“A good therapist is not born. She’s grown.”
Peggy Stamp

 

“An increase in imagination often results in an increase in courage….. Awakening the imaginasiton awakens the heart and stretches it.”
Jonathan Fox, founder of Playback Theatre

 

"Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past."
Jack Kornfield

 

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”
Mahatma Gandhi

 

Therapist Influences Background

Therapist:  Liz as psychotherapist

Liz was active as a group worker, trainer, therapist, consultant and presenter for over forty years. She worked with individuals for short term counseling whose goal was to manage a particular life situation that was challenging. People who were interested in and ready for a deeper transformation may have choosen a longer therapeutic adventure. As they began to welcome new, unclaimed roles in their lives, they were given the opportunity to join either a one day group or residential retreats. In these settings they were able to try out new responses to old situations and gain confidence in leading a more spontaneous life. Experiences of unfinished business, unresolved guilt or anger, self-doubt, resentment, fear of failure or of success, - these and more were persistent themes that Liz believed could benefit from exploration in individual or group therapy.

Over time Liz co-created a psychodrama community of people who would come and go in one-to-one work and group involvement. They supported one another, noticing the gains that each had made in leading a richer and more satisfying life.

While psychodrama theory and practice formed the foundation of her work in all its forms, her working model was eclectic, the reflection of all that she had experienced, studied, created and shared and its variety and richness was reflected in her history. Person and professional merged to inform the relationship with each of her clients.

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Influences

YWCA From Life Skills Coach Training. Respect for structured group work that empowered participants to discover their own problem solving. Experience with marginalized women, whose spirit inspire herl.

Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy. The theory and practice of the work of J. L. Moreno was the core theoretical base of her work. Sociometry illuminates the individual’s strengths and gaps and the group’s dynamics. Psychodrama offers respectful, creative interventions to find spontaneity, (adequate responses to new situations and new responses to old situations). Sociodrama uses action methods to explore social issues and build more understanding, respectful communities.

Feminism. Through the YWCA and later as part of her Master’s program at OISE, University of Toronto. Feminist Issues in Counselling with Jeri Wine, a rigorous course of reading and analysis.

Family Therapy. A summer course using action simulation, an overview of family therapy models. She saw the family as crucible.

Body Work. In training with Kristi Magraw , the basic respect for the energy systems interacting with the psychological life in her own body, and those of others. Authentic Movement and Stillness were integral elements in her residential workshops.

Individual Psychotherapy. Four years with a skilled therapist using self-psychology and relational therapy.

Playback Theatre. Developed by Jonathan Fox, connecting action, theatre and social justice in a rich and lively community theatre. Cherishing community stories.

Creative Arts Therapies. Two residential weeks in Switzerland and in Canada. Using body, clay, art, music, nature and metaphor to bring whole worlds into consciousness.

International Training Experiences. Answering invitations to offer workshops in psychodrama and sociodrama in Cambodia and in Bangladesh, she learned what was common to our humanity and where our cultures differed.

Supervision. First with particular therapists for the needs of special clients. For last fifteen plus years, every other week a meeting with Nancy Ross and Mary Ann Carswell, in a peer supervision group, refining herself as the instrument of the therapeutic process, bringing her back to her best self.

Other Influences. Readings in narrative therapy, cognitive behavioural and psychodynamic psychotherapy, group process, social justice, transcultural groups, mindfulness meditation, the new understanding of the brain and its ways, attachment and resilience. Writing her latest book. Still Life. At the hand of a skilled and courageous editor, being taken deeply into the fuller integration of her life and work. And, of course, from her personal life experience, the experience of co-parenting four children, and living with the death of their eldest son from lung cancer. And through it all a loving life-long partnership, the respect of her peers, the love of her friends and robust good health.

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Background

Education and Training Memberships and affiliations Awards

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