Congruence - March 2012 - Australian Psychological Society...Congruence - March 2012 3 Editor’s...

Congruence - March 2012

The Newsletter of the College of Counselling Psychologists aims to inform its members and other psychologists of current information, events and activities related to professional practice. The Newsletter further serves as a medium between members, and the National & State Committees to College members.

APS College of Counselling Psychologists Catalysts for Change

Congruence

Phone: (03) 8662 3300 Fax: (03) 9663 6177 E-mail: [email protected]

Webpage: www.groups.psychology.org.au/ccoun

Australian Psychological Society Level 11 257 Collins Street Melbourne VIC. P.O. Box 38

Volume 11, Number 1

March 2012


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In This Issue:

Editorial Policy 2

Editor’s Note 3

Chairs Report - National & State 4

Membership Report 8

Member’s Section 9

Practice Issues 18

Professional Development 23

State Committee Members 35

National Executive Office Bearers & Contact Details 36

Committee Meetings 37

Editorial Policy

Aims and Objectives The Newsletter of the APS College of Counselling Psychologists is produced by the National Executive of the College in collaboration with State Committee sections. Its target audience is College members. It serves as a means for communication for members and as a publicity tool for the Society in the public arena. It promotes the work of Counselling Psychologists, provides a forum for discussion and keeps members aware of forthcoming events and important issues in the field of Counselling Psychology. Contents Newsletter contents will vary from issue to issue but will attempt to include editorial comment, a National Chair’s report, State Branch Chairs reports, training activities, professional practice issues, membership surveys, APS news and advertising. Contributions The Editorial Board encourages College members to contribute articles to the Newsletter. Effort will be made to ensure publication of all articles submitted but publication of articles cannot be guaranteed. The Editorial Board reproduces in good faith information sent for inclusion in the Newsletter. It accepts no responsibility for the correctness or otherwise of information included in the articles presented nor does it necessarily endorse the views expressed in printed articles. It respects the rights to freedom of thoughts and speech and encourages active debate amongst members. Material for inclusion in the Newsletter is to be submitted to the Editor by the relevant deadline, 28 February; 30 June; and 15 November. Submissions are preferred to be in electronic format (Word document) and should be between 500-1000 words. Submission can be emailed to [email protected] Advertising Advertising in the Newsletter is welcome. Rates are available on application. Placement of an advertisement is not an endorsement of the advertiser. Approval of advertising rests with the Editorial Board. Subscription Members of the APS College of Counselling Psychologists will receive an email notification that the new edition of Congruence is available to be downloaded, as part of their membership. Mental health practitioners and other allied health professionals may receive the Newsletter by subscribing and being on the College email list. Send your request to [email protected]


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Editor’s Notes I seem to be “running out of time” again, yet on this occasion it is not due to procrasti-nation, but rather I have found too many things to do - and likewise, perhaps another repeat. Nevertheless, I have finally completed this overdue edition of Congruence, and if you allow me to boast a little, I think it is a good edition. This edition is a good read, primarily because of members’ contribution in relation to their views, poems, movie review, essay, and client related stories. Lets not forget the Chairs report which are very informative and finally the feast of pro-fessional development on offer. By the time you receive this edition, the Easter break would have passed—yet I do hope that you had a good break, spent some time with your loved ones, and most importantly gained a renewed spiritual connection, however that takes form. The next edition is in July 2012, so may I encourage members to contribute to the ongo-ing quality of Congruence. You may not know this yet, but other College members do actually read this newsletter and expressed appreciation to members input.

THINKING GREEN

To promote sustainable thinking and practice, Congruence is designed to be viewed onscreen. It can be saved on a memory stick, CD or a computer’s hard disk. It is suitable for printing, but please consider printing only the necessary pages required. Consider also printing on both sides of the paper.

New College DVDs - soon to be released

Positive Psychology Cognitive Motivational Coming out No more bets, & Psychotherapy Therapy & Interviewing please Depression


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Chair’s Report Michael Di Mattia Chairperson National Executive Committee

The early stages of 2012 has seen the national executive continue to advocate for counselling psychologists; submitting a response to the Psychology Board of Australia’s (PsyBA) consultation paper on the guidelines for supervisors and supervisor training. A copy of the college’s response is on the PsyBA’s webpage. The national executive has recently been alerted to a number of government schemes where appropriately trained members are being excluded, including the NSW Victims of Crime scheme, where only clinical psychologists are accredited to write reports for the court. In addition, changes to the eligibility criteria for clients seeking access to the Disability Support Pension have come into effect, which are now only recognising psychiatrists and clinical psychologists as able to assess mental health functioning for clients’ seeking access to this benefit. The college has been in contact with the APS in relation to our concerns and has requested their support in lobbying for changes in these two schemes, to recognise counselling psychologists as highly trained mental health providers that should be included in these schemes. On a positive note, I am pleased to report that as a result of the college’s ongoing lobby-ing of the PsyBA in relation to our concerns over the definition of counselling psychology and associated competencies contained in the Board’s guidelines on area of practice endorsement, I have been invited to meet with the Chair of the PsyBA, Professor Brin Grenyer, later this month. The college was asked to participate in a social media trial, organised for APS groups, using Linkedin. To date, there has been a positive response, with over one hundred members joining the group, and active discussions on a range of issues affecting members taking place on the group. As members would be aware, the annual APS Conference is taking place in Perth this year, during the last week of September. The executive is keen to have a college stream day with presentations focusing on research and practice in counselling psychology. I encourage all members considering a submission to indicate they want to be part of the college’s stream when submitting their abstract. In addition, the college is currently organising our inaugural national conference, to be held in Melbourne in February 2013. Three keynote speakers are confirmed and the conference organising committee will be sending out a call for papers in the coming months. Further details of the conference will be posted on the conference webpage that is under development. I encourage all members to think about putting in a submission, as this is a wonderful opportunity to highlight the high quality research and practice of counselling psychology in Australia.


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Chair’s Report

NSW Section

The NSW committee has not had the opportunity of meeting since the end of last year

so there is little to report.

In NSW the Sydney branch is very active is running a series of PD events on a regular

basis throughout the year. I was elected to the branch committee late last year with the aim

of knowing what is planned by the Sydney branch for the year. This was to avoid duplication

and to ensure that events which would be of interest to our members were included in the

program. This will also mean that what events the COCP committee plans will have greater

publicity using their data base as well as our own.

The Sydney metropolitan area is vast stretching from the Central Coast to Katoomba

(in the Blue Mountains) and as far south as Wollongong, and from the coast to the Hills

district and Richmond/Windsor area. The population density has shifted from central

Sydney to west of Parramatta. One of the goals of both the COCP committee and the Sydney

branch committee is to run more programs in the outer metropolitan area. A survey is being

conducted to find numbers in each of the areas to meet the needs of the members.

The next meeting for the COCP committee is to be held on Wednesday April 4 where

we hope to plan our program for the rest of the year. Hopefully by the next National

Executive meeting a fuller report of our activities will be presented.

Dr Geoffrey Glassock AM, MAPS


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Western Australia Section

I would like to welcome Penny Fox and Darren Maroney (student representative) to the WA Counselling College committee. In recent weeks the WA College has had discussions with the Association of Counselling Psychologists (ACP) regarding working together to serve Counselling Psychologists in WA. Both committees are planning to meet in the near future to discuss further. In February 2012 the WA Counselling College was involved in a joint event with the ACP, which bought together Counselling Psychologist in WA to discuss the current definition of Counselling Psychologist and to open up discussions on specialist registration. This event was in preparation for a meeting that the National Counselling College chair and the chair of the ACP were attending with the PBA the week following. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our current committee members for their support and time they give to the WA College.

