Just created version another version of the Outline for the course. Here is the link to the whole document and then some excerpts:
PCT Training – current version
About Psychodramatic Couple Therapy Training
Psychodrama is a philosophy and a method for working with people to foster spontaneity and creativity. When the psychodrama ethos is present in couple therapy it transforms the work. The couple make meaning of their life and develop new ways of being through encounter. The therapist works with the warm up of the partners, respectfully in the here and now, as a psychodrama director. For an introduction to psychodrama see http://psychodrama.org.nz/about/.
J.L. Moreno, the founder of sociometric methods such as psychodrama and sociodrama wrote about interpersonal relationship therapy:
“… an active form of psychotherapy in which the personal and interpersonal problems … are treated at the same time.”
Moreno, 1977:233.
“Forms of treatment are necessary which are able to reach the interpersonal syndromes as deeply, if not more so, than it would a single person. Interpersonal therapy represents a special category; it might well be classified apart from individual and group psychotherapy”
Moreno & Moreno, 1975:45.
Much of Moreno’s Psychodrama Volume 1 is devoted to marriage therapy. Psychodrama has a theory of child development that is related to adult functioning. Central to psychodrama theory are the concepts of spontaneity and tele (the relationship between people including love). Begegnung – translated as encounter is the heart of psychodramatic couple therapy.
Moreno was one of the first marriage therapists, with a session recorded in 1937. In the last 30 years specialist modes of couple therapy training have been developed. Many of them draw on psychodramatic roots. This course provides the required training for this specialist field. Psychodrama is recognised as a form of psychotherapy training by PBANZ. Couple therapy is one of the items covered by the psychotherapist scope of practice.
Walter Logeman
Walter Logeman, in collaboration with group of NZ trainers, will be the main trainer for this course. He is a Trainer, Educator and Practitioner (TEP) in the Christchurch Institute for Training in Psychodrama (CITP) who are offering this course. He has conducted Working with Couples professional development workshops since 2009. Walter describes his motivation for presenting this course:
“In 2009 I wrote an article in the AANZPA Journal called The Imago Affair. I concluded with the intention: “… to explore how we can develop relationship therapy beyond what we know today. I think we can use the psychodrama process to expand and to enrich the method, to explore possibilities and to consciously learn and evolve.” Since then, I have been teaching and practising couple therapy using psychodrama. It is a comprehensive and holistic way to teach couple therapy. It is time to offer this course.
“Couple therapy is a form of group work. This training is a form of group work. In this course we apply the same values and methods as we do in the work with couples. We produce encounter. The relationship is a drama. Each partner is, in turn, the protagonist and the auxiliary ego. We understand the process through role theory. We think in terms of warm up, action, sharing and spontaneity. The therapist is the director. The therapy room becomes the stage. Approaching a couple with the theory and practice of psychodrama as a guide is a delight. I’m enthusiastic to offer a course which trains psychodrama by focussing one application of the method. I am sure the course will be of value to new and experienced therapists and psychodramatists.
“We live in a time of urgent warnings about the planet. I am reminded of J.L. Moreno’s book, Who shall Survive? (1978) as I write this. He was dismayed that survival was approached by biological and technological means and not by social means. He developed new relational tools and they remain important for the survival of humankind. This vision motivates me to bring this course in couple therapy to your attention. My hope is you will be inspired and take up the call.”