The Essence: Life and Death of Psychotherapy

3-6 April, AD 2014

What is enlivening and what is deadening
in our work?

Holding the Space

One member of our Conference Organising Group tells the story of a bird in the northern hemisphere which is the last to leave before winter – swimming around and around a lake to keep the ice back, before finally leaving themselves. This is one perspective of our vision for this conference – to keep a space open as long and as much as possible for participants to explore what it is to be a psychotherapist in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is as if we have a mythical bird here, swimming in high alpine lakes, attempting to keep a space open.We chose the Chateau Tongariro as a venue almost in the centre of the North Island. It sits in an ‘earth spot’ of wild beauty and great power, where all of us attending can gather and be held, far from the distractions of the city and our everyday lives, to deeply explore the space we work in and who we are in that space. We are tremendously excited to share with you the possibilities of gathering here in this way.
Eileen Birch, Gerald Maclaurin, Mary King, Olli Anttila, Tom Davey
(2014 Conference organising group)

The Essence: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

The conference will be an attempt to maintain a space for us to explore our work, through large and small group meetings complemented by multiple presentations from participants. We have invited our special guests Farhad Dalal and Angelika Golz to facilitate the large group gatherings over the three days, while the small groups will be convened by nominated members of NZAP.

We envisage many participants of the conference concurrently presenting short (30 minute) talks about what interests them in their clinical work. We are looking for members to speak with passion about their ideas, dreams and personal experience as working psychotherapists. We are inviting interested participants to send us a 150 word summary of what they would like to say to tomdaveyconsulting@gmail.com or mary_king@hotmail.co.nz
An important element of this conference will be the container created by us all, living and meeting together exclusively. The entire Chateau is reserved for us, and only registered participants and staff will be present throughout the conference.

Bookings

REGISTRATION FOR THIS CONFERENCE IS NOW CLOSED AND NO FURTHER BOOKINGS CAN BE ACCEPTED

Costs

Costs, space constraints and the design of this conference mean all participants registering will also need to stay at the Chateau. After you have registered please email the Reservations Manager, Ngahuia Konui reservationsmanager@chateau.co.nz at the Chateau, or ring her on 0800 Chateau (0800 2428328) between 7 30 and 3 30 week days, to make your booking. Please let her know you are booking for the NZAP Conference 2014 using your NZAP Conference Fee Receipt Number as your identifying reference. Please note that you are not fully registered until you have also booked your accommodation.

Conference
$420 NZAP Member
$570 Non NZAP Member
$350 Student

Food, board and Saturday’s dinner dance at the Chateau (per person, 3 nights) but not including evening meal on Friday.
$380 to $450 shared room (2 people) depending on availability at time of booking
$450 double bed room
$600 single occupancy room
$420 chalet units (families given first option)

Early booking allows for a cheaper accommodation package and choice of rooms – there is only moderate variation in uniformly high room quality and early bookings can secure cheaper rates for ‘standard’ rooms. There is a definite limit (50) to the number of single occupancy rooms available and a total limit of 150 conference participants.

Because of the above named constraints, partners and family members of participants are welcome to attend if they have each fully registered and paid as individual participants, and are also health professionals. (Since we are asking Presenters to talk frankly about their clinical work, confidentiality in the context of belonging to a health profession is an important safeguard for practitioners and their clients.) However there are also ‘accommodation only’ options for a limited number of participants’ families with children in the self catering chalet units, separate from the main hotel. Childcare facilities are available.

Conference Group Contacts

Eileen Birch Phone 021 494 322 or helice@vodafone.co.nz
Mary King Phone 027 2800 507 or mary_king@hotmail.co.nz