Nicki McKenna

Chair’s Report

No Photo

Are you looking for a Supervisor? Did you know that the College of Counselling Psychologists has a list of its more experience members who are willing to provide counselling & clinical supervision in an individual and/or group format to other professionals working in a range of areas. There are over 250 Counselling Psychologists qualified to provide supervision across all States and Territories of Australia. For contact details of the list of accredited Counselling Psychologist supervisors, download the

Counselling College Supervisors Directory

from the College Webpage:

www.groups.psychology.org.au/ccoun/events_pd/supervision


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Chairs Report

Victorian Section

At the end of year Victorian section committee dinner, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr Katie Wyman, and being able to present her with the award for APS best doctoral thesis in counselling psy-chology in 2011. Katie thesis was titled: “What therapists bring to therapy: An examination of thera-pist effects on the alliance and the characteristics which build the therapist-client alliance.” Katie’s examiners were extremely impressed with the calibre and level of contribution of this work to an ex-tremely important issue in the field of psychotherapy. We congratulate Katie on her achievement. We also said goodbye to Jan Seeley at our end of year dinner, Jan had been a committee member for a number years and managed our DVD library enquiries and loans. This role is now being handed over to one of our new committee members, Jenny Corran, and we thank her for taking on this role. Thanks to Jan for her contributions to the Victorian committee.

2012 is shaping up to be a very busy year for the Victorian section. We have a number of PD events coming up in the next few months including (unfortunately, many of these events are now sold out):

There are many more exciting PD events during 2012 and we will offer these to college members prior to publishing in the state newsletter – make sure to get in early as events generally sell out very quickly. Thanks to Ania Krysztofiak who is doing a superb role as PD Convenor for the Victorian committee. Since I last updated you in November, Ai Tran, a committee member, has provided a number of free movie passes which the committee have been able to give away to college members, we thank him very much for this. The advocacy sub-committee has joined together with the marketing subcom-mittee and this group will primarily focus on ‘advocacy for’ and ‘marketing of’ counselling psycholo-gy in Victoria, as well as possibly supporting the national executive in its ongoing national efforts. This group is still in its infancy, and so we will have a better sense of its operation as 2012 progress-es. Nigel Denning has agreed to lead this group. Last, we will soon have new APS brand aligned book-marks, notepads, and pens. The Victorian committee is very proud to have developed this initiative, which the APS are now deploying across all colleges, thanks to Lyndon Medina, Monica Lederman and others who were instrumental in developing and maintaining these marketing materials. We are always very keen to hear from members including suggestions of how we might sup-port counselling psychology in Victoria, and also any PD events that you’d like to see us run. If you have suggestions then please don't hesitate to make contact with the committee through the secre-tary, Julian McNally, via email: [email protected]

Dr. Adam Becker

Sat 24 and Sat 31 March 2012

Motivational Interviewing (2 days) Helen Mentha

Fri 20 April 2012

Introduction to Relationship Counselling using Gott-man’s Marital Therapy

Linda Tilgner &�Nigel Denning

Sat 28 April 2012

How to sit in the centre of a storm: Providing therapy to those with Borderline Personality Disorder

Dr Katie Wyman & Janina To-masoni

Sat 19 May 2012

Working with men, anger and relationships: An intro-duction to working with men who misuse power in rela-tionships

Nigel Denning &�Dr Loretta Bell


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Membership Report A new initiative from National Office by Helen Lindner and Melissa Drum has been to organise tel-econferences for all College Membership secretaries. To date there have been two teleconferences one in January and the last one in March 2012. The aim of the meetings has been to keep all the College sec-retaries informed about membership, especially renewals, IBP’s and supervision. An important aspect is to monitor numbers and increase college membership, investigate ways of providing support to as-sociate members completing IBPs or supervision. Supervisor Recruitment National Office initiated a recruitment drive to increase number of eligible supervisors. National office contacted all eligible college members via email and invited them to become supervisors. There were 257 eligible members in January. The recruitment drive increased numbers to 272 in March 2012 with applications arriving daily. Application forms for those who were eligible under the old rules will be sent out shortly. Non-Renewals of College Membership Those members renewing APS membership and not college membership were identified and per-sonally contacted by National Office via email, telephone or mail. Most rejoined. Reasons for non renew-als were genuine oversight, retirement or leaving the profession. Our current numbers are very healthy. The meeting decided that for those out standing non- renewals one final contact from the college secre-tary might be effective way to facilitate reinstatement prior to the end of the time limit. The idea is for an exit interview to establish whether college membership is still relevant. The clinical college is running a survey on why members are retaining their membership. Supervision Daphne Hewson supervision course approved by PsyBA beyond 2013. NSW and Qld courses for supervisors approved till 2013. Or until PsyBA is able to provide new courses for supervisors. There were suggestions around cheaper supervision for associate members being supervised by College supervisors. IBP’s and Supervised Practice Plans At the end of the assessment period 67 members were asked to complete IBP’s. Of those 21 have been completed. 46 are incomplete with some of these members yet to lodge an IBP. They are to be con-tacted and encouraged to submit and complete within the time frame. A time line has been devised so that the APS has time to assess the completed IBP’s and supervised practice prior to sending confirmation to the PsyBA. Suggestions were made that the Colleges should run CPD to assist with completion of requirements of the IBPs, supervision or CPD relevant to the specific college. Benefits of College Membership – Draft for comment National Office put together a list of points advocating the benefits of college membership. This is to assist National Office personnel to answer queries around the benefits of college membership. They would like some comments on the current draft or additional points. Extenuating Circumstances and other matters The PsyBA approved the late application to submit for college membership under the old rules and endorsement beyond the closing date. Good to know that this may be possible. Completed IBP’s have been trickling for approval. Also requests to vary the IBP or vary supervision arrangements.

Maria Pirrello


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Member’s Section

Harvesting the scarce hen’s teeth and growing more.

Elizabeth Tindle 2012

Women leading countries, congregations and corporations are “as scarce as hen’s teeth”.

A Celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.

They came from all parts of the University; from Engineering, Creative Industries, Educa-tion, Science and Business, with one purpose and that was to join others to honour and recog-nise a woman from the past or in the present who they believe deserved to be remembered. A purple counterpane had been prepared and was secured to the wall. This would be the back-ground to the narratives of participants all of whom attached a green sheet of paper showing a photograph and a summary of a woman’s life. Participants sat in the round and shared their intriguing stories of women from all corners of the globe, covering a few centuries or decades. Many stories were of people known personally especially family and friends. We all were richer for the learning we gained: History of other countries we were totally unaware of and which left some of us spell bound. We heard about a young woman who in the Sixteenth Century dressed as a man and in disguise fought in the Emperor’s army in China for many years. Some young men from Papua New Guinea had fascinating stories about their cultural diversity. One young man studying for a PhD focussing on women in his culture shared some of his plans. Another reminded us of Dame Carol Kidu the first woman elected to the PNG parlia-ment as recently as November 2011. We were told that Carol was from Queensland and had married a man from PNG and when she was widowed she took over a lot of his work. Carol incidentally was the guest speaker at the Australian National University for International Women’s Day, 2012. We heard a riveting story of six generations of women from one Australian family. We were taken through the tough times that faced many women in the early years of Australia’s history. We followed their lives from arrival in Australia on a small sailing boat from England and felt their sorrows, struggles and sometimes their grief. Students told touching stories of women they loved; women they admired but women who lived in distant and sometimes “obscure” locations in the heart of Asia. Some suffered immense physical abuse. Some tears were shed over loved ones who had recently passed away. We heard from third generation women from India who thrived in the freedom and opportunity they believed they had in Australia and contrasted it with the many females living in India today. We reflected on the practice of Suttee; the placing of a widow on her husband’s fu-neral pyre until comparatively recently in history. In the present day this practice is replaced by a social abandonment of widows in many villages. There is almost a shame attached to having lost one’s husband and widows lose status and standing in their community.


