My career as an educator and trainer began in 1978,
when I took up a position as "master craftsman" at the Jam
Factory Design and Art centre in Adelaide, South Australia.
My brief was to develop systems by which graduate artists
and craftspeople can be placed in an environment where they
experience actual business and economic survival needs and
develop ways and means to forge career-oriented skills well
past theoretical and applied skills. In medieval terms, this
could be called a "journeymanship" period.
Although this seems a far cry from therapeutic concepts and
structures, it nonetheless began a life-long desire to teach
and train in a way that is always practically-based, yet aiming
for best practices supported by robust theory.
This principle followed me into my years as a senior academic
at the Australian National University with an insistence on
practically-based tuition and training in both the arts and
art therapy. My time at university was effervescent because
of my stance being almost diametrically opposed to my colleague
academics who were most interested in theory and a student's
performance only in their academic time. I was most interested
in their time and career after university, and many times
mooted that there should be a degree: - B.A.A.I. – Bachelor
of Act As If. (That's a small joke, yet runs close to my philosophy
as it pertains to education).
As for their placement in education and training, I do not
believe that any aspect should take precedence over any other.
Theory, practice (in class), practice (in real life), and
career-oriented personal philosophy should be placed evenly
in a trainee's or student's pathway. Like human health, no
elements can be ignored. Like the mind and the body, neither
exists without the other, and the whole cannot exist without
a balance of both.
Since 1964, I taught Zen mindfulness meditation, only to cease
when I started my training of analytical hypnotherapists in
1992.
As ICSTR (International Centre for Subconscious-mind Training
and Research) moved forward in its training program I was
instrumental in planning and developing systems by which therapists
maintained practice-oriented training and continual upgrading
of skills.
I have conducted numerous full-term training programs for
therapists in Australia and overseas, always maintaining a
strong relationship between the necessary theory and practical
aspects of courses. All my programs are geared only to those
who intend to make a career of af-x®.
Over the last ten years, I have found it appropriate to add
significantly to the content of courses, proposing that it
is irresponsible to teach people to treat others in emotional
systems without a thorough understanding of those systems.
In this regard, it could be said that "mediocrity is not tolerated"
in any programs that I run, but that stance is tempered by
humour and a commitment to a high level of assistance to students
in all areas of their learning.
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