian and Gestalt psychologies, narrative therapy, Integral Somatic Psychology®, Internal Family Systems and Eastern wisdom, we co-create transformative narratives that honour the complexity of the human experience and the contexts we live in. In this way, the innate wisdom of creative processes are harnessed so that new pathways for growth and healing are illuminated.
Psychotherapy and coaching are available online internationally. In-person sessions are at my private practice in Bryanston, Johannesburg.
My practice is regulated by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).