1st Lunchtime Reading Group at PIM, Friday 26 February 2016 from 12.45-1.45p.m

Moderator: Sue Daniel

The 1st meeting for the PIM READING GROUP for 2016 is Friday, 26 February at 1/10-12 Adolph St, Cremorne, Victoria from 12.45 to 1.45 p.m.   I am the moderator for this meeting and the article that I have chosen is Dr Jacob Levy Moreno's, "The Theory of Spontaneity and Creativity". 

J. L. Moreno

Sociometry

Vol. 18, No. 4, Sociometry and the Science of Man (Nov., 1955), pp. 105-118

Published by: American Sociological Association

DOI: 10.2307/2785848

Lunchtime Reading Group

Last Friday of the month from 12.45 to 1.45 p.m

This group is designed to suit those with an hour to spare at lunchtime. Budding writers, trainees and practitioners are welcome! We will discuss psychodrama works; DVD’s and literature and other related material. A moderator who will send the material, or give it out at the previous meeting for reading or viewing, will lead the discussion.

Dates: 26 Feb, 18 Mar, (2nd last Friday due to Easter), 29 Apr, 27 May, 24 Jun, 29 Jul, 26 Aug, 30 Sep, 28 Oct. & 25 November.

Fee: $10.00 per session includes freshly brewed coffee and selection of teas and goes towards building up the PIM and MPS library. BYO lunch.

Enquiries and RSVP one week earlier: 0417 586 791

Open Night at PIM 2016

MPS Christmas Party, Kris Kringle and Picnic at the Botanical Gardens

New Psychodramatists, Helen Baker and Hans Wilgenburg

Hans Wilgenburg and Helen Baker after receiving their certificates as accredited and certified Psychodrama-Directors, namely, fully qualified to be known as Psychodramatists, with the Australian and Aotearoa Board of Psychodrama (ABP).  With Sue Daniel, Director of the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne and founder of the ABP.

Congratulations from the entire psychodrama community in Australia and New Zealand (Aotearoa).
Friday 27 November 2015.

Mini Psychodrama Stage by Monique de Zoete

Vale - Betsy Drake, Children's Psychodrama Therapist

Betsy Drake, 11-9-1923 – 27-10-2015

Betsy Drake, Actor, Writer, Psychodramatist, Children's Therapist, Director of the Psychodrama Therapy Department, Thalian's Mental Health Clinic, Cedar Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles (1976-unknown), Private Practitioner in Psychodrama, died in London at the age of 92.

Article on Betsy Drake in the Bangor Newspaper, April 2, 1976

BETSY DRAKE 
11-9-1923 – 27-10-2015 

When actress Betsy Drake gave up her career to become a housewife, the role never really clicked. The husband she sought so desperately to please was Cary Grant. And though he was deemed one of the world’s most desirable men, he ‘‘ often fell asleep after dinner and preferred television to talking with me,’’ she said in a filing for her 1962 divorce. 

His infatuation with Sophia Loren did not help but Drake’s hopes for a conventional life with him might have been a stretch in the first place. She had a tormented childhood, at one point living in a Chicago hotel suite with a nanny while her wealthy parents lived in another hotel. 

Seeking answers through psychotherapy, she was an early devotee of LSD and introduced Grant to the hallucinogenic drug. She ultimately turned her back on Hollywood, studying to become a children’s therapist specializing in psychodrama. ‘‘ I divorced the whole town as well as Cary — and they divorced me,’’ she said. 

Drake, who has died in London at 92, appeared in about 10 films . Her first , ironically, was entitled Every Girl Should Be Married (1948), a comedy in which her character devises outlandish schemes to hook Grant as a husband. Her last was ‘‘ Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion’ ’ (1965). 

For years during her marriage, she chose not to work. ‘‘ I couldn’t be an actress and a housewife too,’’ she told gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1965, three years after her divorce. ‘‘ Because of Cary I became a good cook, and I think I’ll be a marvellous wife for someone else.’’ 

Born in Paris, Drake was the daughter of American expatriates. Her father, Carlos Drake, wrote short stories and ran an exclusive travel agency. Hit hard by the 1929 stock market crash, the Drakes returned to the family businesses, the Drake and Blackstone hotels in Chicago. Betsy attended 12 schools around the US before becoming an actress and model in her late teens. 

In 1947, she drew Grant’s attention when she performed on stage in London as the lead in director Elia Kazan’s ‘‘ Deep Are The Roots.’’ Their rapport grew when they returned to the US as fellow passengers on the Queen Mary. 

Their 1949 marriage in Palm Springs, California, was front-page news with Howard Hughes, a close friend of Grant’s , serving as best man. It would be the most durable of Grant’s five marriages. 

