professional development in waikato, coromandel, bay of plenty

A Practical Introduction to Working with Small Figures

Presenter: John Barton

Learn how to use small figures with counselling and therapy clients. Small figure work is a powerful and effective method of working with adults, adolescents and children. Clients quickly understand themselves from new perspectives and find themselves thinking in new and creative ways. This workshop will focus on working with adults in the one-to-one setting. The work can be directly applied with couples and in family therapy, in supervision and in workplace/management settings. Participants who work with children will need to modify the work to suit their clients.

Using small figures enables clients to:

• Express and understand their knowledge of the family and social systems they inhabit.
• Experience themselves and their stories from both internal and external perspectives.
• Connect with feelings and understanding that are held in nonverbal memory.
• Concretise and thus more fully experience their hopes and wishes for the future.

Topics covered include:  general principles of small figure work and of combining this work with talkbased methods.; a specific way of using small figures to work with a client who has a difficult relationship; a specific method for bringing to life the memories, feelings and actions of functional roles. This is particularly useful with depressed clients; how to obtain small figures; a way of exploring the history of a relationship. This is particularly useful in grief work. It can also be used to celebrate a relationship and to allow expression of things previously unsaid. This will include the use of simple psychodrama techniques: Expression of thoughts, feelings and action; role reversal and soliloquy.

John Barton was born in Thames, and is a psychotherapist in Melbourne trained in
psychodrama and other modalities. He was a GP in Taihape, Huntly and inner Melbourne for over twenty years. He uses small figures in his own practice and has run this workshop in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Europe and Asia. He has a lighthearted teaching style which shows his enthusiasm for small figure work and his joy in the practice of psychotherapy.

When: 9:00 am to 5pm, Thursday 16th and Friday 17th June 2011
Where: Life Equip Church, 507 Mackay St, Thames.
Cost: $240 (Concession for students and unwaged: $140). Attendance at one day only $140 ($90).
Contact: John Barton email: jbarton@aapt.net.au, phone + 61 3 9480 6335.

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An Introduction to Child Centered Play Therapy

Presenters: Judi Jacobsen MNZAC and Megan Longman MNZASW

The play therapy model presented at the workshop is Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT). In CCPT, there is an underlying belief in and trust of the inner person of the child and their innate capacity to strive towards growth and maturity. The Child Centered Play Therapist is concerned with developing the kind of relationship that facilitates inner emotional growth and children’s belief in themselves. CCPT is an attitude, a philosophy, and a way of being with children rather than a way of doing something to or for children (The Art of Relation-ship, Garry Landreth, 2002). Play is the natural world of a child, and in their play a child can express their thoughts and feelings and come to an understanding of their world. Within the unique relationship that is de-veloped between the child and therapist, the child learns to value and respect themselves; to recognise their strengths, values and abilities; and to trust in their own ability to make decisions which are based on an internal wisdom and not on external pressures.

Content of Workshop

• The philosophy and principles of CCPT
• What is CCPT, who it can help, and how it can help
• The process of building a relationship with a child
• Therapeutic language that shows a true belief in the person of the child: The four healing messages – I am here, I hear you, I under-stand and I care
• Noticing, listening, acknowledging, and therapeutic limit setting
• Following the child’s lead
• Returning responsibility to the child
• Facilitating the development of children’s strengths
• Building a child’s self-esteem
• Participating in a child’s play without structuring
• Empowering children
• Ways of responding outside of the playroom—greeting a child and saying goodbye.
• Responding to a child who is reluctant to leave the playroom

When: 25,26,27 August 2011
Where: Houchens Retreat, Houchens Road, Melville, Hamilton
Cost: $665 (incl. GST) early-bird rate if paid by 29 July 2011 or $700 (incl. GST) Student rate of $565 (incl. GST)
Contact: Judi Jacobsen  email  judi@childplayworks.co.nz
To register:  » download brochure

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