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Member’s Section

Closer to home, we acknowledged the historical achievement of having the first female Prime Minister in Australia as well as a female Premier in Queensland. The first State premier had been the amazing Carmen Lawrence in Western Australia. It was agreed that only brilliant, strong women could obtain and retain such leadership roles. Females leading countries are as scarce as hens’ teeth. In UK there has only been one; the principled and strong Margaret Thatcher. Both men and women still seem to be more comfortable with a cockerel in charge of the coop. One of the only female leaders in Pakistan, Benezir Bhutto, was assassinated. A female Member of the Afghan parliament also met a “sticky end” mainly because of “unconventional and progressive” thinking. In our narratives we spoke of outstanding sports women. Some were people who had represent-ed Australia in international competition. We spoke of former students who had become brilliant coaches or tennis players One such person was Jan Stirling from Adelaide who coached the Australian Women’s Basketball team to a Gold medal in Brazil and three silver medals in three consecutive Olympic Games; Sydney, Beijing and Athens. What an achievement! But the question is asked, ”Who knows of her?” Another strong Queensland country woman was recognised, June. She retired recently from driving buses full time for many years. In a former life she drove cattle trucks across the Queensland outback. She actually took her driving test in a truck. She is aged 70. And what about 73 year old Jean who represented Australia in netball almost fifty years ago. Other sports women who were remembered were Sally Pearson the Olympic hurdler and Kathy Freeman an Olympic sprinter. Following the stories we had lots of singing of women’s songs to two guitars. We bellowed out Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman” and Nancy Sinatra’s “These boots are made for walkin’” followed by some less robust and strident Spanish songs. We enjoyed the camaraderie and the delicious afternoon tea and look forward to next year’s celebration.


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www.groups.psychology.org.au/ccoun

The College webpage is full of current information relating to our professional practice, counselling psychology and activities of the National and State Committee. College members are encouraged to visit the site occasionally and are invited to contribute to the content of the website. The College webpage was designed to augment and complement the Psi Counselling News as well as to provide immediate access to information relating to our profession.

Current information in the College webpage include:

Counselling Psychologists Supervisor’s List

Papers by College members, e.g., Vive le difference: Counselling & Clinical Psychology by Dr. Elizabeth Tindle

Subscription & submission to the Australian Journal of Counselling Psychology

Response to the Psychology Board of Australia

College Online Discussion Forum

Victoria Conference - Counselling Psychologists: Experts in Psychological Therapy

Member’s Media Library

Professional Development activities

College Portfolio Groups

Previous editions of Psi Counselling News

APS College Committee Manual

News about Counselling Psychologists

Office Bearers contact details

To submit material for inclusion on the College webpage, please contact Gerard Webster [email protected] College website coordinator.


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Member’s Section

Dr. Bob Rich

Report to the Branch Chairs on the

working of the Public Interest Advisory Group.

I want to tell you why I am passionate about working for the public interest. A standard technique in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is to tell the client: "You have just died, at 93 years of age. One of your grandchildren is to deliver a funeral oration for you. Write the speech for this person: what you hope will be said about YOU." What works for clients works for us. OK, let me sketch out two versions of MY funeral oration: Thank heavens the old bastard's gone at last. Look out you lot, I already have a good lawyer, and my share of his millions is MINE. When I was young, I called him Gramp to his face, but Grump behind his back. He never had time for us, it was always screwing the most out of the next business deal. Or the alternative: Please forgive me, I can hardly speak for crying. Grandfather is gone in physical presence, but he'll live on in my heart until I die. Whenever I was in trouble of any kind, a quick phone call to the old boy, a few minutes of his quiet voice, and I knew again that I could cope. Let me share with you now a few of my fun times with him, and a few of the funny times... and so on. Which one is better? This drives home a truth. We are NOT on this planet to seek happiness, to make money, to gain possessions, fame, status, power. These are just tokens in a game. The AIM of the game is to give us OPPORTUNITIES to learn lessons, to grow spiritually. A rule of the universe is: THE MORE YOU GIVE, THE MORE YOU GET. I've had the privilege of working with several people in the last days of their lives, who said to me something like "This cancer is killing me, I'm in great physical pain, but it's the BEST thing that's happened in my life. I am content to die, because now I have a clear view of what's important." A client told me about his father. Everyone had feared the old bugger. It was "My way or the high-way," intolerance, constant criticism. Then dad had a heart attack and nearly died. He came out of hospi-tal, in my client's words, "like a lamb." He had learnt the ultimate lesson: only Love is important. Only two things matter in this life: what you take with you when you die, and what you leave behind in the hearts of others. Everything else is Monopoly money. What can you take with you: Lessons learnt, gained wisdom - or the opposite: hate, bitterness, blame and the like. So, you either advance in spiritual development, or go backward, or of course a bit of each. Look after the heart, the Love, and you can let go of everything else. As a Counselling Psychologist, I am equipped with a set of tools that enables me to lead people from hopelessness and despair to inner strength and contentment. Whatever YOUR work, you have essen-tially the same training. Most people decide to be psychologists in order to reduce suffering.

So, DO it. Do it as an individual. Do it as an office bearer of the society. And let's do it together, as the

APS.


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Member’s Section

Be Careful (Invited Poem)

Be careful Yes, that’s what she said

Be careful

Not as in you’re standing too close to the edge Or you’re walking around the house in the dark

Not the careful you might drop it Or careful there’s nasty types around here

It’s the difficult kind Often impossible

The challenging kind of careful

The challenge to hold every moment, action or phrase Egg like

Or like a weapon

It’s the careful what you do kind Words that move, inspire or caress a bruised heart

It’s the careful what you do kind The give

The reaching The letting go

The burying of ego

It’s another kind of careful too Careful what you let in

What you soak up What you let surround you

Yes, be careful That’s what she said

Now, keep it forefront Yes, forefront

Teresa Dowd (January 2012).


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Member’s Section Dr. Elizabeth Tindle

PUSS AND ME AND MORNING TEA

In comes the tray with morning tea And Puss arrives peremptorily.

She waits until I pour some milk And laps it up as smooth as silk.

Then waits until I pour some more And wipes her mouth with one white paw.

I sip my tea and munch a biscuit. She wants a taste, but dare she risk it?

When all’s consumed and the milk jug empty, She sits in one spot; the eternal sentry.

PAINTED NAILS

She comes armed with tiny bottles of magic To transform my toes

From plain, neglected appendages To objects of interest.

An aesthetic experience. Well almost!! Colour chosen carefully

Rich cherry red, Applied meticulously,

With barely a discernible touch A tender act

Giving of her time Togetherness for a while. Lost in the quiet ambience

We sit on the settee And drink our tea

On a sleepy summer afternoon.

