Ata: Journal of Psychotherapy Aotearoa New Zealand

Editorial

John O'Connor

As the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (NZAP) celebrates its 75th year we have much to be proud of, to celebrate, to recognise and acknowledge. The Ka mua, Ka muri Conference, out of which many of the papers in this issue of Ata have emerged, was a wonderful and creative celebration of the work of many. We are very grateful to the conference organisers of this stimulating and fruitful event. It celebrated the wisdom of our ancestors, the depth and energy of contemporary practitioners, and the many potentially creative opportunities and difficult challenges before us all. Our hope is that in engaging with the papers in this issue of Ata, these papers might invite us to consider how we are contributing clinically, as inhabitants of this planet, and as Association members, to creativity and life- giving possibilities, and also to reflect upon our own self-destructive capacities; to challenge ourselves to notice the ways in which we might engage with each other as an Association that might be deadening rather than enlivening. And, as Ogden (1999) suggested in his paper on aliveness and deadness, we hope this may assist us to continue to creatively associate, to reach across our differences, to understand, support, challenge, and enable each other and our remarkable Association. With these musings in mind, we are delighted to outline the creative and challenging papers which make up this issue of the Journal.

Born in ’47

Rod Sandle — 2022-12-30

Just like a personal ego, the zeitgeist of a practice such as psychotherapy is constantly changing, influenced by both internal and external events. As with the personal ego, not only is it changing but it is also resisting change, leading to a state of imbalance and potential conflict. A psychotherapeutic relationship can help an individual re-establish balance in the changing world and live more fully in the present, but the relationship with an organisation or group can be more challenging. Just as we can identify with our ego, so can we identify with a group: does the onus fall more on the individual or the group to adapt, both to change and to the resistance to change? What can help in this process of adaptation? With the Freudian concept of the erotic bonds of love and hate in the background, I will call on my personal story as a psychotherapist born in the year the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (NZAP) was founded, with the aim of exploring these questions with a focus on the changing zeitgeist of NZAP.

Imagining a future for psychotherapy in Aotearoa

Claire Miranda — 2022-12-30

This paper discusses Donna Orange’s idea that Levinas’s philosophical position of radical ethics, when combined with the psychoanalytic concept of intersubjectivity, could unravel blindness to the climate crisis. Genocidal colonisation by Europeans across the world is a disavowed history that has been ruinous not only for the colonised, but also for the internal worlds of the colonisers. We remain in the grip of a destructive competitive mindset, driven by the forces of shame, shame anxiety, and envy. Psychotherapists could play a part in a better future by articulating the emotional defences at play in ecocide and strengthening our own workforce and those who are fighting against the climate crisis, with group work.

Opportunities and challenges for psychotherapy in Aotearoa New Zealand’s new health system

Craig Whisker — 2022-12-30

The dawning of a new national public health system in Aotearoa New Zealand offers opportunities and challenges for psychotherapists. This paper discusses these against three data sets, namely, a 2022 national District Health Board psychotherapy workforce survey, a video recording of the Psychotherapy and Public Worlds panel event at the 2022 New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists’ (NZAP) conference, and psychotherapist registration statistics supplied by The Psychotherapists Board of Aotearoa New Zealand (PBANZ). The expansion of short-term, risk-based, manualised interventions during the former DHB era did not improve mental health at a community level (Mulder et al., 2022) nor promote equity and sustainability (Berg et al., 2022). Placing Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) (Te Tiriti) at the centre of the new health system suits psychotherapy, whose wholistic worldview of health and wellbeing aligns with te ao Māori better than most other Western psychological approaches. Kōrero about the indigenising of psychotherapy in Aotearoa has been around since at least the 1980s. The Ministry of Health (the Ministry) has recently invited psychotherapists’ advice on workforce policy development and how to promote psychotherapy in the new health system. This task will largely fall on the psychotherapy associations and some psychotherapy training organisations. A major challenge may be whether these entities can sustain the expenditure of human and other resources necessary to represent their memberships in continuing dialogue with the Ministry and its operational partners, Te Whatu Ora, Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) and Te Aka Whai Ora, Māori Health Authority (Te Aka Whai Ora). Key opportunities include the recruitment of overseas psychotherapists and the greatly expanded provision of psychotherapy student placements in public health services to stimulate new psychotherapy training programmes and workforce growth.

