We want to do our part in helping our city to heal, so we will be offering free counselling to those affected by the earthquake (i.e., those living in Christchurch and who were in the area during the major quake on 04 September 2010). We will be offering as much assistance as our staff can support, but spaces will be limited. Contact us today to express your interest in our post-earthquake trauma counselling.

I remember sitting up in bed, with my wife already sitting up and looking around the darkened room. Everything – and I mean everything, house and all – were violently bouncing up and down and the noise was incredible. I looked around the room, stunned, and my wife said with a shaking voice, “EARTHQUAKE!, EARTHQUAKE!”

I jumped out of bed and headed to my son’s room, with my wife following closely behind. With every step I tried to take, the floor came up to meet my feet, almost negating any attempt on my part to run to Jack’s room. After what seemed like ages, we made it to Jack’s room and were standing next to his top bunk bed, where he was still sound asleep. Part of me wanted to let him sleep, protecting him from the reality of what was happening around him. I don’t doubt that he would have continued to sleep.

When he was about two, we lived in a rental property in Australia with something like fourteen fire alarms. One night, someone pulled up on the street next to our house and kept his car running for ages, with the car exhaust fumes coming in our open window (open to bring a breeze during that hot Aussie summer) and our fire alarms were set off in a cascade, with twelve of the fourteen alarms going off at an ear-splitting level. One of those alarms was in Jack’s room. He slept through the whole experience. We have always been lucky to have a child who sleeps so well. As I stood over Jack’s bed during the earthquake, for a split second I imagined that the earthquake would soon be over and how much better it would be not to wake Jack and bring him into such a traumatic experience.

After these quick thoughts, I reached down and shook Jack, telling him to wake up. As he started to become aware of us in his room, I tried – as gently as possible – to tell him that we needed to get him out of bed, because there was an earthquake. The house was still shaking forcefully as we picked him up and headed to the safest place in the house, a hallway that connects his bedroom to the lounge room. We stood in the hallway, me holding Jack and Kalena standing next to me and holding onto me and sobbing for several minutes.

One might imagine that when the shaking stopped there would be joy and relief, but such was not the case. The silence was deafening and one’s mind began to race, asking things like, “Is that all of it? Is there another one coming? What dangers are around us?” Kalena decided to leave the house and I wasn’t convinced that going anywhere was a good idea, but I certainly wanted to step out of a house that could be unstable and get into the open air. We had to keep Jack next to us, while we groped in the dark for things we needed, such as glasses, shoes, pants, etc.

I don’t think of myself as old – I am only 43. I have a great uncle who is 96 and in great health and his brother is about to turn 90 and still goes ten-pin bowling. During the moments after the earthquake, however, I realised how age is catching up with me. I squinted in the dark, trying to focus on the things around me. I realised that I could barely see without my glasses, but had no idea how I would find them. Wandering in the dark, feeling around for my glasses while my son held onto me, I realised how fragile we all are at any given moment. During my meditation exercises, I am encouraged to think of such things, but there is nothing like a dose of reality to bring it all home. Finally, I found my glasses on the bedside table – they were still there, but had jumped from one side to the other.

I then began to find my pants and shoes and after getting something on, I started to help my son get ready to leave the house. Kalena was dressed too by this time and I had found a torch. As we started to head out of the back door (the front lead to a deck a story above the ground and we couldn’t be sure the deck was safe), Kalena yelled that she needed her glasses. Damn it! By this point, I was more than eager to get out into the open sky and Kalena was about to turn around and go back into the darkness for her glasses. What if there was another tremor and she got hurt inside, while Jack and I were outside? What if we all stayed inside and there was more seismic activity and Jack got hurt? I wasn’t concerned for myself, but couldn’t even contemplate anything happening to him. I carried Jack back into the lounge room, while Kalena wandered around our bedroom in the dark and looked for her glasses. After what seemed like ages, Kalena returned with her glasses and we all headed out of the house.

The stars have never been more beautiful! Leaving the house and looking up at the Southern Cross, everything seemed normal. The house felt like a tomb that we had emerged from, back into the world of the living.

Jerry

(Director and Counsellor, Rekindle Counselling Ltd)

NZCCP

The New Zealand College Of Clinical Psychologists

Canterbury Branch

Presents

Violence Risk Assessment: Can we do it? Yes we can!

