SOCIO: connecting and informing the anzpa community

The idea was to present a more up to date and aesthetic gateway to our Association and its activities.

A simple task you might think, but one that required continually testing ideas with users, meeting Exec requirements and other key groups in ANZPA. Many people have been involved in influencing, shaping and reviewing the site as it was produced - even deciding on colours. The project has consumed many hours and is now finally here.

Passwords to access members only area will be sent separately.

Many Thanks to Diana
Although it was challenging for her not to meet people face to face, she must be delighted that as a creative producer she worked with people she didn’t know on a subject she was not an expert on, to the point where the project can ‘Go Live’. Well done Diana and much appreciation.

This website could not have been developed without the assistance of Central Media, Wellington. Diana worked closely with Jade Zhou to produce the design. Matthew Bartlett set up the subscription and purchase of our Journal articles and Josh Waihi has done a fantastic job of technically pulling the site together

A Few Words to Rob
Rob Brodie is standing down as Webmaster. He has held this role for years and has brought to it his thoughtful understanding of how we should be presented to each other and to the world at large. He single-handedly built the first ANZPA website sometime in the late 1990’s, at a time when the internet was ruled by something called FTP protocols. Since then he has lovingly maintained and continually upgraded it as we have grown as an organisation. He has patiently provided guidance on our membership database, set up conference websites and assisted many of us to enter the internet age. We are now much more of an electronically connected community as a result. Rob has brought to this work his absolute clarity of vision for ANZPA and functioned as an astute gatekeeper of ANZPA standards. He is now confident enough that someone else will do the work that he can let it go. Bravo. Raise your glasses. Many thanks, for your tireless dedication, Rob.

Incoming
Simon Guernsey will be the new ANZPA Webmaster. Thanks for accepting the role, Simon.

including cleaning rooms that contained the remnants of current renovations, and then numbering them (as the newly replaced doors were numberless); escorting arriving participants to their bedrooms and buying suitable underpants. This helped her warm up to the ensuing intimacy characteristic of an ANZPA Psychodrama conference.

Cecelia attended the pre-conference workshop with Max Clayton. She had the experience of starting this workshop knowing none of the other participants; by the morning tea break she was familiar with most of them and their names. This says something about Max’s genius in working with the group process. By the end of the first day she felt she had a place in the group.

Herewith a kaleidoscope of some of our impressions:

• The delight at seeing old friends and the shock of realising they are older now.

• The thrill, fear and chaos of sociometrically selecting which session to attend added a frisson of pleasure for participants and heightened anxiety for presenters.

• Resurrecting the Tarts Collective brought memories of Joyce Williams declaring us “tarts in training” (the Tarts Collective Training and Standards Manual is in the process of being written and edited). Singing in tune is not a prerequisite for the Tarts Collective. In the newer generation of trainees, interest abounds for joining this collective as old hands hone their skills. “Vale Joyce” (Farewell). Foundation members of the collective Ethel, Cecelia, Peggy and Annette welcome new trainees and plan a scholarship fund for new members to help them undergo the rigorous training certification requires.

• Ethel says that the Walter Burley Griffin architecture of Newman College crowned the conference proceedings and glowed in the moonlight “…The dome appears to float above a fortress of rusticated walls as if to protect the aspirations within from the profane world outside” (J. Turnball, Faculty of Architecture, University of Melbourne 2004).

• The venue of Newman College providing a holiday environment for the conference (like a “good enough mother”).

• The AGM was a showcase for the griefs, celebrations and achievements of the association. A striking feature of this central part of the conference was when the New Zealanders came out en masse to stand with compatriots receiving their certifications and awards and sang Maori songs. The Australians receiving awards came forward and stood alone.

• The Chalkboard Concert was another memorable event – featuring such spectacular acts as The Tarts Collective singing in their own inimitable harmonies, Robert Crawford singing the filthiest ditty ever penned, Phil Corbett & Co’s “I’m Your Man”, Cher’s opera, and Neil Hucker’s own composition for grand piano.

• Chris Hosking and Jenny Hutt holding the conference together as convening angels;

• Hilda’s opening song;

• Moreno’s cleaning squad, armed with various vacuum cleaners;

• Peggy Cook’s exemplary dedication to her role as accommodation Madame;

• Liz Marks creative name tags and fan instructions;

• Peter Howie’s engaging and delightful comparing of the AGM and Life of the Association;

We could go on to mention Cecelia’s 2 workshops (one on dreams & the other on working with the defence in training counsellors), Ethel’s process group (Bringing the Inside Out, combing psychodrama and psychoanalysis), John Devling’s group exploration of ambivalence, and Bendan Cartmel’s sociodrama on creating community.

Coming back to a psychodrama conference after over ten years has been like coming home to a welcoming family.

The intervention is startling as he immediately uses the method to make something of this interaction. The participant is a little taken aback but enters willingly into the enactment. What follows is an exploration of the views of various groups in relation to the current Palestinian - Israeli conflict and very soon as a group we have uncovered the pain of isolation, conflict, prejudice, inclusion and exclusion not only as it is for those at war on the other side of the planet but for ourselves and our experiences here and now.

Peter’s deft handling of this initial interaction avoided the conversation becoming private and personal to himself and one other and kept the focus on the issues generally so we could all participate. I liked the immediacy of working in this way where there was an invitation to participate freely bringing forward the concerns and interests we wanted to explore.

Throughout the workshop we meandered through a series of issues that Peter is familiar with. Sometimes working in small groups sometimes concretizing one person’s experience in relation to the whole group, the dramas peaked with a scene depicting the life of migrants trying to create a new sense of home. With the system expanded many forces affecting our concept and values of home and belonging were expressed. As a result of the enactment and sharing I appreciated the similarities and differences between us as New Zealanders and Australians, gained insight into how I could influence the system affecting migrants in NZ, and was motivated to follow this up on my return from conference. Spurring such ongoing role development for me is a hallmark of sociodrama so I particularly liked this aspect of the workshop.