Mr. Johnson and my annus mirabilus (When the words of a trusted Art teacher changed my

life.)

The Year of the Miracle, when I saw the light! My Damascus conversion that brought such

insight! It seems so mundane, meaningless and trite, But it filled a young heart with such hope and

delight.

That a teacher would take such an interest in ME, Left me quite speechless but chuckling with glee.

He said, in a tone of authoritative mystique, As he stood near my desk, “You have the technique!”

It wasn’t until later when I ran all the way home, And I searched for the dictionary, a treasured old

tome, That I learned what it meant. It was quite new to

me, But it said that one had a ‘skill competency’.

So I thought of the message that he had conveyed, As I splashed on all colours, red, purple and jade. Immersed in my painting with passion and vim, I would have been “rudderless” if it had not been

for him.

So then I had purpose and knew where to go, And started to learn with more grit and gusto. And when I look back to that momentous year,

I thank Mr. Johnson for showing such care.

A PLEA FOR POSTERITY

A curtain of sinuous emerald fronds Suspended from towering trees

Framing mysterious azure ponds Reflecting this magical frieze.

I gaze all around me in wondering awe

At the beauty I see in this place. Mammals and reptiles and plan-life galore

Entwined in the forest’s embrace.

The creatures come down to the water to drink Traversing a carpet of green

And then in that moment I ponder and think Of the future of those in the scene.

From time immemorial these forests did stand

A haven to nature itself Now they’re being destroyed as we ravage the

land Through our greed and our yearning for

wealth.

We rely on these bastions, these pillars of strength,

For the pure, pristine air that we breathe If we are to survive for any great length

THE RAINFORESTS NEED A REPRIEVE.

Paul (Age 15)


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Member’s Section Lyndon Medina

Time = (Haiku)

Waiting for something Tick, tock, tick tock, tick

tock, tick I am still waiting

Intentionally I stood still and said nothing

And then I grew old

I rushed to get here Finished everything early

I was still too late

Double time, I pushed Beating the competition

I lost to myself

I cannot say it Am waiting for the right

time But now she is dead

Apathy and whine Aversion and self-pity Now I’ll add regrets

I planted my seeds Critics said it is too late

Trust and faith, they grew

Friend, the time is now And the same time

tomorrow Unlike yesterday

Cat stares patiently While the bird chants

merrily Time precedes outcome


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Member’s Section

The Weeping Camel: A Review

Zaharah Braybrooke The movie is a very powerful and thought-provoking documentary about the relationship between the nomadic tribe of South Mongolia and their herds. The homogeneity of the society and their cultural beliefs and rituals is beautifully illustrated in “The Weeping Camel”. The Weeping camel is about a failure of a mother camel to bond with her baby colt immediately it was born. The extremely difficult labour took two days to deliver the baby colt. It was very traumatic for both mother camel and her baby. To the mother camel’s surprise her colt was born white. The impact of birth trauma could be due to the prolonged labour and labour pains that was caused by the white baby colt. During the labour the mother camel was going round in circles to help the delivery. The baby colt’s legs and head were hanging out of the mother’s rear. I think this was to numb or distract from the labour pains. Eventually the tribe was very sympathetic with the mother camel and her new colt. They intervened by pulling the baby out. As soon as the baby was born the mother camel rejected and abandoned it. Everybody’s face looked very sad and they were concerned for the mother and baby camel. The lack of bonding between the mother camel and her white baby colt was destructive to both mother and baby. The mother camel looked uneasy and distant from her baby colt. The baby looked forlorn and cried for her mother. Her cry had the quality of yearning and longing to be with her mother. Yet her mother was a few meters away from the baby. The movie contrasted this to another mother camel loving her baby. After a few days the tribe could not bear the mother and baby camel’s pain. The family, who owned the camels, discussed with the community of ways to restore the lack of bonding problem. I found the story very moving to see the pain of rejection and abandonment by the mother to its own baby. This feeling was also shared and felt by everyone in the tribe. The excruciating pain experi-enced by both mother and baby were beyond words. That is how I felt when I saw the movie. The movie, breathtakingly, found a successful intervention to restore the bonding problem between the mother and the white baby colt. How did they do this? What are the major themes of the movie? Firstly, in my opinion, it is about rejection by the mother because of her difficult delivery of the baby. Secondly, central to the baby was a sense of abandonment. It was heartbreaking for me to see the baby lying on the ground at some distance to her mother. The baby’s voice crying and yearning for her mother was totally ignored by the mother. Thirdly, the lack of bonding was evident between the mother and the baby. The whole tribe shared the same pain and had the same desire to help one another. The shared empathy or compassion by humans was well illustrated in the movie. For instance, we are shown the relationship between the mother and child, gazing at each other when in the arms of the mother. Not only was the environment in the yurk warm and cosy but also the interaction between the mother and baby was warm, cosy and one of contentment. Indeed, the tribe community gave their herds an abundance of love. Specific to this movie the elders had meetings and consulted lamas to give advice and to pray for the mother camel and her baby. We were shown that they had their faith and determination to help the process of bonding between the mother and the baby. The community spirit of togetherness was clearly illustrated in their rituals. They were chanting


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Member’s Section together in a circle with the blue ribbons flying in the breeze taking their message to the universe. After

realizing that their prayers were not answered, they didn’t give up hope. They discussed with each other

and decided that they needed to consult a traditional violinist to soften the psychological wound in both

mother camel and colt.

Two young brothers set out on a long journey in search of the musician. Even though he was very busy

the musician was sympathetic to the request and was very happy to help. When he arrived at the

nomadic tribe the violinist asked the owner of the camel to hang his violin on one of the mother camel’s

hump. The violinist sat in the distance and observed. Then the mother camel started to groan and she

could hear her own voice amplified by the violin. Then her voice changed from a rough and troubled

sound to a softened one single note, almost like the sound of a violin which made her cry.

Then the violinist tuned his violin and asked the camel’s owner to join him by singing as he

played the violin. The sound of the violin and the song together softened the heart of the mother camel.

The camel’s tears poured down her cheeks and subsequently her resentment towards the baby sponta-

neously dissolved. The mother camel went towards the baby and allowed the baby to suckle her udder.

The movie captures the totality of the of the community life. Despite the coldness of the country and the

harshness of weather conditions, everyone seemed to be respectful of each other. The warmth of the fire

and hot meals shared and enjoyed by the family was conveyed explicitly. There was love and close

proximity between individuals and animals. The different generations were interconnected and support-

ive of each other. Support and respect for each other is the culture of the South Mongolian community of

the Gobi Desert portrayed by the movie. Finally story telling is their way of passing their wisdom from

grandparents to their grandchildren. At the beginning of the movie the children were told by the elder

and wise man a legend of how the camel lost its antler and never recovered it. The antler was given by

God. The camel loaned his antler to a travelling rouge who used the antler for wrong purpose. Since then

the camel yearns and still waits for its return. Traditionally, as a ritual, each colt is blessed by the prayer

“May your humps grow straight. May your feet grow strong” by the elder.

What are the implications of this movie on our mothers and babies who go through difficult

labour? Several issues can be raised. Have we lost our attunement with our babies? Do we have enough

support from family or significant others? Are we too independent, that we don’t need help from outside?

Maybe we all need to reflect on these issues in our leisure, in our own space and time.


