Psychodrama groups change lives

Presenter: Selina Reid & Hamish Brown

Experiential psychodrama groups enable the exploration of current, past or future situations and the development of fresh responses and new perspectives. The psychodrama method brings together ‘here and now’ experience, insight and action; assisting us to work creatively with aspects of life and relationships. The workshop is also an opportunity for those considering training with the Auckland Training Centre for Psychodrama.

Hamish Brown, MAANZPA, Registered Psychotherapist Hamish is a psychodramatist and trainer at the Auckland Training Centre for Psychodrama. He works in Auckland as a psychotherapist.

Selina Reid, MAANZPA, PBANZ, NZAC Selina is a psychodramatist & psychotherapist who has worked in Education and Human Development over the last 25 years.

Art Insight Workshop

Presenter: Sandy Fabrin

“Humans are complex, creative beings, and when we create something that expresses our own complexity, we arrive at … clarity through our own creative inner process…” Julia Cameron

Creative workshops at Insight International have been designed to utilise a mindfully creative process, using a variety of art techniques, to foster deep personal insights and to bring clarity. Rather than thinking about an issue, participants will be encouraged to give creative expression to this. Creative methods encourage integration between the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

Participants will be encouraged to view the expression of their inner-landscape from the perspective of:

• Awareness
• Compassion
• Acceptance of ‘what is’
• Non-judgement
• A positive and encouraging self-concept

Who should attend: Those interested in expanding their perspective and exploring mindfulness, using creative processes. (No previous art experience is necessary; only a willingness to explore creatively).

What you can expect: A supportive, respectful and encouraging environment, facilitated by experienced facilitators and includes:

• A short overview of mindful expression using creativity
• A large amount of creative expressive time
• Fun
• Reflection exercises
• Art supplies and classroom notes provided
• We offer a supportive, encouraging and safe learning environment, where you can interact with like-minded people.

Sandy Fabrin, IFT South Pacific Regional Manager, Therapist. B. Couns., RGON., Cert. IFT., Family Court Reg., NZCCA. Sandy works in private practice with Insight Counselling Services. Her particular interest is to use creative means for therapeutic ends, facilitating a healing process incorporating principals of Insight Focused Therapy. Sandy tailor fits her therapeutic approach to suit the needs of each individual. Her approach can also incorporate Art Therapy. For those specifically interested in Art Therapy, Sandy offers individual and/ or group sessions. Sandy is the mother of four relentlessly creative, adult, children.

Transactional Analysis in Auckland: an evening of history, acknowledgements, and celebration

Presenter: Margaret Bowater & Keith Tudor

After much consideration, Auckland TA Education (ATAE) has decided to discontinue the monthly TA seminars at St Luke’s Community Church. This has been a difficult decision to make, and we wish to acknowledge both Evan Sherrard and especially Margaret Bowater for their vision approximately 30 years ago, when they established these seminars to support people training in TA, as well as providing a great opportunity for the community to learn more about TA concepts and theory.

To honour the occasion, our last seminar will take the form of an interview with Margaret Bowater, conducted by Keith Tudor. The evening will also comprises contributions from others, and drinks and nibbles.

While these seminars are ending, ATAE will be considering how best we can serve the therapy and health communities, and will continue to develop and promote TA in different ways.

Wisdom of the Bodymind: Mindful Somatic Hakomi Therapy

Presenter: Aladdin Jones (Australia)

Ever found that traditional forms of narrative based therapies don’t always change habitual ways of being in the world and in relationships? Are you a psychotherapist, counsellor, psychologist, social worker, OT’s, care worker, medical staff (nurses, GP’s etc), groupwork facilitator, bodyworker, or in any other in helping profession? If you want to deepen your practice and learn therapeutic skills that are practical, experiential, embodied and compassionate, then this workshop is for you. This workshop provides advanced skill building in therapeutic contexts as well as communication and relationship dynamics, so that you can build on and deepen your abilities for transformative sessions.

In this workshop you'll discover:

• Listening beneath story & what is in the field of experience
• Tracking and contacting in the present moment
• The power of mindful awareness
• Tapping the wisdom of the body
• Experimental attitude, infectious curiosity & assisted self-study
• Conversations with the story teller
• Interrupting old habits: Neuroplasticity in action

This 2-day workshop offers the opportunity to experience the Hakomi Mindful Somatic method of psychotherapy and how it differs from narrative based therapies. It supports present moment mindful awareness and contacting not just the story but the storyteller.

• The learning style has a weighting towards the experiential with theoretical components woven through out, so that you get the most opportunity to practice and integrate the skills throughout the workshop.
• This workshop really grounds the practices of mindfulness and somatic (body) awareness and how to integrate these in your own work & life contexts.
• This particular workshop supports increasing your capacity for deep listening, tracking (reading what’s in a clients present experience and what’s outside their everyday awareness), and how to contact this unfolding present experience in others and in yourself.
• This workshop brings the therapeutic interaction alive, through its experimental and working with present moment experience.
• This workshop provides powerful tools for accessing belief systems that can limit people’s ability to fully live into who they are – it’s about increasing choice points.
• This workshop supports your knowing of how to create safe spaces and the flow of the therapeutic process and being able to see what gets in the way or limits the potential of a session.

Facilitator Aladdin Jones M.ed, is a certified Hakomi (Mindful Somatic) Therapist & Teacher who resides in the Yarra Valley near Melbourne. He has a private practice in psychotherapy, counselling and clinical supervision and teaches on the Hakomi Psychotherapy professional training in Australia (Perth) & New Zealand. Over the past 15 + years he has worked as a psychotherapist, family therapist (all ages), group facilitator and in community prevention of family violence. He has a particular interest in healthy masculinity work with boys and men, respectful relationships, and in ecotherapeutic approaches. Aladdin has a 20 + year interest and practice in Zen and mindfulness, is a musician of world music, has a love of gardening and time in wild places and is a father to two teenage daughters with his partner Tess.

Introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy

Presenter: Paul Gilbert

Practising compassion is shown to have powerful effects on the mind, body, and social processes. This two-day workshop will help you cultivate your potential for a compassionate mind with personal practice. Integrating mindfulness into the practice of compassion, we will find a step-by-step approach to cultivating the inner compassionate self, drawing from a synthesis of Western therapeutic and Buddhist approaches.

Day I:

• The workshop will cover some of the origins of Compassion Focused Therapy and how it is an evolutionary biopsychosocial and contextual science.
• We will explore compassion as a motivational system with three dimensions, its definition, self-identity (the self that seeks to be helpful, not harmful) and create the internal competencies for a compassionate mind e.g. by the vagus nerve.
• I outline the nature of the 3 affect regulation systems of threat, drive and affiliative-soothing and how they are utilised in compassion-focused interventions.
• Learn the 12 competencies of compassion.
• We cover compassion-focused skills including; the use of breath and body postures, understanding and cultivating mindfulness, letter writing, compassionate flashcards, compassionate anchoring, and the practice of compassion-focused imagery.

Day 2:

• We explore emotions in more detail.
• I introduce one of CFT’s key practices, that of multiple selves.
• We look at the different forms of self-criticism and how to switch hostile self-criticism and compassionate self-correction.
• A review of practices.

Professor Paul Gilbert PhD OBE, President of the Compassionate Mind Foundation, Prof of Clinical Psychology, and best selling author (20 Books inc Compassionate Mind & Mindful Compassion), is coming to New Zealand to offer this world-class workshop in Compassion Focused Therapy.