Within days I had written my proposal and pressed send. I made sure I stuck to the required number of words, and kept it short, interesting and to the point. I then promptly forgot about it. October seemed a long way off to worry about whether it would be a yes or no. I was happy to have put myself on the table, not something I normally would have done - things were changing!

The email arrived, they loved it and I was in. Then a frozen moment arrived - I knew I was breathing when I suddenly took a deep breath: “Its good Kerry, they have accepted what you have written. You don’t have to make it BIGGER or BETTER.” My stage manager role burst out from the front row, we’ll have dancing girls, a big band, mikes and crowds; wow I felt great. I let that role run in a big way.

This was my first time and virgins are a little shy until they get the hang of things. So for the next few months I plodded away at writing, and gathering info and designing meditations. A quote that was very helpful at the time was: “having to plan and organise something, brings you to question what you truly value”. My tendency had been to rush things at the last minute and hope for the best. Now a new role was emerging.

A consistent characteristic of time is that it keeps passing, and as it passes, things or events - and especially ANZPA Conferences - get closer. It had arrived. I finally made it out of my house, arrived at the conference got my goodie bag, water and loads of instructions. Did any of this penetrate my being? Not much, it was as if I had left me and gone ‘walk about’.

The only thing I was aware of was my turn: 7:30pm Thursday. Friends new and old had noticed I was doing something, and the immediate support, interest and love was abundant. They bought me into focus; the particular level of consciousness of the people gathered was really some THING. I was continually losing and regaining my sanity (balance), and realised this is exactly what I had wanted to explore in my session: Keeping centred whilst all around me seemed to be in chaos. I was happy.

Dinner on the night was delicious, and then I stepped outside to have my own private “freakout”. I found a bench and started going through my notes. I was retaining it, that’s good. At that point, out of the corner of my eye, on the grass, in amongst the foliage was a caterpillar - doing what caterpillars do, living life, and, in particular, I realised, not worrying about anything.

This tiny creature became my role model of how to be a presenter at an ANZPA conference. I downed my notes. I went down on my knees to observe this beautiful green creature - up and down, up and down, its own roller-coaster and always moving forward, just like life! Any worries I had dissolved.

Like the caterpillar I did my stuff. I gave my presentation and people came to hear what I had to say and do. What a loving and supportive environment to be part of. I felt calm, yet mindful of keeping a forward motion in relation to my being.

And then it was over, it was an affirming experience and I have found myself to be wearing the shoes of a transformed caterpillar. A butterfly with army boots!

Welcome Song - by Hilde “with a little help from my friends”
(To the tune of ‘Sisters of Mercy’, with deepest apologies to Leonard Cohen.)

We welcome you travellers
you kiwis, you wearers of thongs
If the mercury climbs
and you think that you just can’t go on
There may be small comfort
in singing this conference song
Oh we hope you’ll be energized
you who’ve been travelling so long

There’s movement inside us
we’ll make a confession to you
We’re fresh with vitality
We hope (short pause), that it freshens you
If your life is a leaf in a book that you don’t recommend
we will bind you with doubling that’s
graceful and green as a stem

The conference has workers
We hope you run into them soon
You can check out their name tags
if things don’t check out in your room
We’ll strive to stay light (short pause)
and easy (short pause), in our own ways
Please don’t raise your hopes
That we’ll wash the world’s dust in 5 days

(Thongs = Aussie for jandals, flip flops. If you’re passing through Melbourne Airport, check out the vodafone ad on your way out!)

Thursday Lunch Time Song

To the Tune of “When I’m Sixty Four” (The Beatles)

You’ve landed in Melbourne,
City of Arts, culture and fine food
Water’s scarce, it’s heating up
We’re wilting away
Take hold of your fans and (Do the “I love you” move from the fan sheet with your fan)
Keep it at bay
Try a new angle (Do any move you like with your fan)
Find a new sign
Let yourself be true
Playing is vital
Presence no trifle
In our day to day

He ngakau nui tau
e kore e warewaretia
ka pahuu te whatu manawa ahakoa
kua wairuatia koe
kua waihotia e koe te Rangatira Mike
too ahi ka hei ara mo taatou

“Your big heart will never be forgotten.
It continues to beat even though you have passed over into the spirit world.
Your flame burns as a guiding light for us to follow.”

I first met this formidable elder, Mike Consedine, in a workshop he facilitated back in the 1980’s. Standing tall like a kauri, he talked straight with a twinkle in his eye and mischief spread in his wide smile. As he spoke he wove a story that could match any kaumatua. His korero was full of passion - and just as long.

Something he said to me that day, remains with me:
“Your past is written and done, the present is yours to design. Live it!”

Matua you will always be treasured and greatly missed.

He Kotuku rerenga tahi
“A bird so rare you are lucky to see once in a lifetime.”

ma te Atua e manaaki
sheryl horomona-gardyne

I acknowledge that this is likely to have been integrated in me from an early age thanks to the Maori community and culture that I lived with, and around, growing up in New Zealand as a young Pakeha girl.

I think that the lineage and the place that each person has lived in, and belonged in, in our community is important. I wish that the fullness of their wisdom, stories, mistakes, relationships, thoughts and teachings, memorable workshop moments (and any bad jokes) don’t get lost with people passing on in our community. Yes, we all remember some key images or common stories, but a person’s life is rich and full, with all the little details, stories and memories from many people building the larger life story together.

This, to me, is a natural extension of the honouring we already do of each other as people and of our relationships in the ANZPA Community, and the welcoming to belonging and connection that we create in our organization.

I like our use of the placed “Chair-that-honours-the-absent-member-of-the-group” within psychodrama. I wish this for our larger psychodrama community …. where can we honourably place a chair for each member of our community that has passed on, and that can be the receptacle of the stories and memories.

One such place may be here in Socio. Here, we can speak and remember and tell stories both small and large. This medium can allow for easy comment rather than the pressure of a “well worded article” that means many never speak.