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Professional Practice

LOVE, LOSS & ABANDONMENT An epic journey for a client, her former psychologist & current psychologist

Lorraine D. Corne

Gordon and Bellevue Hill NSW

The characters’ names in this story are changed to keep confidentiality. The client will be known as Eliza-beth. The former psychologist will be referred to as Adam. LOVE Elizabeth was referred to me to discuss her issues of love, loss and abandonment. She had fallen in love with her therapist. The weekly sessions with Adam had spanned a three-year period. Her loss, when he terminated the sessions, and her feelings of abandonment that followed left her feeling angry, hurt, embarrassed, and betrayed. Elizabeth was living her daily life in a depth of despair. She would sit in sessions with tears pouring down her cheeks. I tried a number of different therapies to sit with her pain, to make sense of her despair and to have strategies to use outside the therapy sessions. The only thing that lifted her mood was when she hoped she could re-contact Adam. This occurred once when he replied by email that he was not having any more communication with her. LOSS Elizabeth began her journey in life being adopted from birth. Much of the therapy with Adam was processing what happened around her adoption. She managed to get hold of the records and found that there had been disparaging comments made by her mother about Elizabeth, that she didn’t want to hold her or have anything to do with her. Elizabeth has two young children and couldn’t understand how her mother could be so cruel. Her father’s name had been eliminated from the records so she couldn’t find him. Reading the document of her birth had made a profound impact on her self-esteem. Elizabeth believed that, over the 3 years she was seeing Adam, she had processed her feelings about the adoption. Adam had reassured her that he would be there for her “even when I am 65.” The complication came during this time when she fell in love with Adam. Elizabeth believed that he loved her too, as she kept picking up cues from his behaviour and his words. On revealing that she loved him, she expected him to acknowledge that he had the same feelings but, because of his family, he could not act on them. She also thought that he may terminate the sessions if he felt that this was a difficult situation for him. Neither of these things occurred as Elizabeth expected. Instead, Adam seemed to im-ply that he understood her feelings and that he would be there for her but would have to complete their sessions under these circumstances. Adam took another 6 months to complete this process. The way Elizabeth saw it was that Adam gradually withdrew his empathy. Elizabeth was left bereft and confused. As Elizabeth described it, Adam “became more and more matter-of-fact and professional.” ABANDONMENT Adam referred Elizabeth on but she didn’t connect to the next psychologist. At this time Elizabeth was going through a very difficult divorce. She was not working. Her home business had to be closed during the divorce. She had been taking anti-depressants for some years and was now on the highest dose. However, despite the anti-depressants, she was still crying every day and only holding herself together for her two children. Elizabeth had support from her adopted family but she was always reticent to be totally honest with them. Her anxiety was getting worse. Adam refused to answer any emails or give her any explanation that would calm her and help her understand what had happened between them. At this stage Elizabeth was crying every time she came to a session. She would vague out and keep repeating that she was responsible for the break in the sessions with Adam. If she had not made the mistake of thinking that he really loved her she would never have mentioned her own feelings. In her thinking she felt she could never trust anyone if she professed her love to them, because she could not be sure that she had read their cues of loving her back correctly.


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Professional Practice Three months into our therapy the guilt now was more about blaming herself for not getting over it sooner. She related how she was also feeling the pain that she thought Adam was feeling because he was not seeing her. However, it also frustrated her that she could not speak or email him. I suggested that she try an email and even though he rejected the idea of a monthly email to help her settle, the fact he replied helped her for a week. Elizabeth finally gave me permission to speak to Adam. I contacted Adam by phone and had a very informative conversation. Adam had regular supervision while seeing Elizabeth. He felt that he would not contact Elizabeth directly but could go through me if I needed his assistance. In-between sessions Elizabeth would be “drowning in despair”. She related Adam’s abandonment to her mother’s abandonment of her i.e. without an explanation that made sense to her. We would discuss these reasons. Adam even sent a letter to Elizabeth via my email, explaining what had happened but Elizabeth did not believe the explanation. Elizabeth felt that Adam had distorted the truth in his letter about what really happened in order to protect himself from any legal action or recourse. Elizabeth wanted one last face-to-face to clear up her questions. I suggested to Adam that we could do this with myself as mediator. He was not comfortable with any face-to-face session. Earlier in our sessions I had written Elizabeth a card that said I would be there and would not abandon her unless events out of my control took me away. She was very comforted by this card. VALIDATION I encouraged Elizabeth to try to find her mother again. I found a group of investigators who turned out to be very helpful. Elizabeth came close to finding her but eventually came to a dead end. Elizabeth kept looking and, during this time, wrote a letter to Adam outlining her problem with the termi-nation of the sessions. I forwarded this to him. The letter prompted Adam to seek a face-to-face meeting with me. Elizabeth was very pleased this was happening and had a set of questions for me to discuss with Adam to find a way to close this episode in her life. Adam came to the meeting with a message for me that he kept repeating: he was not going to be involved in her therapeutic process. He did not want to discuss his reasons. The meeting was short and I respected Adam’s wishes and no longer contacted him. I informed Elizabeth who was devastated to hear that he had not wanted to help with closure. I sent Elizabeth an email to inform her of Adam’s decision as I knew she was coming to see me on the following Monday to discuss Adam’s answers and I did not want her to have worked herself up in anticipation. We had a half hour phone conversation late that evening. Elizabeth was torn between feelings of humiliation, betrayal, anger and confusion and yet still loved him and felt a strong connection to him. By morning she had started to put things back into perspective and thanked me for being there for her at such a late hour. Thinking it over she felt that his decision had been a closure for her. She said she felt concerned for others that may be treated as she had been. She said she would take the Christmas break to concen-trate on her children and decide what to do about finding her mother. Her inclination was to give up, as her mother was very difficult to track down. I had no contact until 8 weeks after Xmas. She arrived for her session looking relaxed. She had started a part-time job. The most significant piece of news was that she had found her mother. Her mother was living in another state and one of the contacts Elizabeth had found on FaceBook had replied with her mother’s details. Her mother was only too happy to discuss the events in the hospital. Elizabeth’s father did not know of her existence and, by coincidence, had died the day before she made contact with her mother. Elizabeth’s finally was able to hear her own true story. Elizabeth is continuing her therapy sessions once every 6 weeks. She feels she has closed many doors that haunted her and has gained a different perspective of herself in the world. It was a big challenge to work with her. I had pushed lots of boundaries to find a way to improve her self-esteem and self-belief. An attractive young woman could now begin to enjoy life with emotional stability.