Presenters: Annmaree Kingi, Sue Galvin, Craig Prince

Description:

All mental health professionals assess risk all the time, but clinical psychologists can be leaders in this area. This workshop includes lectures and practical exercises designed to give psychologists the confidence to conduct and present an assessment of risk of physical or sexual violence by people with mental illness.

Presenters:

Annmaree Kingi studied psychology and clinical psychology at The University of Canterbury, and has worked at the CDHB’s Forensic Service for 5 years. She has special interests in sexual deviance, borderline personality disorder, and psychopathy.

Craig Prince qualified as a clinical psychologist at the University of South Africa in 1994, and has worked in the CDHB Forensic Service for 11 years, as well as having a private forensic psychology practice. He has interests in sexual offending and a wide range of other forensic matters, and has given expert evidence in many high profile cases. He serves on several consultative bodies.

Sue Galvin studied mathematics and psychology at Victoria University and the University of Rochester, New York, lectured in psychology for ten years at Otago University in Dunedin, then qualified as a clinical psychologist at the University of Canterbury. She has worked at the Forensic Service for four years. She has special interests in neuropsychology and the mathematics of risk assessment.

Date: Friday 3rd September 2010
Time: 12.45pm – 4.30pm
Venue: University of Canterbury, Sociology Theatrette, Room 252 (Level 2, Department of Sociology – next to Department of Psychology)

PLEASE RSVP to Petra: Pah74@uclive.ac.nz by Friday 27th August (afternoon tea provided)
$50 for non-members ($15 for non-member students – with ID)
Free to College members.

All are welcome

MINDFULNESS-INTEGRATED COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY:
AN INTRODUCTION FOR PROFESSIONALS

Dr Bruno A. Cayoun (PhD, Clinical Psychologist)

Venue: Copthorne Commodore Hotel ChCh, 449 Memorial Ave, Christchurch

Friday – Sunday, 5th-7th November 2010, 9.00am – 5.00pm

Description and Objectives: A decade of research has led to the recognition by clinical and research communities that integrating mindfulness training with cognitive and behavioural interventions may be a potent contribution to the treatment of a wide range of disorders. However, learning to integrate mindfulness with the core components of CBT skilfully is a complex and demanding process, primarily because the theoretical framework from which clinicians using mindfulness operate is often unclear or absent, and clients are often provided with ill-defined rationales for each skill to be developed. This professional workshop will provide a strong theoretical and practical basis for integrating mindfulness training in CBT. It will present the four stages of Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (MiCBT) – a sophisticated integration of mindfulness core principles and traditional CBT. Through a master class and case demonstration on video, it will demonstrate effective skills to facilitate the treatment of acute and chronic conditions across a range of disorders. The workshop will include experiential exercises to ground theory in one’s personal experience. It is also be an opportunity to learn from the principal developer of MiCBT.

Course Content: The workshop will involve practical and experiential aspects, and will include: core skills in mindfulness practice; theoretical fundamentals of mindfulness approaches; a neuro-behavioural rationale for the integration of mindfulness and CBT; an expansion of our current understanding of operant conditioning; the four stages of MiCBT to address comorbidity; how to engage clients in the MiCBT treatment plan; mindfulness-based relapse prevention strategies.

Level: Beginner to intermediate. An understanding of cognitive and behaviour modification techniques is desirable but no prior knowledge or experience of mindfulness will be assumed.

Mindfulness Readings: If you would like to read mindfulness research articles, go to:

http://www.mindfulness.net.au/publications.html

Facilitator: Dr Bruno Cayoun is an author and researcher in mindfulness-based therapy and Director of the MiCBT Institute at the School of Psychology, University of Tasmania, and Clinical Psychologist in private practice in Hobart, Tasmania. He is the principal developer of Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and has been teaching this approach to mental health professionals internationally for the past 7 years. This integrative approach is used as a crisis intervention and relapse prevention method which is demonstrating advantages over traditional cognitive perspectives across a range of acute and chronic conditions. Bruno has practised mindfulness meditation and undergone intensive training in mindfulness centres in France, Nepal, India, and Australia for over 20 years. His current research includes the measurements of various mechanisms in mindfulness meditation and the effects of MiCBT on addiction, trauma and comorbidity. Bruno is the author of Mindfulness-integrated CBT: Principles and Practice, to be published by Wiley (UK). The book will be available in print in January 2011. He is also the developer of two questionnaires, the Short Progress Assessment and the Mindfulness-based Self Efficacy Scale, now translated in Portuguese and Dutch.