May we remember and honour all our Elders and Others who have passed on and left much to us here

At the end of the wake the local Psychodrama Community was given the honour of carrying Mike’s coffin.

Mike gave of his life to Psychodrama and in Psychodrama he came to life. His contributions and pivotal role in the establishment of Psychodrama, especially in Christchurch, cannot be overstated. We value the depth of experience Mike brought as one of the founders of CITP. We mourn his passing and are thankful for his life.

Michael James Consedine 25 December 1940 - 25 January 2008

Mike trained and worked as a mental health nurse for many years and had a great commitment to the mental health client group receiving the best possible care and treatment. As he went on in his career Mike began to see that the development of staff would make a significant contribution to bringing this about. Mike was also passionate about psychodrama. He was one of the first role trainers in New Zealand and later was also accredited as a psychodramatist. He valued that a small shift in someone’s role system, that even a slight increase in a person’s spontaneity had the potential to make a significant difference to the way they approached their life and work.

From the mid 1980’s when he was working in the in-service training unit at Sunnyside Hospital, Mike beavered away trying to figure out how best to train and support mental health nurses in their development and was convinced that the psychodrama method had much to offer this group. The fact that anything that had a whiff of ‘therapy’ was quickly rejected was quite a constraint in nursing culture at that time. Mike began to focus on supervision, which was pretty much absent from mental health nursing practice in New Zealand, and it was with great satisfaction that he gradually pieced together an approach to supervision that he called ‘supervision for role development’ and which brought together the two major inspiration streams of his working life. It was clear to Mike that because of funding limits, it was never going to be a possibility for all mental health nurses to get supervision from outside the services where they were working. With this in mind, Mike set about training mental health nurses themselves as supervisors, so that they would then be in a position to offer supervision within their own profession. This was pioneering work and his commitment bringing it about was impressive.

I had the good fortune to co-lead some of these training workshops with Mike and was moved by his unrelenting commitment to bringing about a change in the culture of mental health nursing through the use of a lively, relevant and creative supervisory process. Mike had a wealth of inside knowledge as a result of his own nursing experience and he appreciated the challenges that mental health nurses face each day as they are constantly confronted with new and complex situations. As a result he was able to build strong and credible relationships with a wide range of nurses and engage them in this training. There were plenty of challenges as he was often met with great caution and at times hostility from nurses who feared being asked to do anything new or different. However Mike loved doing this work and he came to life as a teacher and trainer. He was seemingly fearless, full of enthusiasm, and very sure of the relevance of what he was offering. With his blue eyes twinkling under those magnificent eyebrows, he would chat, joke, tell stories, enter into concerns in a serious manner, offer a challenge, and encourage spontaneity at every turn, and gradually participants began to realise that they were learning something of real value to them in their work.

Mike used role training extensively and from the early days taught role theory and used role analysis as a primary approach to understanding what was occurring in a relationship system. He strongly countered the demands for a quick fix and the pull to problem solving that was at the heart of much nursing training. He focused on nurses becoming less reactive and more thoughtful as they worked with clients and as they responded to the system within which they worked. In recent years Mike became increasingly interested in and valuing of spontaneity and moved to place this at the centre of his teaching.

Beginning with the major initiatives he took at Sunnyside Hospital to train nurses as supervisors, Mike extended what he was offering to nearly every District Health Board in New Zealand as well as working in NSW and ACT. This work was not always easy – Mike was constantly working to build and maintain relationships with people in positions of influence in different District Health Boards. He would create an opening to run a supervision training programme, build up something over 2-3 years and repeatedly just as things were beginning to get established, a significant person would leave and the programme would be left without sufficient support on the ground to keep it going. This was heartbreaking and I know that at such times Mike often felt like giving up. The amazing thing to me is that he never did give up and even when he was very unwell, in the period before he got his kidney transplant, he would bounce back and begin again to reach out make new relationships and to generate new strategies to get the programmes better embedded in the system. In this respect Mike was undeniably heroic. In the last few years he started looking to the future and began to train a group of nurse- supervisors who could continue to deliver this training when he was no longer able to do it. This group is now in a strong position to carry on what he started.

As well as offering training, Mike was an indefatigable advocate for the introduction of supervision for mental health nurses. Mike was involved in the setting up of the CTA-funded Certificate for Post Graduate Mental Health Nursing at Victoria University and was very influential in getting supervision included as an essential part of the year-long programme. Although later he did have doubts about making supervision compulsory, at the time he saw that this would be a good strategic move to introduce many mid-career nurses to supervision and would assist supervision to become more accepted as a necessary part of the on-going support and professional development for nurses. This has been an important and successful intervention with very positive repercussions.

Mike wrote his psychodrama thesis on supervision in the nursing profession as well as presenting numerous other papers and workshops that stimulated interest at national and international professional nursing forum. He never stopped developing and refining his practice and his thinking about his work.

Mike was a man with a vision and he was also someone committed to doing the work to bring this vision to life in the world. His vision sustained him and motivated him to devote enormous amount of time, effort, and love to his work. He has trained and supervised hundreds of mental health nurses many of whom developed themselves and their abilities to noticeable effect. I have no doubt that they in turn have had a positive influence on many others and will continue to do so into the future.

Like many of you, knowing Mike and walking alongside him over the
years have enriched my life and I have felt inspired, strengthened
and heartened by this warm, compassionate and dedicated man.
When I was with Mike late last year, he spoke about feeling pleased
with the body of work he had developed, and I feel very glad about
this as he has made a truly significant contribution in his field and
it is well worth celebrating.

He was also a particularly special colleague and friend who never lost sight of his identity as a mental health nurse. Over more than twenty years of work with mental health nurses Mike left a huge legacy. For those left behind, the gap we experience by his death also feels huge right now. Nevertheless, we continue to integrate those insights and understandings which have emerged through both Mike’s supervision practise and his teaching in his Supervision Training Workshops. Through carrying on his work, many mental health nurses are picking up the necessary roles now needing to be attended to.