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Supporting the ‘Sandwich Generation’

Elizabeth Tindle, FAPS

Have you reached a stage in your life when there is a “role reversal”? Are you now a carer for your own elderly or an ailing parent? Do you know people who are in this situation? Do you earmark large chunks of your life to visit and spend time with a sick or elderly father or mother? Have you the responsi-bility for running your home, cooking meals, shopping, cleaning, doing the laundry and transporting your parent(s) to hospital, for medical appointments and sometimes monitoring their medication doses? In your professional life, do you meet clients who are struggling with complex family situations such as those described?. At the same time you may be trying to hold down your own career, attend University, study, research for assignments, handle your own home, children and even grandchildren. Do you sometimes feel like the “pig in the middle”; the fulcrum for your own family and grandchildren as well as for your parents. Your own life may have had to be put on the ‘back burner’ in order to take over your “family of origin” respon-sibilities. This brief article will examine the intergenerational dependence which is becoming more of an issue for families as life expectancy increases and the numbers of post-war baby boomers retire from the paid work force. Sometimes the unwritten rules and expectations of our different cultures can hold us in a vice like grip and at times we can feel trapped (and stressed). Do we have any choice? Most extended families in a host of national groups, firmly believe that it is the duty, especially of daughters, to be full time carers of their elderly parents and there can be guilt and blame if they do not take on this role. No matter how old the daughter, the expectation that parents have to be looked after by them, reigns supreme. Some decades ago, such daughters had little social life and often sacrificed the possibility of establishing a family of their own. Society usually gave them the pejorative title of “spinster” or “old maid”. They missed out on the opportunity to have a partner and family of their own. In the modern world , careers for women in most western countries, are available and the opportunity to establish a family and a working life is the norm. However, attempting to “do one’s duty” by a parent often becomes the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Handling one’s own family and taking responsibil-ity for one’s “family of origin” results in what has been termed “The Sandwich Generation”. Many in the Sandwich Generation are the “baby boomers”, the fifty and sixty year olds born after the Second World War (1946-1962). These same baby-boomers who are often maligned by younger generations as “having had it all” find themselves in what is often perceived to be an unenviable position. The elderly parents of these ‘boomers’ often fight tooth and nail, not to be cared for by strangers, especially if it is in an “old peoples’ home” or aged care facility. Even when the frail and elderly parents need twenty-four hour surveillance to stop them hurting themselves or to prevent them from getting lost from wandering around the streets, many do not want to leave their family home and be placed in an aged care “facility”. They can turn on the daughter (or son) or partner, vindictively, for not being prepared to give up her/his life to care for them. When the parent, often in her/his nineties, is eventually placed in a good rest home, the family dynamics of early years can re-surface. The perceived favouritism and rivalry amongst siblings can re-emerge with the parent or the chosen child colluding with each other and deliberately excluding the “less favoured” adult child in meetings, Last Wills and Testaments or “Powers of Attorney” decisions. In some instances an exclusion of other siblings occurs by the sibling with the Power of Attorney once the parent is unable to attend to their own affairs. The sibling on the outer with out the power can be well into their fifth or sixth decade of life, but they continue to have the feelings of exclusion and hurt that they felt all those years before. The cognitive dissonance of duty to mother/father and anger at the continued “emotional abuse” and exclusion as well as sometimes mean or irrational behaviour, results in a great deal of individual and collective angst. Some of the older daughters are grandmothers themselves and many happily help their own daughters with child care or in the fetching and carrying of school age children whilst their adult children are in the


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paid work force. They are spanning the generations and find themselves the link between two, three or more generations. They have been described as the “unsung heroes of the twenty-first century” and seventy percent of these carers are women. Negotiating the dynamics of the whole extended family how-ever, is fraught with potential problems. It has been said that it is easier to do a PhD thesis than to deal with the sometimes difficult behaviour, roller coaster emotions and irreconcilable beliefs of a scattered and by now heterogeneous group of people who belong to the same extended family. Those who find themselves in the “sandwich generation” have had to put everyone else’s needs (adult child, grandchild or parent) before their own and some struggle to know who they are. In therapy they learn how to recognise their burden and address more of their own needs without guilt and realise that they are not personally responsible for the difficult situation that has arisen nor for contributing to their parents’ demise. They can also be helped with making changes that will improve their lot and reduce their level of stress. What do you think are some solutions to this phenomenon which will continue to be a major issue, especially in Western countries with the lengthening of the human life span and the reduction in family size?


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Carl’s legacy: Evidence-based research Ross Crisp

The World Association for Person Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counselling (WAPCEPC) was formed following the death of Carl Rogers. The WAPCEPC conference is held every two years, the next one being scheduled for this coming July in Antwerp.

The previous conference, in July 2010 in Rome, was a highly stimulating event, with many interna-tionally recognised speakers including Godfrey Barrett-Lennard, Les Greenberg, Jeanne Watson, Peter Schmid, Arthur Bohart among others. Of great significance, this conference saw the launch of Person-centered and experiential therapies work: A review of the research on counselling, psychotherapy and related practices edited by Cooper, Watson and Holldampf (Ross-On-Wye: PCCS Books). This book is a fit-ting legacy to Rogers who was the first psychologist to implement evidence-based research (Barrett-Lennard, 1998; Kirschenbaum, 2007). A key article in this book is by Robert Elliott who will again be a keynote speaker at this year’s Antwerp conference

The efficacy of person-centred counselling is evident in Elliott’s research. Elliott and Friere includ-

ed 186 studies involving more than 14,000 clients. Person-centred and experiential psychotherapies (PCE) were found to be clinically and statistically equivalent to other therapies in 91 randomised clinical trials (RCTs). They also reported small effect sizes that indicated PCE was trivially worse than cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in 63 RCTs. This result was, however, attributed to researcher allegiance by Elliott and Friere who are themselves aligned to PCE. Subsequently, so-called supportive therapies, inexactly labelled by CBT oriented researchers as ‘supportive’ or ‘non-directive’ were removed from their analyses. It was then found that bona fide PCE was statistically equivalent in effectiveness to CBT in 18 RCTs.

A similar result was reported by Stiles, Barkham, Mellor-Clark and Connell (2008), researchers with different allegiances, in a large (N=5613) non-randomised study of persons treated in primary-care mental health services in the United Kingdom. These findings confirm common factors research that indi-cates that counsellors with different theories and techniques tended to have similar outcomes for clients with a similar range of disorders. The findings suggest that therapeutic outcome is more likely to be determined by the client’s personal resources and the quality of the client-counsellor relationship than by the counsellor’s technical expertise (Lambert & Barley, 2001). Since there were significant differences within the therapeutic groups, outcome may have been determined by how effectively counsellors delivered different therapies (e.g., CBT, PCA, psychodynamic) according to the different needs of their clients.

Evidence-based research studies have measured outcome primarily in terms of symptom reduction

(see, for example, Gibbard & Hanley, 2008; Stiles et al., 2008; Zuroff & Blatt, 2006). On the other hand, qualitative researchers have found that clients reported other important outcome indicators such as: healthier emotional experiencing; better experience of self in interpersonal relationships; appreciation of feeling vulnerable as a genuine way of being, as opposed to symptom relief; greater resilience and sense of empowerment (Timulak & Creaner, 2010).

Evidence from educational research suggests that person-centred counsellors could make an im-

portant contribution to programs that require the achievement of specific outcomes. The meta-analysis of 119 studies with 355,325 students by Cornelius-White (2007) found that most student-centred teacher variables (i.e., non-directivity, empathy, warmth, encouragement of higher order thinking) had above-average associations with cognitive student outcomes, notably critical/creative thinking, math and verbal achievement. Student-centred education was also associated with large increases in participation, satis-faction, motivation to learn; and in reduction in drop-out, disruptive behaviour, and absences. The results of this meta-analysis invite caution insofar as most of the studies were correlational, and did not tap into the likely reciprocal effects of teacher and student behaviour; and relatively few studies (33%) were RCTs and had large samples. Nevertheless, learner-centred teacher variables similar to those valued by most counsellors were associated with student achievement.

