A Small Figures workshop in Portland

[John Barton]

Dear Grouptalk Colleagues,

I will be running a workshop "A Practical Introduction to Working  
with Small Figures in Psychotherapy" in Portland, Oregon, the week  
after the ASGPP Conference in St Louis.     The workshop teaches a  
way of using psychodrama in a one-to-one session.   It is primarily  
for psychotherapists and counsellors who do not have psychodrama  
training.     However people with psychodrama knowledge are likely to  
get even more out of it.

I would be grateful if you would pass the attached flyer on to  
colleagues in the Portland area - and for any ideas you may have  
about where else I could send the flyer.

It has just started raining in Melbourne as I type - the first rain  
for many weeks.    It's lovely!

I am looking forward to meeting many of you in St Louis,

John



A Practical Introduction to
Working with Small Figures in Psychotherapy

with Dr John Barton
Portland
2nd & 3rd April, 2009

Learn how to use small figures with counseling and psychotherapy  
clients.   Small figure work is a powerful and effective method of  
working with adults, adolescents and children. Clients quickly  
understand themselves from new perspectives and find themselves  
thinking in new and creative ways.

This workshop will focus on working with adults in the one-to-one  
setting. The work can be directly applied with couples and in family  
therapy, in supervision and in workplace/management settings.

Participants who work with children will need to modify the work to  
suit their clients.

The work is primarily derived from Psychodrama.   There are also  
elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy  and Narrative Therapy.


Using small figures enables clients to:

Express and understand their knowledge of the family and social  
systems they inhabit.

Experience themselves and their stories from both internal and  
external perspectives.

Connect with feelings and understanding that are held in nonverbal  
memory.

Concretize and thus more fully experience their hopes and wishes for  
the future.


Day One will cover:

General principles of combining small figure work with talk-based  
methods.

A specific way of using small figures to work with a client who has a  
difficulty in a  relationship.

A specific method for bringing to life the memories, feelings and  
actions of functional roles.   This is particularly useful with  
depressed clients.

How to obtain small figures.

Day Two will cover:

A way of exploring the history of a relationship.     This is  
particularly useful in grief work.   It can also be used to celebrate  
a relationship and to allow expression of things previously unsaid.  
This will include the use of simple psychodrama techniques:  
Expression of thoughts, feelings and action; role reversal and  
soliloquy.

Plus: Two or three items selected (by the participants) from the  
following:

A way of looking at the client’s social system and relationships in  
the present.

A way of looking at the client’s social system and the nature of  
their relationships at earlier times in their life, for example in  
childhood.

Action Genogram.   Making a genogram with the figures and then using  
this to find further meaning for the client.

An exercise that links some of the client’s present roles with the  
earlier events that led to the development of those roles.

Working with an unwanted repetitive behavior. This has some relevance  
to addictions.

The Empty Chair: Using the figures to enable the client to have a  
psychodramatic conversation with another person.

A way of assisting the client to make a decision.

Practice and development of confidence in working with small figures.

The workshop will be experiential.

Participants will have the opportunity to be both the client and the  
therapist.    There will also be demonstration and discussion of  
practical and theoretical aspects of this work.    The workshop is  
likely to be enjoyable and to heighten participants’ appreciation of  
themselves.


NB It is expected that all participants are able to take  
responsibility for self care if they uncover personal material that  
is difficult, for instance through access to their own therapist or  
supervisor.
At the end of the workshop the figures used in the workshop  
(Playmobil toy figures) will be for sale.

John Barton is a New Zealander, a registered medical practitioner and  
accredited psychodramatist who works as a psychotherapist in  
Melbourne Australia.    He was a Family Physician (mainly in country  
NZ) for over twenty years.   He uses small figures in his own  
practice and has presented this workshop in New Zealand,  Australia,  
USA, Europe and Asia.    He has a lighthearted teaching style which  
shows his enthusiasm for small figure work and his joy in the  
practice of psychotherapy.

Venue: Mark Spencer Hotel,
409 SW 11th Avenue, Portland, Oregon.

Time: 9:00 am to 5pm, 2nd and 3rd April.
Morning and afternoon tea will be supplied. There will be a one hour  
lunch break.

Cost: $240 (Concession for students and unwaged: $140).
Attendance at one day only: $140 ($80).

It is strongly recommended that participants attend both days.  
Preference will be given to those who attend both days.

The workshop will be limited to twenty-four participants.

To register or for more information contact John Barton:
email: jbarton at aapt.net.au
phone:  +61 3 9480 6335.

14 CEUs have been approved by the Addiction Counsellor Education  
Board of Oregon (ACCBO).

A Certificate of Attendance will be issued at the workshop.


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