Mike’s belief in the “development of the self as a therapeutic agent” has resonated strongly amongst lots of nurses. Many recognize the limited preparation provided in nursing education in addressing this very concept which is so fundamental to our day to day practise as nurses. All the other broad range of important knowledge and skills nurses bring to their work is mediated by the vehicle of the “therapeutic use of self” and by the development of strong, healthy and therapeutic relationships with our patients. The ability to develop whatever “that thing within ourselves happens to be, at that particular point of time” enables us to move forward in our work with spontaneity and creativity. Mike’s Supervision Training Program has sustained and strengthened hundreds of nurses as well as other mental health professionals. Mike’s work was not limited to Christchurch. Over time he extended his teaching to health services in numerous mental health services, throughout New Zealand and Australia.

Despite feeling the raw feelings of grief and loss arising from Mike’s passing, it is also a real honour, for those of us who were trained as Supervision Trainers by Mike, to carry on his work. So we continue to offer update workshops to those hundreds of mental health staff already trained as supervisors and we also continue to start new groups of trainee supervisors. This requires deep commitment in order to deal with all the obstacles encountered in a health organization. But these challenges are not new, and were continually encountered by Mike throughout his career. Living by his motto that “it is all about relationships”, he sustained himself and kept on working with key people who supported him to keep his vision of supervision alive and developing.

We are now endeavouring to do the same, in the shadow of gratitude, to one very loved and exceptional man – Mike.

She herself studied and trained for a Community Studies Certificate at the University of Auckland with Judith McMorland.

Lys did counseling and psychotherapy training in the mid and late 1980’s when she began psychodrama training. She had already been attending and organizing Tom Wilson’s workshops in Manukau, as well as assisting with the administration for PINZ (Psychodrama Institute of New Zealand). She was in training at the Auckland Training Centre for Psychodrama for more than a decade and a member of ANZPA and its Northern Region through the 1990’s, regularly attending Tauhara Workshops with Max and Chris. Today, she would probably have been a retired or senior member of ANZPA, instead of withdrawing from membership as she did on her retirement from private practice.

She was a sturdy and robust woman, fiercesome in passion, generous in spirit and act, much loved by her peers. She died, with her sons and daughter around her, at 77.

It includes outcomes and actions ANZPA is already committed to and some proposed new initiatives. Initially I was going to leave in the edits so you could see what has been done but it got really messy - next time I will create an area for ‘Done Things’. As always this really is a work in progress – we have further made small yet significant changes following our recent Executive meetings in Dunedin where we also met with the Dunedin Conference group. The Dunedin conference is going to be a blast! So have a read and let me know, in the fullness of time, your responses.

ANZPA Draft Strategic Plan 2008

Mission
To promote spontaneity in the members of the Association and through them the spontaneity, creativity and co-creation of progressive relationships that strengthen the health and well being of society in Australia and New Zealand and in our relationships with those other countries.

Values
· Maintaining creative, strong relationships
· Living creatively with similarities and differences
· Being able to appreciate whatever it is a person brings forward
• Commitment to social repair

Vision:
The vision of able men and women all over the place expressing themselves relevantly in the ordinary here and now situations in which they live and work. This expression may be in silence, in building, in planning, in negotiating, in teaching, or in play but it will be a creative and responsive expression, an expression that brings joy to the human spirit, that uplifts the soul, that makes us feel part of the universe again.

Strategic Priorities

Professionalism
Members actively refresh and develop their capacity for high quality professional practice

Relevance
A wider range of people and organisations are attracted to professional development and training opportunities at ANZPA Training Institutes

Engagement
Effective communication and mutual relationship building within ANZPA so that members are well informed and engaged in strong collegial relationships

Presence
Communication and mutual relationship building by ANZPA with individuals and organisations in professional and global communities so that psychodrama is valued and more widely known and members are contributing to wider professional forums

Prudent Management
ANZPA cares for and develops its existing resources for on-going viability

More Detail:

In the following section you will find our work in progress on what achieving these overall strategic priorities might involve and what action would be required. It includes outcomes and actions ANZPA is already committed to and some proposed new initiatives. This is a work in progress. It represents what the Executive is currently focusing over the next few years.

1. Professionalism

Members actively refresh and develop their capacity for high quality professional practice

Intended Outcomes:
• Prospective members are informed of the Code of Ethics, which applies to trainees as well as ordinary members
• Members engage in a collegial process revalidating their ANZPA qualifications with the following possible outcomes:
• Ordinary members are engaged with their ANZPA colleagues in ongoing development
• Active participation of practitioners in professional development and supervision
• Members continue to develop their role repertoire in working with emerging wider community concerns
• Members regularly engage in ethics education in Institutes and Regional Associations, which is guided by the ANZPA Ethics Committee
• The Ethics Committee and the Board of Examiners have a co-operative relationship in the promotion and training of ethics education in training institutes and regional associations.
• Advanced trainees and TEP’s in training are actively pursuing their own development and accreditation plans
• Training Institutes engage together in collegial learning and institutes reviews
• The Ethics Committee communicates with ANZPA members about developments in the field of ethics
• Training Institutes are centres for exemplary scholarship, including research, training and practice

High Priority Actions for 2008
• We have a research committee with identified priorities
• Continuing development of revalidation criteria and processes taken up by practitioners in regional associations
• Ethics Committee takes a leadership role in ethics awareness and education

High Priority Actions for 2009-10
• Increased ethics education
• An initiative to encourage research projects in Training Institutes

2. Relevance

A wider range of people and organisations are attracted to professional development and training opportunities at ANZPA Training Institutes

Intended Outcomes:

• Training Institutes attract a wider range of trainees by considering the provision of :
• short courses for specific professionals
• psychodrama electives for students on existing university/private college courses
• training which is externally accredited by government or bodies such as PACFA
• Practitioners and trainees increase their capacity to work with a range of emerging community concerns including awareness of indigenous/first nation cultures, multi-cultural, migrant and refugee concerns
• Use of existing teaching and training resources and development of new resources on CD, Video/DVD and accessible on the web-site

High Priority Actions for 2008
• ANZPA considers PACFA Training Accreditation
• ANZPA presents for member discussion its feasibility recommendations regarding setting up and running psychodrama degree courses
• Training Institutes collaborate in the development and marketing of shorter certificated courses

High Priority Actions for 2009-10
• Review membership criteria to differentiate trainees, practitioners and other shorter term trainees and longer term affiliates
• Training institutes collaborate in the development of a range of review, assessment, evaluation and certification practices that both allows trainees greater capacity to gauge their progress and the wider community the ability to recognise trainee’s accomplishments.

