client or trainee

Sun Sep 10 14:22:17 CDT 2006

I practiced psychodrama for 15 years in a community of 800 people. About 500
of these were utilizing psychodrama for their development. As a result my
boundaries and that of my staff had to be both clear and powerful. It was
inevitable I would share the role of Director, doctor, colleague, committee
member, fellow sportsperson etc. with one individual. There was no way of
escaping this scenario, in fact it was the norm rather than the exception.
Every psycho-dramatist goes through the progression of client/group member,
auxiliary, trainee and then colleague. Professionalism and personal
development is about clarity of boundaries, and I believe that is not good
enough to be saying "my boundaries are not very good' and thereby justifying
evading the issue. Life is for living fully, and therapy does not end at the
consulting room door. Boundaries and fine tuning them is our work, let's get
on with it. A person s not a "trainee" or a ''client', they, like all of us,
at times, assume these roles, the role of client lasts about an hour, then
its time for a change of role on both sides.

At times I would be in the main street of this country town and someone
would assume, erroneously, that I was in the role of their doctor and ask me
about a lab result. At that particular moment I was embedded in the role of
the window shopper, and I would respond that they would not want me to be
thinking of them as a disease or an illness every time that I saw them. To
this comment I usually got a laugh of awareness and a spontaneous agreement
to see me or a staff member about the requirement IN THE SURGERY. And not on
he street. 

Cheers

Peter Parkinson from New Zealand

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From: list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org [mailto:list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org]
On Behalf Of Carole Oliver
Sent: Monday, 11 September 2006 6:35 a.m.
To: grace at graceworks.co.nz; list at grouptalkweb.org
Subject: Re: client or trainee

grace, I agree that the psychodrama community is small and we know many
people, first as clients and then maybe in a psychodrama/training group. The
roles can get murky. I think it requires a therapist who can be very strong
with boundaries. I am a pretty friendly accessible therapist and so I find
it harder to keep very strong boundaries between training, supervision,
group[p member, client.

It is difficult to sort it all out. As for me, I wont see a person in
individual and be their trainer. If they are in my group which is a
therapy/psychodrama group, they can log hours but if they are indivual
clients, I wont do just a training group or supervision group with them.
Does that make sense?

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Grace <mailto:2grace at actrix.co.nz>  

To: list at grouptalkweb.org 

Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 3:14 PM

Subject: RE: client or trainee

Kia ora Peter,

Yes, I like your view of your work as education or adult education (we
sometimes refer to what we do as psycho-education), although I do believe it
is deep learning that we facilitate in the group of people we work with
people, so I have a new descriptor to use.  Thank you!

I have also been pondering on the reality of dual relationships especially
living in a small country where the degrees of separation are few.  It's
pretty difficult here in Aotearoa/NZ to meet people in either work or social
situations who don't have an acquaintance in common.  I think Moreno gives
us a great tool in Role Theory, enabling us to become conscious, to identify
and warm up deliberately to the roles necessary to respond adequately in
situations where dual relationships such as Client / Trainee exist.  One
such role might be something like a 'responsible professional' who is able
to bring a wealth of technical and ethical expertise into practice when
making decisions, when in doubt consulting with supervisors and networks.  I
really like that this approach engages the professional in the 'deep
learning process' also,  giving us the opportunity to continue growing our
ability to be creative and spontaneous rather than referring to entrenched
and conserved rules that squash vitality and imply that there an end to what
is really an infinite process.   This is NOT the easy road however!  And we
won't always get it right- can we live with that? 

Cheers

Grace

  _____  

From: list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org [mailto:list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org]
On Behalf Of Peter Howie
Sent: Tuesday, 5 September 2006 2:10 p.m.
To: Adam Blatner; list at grouptalkweb.org
Subject: Re: client or trainee

Dear Adam,

Sorry Adam but I can't help myself. 

"So there's a cultural lag-- a need to recognize this sub-field, but still
the main field of psychodrama is based on the conventional model of
psychotherapy-- and training certification is also geared to this, albeit
loosely. "

I came across this quote as I was perusing some early ANZPA thesis. 

"I have always tried to show that my approach was meant as much more than a
psychotherapeutic method--my ideas have emphasized that creativity and
spontaneity affect the very roots of vitality and spiritual development, and
thus affect our involvements in every sphere of our lives. Furthermore, I
have always wanted to have people attend to the processes of health, as well
as to the problems of illness; thus I am glad that Dr Blatenr has noted the
applications of psychodrama in the home, school and world of business" J L
Moreno, M.D., 1973 in Forward to "Acting In" by Adam Blatner.

Part of our discussion involves, at an underlying level, how the conserves
of the psychotherapeutic communities/world (Psychology, Psychoiatry,
Counselling etc) have dominated some of this discussion. It may not be so
much about the dilemmas that arise from boundary issues with
clients/patients/trainees but more about how this work is conceptualised.
Personally and professionally I think viewing most of our work as that of
education or adult education works for me. Deep learning is deep therapy.
Still working on this idea.

Cheers

Peter Howie
Brisbanew, Australia

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