Research and practice

Keith Tudor — 2022-12-30

This article reports on research into 25 dissertations written by students in the Master of Psychotherapy programme at Auckland University of Technology in the two years 2021 and 2022. The article focuses specifically on the contribution that these dissertations make to the discipline area. This is contextualised with reference to three gaps, or perceived gaps: between research and practice, researchers and practitioners, and publishing and reading. Based on an empirical-deductive approach to the analysis of the dissertations reviewed, the article reports these contributions; assesses their tone; and suggests that, while the sections of the dissertations regarding these specific contributions are varied and, in some cases, limited, the students/researchers make some important points about the discipline area of psychotherapy with regard to practice and education/training.

“The unconscious is a shy beast: don’t pounce!”

John O'Connor — 2022-12-30

Psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and Jungian analytical psychology, it could be argued, have as their centrepiece the encounter with the other, both within and without, and the attempt to bring an understanding mind to these others. In this we grapple, encounter, and receive the often-disturbing forces of the unconscious mind, including the implicit early relational experiences which in combination with our biological, and arguably spiritual, template, form the mind into the subjectivity that we experience as the self. But what if the very systems of thought which we utilise to inform our understanding of, and attempt to guide our encounter with, the unconscious, are themselves manifestations of a cultural unconscious, discourses which actually fabricate our very subjectivity as therapist and patient, thus constituting the very subjectivity which, by contrast, psychoanalysis and Jungian psychology, suggest is innate and a priori of discourse? This paper explores these complex tensions and how they may inform the construction of psychotherapy in Aotearoa New Zealand. The paper concludes with an exploration of the possible clinical implications of these ideas, including consideration of some clinical vignettes.

Notes on notes

Keith Tudor — 2022-12-30

This article offers information and views about note-taking and record-keeping in the practice of psychotherapy in this country, in the context of the limited literature on the topic. It provides a brief review of what principal figures wrote about taking notes and making records, specifically Sigmund Freud and Eric Berne. It considers the purpose of making notes and keeping records, and presents key terms and conditions on the subject. Finally, it reviews relevant declarations and legislation regarding notes and records pertinent to the practice of psychotherapy in Aotearoa New Zealand.

My journey toward becoming a psychotherapist

Carol Worthington — 2022-12-30

As the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (NZAP) celebrates 75 years as an association, the author, a psychotherapist of long-standing and considerable experience as a practitioner in Aotearoa New Zealand, reflects upon her journey to becoming a psychotherapist. She considers the influences that have impacted upon her in this journey, and the qualities essential, in the author’s view, to the practice of psychotherapy. The article is a reflection on lessons learnt throughout her career, in the hope that this may be of benefit to other practitioners, whether beginning or well-seasoned.

Between the Harbour and the Mountain: Reflections on the Ordinary and the Profound

John O'Connor — 2022-12-30

In this beautifully written and elegantly presented book the author, Patricia Williams, offers us her contemplations on the everyday world she encounters, with particular attention to the natural world and its ordinary and wondrous manifestations. Whilst many of us in today’s technological age allow our attention to be distracted from the intimate detail of the natural world that enables life on this planet, Williams invites us to notice the extraordinary and sometimes frightening detail of this world within which we are all embedded, indeed intimately interconnected, as she brings her piercingly attentive gaze to the everyday. In doing so Williams reflects upon the meaning she has drawn from her rich and courageous life, allowing us not only to encounter the natural world through her eyes, but also to enter into the mind of a woman, now formally retired, who has spent her life reflecting upon and engaging with the deep questions of meaning with which we all might grapple, should we have the courage to do so.