3. Engagement
Effective communication and mutual relationship building within ANZPA so that members are well-informed and engaged in strong collegial relationships

Intended Outcomes
• Conferences organised by regional associations are held annually
• Increased engagement between officeholders in different ANZPA Regional Associations
• Members are well informed about the work of the Executive, subcommittees, working parties and other officeholders
• An IT strategy, which has an accessible and active updated wen site
• Annual meetings of training institutes in New Zealand and Australia continue to deepen the links between trainers and contribute to the ongoing development of TEPs and TEPs in training and to the development of institutes
• The Executive and the Board of Examiners meet at least annually

High Priority Actions for 2008
• The conference is used to facilitate active meetings of ANZPA interest groups
• Key sub-committees and members are consulted on strategic planning
• Executive consults with Regional Associations to decide locations of the ANZPA Conferences for 2011 and 2012
• An updated directory of the work of practitioners
• Strengthen the relationship between the executive and regional associations

4. Presence

Communication and mutual relationship building by ANZPA with individuals and organizations in professional and global communities so that psychodrama is valued and more widely known and members are contributing to wider professional forums

Intended Outcomes
• A range of professionals appreciate the applications and benefits of psychodramatic methods through their participation in ANZPA Open Nights run by regional associations and training institutes and ANZPA Conferences
• Non-members can access articles by ANZPA members via the web
• ANZPA practitioners present in wider professional settings on their applications of psychodramatic methods
• ANZPA continues active membership of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) and reviews this regularly
• ANZPA members conduct high quality sessions at the annual PACFA Conference
• ANZPA members participate where possible in relevant PACFA networks and working groups
• ANZPA continues active membership of and contribution to the International Association of group Psychotherapy (IAGP)
• ANZPA members contribute high quality articles to the IAGP journal
• ANZPA members can locate psychodrama in the wider field of therapy and group work and learn from practice in related fields through invitation of high quality presenters to ANZPA Conferences, participation in local education events during the year and through thoughtful selection of materials for the annual bookshop
• A co-ordinated ANZPA marketing and communication strategy is developed in collaboration with Training Institutes, Regional Associations and relevant subcommittees
• We have a range of psychodrama courses approved for professional development points in various other professional associations and programs.

High Priority Action for 2008
• Develop a brief for what a strategic marketing plan and process might look like.
• Develop a brief for what marketing the work of training institutes that is user-friendly
• ANZPA counsellors and psychodramatists develop greater involvement with PACFA
• ANZPA practitioners continue to present at PACFA conferences
• Executive to invite an ANZPA contributor to IAGP Journal
• Executive and Conference Committee to invite suitable outside presenters to Conferences
• Executive continues to develop collaborative ways of presenting psychodrama that arouses, galvanises and stimulates members and the wider public

5. Prudent Management
ANZPA cares for and develops its existing resources for on-going viability

Intended Outcomes
• The activities of the Executive, Board of Examiners, other Sub-Committees, Regional Associations and Training Institutes are covered by public indemnity and professional liability insurance
• The costs of existing and new initiatives are budgeted for carefully
• Individuals in the pool of potential officeholders and contributors are encouraged and developed through engagement in ANZPA activities and projects
• Annual operating expenses do not exceed ANZPA’s annual income from membership fees and conferences
• New projects and initiatives are prioritised and realistically scheduled and allocated so that the Association’s workload is manageable

High Priority Actions for 2008
• Training Institutes to ensure that they have insurance coverage
• Executive sets priorities for strategic projects

The current text reads:

Role Training is the application of the methods of Dr J L Moreno (1889-1974) to explore alternative role interpretations and role interactions in a specific situation. Role training involves the use of psychodramatic methods to develop or refine of a single role and practicing variations of relating within that role. Examples might include: roles required in an interview, for a presentation or in conflict resolution.

Can you improve on this?
We want it to be reader friendly with minimal jargon and yet do justice to what role training offers. The text simply has to be ‘good enough’ and stimulating rather than technically accurate or perfect. (It may help to look at the descriptions for Psychodrama, Sociodrama, and Sociometry.)

Use the comment function on this post to offer your suggestions. Peggy Cook and Julia Hailes have agreed to review all comments and propose something suitable to use.

Most human activities are conducted in groups of one sort or another. How well these groups operate depends largely on the leadership available, the purpose for which the group is gathered and the culture created in the group. When leaders have a good understanding of the structure and dynamics of groups, the effectiveness of education, counselling, psychotherapy and management in organisations and businesses increases.

Groupwork training focuses on the development of abilities to manage and lead groups. This involves paying attention to the goals of the group, the roles displayed by participants and the norms of interaction that arise in the group. The group leader works in the here-and-now of group life, makes observations about what is happening, identifies underlying issues and common themes and intervenes to progress the work that the group is there to do.

The best way to learn group leadership is to be part of a group.

Can you improve on this?

We want the description to be reader friendly with minimal jargon and yet do justice to what groupwork offers. The text simply has to be ‘good enough’ and stimulating rather than technically accurate or perfect. If it helps, have a look at what is in the descriptions for Psychodrama, Sociodrama, and Sociometry.

