Best Wishes for the Christmas Season and a Happy New Year

The Moreno Psychodrama Society Committee extends to all members past, present and future the warmest of season’s greetings and best wishes for a healthy, happy 2013!

Some Happy People

Back Row: Hien Bui, Di Kearney, Hana Morris, Sue Daniel, Simon Parker.  Front Row: Sam Luxemburg, Clare O'Bree, Noa Weinstein, Jenny Gould, Marie Watt & John De Bono.  Photographer: Stephanie Lee

On Sunday, 11 November 2012,  Di Kearney and Jenny Gould conducted sessions respectively in the morning and the afternoon for their psychodrama practicums.  Both passed and are now accredited Psychodramatists with the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne, the Moreno Psychodrama Society and the Australian and Aotearoa Board of Psychodrama. 

All the above, minus John De Bono (photographer) and including Stephanie Lee.

From Phil Smalley in England

Hi from Sunny Olde England (just joking, though it is sunny at the moment)

I arrived on Saturday at 5am (UK time); it was so much better travelling Premium Economy - more comfortable seats, wider and much more legroom, as well as delicious food.  Baggage collection and through Immigration in less than an hour.  I caught the Heathrow Express to Paddington and then the train to Bath, arriving around 9 am (3 hours before I could actually check in.  That meant going for a bit of a wander, buying a mobile phone, having breakfast and then back to Royal Park Guest House.  I have to confess that it took me 2 days to figure out how to use the mobile only to discover that I hadn't brought my brother and sister-in-law's phone number with me.  I had to email them to ask for it.  However, I eventually figured out how to ring them and had about a 20 minute chat.

Yesterday, I went to the Jane Austen Centre, which I very much enjoyed, followed by more walking (my legs and feet keep telling me how unfit I am).  My sleeping is still somewhat erratic, but I'm becoming more adjusted.  Today, I am taking it a bit easier.  I still haven't been to the Roman Baths, but I may do that tomorrow - you have to get there early in the day, as there are long queues after about 9.30.  I'll probably take a City Tour bus ride this afternoon.  I haven't taken many pictures yet (only 3 so far) but plan to take some more on the bus tour.  I'm so glad I have 5 nights in Bath (last year it was only 2) as I have more time to wander around and take in the old architecture as well as a leisurely stroll by the Avon River.

Well, time for some lunch, I think.

Cheers,

 

Phil Smalley

Dancing Clouds - Launch

Theatre of Spontaneity, Sunday 28 October with Gavin OLoughlin

We're well and truly into spring now and its our last Theatre of Spontaneity for the year.

Our theme is  "Looking back and looking forward".  We'll look back over the year and see its highs and lows, struggles and triumphs, the resolved and the unresolved of 2012.   Then we'll look forward to Christmas, the holiday season and the year that's coming and cast the form of some general ideas, pursuits, goals, plans, presents for ourselves and others that we can metaphorically or symbolically or actually put under the Christmas tree.  Come along and join the celebration, the commiseration and the warming-up to this coming season and year.

Gavin O'Loughlin is the director for the evening.  He is nearing the completion of his training as a Psychodramatist at the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne having first become involved in Psychodrama in 1982 in Adelaide and found the method and the communities of people involved as very valuable supports and offering great learning opportunities over three decades.  He has worked mainly in the youth justice field.

Details for this event:
Gather together for a cup of tea or coffee from 6 p.m for a 6.30 p.m sharp start at the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne, 155 Langridge St, Collingwood.

$20.00 ($15.00 MPS Members) SUPPER provided! 

RSVP by Friday 28 September 2012 to Gavin O'Loughin 0403 597 685

www.psychodrama-institute-melbourne.com

 

MORENO PSYCHODRAMA SOCIETY - For the Christmas Party this year we'll be celebrating with a High Tea (Special Afternoon Tea), from 4.30 - 6.30 p.m on Sunday 2 December.  Sponge cakes, baby sandwiches, vol au vents etc... Dress accordingly.  Bring teapots, favourite cup and saucer but we'll have some at PIM anyway.  Afternoon tea supplied but anything you'd like to add for the table please do.  A warm welcome to Friends, Family and Colleagues.  

New book available at PIM - student price only

Arrived at PIM...
 

Supervision in Psychodrama: Experiential Learning in Psychotherapy and Training. (Springer VS, 2012, 280 pages).  Edited by Hannes Krall, Jutta Fürst & Pierre Fontaine.

 

 
 

Many experienced psychodrama trainers and supervisors contributed to this book:

Norbert Apter, Maurizio Gasseau & Leandra Perrotta, Agnes Dudler & Kersti Weiß, Giovanni Boria, Sue Daniel, Judith Teszáry, Einya Artzi, Arşaluys Kayır, Chantal Nève-Hanquet, Jan Lap, Ildikó Erdélyi, Hilde Gött, Anna Chesner, Gabriela Moita & António Roma-Torres, Ioannis K. Tsegos & Natassa Karapostoli and Hannes Krall, Jutta Fürst & Pierre Fontaine. 

Supervision in Psychodrama gives an interesting  overview of supervision in psychodrama training in various countries. The full price of the book is 34,95 Euro plus postage but for PIM people the price is $AUD35.00.  