References—Available on request. Contact me at [email protected]


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APS College of Counselling Psychologists (VIC) presents

Motivational Interviewing:

Resolving ambivalence and strengthening commitment to change

(Two-day Workshop)

Helen Mentha, BA (Hons), M.Psych (Clinical), MAPS Motivational Interviewing is rapidly gaining worldwide acceptance as an evidence-based, effective intervention to enhance people’s capacity to make healthy behavioural choices. The approach provides practitioners with a framework for assisting clients to resolve ambivalence, build motivation and strengthen commitment to engage in healthy behaviour change. This two-day workshop is designed as an introduction to MI for clinicians from a variety of settings, including health care, mental health, rehabilitation and corrections. The workshop is highly interactive, with a focus on practical skill development. Learning objectives of the workshop include:

Spirit, rationale, and principles of MI An orientation to the research and evidence supporting the use of MI An opportunity to practice the core skills of MI and their application to facilitating change Increased awareness of and ability to work constructively with a client’s motivational

cues, such as ambivalence, resistance, change talk and commitment talk An opportunity to observe and experience the delivery of the MI technique through

demonstration and practice Responding to resistance; and reinforcing change talk & commitment talk

Presenter: Helen Mentha is a clinical psychologist with over 13 years experience in the community and private sectors and has specialised in working with substance misuse in community and forensic settings, dual diagnosis and the application of Motivational Interviewing to positive behaviour change. She currently runs Mentha Consulting, providing training, supervision and psychological services. In 2007, she participated in a "train-the-trainer" workshop, conducted by Professor Bill Miller and Dr Terri Moyers in Chicago USA. She has also completed further specialist training in Motivational Interviewing, including applications in supervision, coding MI sessions, working with change talk and integrating MI within criminal justice settings. When: 24 & 31 March 2012 (Saturdays), 9.00am – 5.00pm Where: Jika International Conference Centre 551 Heidelberg Road, Fairfield VIC 3078

Costs: APS Counselling College Members & APS students = $ 340 APS General Members, & other APS College Members = $ 400

Note: arrival tea/coffee, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea are included Limited Places: This workshop is limited to 30 people Online Registration: http://www.psychology.org.au/Events/EventView.aspx?EventID=9001 Enquiries: [email protected]


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Professional Development


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American Journal of Psychotherapy. 2011. vol.65, (4)

Marriage education for clinicians An Object Relations approach to cult membership Shame in the therapy hour Psychopathia Sexualis: The case histories


Literature Review

The Clinical Supervisor. 2011. vol. 30, (2). Does psychotherapy supervision contribute to patient outcomes? Considering thirty years of research Supervision in Public Sector behavioural health: A review Art based supervision techniques

Psychotherapy Research. 2012. vol.22, (1). Corresponding instability of patient & therapist process ratings in psychodynamic psychotherapies Characteristics of client identified helpful events in emotion focused therapy for child abuse trauma

Counselling Psychology Quarterly. 2011. vol.24, (4). American Indian college student suicide: Risk, beliefs & help seeking preferences Forgiveness in response to cultural micro-aggressions Beliefs about attention deficit hyperactive disorder Re-conceiving personality disorders: Adaptations on a dimension

Journal of Counseling Psychology. 2012. vol.59, (1), January How central is the alliance in psychotherapy: A multilevel longitudinal meta-analysis Therapeutic immediacy across long term psychodynamic psychotherapy: An evidence based cased study Working through: In-session processes that promote between-session thoughts & activities

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice and Training. 2011.vol.48, (4), December Psychotherapist self disclosure: Ethical & clinical considerations How does disclosing counter transference affect perceptions of the therapist and the session? Supervisor self disclosure: Supervisees experiences and perspectives

The Counseling Psychologist. 2011. vol.40, (2), February Counseling for work and relationship A tour of a new paradigm: Relationships & work Broadening sources of dignity and affirmation in work and relationship


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The APS College of Counselling Psychologists (VIC)

Relationship counselling: Assessing and working with relational dynamics

and emotional and physiological reactivity.

Linda Tilgner and Nigel Denning This workshop addresses how to conceptualise and work with entrenched relationship dynamics, such as pursuer-distancer and elevated emotional and physiological states (also known as flooding). The workshop will draw on theory and application of John Gottman’s research based approach to marital therapy. Prior knowledge of the Gottman approach is recommended but not essential, as an overview will be provided. The workshop will cover: How to assess couples and develop therapeutic goals, including identifying relational dynamics that promote emotional/physiological reactivity Working with common couple issues such as building intimacy, negotiating conflict and Improving communication Working directly with diffuse physiological arousal (flooding) and emotional reactivity Dealing with complicating factors in couple’s therapy such as past trauma, past infidelity, and mental illness. Please note the workshop will not focus on working with couples experiencing domestic violence. The workshop will involve power-point presentations, small group discussion, and case study material. Presenters: Linda Tilgner is a registered Counselling Psychologist. Linda currently works in private practice, coun-selling clients with a range of concerns, including relationship difficulties, family of origin issues, anxie-ty, and grief and loss. Linda has trained in Gottman’s Marital Therapy Approach, Transactional Analysis, and Emotion Focused Therapy for couples. Linda has over five years experience in running therapeutic groups for couples using the John Gottman approach. Nigel Denning is a registered Counselling Psychologist in private practice in East Melbourne. He has Masters Degrees in Counselling Psychology and Literary Theory. Nigel has co-ordinated and run couple’s and men’s programs independently and for Relationships Australia over the last 10 years. He specialises in couples work in his private practice. Nigel has trained in the Gottman method, Transactional Analysis, and Emotional Focused Therapy for couples. Nigel is particularly interested in working with men in a relationship context.

When: Friday 20th April 2012 9.30am- 4.30pm Where: Treacy Conference Centre, Mary Rice Room

126 The Avenue, Parkville Costs: APS Counselling College Members = $ 120 APS non-College members = $ 150


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The APS College of Counselling Psychologists (VIC)

Working with men, anger and relationships: An introduction to working with men who misuse power in relationships.

Nigel Denning and Dr Loretta Bell

This workshop is an introduction to working with men who use anger, abuse and control in intimate relationships. The workshop will offer a working definition of family violence and will provide an overview of some of the theoretical models of family violence including theory of its aetiology. The workshop will also look at common therapeutic models used to address men who use violence and control. We will discuss anger and its management as well as control and violence. We will offer therapeutic tools for working in these situations. The workshop will cover: How to assess family violence and develop therapeutic goals, including identifying relation-al dynamics surrounding anger and violence Assessing conceptual and treatment models of male family violence Working directly with anger and narcissism Dealing with complicating factors in poor self regulation such as past trauma, past infidelity, and mental illness. Please note the workshop will focus on working with couples experiencing domestic violence as well as men who experience difficulty in anger regulation. The workshop will involve power-point presentations, small group discussion, and case study material. Presenters: Nigel Denning is a registered Counselling Psychologist in private practice in East Melbourne. He has Masters Degrees in Counselling Psychology and Literary Theory. Nigel has co-ordinated and run couple’s and men’s programs independently and for Relationships Australia as their Family Violence coordinator at the Kew office over the last 10 years. He specialises in couples work in his private practice. Nigel has a Graduate Certificate in Male Family Violence from Swinburne University and is currently training with Daniel Siegel. Nigel has a Graduate Certificate in Male Family Violence from Swinburne University. Dr Loretta Bell is a registered Counselling Psychologist. Loretta currently works in private practice, counselling clients with a range of concerns, including relationship difficulties, family of origin issues, trauma exposure, anxiety, and addictions. Loretta is the Family Violence Coordinator RA Kew and is currently the senior clinician for Male Family Violence, supervising counsellors in this field. She also counsels with Turning Point in a variety of addictive behaviours. Loretta has a Graduate Certificate in Male Family Violence from Swinburne University. When: Saturday 19th May 2012 9.30am- 4.30pm Where: Treacy Conference Centre, Mary Rice Room

126 The Avenue, Parkville Costs: APS Counselling College Members = $ 120


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MORENO PSYCHODRAMA SOCIETY presents

THE RIVER OF LIFE: Navigating Change

1-day Conference 5th of May 2012 (Saturday), 8.30am – 5.30pm.

