Are you a dramatherapist?

Are you looking to create an extra income stream that in time could grow into a full-time practice.

You may also be a playtherapist, dance/movement therapist, occupational therapist or working in a related field?

Have you had enough of poor pay and working conditions working in institutional settings?

Maybe you’ve had a yearning to set up a private practice but have been nervous about taking the plunge?

Or perhaps you’ve set up a practice but found it just too hard to attract clients to your work?

Would you love to…

… be part of a team of professionals doing highly rewarding work transforming the lives of quieter people – and at the same time have clients flocking to your door?

Click here if you’re not an arts therapist.

The Sunflower Effect Courses

My name is Claire Schrader and I have developed the Sunflower Effect, a pioneering confidence system based in dramatherapy. I started in 1997, 18 months after qualifying as a dramatherapist – and over time I have built a highly successful practice for myself, earning far more than I would have done working in institutions, or as a freelancer. Scroll down to more information about me and my background.

On top of this, it has been the reward of seeing the power and effectiveness of dramatherapy in changing lives.

The Sunflower Effect Courses are recognised and validated by participants reporting life-changing results after completing the courses. They outstrip the results of other confidence-building approaches by a long way.

I can teach you how to achieve the same, without all the heartache and expensive mistakes that I went through.

There is a growing demand for the courses in different parts of the UK, Europe and internationally.

The Sunflower Effect Confidence Courses have been featured on Sky TV  “How to stop shyness from ruining your life”, BBC World Services  “Why am I shy?”, Sat 7 TV, Marie Claire (Malaysia) “Hold your Head Up High”.

The Sunflower Project

It is time for me to train others to deliver the Sunflower Effect Courses to those who feel inspired to join me in my vision and to make dramatherapy more available to people nationwide.

The Foundation Training is the first stage in a longer modular training process with the option to train to deliver the full range of the Sunflower Effect confidence courses.

This is part of a wider initiative called the Sunflower Project to make the Sunflower Effect Courses available nationally, internationally and especially in developing countries.

The next training will run in 2024 (TBC).

The Foundation Training will enable you to start delivering the Sunflower Effect Courses in your location or setting directly after you have completed the training (depending on your previous training/experience).

Please watch the video above, read this whole page, take a look around this website, so you can get more of a sense of what I am offering, and to see if it feels like the right opportunity for you.

I particularly welcome regional dramatherapists as there is a need all over the country for the courses, particularly in big cities in the North and Midlands. This is where there is the highest need for the courses and where your practice is most likely to flourish.

5 Reasons for training to join my team of Sunflower Effect Confidence Specialists

1. You will have a wonderful working life running the Sunflower Effect Confidence Courses, helping hundreds of quiet, shy and introverted people to change their lives and prospects. They will never forget you.

2. You are your own boss – and you will be overseeing the quality of the courses you run. You are in charge of how and when you offer your courses, whether you want to work with adults, develop the courses for children or adolescents, or offer the courses in organisations.

3. You will be part of a team of Sunflower Effect confidence specialists working together to deliver magical and transformational courses, supporting each other to deliver an outstanding service, changing lives.

4. Over time you can run the full complement of courses, typically 12 hours per week of contact time (plus supporting participants/admin), develop your own courses, offer individual sessions, making a good income doing work you really love

5. If you join my marketing programme, you won’t have to build a website, learn complex technology, know anything about marketing and attracting clients to your work, or about what it takes to run a successful practice. I have done the donkey work and invested thousands in discovering the best way to attract and retain clients. I will be supporting you to do the same.

Why this is a unique opportunity for dramatherapists

As a dramatherapist you have the depth and experience in dramatherapy, to hold the space for anxious people, most of whom are terrified of doing drama. You will be able to get up and running the quickest to start delivering the courses.

It is important that you have some understanding of what it is like to be shy, self-conscious and lacking in confidence, so you have direct experience of how effective drama is in building confidence.

The training is very short and will equip you with the specialised knowledge you will need to start running the courses during, or soon after, completing the training.

After you have trained, and have met the requirements for delivering the courses (which for dramatherapists will be no time at all), you will become a licensed Sunflower Effect Specialist alongside your other qualifications.

