It is with pleasure that the Otago–Southland Branch of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists awards the above honour to Sandra Winton, a loved and respected member of our branch.
Sandra’s first profession was as a secondary teacher within the Dominican Religious Order of which she is a member, but her interest in the profession of psychotherapy began during her time as a Chaplain for students at the University of Otago. At the same time, 1990, Sandra began working as a therapist at Catholic Social Services (Dunedin) and attended various educational presentations at the Ashburn Clinic. She was committed to the provision of quality psychotherapy treatment to low income families and individuals, remaining with the agency for a period of twelve years, during which she completed the Australia and New Zealand Diploma in Adult Psychotherapy and The Monash University Child Psychotherapy Studies, Post-Graduate Diploma, an online course from Melbourne.
Sandra became a full member of NZAP in 1995 and was always active in addressing any issues related to children’s needs. She became a Council member in 2004, accepting the Children’s Issues Portfolio. She was a significant member of this online discussion group, circulating information re training and useful reading material to its members.
In 2006 Sandra resigned from Council and became a member of the Admissions Committee. Sandra became a moderator of marking in 2008, a role she continues to hold to the present. In this role Sandra has made an invaluable contribution to the work of the Admissions Committee, easing applicants through the often difficult process of achieving the required standard in their written work. Many have benefited in this way, from her early love of teaching English and this is especially so at local level, where she often works with aspiring members ‘behind the scenes’ in a way most people would be unaware of.
A further recent development from this interest has been Sandra’s willingness to run short weekend seminars on writing the work practice description and the case study, for groups of Provisional Members. We are also given to understand that Sandra has been very supportive of the establishment of He Ara Māori, and the founding members who have recently gained full membership of NZAP.
Sandra has also taught in the Ashburn Clinic Psychotherapy Seminar training programme; has given a paper at the Ashburn Clinic Luncheon Seminars and has published an article in the NZ Aotearoa Journal of Psychotherapy. She has been the Convenor for the Otago-Southland Branch of NZAP. She is highly regarded by her international colleagues in the Relational Psychotherapy Group and through this connection was able to procure a visit to Dunedin by Donna Orange. As a local member said, “she is a person who makes things happen, and doesn’t wait for someone else to do the work”.
Sandra has been in private practice since 2002. Much of her psychotherapy caseload continues to contain the same client group she first encountered in Catholic Social Services and she is at ease with the less fortunate members of society. Every week she travels to the Otago Corrections Facility at Milton, to provide psychotherapy for prisoners, a 45 minute drive.