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• The day my social/cultural atom paper was completed.
• The day my thesis was finally completed.
• The day my practicum examiners said, “You have passed”, and the group cheered.
• The day I received my accreditation certificate at the ANZPA AGM in Melbourne 2008 amongst many old and new Psychonaughts.

It has been a long journey since 1973 when I first marvelled at and was inspired by the power and effectiveness of a psychodrama production on the individual and the group. Since then I have had the privilege of being in many psychodrama workshops and experiencing the directing and teaching of many different psychodramatists. Amazing what you can fit in, in 34 years.

I was first involved with psychodrama at Larundel Psychiatric hospital, Melbourne in 1973. From 1974 I ran psychodrama sessions in the therapeutic communities at Larundel. In 1976 I attended a week long psychodrama workshop at the Wasley Centre in Perth led by Zerka Moreno, Max Clayton and Lynette Clayton. Through these experiences I developed a vision and belief that Psychodrama group therapy was a very important therapy modality for “patients” in particular and people in general to have available for their personal development. The application of psychodrama in my clinical work has confirmed its value to me.

My own personal psychodrama journey so far has seen the evolution of a balance between developing and appreciating my own abilities and roles as well as an increasing appreciation of and co-creation with others in my social atom.Over the last 34 years this belief has never wavered and has been a central driving force in my slow cooking warm up to completing my accreditation as a psychodramatist.

Over the last three decades psychiatric psychotherapy treatments have struggled to maintain their importance as new medications and biological knowledge have dominated psychiatric training, treatment and perspective. As the psychoanalytic and even the general psychotherapies have been marginalized, psychodrama let alone group psychotherapy has been viewed as esoteric.

Therefore, presenting the psychodramatic method to psychiatrists as an important treatment option had to be done in a way that would create a positive, realistic, understanding warm up in the audience.In my mind the psychodrama method needed to be displayed and presented in a way that its value and what I valued would not be tarnished.

To me it was important that the experiential knowledge I had gained about psychodrama was consistent with current psychodramatic practice nationally and internationally. I would need to be able to demonstrate that there was a clear link between the theoretical underpinnings, the psychodramatic interventions and the application of the method to the progressive developments in the recipient’s role repertoire. It would be from a testable demonstration of this integration that psychiatrist clinicians could assess its relevance to patient care. The quest to achieve this set me off on a long experiential journey.

Following weekly training during the 1980’s I was drawn away to a distant country psychiatric practice living with my family on a property in the hills north of Melbourne. I maintained contact with the psychodrama community through attending workshops, annual conferences, personal contact, supervision and of course Teena and The Melbourne Centre of Psychodrama.

Eventually when I returned to Melbourne I again set out on a formal supervised learning journey. Throughout all this time I was applying psychodrama in my individual psychotherapy and in the groups I was running. Continually exploring how group psychodrama could be applied in psychiatry.

At a significant point, my “sorcerer’s apprentice” role responded to a psychodramtic shock at a Stanwell Top’s workshop that the standards manual had changed and I had better get with the new program. The standards manual had evolved over the 80’s and 90’s. I then arranged to be supervised by my psychodrama brother Richard Hall for my social atom/cultural atom paper. This brought me back to the field of current practice.

Then the deeply involving task of creating the thesis took over. The thesis theme was based on work I had been developing in my psychiatric practice.Learning what I did not know I did not know was a constant challenge for my sorcerers apprentice role. Learning to reach a foundation of integrated knowing that was authentic and from which consensual creativity could flourish found me tripping over many unknown assumption stones.

Learning that I needed to develop a much more co-creative supervisee role cluster than I was used to was a surprising and valuable one of the “I don’t knows”. Initially this was with Max then Liz Marks and then with the patient input from the examiners. Finally a publishable thesis was created.

Along side this I attended a monthly psychodrama peer supervision group which was a grounding counter balance to the isolated practice of the solo psychiatrist psychotherapist.
Learning all the computer skills needed to edit, diagram and present the written thesis was another parallel learning curve that put my computer at serious risk on many occasions.

Then the practicum loomed up. Yes, anxiety, surprise surprise.

With the practice in workshops and the peer group and psychodramatic explorations at home with Margaret my warm up to the practicum remained spontaneous. The delight which the friends I invited to be in the practicum with me and the warmth that my two examiners gave as I organized their attendance created a great feeling that we were going to create something worthwhile.

I was very satisfied with the practicum session I directed and had one of my greatest feelings of achievement when Anthony and Rollo said I had passed.

At the conference in Melbourne in January I had a great feeling of freedom from the examinee role and an ability to finally be more fully present at a conference than I had for many years. I could now let the psychodramatist join the psychiatrist for real. I more fully appreciated all my psychonaut fellow travellers who I had shared experiences with, and who had developed the training standards and the umbrella, no foundation ANZPA organization for my psychodramatist identity to come to fulfilment and my personality to flourish.

I now feel very satisfied, grateful and free to choose how to proceed, to re-evaluate my dream and how to express the many creative, heuristic productions that I have been planning. Waiting for the foundation conserve to be completed. As my trainee warm up lessons and the prospective examinee role cools off I am feeling very unconflicted. Eager to channel myself into sharing the fruit of a very privileged psychodrama clinicians perpetual status nascendi.

Thank you and hello.

They offer a rich set of perspectives and conceptual angles for appreciating a person’s uniqueness. They provide comprehensive holistic and many faceted visions. Both personal and social realities are revealed.

Moreno saw a “functioning form the individual assumes in the specific moment he reacts to a specific situation in which other persons or objects are involved.” For him ‘role’ was an inter weaving of elements. Sociologists social psychologists and educationists used ‘role’ to place people in society and take account of societal expectations. Media today is full of the word ‘role’ as a matter of position and related requirements. In political commentary, sport analysis or employment/organizational description role is tightened to a prescription and is often redundant. We hear “Batting at number 3 Ponting has the role of …” or “My Foreign Minister Mr Peters understands his role”. The word “role” today has the benefit that it relates the individual to the community of relationships around her or him. Unfortunately it also separates the individual person from their uniqueness fitting them in their “right” “role” for society. A host of windows are ignored for example Moreno’s window on to three levels of freedom in spontaneity development.