NZCCP
The New Zealand College
Of Clinical Psychologists
Canterbury Branch

Full Reg
(Non-members)
NZCCP Members
Student Members*
$ 850 (GST incl)
$ 700 (GST incl)
$ 400 (GST incl)

N.B. The registration fee includes $60 for materials (training manual and 2 CDs)
*Students: Please provide confirmation eg fees receipt.

The registration fee includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.
Closing Date for Registration: Friday 8th October 2010

Please send completed registration form to:

Lisa Andrews, C/- NZCCP Canterbury Branch, PO Box 24, KIRWEE 7543
Please make all cheques payable to: NZCCP Canterbury Branch

Internet Banking:

A/C No: BNZ 020800 0442296.00
Reference: Mindfulness Workshop

Please note: Registrations will only be accepted with payment attached or evidence of Internet transaction. Receipts will be provided. We are unable to invoice companies.

Queries to: lisa.andrews@otago.ac.nz
Receipts & acknowledgement of placement will be issued.

Cancellations:

Cancellations must be notified in writing. Cancellations received before Friday 15th October will receive an 80% refund. Only in exceptional circumstances will refunds be given after that date. Refunds will not be available until after the workshop. In the unlikely event the workshop is cancelled by the organisers, registration will be fully refunded. No liability will be accepted for travel, accommodation or other costs/expenses incurred to registrants.

Workshop numbers are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Subject: Fwd: Meeting on Domestic Violence – please circulate to anyone who would be interested in attending

Lianne Dalziel is hosting a public meeting on Friday called “The Truth about Domestic Violence”. The guest speaker is Rob Veale and it will be a compelling address. Lianne first met Rob when he was still with the NZ Police and he made a presentation to an Open Hearing on Violence Against Women & Children. Since leaving the police, Rob has remained dedicated to ensuring that people know the truth about domestic violence and what we can all do to recognise it and act to save lives.

Lianne Dalziel MP for Christchurch East invites you to a “no holds barred” night with Rob Veale.

“The truth about Domestic Violence”

What is Domestic Violence?

What does it look like?

What can we do about it?

After more than 30 years with the New Zealand Police as an inspector and teacher where he specialised in the violence reduction area, Rob Veale tells it how it is with Domestic Violence in New Zealand. Rob was the manager of the Violence Reduction Unit at Police Headquarters where he had responsibilities for community & family violence, alcohol harm reduction projects and the Family Safety Team initiative.

Rob’s career has lead him from Wellington to several Pacific countries, working with NZAID throughout the Pacific and Asia where he helped local police and community agencies develop family violence strategies.

Prepare to be shocked by what Rob has to say- but this is a message we must hear and respond to.

St Andrews Church Hall, 107 Marriotts Road

Friday 23 July 2010 at 7.30pm

Maggie Hillock
Personal Assistant to Lianne Dalziel
Labour MP for Christchurch East
Christchurch East Electorate Office
126 New Brighton Mall
P.O. Box 18898
CHRISTCHURCH
Phone: 382 0288
Fax: 382 0275
Email: lianne.dalziel.mp@parliament.govt.nz

You may find yourself anxious and when you feel this anxiety, you become even more anxious (this anxiety that drives further anxiety is common). One technique in CBT is to create a “Thought Record”, where you try to make a note of what you were doing and thinking each time you became anxious. By keeping this record for a week and then bringing it to your therapy session, you are able to sit down with your counsellor and see what sort of thoughts and actions bring on, maintain and feed into your anxiety. Knowing the “triggers” for your anxiety then allows you to develop with your therapists new ways of thinking and acting that will take away the fuel from your anxiety.

If you think that this therapeutic approach might help you, feel free to contact us to discuss further.

The video only covers the basics of CBT, but it is a good intro for those looking into this form of therapy.

If you are looking for therapeutic assistance yourself and believe that CBT might be for you, contact us to see how we can help.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSO6iAFekPw

45 East 65th Street

New York, NY 10063-6508

USA

Telephone: 001 212 535 0822

Website:  www.albertellisinstitute.org

Email: info@albertellis.org