“I strongly recommend Claire Schrader’s way of working, the application of drama as healing in the best possible way.”
Prof. Sue Jennings, Dramatherapy Pioneer and Trainer Glastonbury

You will then have the opportunity to:

• Join my team of Sunflower Effect Confidence Specialists who will become like a family to you, helping to grow, develop and thrive.
• Offer the Sunflower Effect Confidence Courses in parallel with your own practice, permanent or freelance work.
• The option to join the Sunflower Effect Marketing Programme giving you the know-how, tools and business support to build, in time, a highly successful practice and the opportunity to market your courses on my website. (My website comes top on google in searches, and this is how I tripled my income and client base.)
• The opportunity to train further and offer the full range of Sunflower Effect Confidence Courses.
• Be part of the larger vision for the Sunflower Effect Confidence System, creating courses for children and teenagers.
• Offer your own groups, workshops and individual sessions in addition to the Sunflower Effect Confidence Courses.

On completing the Foundation Course, you can decide what work pattern suits you best. Whether running evening or daytime courses, targeting particular client groups and expanding the range of the courses.

You may want to offer the Sunflower Effect within the organisations you work for, or to set up your private practice – and gradually build a following in your geographical area.

By joining my team at an early stage, you will have the advantage of lower fees and preferential rates, the option of ongoing marketing support and business advice to create a flourishing practice.

How are the Sunflower Effect Courses different from a Dramatherapy group?

The Sunflower Effect Courses are first of all courses, not therapy groups.

They are designed to get results quickly and effectively for people who would hesitate to join a dramatherapy group.

Most are 12 weeks.

I have combined dramatherapy structures with tools that really work for building confidence – including personal development tools, Keith Johnstone’s original Impro structures, mindfulness.

The main principles and strategies of the Sunflower Effect shift the mindset of people, who are hampered by negative programming and psychological blocks, very fast.

This is why you need the training to fully absorb these principles, the ethos of the courses and their practical application.

See this video which was recorded at the launch of my book From Wallflower to Sunflower:

Courses versus Therapy

Running courses, as opposed to therapy, makes a huge difference in the mindset of quieter people. Most feel shame that they lack confidence and that they should be “more like other people.”

Therapy implies there is something wrong with them and that they may be in for a long process. A course is much more socially acceptable and suggests they are doing something constructive to improve their lives.

In fact, there is nothing “wrong with them”. It is just that our world is not set up for quieter people. And most have adapted by withdrawing into their shell as a result of a lifetime of being bombarded with negative messages.

See this video:

FOUNDATION TRAINING OVERVIEW

The course includes:

• 6-weekend training workshops in Central London
• Ten recorded online training sessions (10 two hour sessions probably on a Monday evening)
• Training to run the core components of the Sunflower Effect Confidence Building System.
• Training in Business Basics for when you are ready to promote and run your courses.

The course is a foundation for training so that you can start running courses and building your practice immediately upon completing the training.

These include:

• Introductory Evenings (an essential tool for enrolling participants on your courses) This is covered in the pre-training Introductory Training Workshop (see above).
• The Express Yourself one day workshop
• The Breakthrough Confidence Building Course

This training course is supported by:

Prof. Sue Emmy Jennings PhD, anthropologist, Dramatherapy, Playtherapy and Neuro Dramatic Play pioneer (UK and Europe), performer, and author of 30 books on dramatherapy.

Mary Smail,  Director and Trainer of the Sesame Institute, Trainer with Revision and “Psyche and Soma”.

More about Claire Schrader

I started out in life as a shy introvert and proverbial wallflower.  That is until I found a way at age 22, to break out of my shell, through the power of drama. It changed my life, as it has countless quiet, shy and introverted people. I write about my journey in my book, From Wallflower to Sunflower, the quiet person’s guide to natural confidence.

I qualified as a dramatherapist in 1995, after having a previous career as a nurse, actress, playwright and drama school teacher. I have been running Making Moves for the last 22 years offering dramatherapy based personal development courses and workshops in the UK, California, Greece and Portugal. In the last eight years, I diversified into confidence-building courses developing the Sunflower Effect, and at the same time tripled my income and client base.