After the couple separated in 1958, Drake started seeing a Beverly Hills psychotherapist , who prescribed therapy with LSD, which was legal at the time. In her first session, she experienced the pain of her own birth. 

Looking back on her marriage, Drake said: ‘‘ All the women in my generation were brought up to believe that husbands’ careers and desires came first in every sense. I drank white wine because Cary liked white wine. And I ate well-done roast beef, even though I hated well-done meat. The freedom to eat rare meat, drink red wine and not watch television made up for the agony of divorce.’’ 

For decades, Drake lived alone in London, wrote poetry, painted, and, well into her 80s, rode her bicycle. She never remarried and had no children. 

Los Angeles Times 

This article is from the November 24 issue of The Age Digital Edition. 
Steve Chawkins 

Friday Lunchtime Reading Group, 27 November 2015 from 12.45 - 1.45 p.m

The reading for this final lunchtime meeting is:

Dan Yaniv's "Revisiting Morenian Psychodrama encounter in light of contemporary neuroscience: Relationship between empathy and creativity."

Moderator: Sue Daniel

This overview incorporates current biological thinking about the relationship of mind to brain into the philosophy and techniques of psychodrama. J.L. Moreno’s concepts of encounter and role reversal are considered in light of the recent advances in cognitive neuroscience regarding creativity and empathy. These two faculties seem to be associated with opposite functioning in the prefrontal cortex, empathy with activation and creativity with inhibition.

Email me if you want to come and I will send you a copy of the article: suedan@netspace.net.au 

Lunchtime Reading Group

Fee: $10.00/$15.00 per session includes freshly brewed coffee, a selection of teas and a cake for our final meeting.  BYO lunch. 

Enquiries and RSVP: 0417 586 791

November News at PIM and MPS

Coming to the end of the year, a vital time requiring that extra push, that little bit more exhilaration, new ideas emerging, hopefully too a time for valuing all the things you've done, all the being and the doing.  I often think about my feet, how they hold me up, taking me places, utterly reliable working for me, and then my hands, these hands do so much, I thank them and bless them.

SUNDAY, 29 NOVEMBER AT 4 PM -
CHRISTMAS PARTY
Starting with the Moreno Psychodrama Society, we are holding a Christmas Party on Sunday, 29 November which takes the place of the November Theatre of Spontaneity.  You can find the details in this blog, but it will be held on the North Lawn in the Botanical Gardens from 4 p.m. Bring a Kris Kringle, approximately $5.00 per person. Bring friends, colleagues, babies, children and family. Bring food and drink.

FRIDAY EVENING, 27 NOVEMBER GATHERING AT 7 FOR A 7.30 START - 10.30 PM -
END OF YEAR TRAINING NIGHT
Supper included.
You may bring colleagues, those interested in psychodrama and family members (but not children this night).  It's a night to celebrate, review, to present and be presented with (for those achieving accreditation and certificates), with your peers and colleagues in our community.  It is one of those nights whereby you can meet again other trainees in our Institute, trainers and friends.

SATURDAY, 14 NOVEMBER FROM 10 AM - 5.30 PM -
PLAY IT OUT with CATH RUSSELL and JILLIAN HISCOCK
A musical psychodrama day and our final workshop for the training year. today is the final day for enrolments so give us a bell or a text, 0417 586 791 if you intend coming along to this auspicious and spontaneous and creative event.  it is a joy to have music and musicians and lovers of music amongst us sharing their talents.

FRIDAY, 27 NOVEMBER - A VERY FULL DAY FOR SOME OF YOU -
Beginning with the Peer Practitioner's group in the morning, then continuing on with the Friday Lunchtime Reading Group - all welcome to this, $10.00 and a cuppa, bring your own lunch:  The reading for the final meeting for 2015 is an article by Dan Yaniv, "Revisiting Morenian psychodrama encounter in light of contemporary neuroscience: Relationship between empathy and creativity."  Email me if you want to come and I will send you a copy - suedan@netspace.net.au
In the afternoon there is the final Supervision Group for the year, "Thinking with Heart, Feeling with Mind".

While PIM closes formally on the 27th of November, the rooms are being used for my Personal Development Group for Professionals (and for therapy, coaching and supervision sessions conducted by a number of our practitioners), and this is in full swing as I write (there are five sessions this term) and will conclude on Friday, 11 December. A new group will be held in the New Year.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, AN EXPERIENTIAL SUPERVISION WORKSHOP FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS
Melas Khole, Lyndon Medina and Ling Mu are holding their initial session for their Experiential Supervision Group on Sunday, 13 December (see below for details).