The Board of Examiners, in the fifth edition of the Training and Standards Manual (2002), wrote “This Manual is more precise in its use of the term ‘role’. Previously Manuals had phrases such as “the role of the producer”, “the role of the social investigator’, “the role of the therapeutic guide”. …. None of these phrases are psychodramatic role descriptions.” … “We … wish to contribute to an appreciation of Morenian theory that uses the term ‘role’ to refer to the particularity of an individual’s functioning in an interactive context.”

I am passionate that we should not reduce Moreno’s concepts which comprehend at least psychology, social psychology, cybernetics, systems theory, process philosophy and existential cosmology. His theories (I prefer to think of pragmatics) of ‘role dynamics’ assist us mightily to appreciate the way each person is uniquely organized. I do not want the expanding use of the word ‘role’ in the twenty-first century to restrict psychodramatist’s visions and actions.

In my journal article I recognize the organization in each human. As we meet a person we can come to know their particular ways of being. I specially selected the phrase “coping gestalt” to grapple with that organization which weaves our roles. A graphic frame was added editorially to assist the reader. Unfortunately for me the hard-line frame was counter to the permeability I imagine within role. The unconscious replacement of “Coping Gestalt” with our conserve “Coping Role” I believe allows us to miss out on working with the multifaceted organization of role. This made it clear how strong is our conserve . The words “coping” and “role” slipped together naturally along with helpfully intentioned graphic.

I will continue thinking and writing. I am beginning to blog in this area and you can read my original manuscript and further ideas at www.donreekie.com

Retiring Journal editor Rollo Browne and new editor Bonna Ana have each been very helpful in discussing this. The recognition that the word “role” sometimes obscures the organization within role that the concept gestalt was sparked by a brief chat with Vivienne Thomson last August.

Growing out of the great work of Gong Shu, the Taiwanese-American psychodramatist based in St Louis Missouri, this very first conference felt like an important opportunity for me to contribute, show my face and reveal some of my working style after 5 years of conducting workshops mostly in the south of China. I presented a session on the use of action methods in organization consultancy and a psychodrama workshop on the theme of loss. I was one of about 20 or so non-Asian participants, the total attendees numbering around 350, including a group from Taiwan where psychodrama is more established than on the mainland at this stage, and a group from Japan, mostly art therapists. There were lots of art therapy sessions/papers/presentations, some music and movement therapy, sand play, etc.

Getting there was a hoot, flying from Shenzhen to Shanghai Pudong to arrive in a monstrous rainstorm, such that the whole airport tarmac is flooded, buses up to the top of their wheels in a huge expanse of water, ages to get out of the plane, I’m the solo non-Chinese, general mayhem, even panic abounds, until we wade through the water shoeless to waiting buses which take us to the flooded arrival halls. Later I have to negotiate this wading thing to find the long distance bus station, which is also flooded, the buses delayed several hours. I get to Suzhou much later than I had planned, but safe and assisted once again by a friendly Chinese young man who instructs my taxi where to take me once there.

It was a nice surprise to meet Kate Hill from Sydney for the first time. I had assumed I would likely be the sole Aussie. It was good to meet Jorge Burmeister and his partner Manuela Maciel (Swiss and Spanish origins) and to see Marcia Karp again after a long time since ASGPP conferences in NYC, late 70’s early 80’s.

Not wanting to waste money on 5 star hotels, I found my way to cheap and cheerful, 3 beds, bathroom, TV etc, scruffy well used, up 4 flights and only $20AUD! Chinese participants stayed in dormitories for considerably less at the same hotel. In the mornings I sampled local street fare for brecky. A bus came to collect us each morning, transporting the group to Soochow University, the conference venue.

Translation for foreigners was on offer, but the quality was at times poor with crappy sound equipment - best to sit next to the translator and get an earful close-up, if there were not too many of us. Later I noticed how hard the live translators had to work in sessions, one translator per session and they did this for 3 x 3 hour sessions each day! They are very bright English majors, but not professionals, and often seemed exhausted, and unable to project sufficiently. This made me ensure that I had both met my translators before my sessions, with a view to orienting them to my specific needs, and to seek two of them for my workshop.

Synchronistically, the presenter before me at a panel session was an excellent English speaker. When I proposed that he may be interested in being my #2 translator in a psychodrama session, Miao Qing jumped at the opportunity. This augured well, because 60 folk turned up, a large group to communicate with, and the resultant drama was a delicate and at times hushed event to facilitate and translate respectfully and adequately.

Some Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai people were attending, which made for an enjoyable time, being around familiar folk. This is their first experience of the possibility to sample various psychodrama practitioners in a conference format, something I have had access to since the late 70’s in the USA, and beyond in Australia & NZ, at our annual conferences. I recall well the chance to experience Hannah Weiner, Jim Sacks, Don Miller, Dale Buchanan, Ira Greenberg, Bob Siroka, Peter Rowan and many others. Here in Suzhou, I attended sessions by Merri Goldberg, Jacob Gershoni, Kate Hudgins, and was exposed to the east-west “Yi Shu” way of Gong Shu.

My own sessions I felt very satisfied with, a deep rich session around the loss of a beloved, suddenly killed, as he sat innocently in front of a loaded delivery truck at his workplace, enjoying his lunch - his lovers’ life devastated from that moment on. There was a reparative reconnection between his spirit and her soul.

I knew that in my other session, presenting action methods for the organisational consultant, an appetiser would suffice, as there is so much to teach and experience in that area. We had active fun exploring action sociogram, sculptures, spectograms, the double, soliloquy and metaphor in the time available.

I really enjoyed the long walk home to my hotel, through districts which became a little familiar, stopping for a bite to eat, a beer somewhere else. After the conference a morning spent wandering in the ancient Garden of the Humble Administrator was a joy. A riotous dinner with new found friends was also great fun.