I now run six courses a week along with a range of other offerings: individual sessions, workshops, a weekend course, and introductory evenings. In effect, I “work” three evenings a week with the occasional weekend, plus individual sessions to fit in with my availability.

Most of my clients are office workers (some are funded by their companies). I have a wide ethnic range of people attending.  But they are also people from all walks of life who know they need to do something about their confidence levels. They are teachers, therapists, taxi-drivers, mums, unemployed etc.

Book publishing

I edited Ritual Theatre, The Power of Dramatic Ritual in Personal Development Groups and Clinical Practice published by Jessica Kingsley.

See more about the book, including talks from Sue Jennings, Debra Colkett and Thalia Valeta on my You Tube Channel.

Here’s one of the videos from the book launch.

Routledge International Handbook of Dramatherapy

More recently I contributed the chapter “Breaking Through the Walls of Shyness: Overcoming Shyness, Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety Through Dramatherapy” to the Routledge International Handbook of Dramatherapy.

Edited by Dr Sue Jennings and Dr  Clive Holmwoo

From Wallflower to Sunflower

About the same time, my self-help book From Wallflower to Sunflower, the quiet person’s guide to natural confidence was published.

New York Times best-selling author, Raymond Aaron, wrote the foreword. He describes the Sunflower Effect as “filling in the gaps where assertiveness training and other techniques leave off.”

You will find more about it on the book’s website. Along with bonuses and online resources to supplement the reading of the book.

You can also sign up to download 3 chapters from the book on this website.

NEXT TRAINING

The next training will be scheduled for 2024 at the earliest.  My commitment is to support the people who are currently in training to build a successful practice.

However, I welcome applications and interest from future Course Leaders. 

I am particularly seeking people who want to offer the courses in cities around the country, particularly cities in the Midlands, North, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. This is so we have a good spread of Course Leaders in different parts of the country where there is the highest demand for courses.

And I will continue to welcome applications from people who want to offer the course within their organisation/institution/workplace.  I am very keen to see the Sunflower Effect offered in a wide range of settings, for the people who really need it.

Your first step is to find out if the training is for you. 

Please download the information pack

This will give you a better idea of how the Foundation Training works and how you might use the training after you have completed it. You will also have the option to opt-in to my newsletter so I can keep you informed of future developments.

Once you absorbed the information pack and feel you would like to take this further, please book a telephone consultation with me to explore your reason for wanting to train, and to ensure that this is the right course for you. You will have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the course.

Book a telephone consultation with Claire

The next step after this would be either to experience the approach for yourself by joining one of my courses and/or to join the next Introductory Training Workshop. See below for details.

Or get in contact through the form below

Sunflower Effect Introductory Training Workshop

The Introductory Training Workshop, a prerequisite for joining the course.

This will give you more idea of the differences from standard dramatherapy practice, and provide you with tools that you can start using with your existing clients.

The Introductory Training Workshop is a practical way to find out more about the Foundation Course Leader Training – and if it’s a good fit for you.

In this, you will be learning how to deliver the Introductory Evening, a very powerful way of attracting participants to your work. I offer introductory evenings regularly. Between half to two-thirds of participants go on to join one of courses after attending.

This is also a great way to attract clients to your courses if you choose to go on join the Sunflower Effect Foundation Training which has been deferred till 2021.

This is a vital part of the training, so if you are not able to participate before the training starts, you will need to catch up on what you missed.

Introductory Training Workshop
Dates: Enquire
Times: 10-30-5.30pm approx
Venue: Helios Centre, 116 Judd Street, Kings Cross, London WC1H 9NS
Tube: Kings Cross / Russell Square / Euston
Cost: £225

Please get in touch through the contact form above to express interest in the next date.
More information

Find out more about this opportunity and if it’s right for you?

I ran a series of ONLINE Q&A SESSIONS before the first Foundation Training so you can hear more about the course and how I will be supporting you to build a successful practice running the Sunflower Effect Courses.

However, I’m not sure that I will be doing this for the next Foundation Training – however, I will be creating another way for you to find out if the Sunflower Effect Confidence Course Leader is right for you. Get in contact through the form below and we will add you to the Course Leader Newsletter so we can keep you informed of what’s being planned.