DECEMBER 8, 2015 - PUBLICATION OF THE MIRROR
Is the date of the publication of the 5th edition of THE MIRROR, the e-Journal of the Moreno Psychodrama Society, in the capable hands of Ted Bugarski. The guest editor is Jillian Hiscock.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS
I am pleased to share some delightful news that my research project, "The usefulness of role reversal in one-to-one supervision: A qualitative research project using an heuristic enquiry" was published in the German edition of the German Journal of Sociometry and Psychodrama, an e-publication of Springer very recently.  A second article of mine,  "The social collective and the social and cultural atom in the age of the social network" is coming out in 2016, also a publication of Springer.

MORENO PSYCHODRAMA SOCIETY
It's time to say thank you to the Moreno Psychodrama Society who have provided our community with the Sunday Theatre of Spontaneity monthly, with loads of interesting themes and topics, all the people who presented, and the committee of the MPS, who meet four or five times a year sharing food and ideas and enjoying creating and maintaining our society and community of psychodrama-nauts, as Moreno once called 'us'. Thanks to MPS we are rebuilding our library and there will be a healthy injection of new books to start the 2016 year...INCLUDING the major papers of Helen Baker, "And now is right on time" and Hans Wilgenburg, "Role reversal with a Flip Chart in India".

WELCOME BABY
Congratulations to Ling Mu, her husband Guy and son Sebasjian, on the arrival of Izaak in October.

PIM - 2016
The date of the Opening night for PIM next year is Monday, 15 February 2016, from 7.30 - 10.30 p.m.  There will be an opening and open workshop on Sunday 14 February, more news on that early December.

OVERSEAS VISITORS AND NEWS
We have also had many visitors from overseas at PIM this year; Jun Maeda, who became an accredited Psychodrama Director at PIM in February, and will be conducting a group for PIM in Feb. 2016; Yukari Abe and group of Japanese people from Hokkaido, Japan attended a two-day group at PIM in February; Magdalene Jeyarathnam, from Chennai, India visited in October; Clark Baim, from the UK came over again in May (he is a regular visitor now) and he will be conducting a workshop on Sunday, May 1, 2016; Deepak Dhananjaya, from Bangalore, India and Jostein Odland from Norway were new visitors; and Helen Fryer, from Tasmania, who came in May, will be here in a few weeks time for the practicums of Helen and Hans.
We look forward to welcoming all of these people again next year and also Masaaki Tikuda from Japan who will be living in Melbourne and training at PIM next year. And finally, a big welcome to Lethe (Eriha) Gaskin to the Faculty of PIM, she is returning to live in Melbourne in the New Year.

All the best Everyone and see you soon! Do send in your news and pictures and we will post them on the blog.

Sue

Experiential Supervision Group: Inaugural session, Sunday, 13 December 2015

EXPERIENTIAL SUPERVISION

When working with clients we all have those moments of “What do I do?” or “What just happened?” Sometimes we process these moments, other times we don’t know how to, or even feel uncomfortable to….

Experiential group supervision provides an environment in which, as psychologist peers you will be able to evaluate your clients, the therapeutic relationship and your skills. This supervision model will also show you a new and different way of understanding the relationships you have with clients through the use of Role Theory, Sociometry, Psychodrama enactments & conscious awareness of “Tele”.

The workshop can be used as ‘peer supervision points’ for CPD. The supervision group will be led by registered psychologists who are experienced in the psychodrama method.

Where:    1/10-12 Adolph Street                   Cremorne, VIC. 3121 When:      13 December 2015                      (Sunday) Time:        3 hours                   10.00 a.m.- 1.00 p.m. Cost:         $60 per session

Leaders: 1.    Melas Khole, Assoc. MAPS Psychologist & Psychodramatist 2.    Lyndon Medina, MAPS.         Counselling Psychologist & Trainee Psychodramatist 3.     Ling Mu, MAPS.                      Psychologist & Psychodramatist

Contact for booking & expression of interest:

Melas Khole  - isingularity@bigpond.com  or 0427 174 008

Psychodrama and Music Workshop: Playing it Out

T

Playing it Out

Saturday, 14 November from 10 am – 5.30 p.m

Leaders: Cath Russell and Jillian Hiscock

Humans express themselves through speech, through body language and facial expressions.  Sound often articulates unspoken experiences in surprising and beautiful ways.   It is one of our earliest modes of experiencing life, even before we were born.

In this unique workshop we will improvise with drums, percussion and xylophones to explore themes brought to the group.  The workshop will also be an opportunity to explore and express through the psychodramatic process any issues, images or resonancesthat may have arisen through our improvisations.

This workshop is the final training workshop for 2015.  For anyone who would like to increase their ability to be spontaneous and creative, to add to their training hours or have some extra psychodrama experience, this is THE workshop for you. 

Fee: $120.00 (applications by email or telephone due by Friday, 6 November.)

Enquiries: pim@netspace.net.au or directly to Cath on 9755 3013 or Ted on 0410 536 791