How does one work with hard-to-reach, acting-out adolescents? Is the problem their inability to verbalise their feelings, or perhaps professionals in this field lack the appropriate “language”? This workshop aims to demonstrate the use of Experiential and Creative Arts therapy to connect with them. The process is Gentle, Non-Threatening, yet it is Powerful and Empowering such that they can effectively and safely unleash their inner explosiveness so desperately needed.

Kate Cordukes is a Creative Arts and Family Therapist with more than ten years experience in the field.  She works with a diverse population that ranges from mental health patients to drug and alcohol addicts. She has conducted extensive research in this area, and puts her research findings into her work with clients. Some of the creative arts practices she utilises include music, yoga, script writing, poetry, improvisation and video work. With Kate’s expertise and experience in the field, she would be able to contribute significantly on how to work with adolescents both in terms of group work or in one-to-one counselling. For more information, please refer to her website at http://www.miecat.org.au

Of late there has been a lot of professional discussion, research and philosophising about happiness, well-being and the quality of life. But how does this apply to our clients who are burdened with the heartache of life, or facing choices about whether life is even worth living?  For someone in the pits of depression, happiness must seem as remote as flying to the moon. What role does happiness play in the most challenging of our client cases? How can you improve the quality of life of clients when it simply does not exist?  How does one hold on to the hope of enhancing well-being while faced with life’s most troubling issues?

This is another workshop that addresses the importance of emotions in affecting our “being” from the perspective of Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy approach. This workshop will demonstrate how to look at the nature and the function of emotions in daily life, the ways in which they can be explored and understood, and their relation to value-laden dilemmas and existential choices that arise therein. Specific major emotions are explored, such as love and hate, shame, guilt, hurt, anger and fear. The relationship of these to secondary-derived emotions is examined, and the patterns of such experience are considered in relation to values and preferred choices about meaningful ways of being. Specific examples of working with emotions in counselling are made in the areas of depression and anxiety states, as well as in the ordinary patterns of living.

Dr Warren Lett is the trainer for this workshop. He was the founding director of MIECAT (Melbourne Institute of Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy) in 1977, after 25 years of education and counselling at La Trobe University and private practice as a psychologist and creative arts counsellor.
Trainer's Website: http://www.miecat.org.au

Play of Life is different from the conventional talk-based method as it utilises a miniature theatre kit (uses small human figures on a stage). The purpose of this theatre kit is to allow clients to reproduce and see their life and relationships in a challenging 3-dimensional format. As a method, it allows the client to identify complex issues. It simplifies issues by depicting them in a visual 3-dimensional way, thus going beyond mere verbal communication.  It is a creative and innovative tool which can be easily added to a practitioner’s repertoire. This tool will be able to guide helping professionals to address common social problems such as emotional trauma, behavioural problems such as addiction, marriage troubles, conflicts, anger, etc. As such, it has a wide applicability, from social service to education sectors.
This workshop is back by very popular demand

Organisation sending One (1) participant
Organisation sending Two (2) or more participants
VWO eligible for VCF funding: 80% pre approved, capped at $1,000.00

For ex-participants attending 18-19 April 2010 only:
Organisation sending One or more participant(s)
VWO eligible for VCF funding: 80% pre approved, capped at $500.00

: $1,355.00 per pax
: $1,295.00 per pax
: $355.00 per pax

: $625.00 per pax
: $125.00 per pax

Research has shown that "Relationships" between counsellor and client is KEY to counselling success. This workshop explores the role of a counsellor (from the Melbourne Institute of Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy's perspective) on the importance and how to make counselling a
collaborative, supportive and encouraging process ...... like a
"A Companion"

Trainer:
Dr. Frances Steinberg

Dr. Frances E. Steinberg, the psychologist in charge of leading this workshop, received her doctorate in the United States from The Johns Hopkins University in 1975. She was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico where she was awarded the Outstanding Teacher of the Year. Frances then worked in a variety of settings in America including special schools for students who are emotionally-challenged and students with learning difficulties, private practice, rape crisis centres, and paediatric clinics. She is currently based in both New Zealand and Australia and delivers training workshops to educators, mental health professionals, counsellors, and social workers internationally. Frances has been the keynote speaker at conferences for Principals, SPELD, and Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour. She was also project manager and course facilitator for the New Zealand National Workforce Development Training for Involving Families in Mental Health.  Furthermore, she produced the documentary (?) on AD/HD, Getting it Right and is the author of numerous books including Working with Difficult Children and Adolescents, Whispers from the East, When Your Lover Leaves You, Working with Difficult Clients, Creating Partnerships, Positive Positioning, and Becoming Dragon as well as the novel, The Pocket Messiah. Frances is a member of the New Zealand National Advisory Group on Fetal Alcohol, served as Professional Advisor to the West Auckland Team for Attentional Difficulties, and appeared in the TV documentaries Out of Control Kids and Drinking for Two.
Trainer's Website: http://www.solutions-unlimited.co.nz/

Trainer:

Edwina Entwisle

Trainer:

Banu Moloney

Trainer:

Banu Moloney