Professional Development in Otago and Southland

Social and Cultural Contexts of Psychotherapy

Presenter: Keith Tudor PhD TSTA

Drawing on practice, theory and research, this workshop examines the social and cultural context(s) of psychotherapy, and their impact on and in the consulting room. This includes culture, gender, race, and sexuality, as well as power and politics, all of which have been discussed both in transactional analysis and in the wider field of psychotherapy. In this workshop, Keith will review some of the literature about these contexts, as well as facilitate discussion about these and the presentation of clinical and other material. Drawing on Martha Stark’s (2000) work on different modes of therapeutic action – one person, one-anda-half person, and two person – Keith will also present his ideas on “two person plus” psychology as a framework for understanding the impact of social and cultural context(s) in psychotherapy. 

Keith Tudor is a Certified Transactional Analyst and a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst. He is Professor of Psychotherapy at Auckland Univesity of Technology, where he is currently Head of the School of Public Health & Psychosocial Studies. He is the series editor of Advancing Theory in Therapy (Routledge), the editor of Psychotherapy and Politics International, and the co-editor of Ata: Journal of Psychotherapy Aotearoa New Zealand. He is the author/editor of over 250 publications, including fourteen books. He is currently working on a critical examination of psychotherapy, which is informed by his interest in social and cultural perspectives on the context of psychotherapy. He has a small private practice in West Auckland.

Childhood Anxiety

Presenter: Dr Allison Waters & Dr Trisha Groth

Childhood Anxiety is often overlooked or misinterpreted as being a behavioural or developmental problem. While some anxiety is a normal part of childhood, around 12 per cent of children develop a diagnosable disorder, experiencing fear, nervousness, and shyness, and avoiding places and activities. Without intervention these children are at higher risk to perform poorly in school, miss out on important social experiences, and experience physical complaints such as sleeplessness, diarrhoea, stomach aches and headaches. Fortunately, when properly recognised and managed, anxiety disorders are very treatable. Years of psychological research has shown that short cognitive behavioural interventions will help anxious children cope better both socially and scholastically as well as avoid a possible lifetime of debilitating emotional distress.

The key themes of this workshop will include

• Recognising behaviours suggestive of anxiety disorders, and differentiating anxiety from other problems with similar symptoms.
• An overview of the most common anxiety disorders in childhood and early adolescence and the common factors that contribute to their development
• The impact of anxiety on learning and development, peer relationships and family life
• Tools to assist in assessment of childhood anxiety problems
• Effective strategies for working with anxious children which have applicability across a range of professional contexts.  Particular attention will be paid to strategies for enhancing interventions based on the latest research on cognitive and exposure-based strategies.

Dr Allison Waters is Professor in Clinical Psychology at Griffith University in Queensland  where she runs the Childhood Anxiety Disorders Research Programme. She specialises in the cognitive-neuroscience of anxiety disorders in children and integrates this knowledge into intervention research and clinical practice. Dr Trisha Groth is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice on the Gold Coast who specialises in working with child and youth anxiety. Trisha has unique experience specialising in the application of the latest knowledge on cognitive and exposure-based principles into clinical practice. Based on their combined research and clinical experience, Allison and Trisha created the highly effective 'Take Action' children's anxiety programme. This workshop integrates their combined research and practice knowledge and the content contained in the programme to offer participants a suite of practical ideas for effectively intervening with children experiencing anxiety.

Supervision: building strengths, developing competencies

Presenter: Michael Durrant

The role of Supervisor is often thrust upon senior clinicians, managers and team leaders in human service agencies, often without a lot of consultation, training or support. The supervisor’s role is critical to the successful functioning of any agency so it is important that supervisors practice according to a framework that is grounded in best practice research. According to The Gallup Organisation, the most effective supervisors and managers direct 80% of their focus on their supervisees’ strengths and only 20% of their focus on areas of problem, deficit or difficulty that need attention. This finding (which goes against many traditional attitudes to supervision) is in keeping with the rise of “strengths-based practice” as a popular approach in service delivery. However, few supervisors have systematic, effective, user-friendly tools for helping those whom they supervise harness strengths and use these to build increased confidence and competence. This 2-day training will explore how a strengths-based philosophy can be extended into and utilised by those in supervisory roles to provide focused supervision that not only leads to better and safer practice, but also improves job satisfaction and agency culture as a result. Participants will learn practical methods for working with staff in ways that enhance their sense of competence and effectiveness.
Some of the areas Michael will cover include:

• How to have supervisory conversations that encourage supervisees to reflect on their work with clients in a way that uncovers new ideas and builds hope.
• Moving the focus of supervision towards discussing successes with clients and how this approach can assist supervisees to discover new ways forward with their more challenging clients.
• The role of supervisor as consultant rather than teacher and examples of how this works in practice.
• The importance of considering our own assumptions about the supervision process and how these will shape our supervisory practice (both positively and negatively).
• An overview of current supervision and management literature and how this knowledge translates into practice in the human services sector.
• How strengths-based supervision is about much more than just “being positive” and still considers the realities of child protection risk and other legal and ethical imperatives.

Michael Durrant is a Sydney-based psychologist and author. He is the Director of the Brief Therapy Institute of Sydney and an Honorary Associate in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. In addition to his extensive clinical and consulting work, Michael is engaged by the NSW Psychologists Registration Board to train supervisors of Intern Psychologists. This workshop has been delivered in a range of international agency settings over the last 10 years and is being offered in New Zealand in response to numerous customer requests for supervision training. The material has been especially designed for supervisors, team leaders and managers in health, welfare, education, and community-based agencies.