Back to Shenzhen with Yimi an attendee who writes psychology columns in a local newspaper. Her neighbour on the flight, upon enquiring after me, the westerner, offered to chauffeur me to my subway stop from the airport - not a word could we communicate with each other, so a generous reaching out again. Later I am interviewed about action methods for an HR magazine, discuss consulting to a huge business (worlds leading maker of TVs I believe) and conduct a couple of private sessions with auxiliaries. Soon it is all over, warm sad goodbyes at the Lo Wu border, then back into HK and the airport. I have again had a wonderful journey.

This is seen as vital in establishing a profile and credible voice as a profession, especially in dealings with government. To achieve this it was decided last year that eligible practitioners from member associations (with their consent) will be automatically listed on the PACFA register.

If you are a certified ANZPA member working in Australia as a counsellor or psychotherapist you will be contacted by us very soon outlining automatic listing in more detail and inviting your personal decision on this matter.

Future Independent Register
Meanwhile the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is introducing a national system for the registration of all health professionals. Government is sending clear signals that it wants to deal with a unified field and supports the development of a national independent register. This means PACFA and the Australian Counselling Association, both peak bodies which have been in a competitive dynamic for a number of years, need to work together.

With this in view, the PACFA Council Meeting in March 2008 decided to establish a working party of the CEO’s and Presidents of PACFA and the ACA and an independent person to progress the establishment of an independent register. This is a significant step into new territory, supported unanimously by the meeting.

Research
PACFA is currently undertaking research on couples counselling (in collaboration with Relationships Australia); an indepth study of supervisors on the processes of developing competence; and a study of creativity, the arts and recovery from mental illness.

International Counselling and Psychotherapy Journals
All members of ANZPA are now eligible to a 50% discount on a range of international counselling and psychotherapy journals arranged by PACFA with Taylor and Francis Journals – visit their website for more details: www.tandf.co.uk/journals

Begrunder (Founder) der soziometrie der gruppenpsychotherapie des psychodramas

“Der Mann, der Freude und Lachen in die Psychiatrie brachte” — JLM
(The man who brought joy and laughter into psychiatry.)

May 28-31 Dr Abdülkadir Özbek Psychodrama Institute together with Turkish Association of Group Psychotherapies - Bergama/Aesclepion, Turkey 33rd Internationally Contributed Group Psychotherapies Congress www.bergama2008.org

May 29 Swedish Moreno Insitute - Parnu, Estonia June 1 A Meeting of Geniuses

June 27-30 Rostov Institute for Training and Psychodrama - Rostov-on-Don, Russia 8th International Moreno Festival for Psychodrama and Sociometry www.psychodrama.ru

July 7-12 Psychodrama Insitut für Europa (PIfE) - Krakov and Auschwitz,
Poland 3rd PIfE Summer Academy: Traces of the Holocaust in the Present http://www.pife.de/

July 18-20 Istanbul Psychodrama Institute/Istanbul International Zerka Moreno Institute - Capadoccia, Turkey, 13th Residential Summer Conference: Being Spontaneus Under the Psychodramatist Identity. Classical and Modern Approches in Spontaneity
www.istpsikodrama.com.tr>

July 18-20 British Psychodrama Association (BPA) - Liverpool, UK: Theme: The Pool of Life. www.psychodrama.org.uk

Aug. 22-24 Latvian Moreno Institute/Latvian Psyhodrama Association -
Valmiera, Latvia: 5th Baltic Moreno Conference: Beauty and the Beast
www.psihodrama.lv or http://www.morenokeskus.ee/

October 7-11 IAGP an 8th Pacific Rim Regional Congress of Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes and the 14th Conference of the International Association of Dynamic Psychotherapy in Matsue, Japan. The theme is “Creating New Space Beyond Internal & External Wars”
http://www.prrc-iadp2008.org/proposal/

Nov. 21-23 Psychodrama Society “J.L. Moreno”/ Romanian Association of
Classical Psychodrama - Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Oct.9-11, (pre conferenced 7-8th)
Conference: topic to be decided http://www.psihodrama.ro/

Nov. 29-30 Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicodrama – Lisbon, Portugal

Dec. 1 VI. Congress of Portuguese Psychodrama
http://www.sociedadeportuguesapsicodrama.co/

( based on information from Horatio Albini, FEPTO Council)2009
The 17th IAGP Congress will be held in Rome during the week of August 24-29, 2009 !
The website has now been set up: www.iagpcongress.org
Theme: GROUPS IN A TIME OF CONFLICTS
To send the abstracts with your proposals for workshops, panels, posters, etc. the deadline is October 15, 2008. The suggested topics cover a wide range of interests.
For information and/or comunication contact Silvia Anfilocchi vicepresidente@coirag.org

147,198 words, 24,087 lines, 12,095 paragraphs, 603 pages of citations all the citations about psychodrama have been able to find. (This translates to more than 6,000 citations).

You can look up any author or any word or phrase in the title and retrieve the reference. You can then download only what you want. This ought to be helpful to all the new authors of psychodrama material that our journal is begging for.

“Why”, you ask, “is this of any value? I can simply Google “psychodrama” and get 1,170,000 hits.” Try it. The only trouble is that more than half these hits refer to a category of movie that has adopted the name and almost none of the other half are of scientific articles, chapters, or out of print books while the illustrious Bibliography of Psychodrama has only scientific articles, chapters on psychodrama within books, and as well as psychodrama books themselves from Moreno’s earliest works to what’s hot off the press.

The foreign language titles have all been translated into English. The foreign language is also there except for languages like Chinese which I cannot manage on the keyboard.

Those of you who are authors of psychodrama works, please look yourselves up and inform me of any errors or omissions. If you are looking for a recently published book and you know the title or author you can, in fact, find it on the net and buy it then and there!!!

Season’s greetings,
Jim Sacks