The Abbotsford Convent St Helliers St, Abbotsford, Melbourne

On our journey we continually face more and more complexities as life changes, sometimes slowly and often swiftly. Navigating change by being more mindful, reflective and spontaneous means we can deal more creatively with what life presents us. This conference offers new ideas and creative seminars on theory, practice and research that have application in work and life. We welcome students, practitioners, and those working in the fields of health, education and in community and business. The confer-ence program covers diverse topics, ranging from working with refugees to using psychodrama in one to one psychotherapy, and an opportunity to continue your connections long after the conference is over. There will also be opportunities to relax between sessions in the beautiful convent gardens or by the river. The River of Life is co-hosted by the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne.

Come and join us! John De Bono (Chairperson, MPS): 0429 427 873 Sue Daniel (Director, PIM): (03) 9416 3779

Fee: $99.00 inc. GST (Early Bird $88.00 by 1 February 2012) All day seminars, lunch and morning and afternoon tea (V & GF) inclusive in fee. Registration: 8.30 a.m. for 9 a.m. start on Saturday, 5 May 2012. Email: [email protected] Website: www.psychodrama-institute-melbourne.com


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Psychology Related Conferences - 2012

22-23 February National Leadership Psychology Conference Crowne Plaza Hotel, Melbourne www.liquidlearning.com.au 01- 02 March Happiness & its causes Conference Sydney Town Hall, Sydney http://www.happinessanditscauses.com.au/index.stm 22-25 March Australian Positive Psychology & Wellbeing Conference Sydney & Wollongong http://www.uow.edu.au/sbs/positive2012/index.html 05 May The River of life: Navigating change Moreno Psychodrama Society Conference The Abbotsford Convent St Helliers St, Abbotsford, Melbourne www.psychodrama-institute-melbourne.com Positive Schools Mental Health & Wellbeing Conference– Eyes wide open 24-25 May The Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, Western Australia 7-8 June Brisbane Convention Centre, Brisbane 14-15 June Melbourne Convention Centre, Melbourne http://www.positiveschools.com.au/2012%20WA.html 15-16 June National Centre Against Bullying Conference Hilton South Wharf, Melbourne http://www.amf.org.au/NCABConference12/ 21-22 June Young minds Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre http://www.youngminds.org.au 27-30 Sept. 47th Annual Australian Psychological Society Conference Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre 21 Mounts Bay Road, Perth http://www.apsconference.com.au/


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Victoria - 2012 24 & 31 March Motivational Interviewing: Resolving ambivalence and strengthening commitment to change. 2 days workshop Presenter: Helen Mentha (See Poster and Registration in main page) 20 April Relationship counselling: Assessing & working with relational dynamics and emotional and physiological reactivity Presenters: Nigel Denning & Linda Tilgner (See Poster and Registration in main page) 28 April Borderline Personality Disorder Presenters: Dr Katie Wyman and Janina Tomasoni (See Poster and Registration in main page) 19 May Working with men and anger in relationships Presenters: Nigel Denning and Dr. Loretta Bell (See Poster and Registration in main page) June Health at every size: A feminist/humanist perspective on Eating Disorders & Body Image Concerns Dr. Raelynn Wicklein and Dr. Naomi Crafti (Details to be finalised) 26-27 July Cognitive Analytic Therapy Dr. Louise McCutcheon & Lee Crothers (See Poster in main page) August Schema Therapy Dr. Chris Lee (Details to be finalised) September Student Information Night (Details to be finalised) October Working with Adolescents: Self-harm, identity, and cyber-bullying (Details to be finalised) November Beyond the basic: Advanced Motivational Interviewing (Details to be finalised) The PD Committee is also planning a series of DVD/psychology related nights Enquiries: Ania Krysztofiak - [email protected]


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Victoria

Chair: Dr. Adam Becker Secretary: Julian McNally Treasurer: Monica Lederman Prof. Dev’t: Ania Krysztofiak Committee: Jenny Corran Nigel Denning Michael Di Mattia Melissa Harte Ailsa Lord Lyndon Medina Sonya Nota Catriona O’Neill Jan Seeley Linda Tilgner Ai Tran Dr. Raelynn Wicklein

State Executive Committees

New South Wales Chair: Dr. Geoffrey Glassock Secretary: Wendy Buchanan Treasurer: Thomas Schick Committee: Cathy Eastwood Katherine Johnson Francesco Lopizo Maria Pirrello Arch Tibben

Queensland

Chair: Dr. Clive Jones Secretary: Nicole Detering Committee: Jo Ehrlich

Dr. Elizabeth Tindle Doreen Wesley

No Photo

Western Australia Chair: Nicki McKenna Secretary: Lidia Genovese Treasurer: Kim Maserow Committee: Kaye Barr

Gail Boyle Kylie Coventry Lorna Dick Maggie Orum Georgina Timms

Australian Capital Territory

Marshall O’Brien Stanton Bongers

Tessa Neil


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Michael Di Mattia Chair - National Professional Development College Chairs Forum [email protected]

Assoc. Professor Roger Cook Academic Advisor College Competencies Course Approval [email protected]

Assoc. Professor Jan Grant Deputy Chair Academic Advisor Better Access to Mental Health AJCP [email protected]

Elaine Hosie Ex-Officio [email protected]

Jen-ny Thornton

Dr. Geoffrey Glassock Chair, NSW Section Professional Dev’t. Convenor [email protected]

Dr. Adam Becker Chair, Victorian Section Better Access to Mental Health [email protected]

National Executive Committee

Bronwyn Towart Secretary [email protected]

Thomas Schick Treasurer College Student Awards [email protected]

Maria Pirrello Membership Secretary [email protected]

Dr. Clive Jones Chair, Queensland Section AJCP [email protected]

Nicki McKenna Chair, Western Australia Section [email protected]

Dr. Janet Simmonds Academic Advisor [email protected]

Melissa Harte Incoming Secretary (March 2012) [email protected]

Assoc. Dean Peter McIlveen Editor– Australian Journal of Counselling Psychology (AJCP) [email protected]

Lyndon Medina College Newsletter - Congruence Professional Development [email protected]

Peter Delany College webpage Web Administrator [email protected]

No Photo


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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The National Committee of the APS College of Counselling Psychologists would like to hear from members about any concerns, issues, feedback and questions. Please feel free to contact any of the Office Bearers listed or log onto the College webpage for more information.

www.groups.psychology.org.au/ccoun/about_us/office_bearers/

Dates of Committee Meeting - 2012

National Executive Committee

16 March 20 July

30 November

Victoria New South Wales

06 February Meets every 6 weeks 05 March 02 April Western Australia 07 May 04 June Meets bi-monthly 02 July August Queensland 03 September 01 October Meets 4-6 times per year 05 November

PD subcommittee meets 3-6times per year Marketing Subcommittee meets as required

Samantha Warren Student Representative [email protected]

Congruence - March 2012 - Australian Psychological Society...Congruence - March 2012 3 Editor’s...

Documents

Transcript of Congruence - March 2012 - Australian Psychological Society...Congruence - March 2012 3 Editor’s...