It’s been an extremely busy and particularly exhausting year for all here, due to the pandemic and the very long lockdowns imposed to contain the Delta strain. The situation has eased somewhat as parts of eastern Australia have attained over 90% vaccination. State borders are re-opening and some international travel restrictions have been lifted.
We have continued to conduct all our seminars on-line. Posting our events on IARPP’s international listserv has resulted in a marked increase in attendance at all our events from all over the globe.
We began our seminar program in February with two seminars each from Jean Petrucelli, and, in March, Galit Atlas. All four events drew large audiences and were very well received.
In May and June, we hosted two “Meet the Author” events, featuring new publications from local members: Petra Bueskens’ collection of papers on work by and about Nancy Chodorow, and Jo Frasca and Jo Silbert on working with animals as a “third” in the room. Both seminars were also attended by people from around the world.
In September, Amy Joelson presented on “Playing and Technology: Intersubjective Choreography in Child and Adolescent Treatment,” the first in what we hope will be an ongoing series of seminars concerning Child, Adolescent and Family Psychotherapy.
October was intense, with two seminars from joint Editor-in-Chief of Dialogues, Jack Foehl, on “Lived Depth,” and two from Nancy McWilliams on her new book about psychoanalytic supervision. All four drew very large audiences, and the latter have resulted in the formation of a trans-Tasman (Australia and New Zealand) peer supervision group.
We finished the year’s program in mid-November with a seminar from Susan Sands on “Body Experience in the Aging Patient” in which she presented work from her forthcoming book, The Inside Story: The Surprising Pleasures of Living in an Aging Body.
We’d like to thank all this year’s presenters for their generosity and their flexibility in accommodating the awkward time differences between our hemispheres.
In addition to the nascent peer supervision group, there are now several reading groups across Australia and New Zealand. The “Community Conversations,” originally a Melbourne initiative, have had to move on-line due the long lockdowns, which has meant that members in other parts of Australia and New Zealand have had a chance to participate. We are slowly building a relational community and network here in the antipodes.
Planning for our 2022 seminar series is well underway. Stay tuned.
Annette Conradi, President, IARPP-Australia
Annette Conradi, Psy. D
Sydney, Australia
Email Annette Conradi