To reserve your copy, contact the office: 9416 3779

Further North to Hokkaido

My journey in Japan continued.  From Morioka where I held a Grief and Loss Workshop for health workers; doctors, nurses, psychologists, teachers, nurses and volunteers of the Red Cross, Jun Maeda and I took a bus and then a plane to Sapporo, Capitol city of Hokkaido.  The next day we travelled to Muroran and visited Jun's University, the Muroran Institute of Technology (MIT), sister to RMIT and several other universities around the world.  Here Jun and  I met with the president of the University and took some very fine green tea together in the President's very spacious and light filled office.  The money for the trip to the affected area of Japan came from this President's budget so it was a very good thing to meet him and thank him for this opportunity to work for this effort. He invited me to be a Visiting Professor to the University and I accepted.  I am the first foreign Visiting Professor of MIT.  This is a very great privilege.

Jun, I and a German colleague who has lived in Japan 25 years, Marguerette then travelled to Date where I ran a psychodrama training workshop on the top floor of the Date Red Cross Hospital.  The view over the sea and the lights of the town were very beautiful.  The night was clear and there was a moon and stars.  I have run many workshops here so it was wonderful to be amongst old friends.  After the workshop we all went and had Italian food.

The following day Jun and I drove back to Sapporo through the mountains and past Lake Toya, where there is a living volcano still puffing out smoke. Since the weather is so hot, the trees have yet to turn to the brilliant red, orange and yellows that Hokkaido is so famous for, but still the green was peaceful.

In Sapporo, I ran a one and half day psychodrama training workshop followed immediately by a one day workshop on psychodrama and trauma and grief and loss.  Many people attended these workshops from all over Japan.  

This journey has been truly remarkable and it is my pleasure to have been here with my good colleagues.  I am a little sad to be leaving but equally happy to be returning to Australia today to my family and friends at PIM and MPS.

Japanese Friends

Sue Daniel

8 October 2012

The Great Eastern Earthquake 11/3/11

From Akita, Kazuki Saito, Jun Maeda and I travelled north east across the mountains to Morioka.  Morioka is the centre of the Red Cross for the effort for the Great Eastern Earthquake relief.  Both Jun and Kazuki work with the Red Cross as well as doing their other work lecturing in their respective universities and running workshops  On our way we stopped for water in a highway shop and here I saw many self defense force people having lunch (in Australia they would be called the army).  They are still working in this area 18 months after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan.  They are the real heroes because they saved so many people and continued day after day finding bodies and working in unimaginable conditions.

We continued on to Rikuzentakata, which was the most worst hit place in Tohoku.  The first photo shows the land on the way to Rikuzentakata, which is rich with rice crops and other agriculture.

Then we arrived in Rikuzentakata.

The tsunami travelled four kilometres inland through the river in half an hour.  

The next photo shows the township from the hill where the Junior High School resides and where people were evacuated.  This whole area was full of houses and shops and businesses.  On the shoreline were 70,000 pine trees.  Only one was left standing and then a few weeks later it died.

This next photo is a shrine for a house which once was there.  You can see the boundaries.

The next photos are of the city hall. Please be prepared.  There is a car still in this building among the rubble and you can see straight through the building to the other side.

This next photograph shows the shrine which people created and attend to daily.  The paper sculptures you see hanging to the right are made up of of hundreds of origami.  When people are ill they spend time making these.  There are also hundreds of these to the left of this picture (not shown).  The inscription is very poignant:  "We carry it out with smile."

From the city hall, the view is of what remains of a department store and a hospital.  The cost to demolish the hospital alone is in the millions.

After driving around the empty terrain, we returned to the hillside and here looked at the temporary housing for several hundred of the township's refugees.  A man was sitting on a small wooden seat between the pine trees, his back to the housing and the township.  He was facing up the hillside and his view was a line of cherry trees, not blossoming now because it is Autumn but I thought of the hope of such a view.  I penned a haiku, but really it turned out to be a tanka which is another form of Japanese poetry.  I shared this poem with my new friends at dinner in Morioka that night.

Holding no promise

But deep within

A new Spring

The cherry trees

Of Rikuzentakata.

Sue Daniel

Travelling North

The weather is very friendly at this time in Japan.  After Tokyo I expected it would become cooler as I travelled North to Akita, Tohoku prefecture but no, days here were 27 degrees.  Everyone agrees it is unusual for Autumn but enjoying this warm period nevertheless.  Walking in the evenings after the night workshop sessions is beautiful.
My workshops in Akita are hosted by Kazuki Saito, one of the professors at the Red Cross University.   I have know him quite a few years now.  This trip I conducted three sessions, a psychodrama training workshop, a psychodrama and trauma workshop using a role theory approach and a grief and loss workshop.  Some participants travelled from other cities to attend.  We had some nice dinners together and an experience with a few Nama Hagi's.

Sue Daniel

In Tokyo by Sue Daniel

In Tokyo I attended a small party as a guest of group analysts, Hidefumi Kotani and colleagues. It was a very lovely.  We spent two pleasant hours talking, asking questions, discussing.  We also shared a bottle of pink Moët and small cake to celebrate the recent wedding of one of their members.  Knowing I love Haiku - I sent them one by my favourite Haiku poet, Basho, at the time of the Great Eastern Earthquake, 11/3/11, a famous one about the impermanence of life but eternal flowering of the cherry blossom - one of the colleagues, at the end of the evening made this haiku: 

Drinking with champagne 

My heart is the same colour 

We enjoyed evening talking. 

After they showed me around their institute which is really a large five bedroom town house they all walked me to the train station. Now I have more new friends in Japan.  Their spirit will accompany me as I travel further north to Akita.