Day Four - a bit of a break. No workshop and a day off before the conference. I slept until 11.30. Doing intensive workshops is definitely tiring! But went to see a photography exhibition at the Turku Equivalent of the Tate Modern (but smaller!)
Day 3 of the workshop with Judy W As expected, this blog is a little late as I am writing a day late, after the first day of the conference....... If that makes sense. Day 3 of the workshop was a little lighter, but just as intensive. We received prints back from the photos taken on the first day which was a delight but also a little bit of a surprise. Of course, these images were all self-portraits but we didn't work with them. We watched a movie of Judy working with a client using one of the projective images (the tree, the door, the pathway) This was a long story woven around the image. A narrative story of some intricacy as it unfolded. Judy then discussed the ethics of using photographs and the complications of this with different laws in different countries, different state within countries as example. We were also given the handouts and teaching materials that we had used, and will use. These are all available in Judy's book should you want to look at them....... Day 2 of the workshop with Judy W A much more intense day of working with a single photo entitled: Self Portrait Photo exercise. This was about placing a single photo of you on a piece of card (A4) and answering a series of question about the photo. Simple questions like
We had to write the answers to the questions around the photo (in silence) and were given a simple variety of drawing materials if you wished to develop a visual answer to some or any of the questions. We then worked around the group with Judy asking people to talk through their answers, 1 by 1, round the table. We then split into two's and asked the remaining questions in a therapist/client dyad, and reversing roles..... as you can imagine, this took some time. We finished off in the afternoon and then tackled the next assignment/piece of work which was make a selection from the 20 to 30 images (anything we liked or found influencial) from out own collection of photos, from our own albums or photographs. We we asked to select 5 pictures to work with. Again, some simple questions, prompted different trains of thought - Are there any similarities you can see? Again, this involved process meant speaking individually to each person in turn. But we also had the opportunity to speak to each other. We ended late. And then we went for a drink.......... Tomorrow is the final day and we shall see.
Day 1 of the workshop with Judy W On the evening before the workshop, we had all met for dinner. This was a good opportunity for people to meet and to talk to each other informally before we began 'work' at 9.00 am. At least it meant that when you had breakfast (including in the price of the hotel room), you were able to recognise another person and have an companion for the start of the day. The workshop began with a very long introductory session, when everybody did the normal thing of saying who they were, and why they wanted to come to the workshop, As you can imagine, this was pretty diverse and included everything from PhD students to 'newbies' in the field of psychotherapy - and from 'old hands' to 'working in a different way'. By coffee time, everyone had a pretty clear idea of who was what, and what was what. The next part of the workshop was to begin with selecting a picture from the array on the table. For this, I felt a little rushed and I picked a picture what I thought was rather randomly. It was a picture I felt drawn to (Judy described this very graffically, illustrating this with a gesture of being 'drawn by the nose' rather like Pinnochio with your nose leading the way). She then gave a demonstration of how you can work with a person projecting into a photo, with two volunteers from the group. Both happened to be experienced therapists, who were quite able to take the investigation about their images but both very quickly started to uncover things about the images that were intimate and connected with their lives - the projection into the image. This was very like the video we watched but with one person, rather than a group. This demonstration illustrated very powerfully how intense the examination of an image can be. Lunchtime - we were set our first photographic assignment. To take personal snapshots/images that were about 'me'. Again we had a list of questions to prompt us into thinking about the images. I have already decided that I was going to use my phone and camera for all assignments in an attempt to work out how to use the camera, and if the mobile phone camera had extra or alternative things/methods that would reveal more. The pictures were to be left with J's assistant who will get them printed and we have them back as prints on the third day of the workshop, The gap between taking and looking with be interesting to explore because even in three days, perceptions will change. We then spilt into pairs to begin the discussion of the images we had selected in the morning and the modelling deomonstration but incorporating questions we were encouraged to use if we 'lost contact' or changed direction too much, provided on a handout. This proved very compelling and we were allowed extra time for these 1 to 1 counselling session. We came back as a group and everyone had their time to discuss what had happened and reflect on the content. A long day, packed with information, but it felt very worthwhile. New ideas are emerging but they are not formed yet. The evening held a bit more relaxation with beer and a pizza. The table was buzzing with ideas: about politics (Bellasconi, training, reseach, some jolly talk, but not that much about the day). A great chance just to talk and see what happened........ more tomorrow.  The array of pictures we could chose from. Most of these were J's own pictures and copyrighted Day 1: travelling! Got up at 3.00 am to check in for a 6.00 am flight. Had a lift to the departure lounge from the police.... but that's another story. Afte a lot of travelling (3 airports) arrived. With much relief. At the Airport in Turku, met the first person doing the workshop - a psychologist from Spain. So we caught the bus in and chatted. Dinner with the group of people starting the workshop tomorrow. There are sixteen of us (quite a big group) from all over the world. So, so far so good. More info tomorow but need to sleep now.  Turku in the snow. The streets are snowy but they take care of the pavenments which are well gritted. Cold, just below freezing so not too bad. The building on the corner is a 'pub'. Not much traffic though! This was taken about 8.00 pm. I'm going to be keeping a blog for the Workshop and Conference I'm attending between Saturday 29th January to Friday 4th January. Hopefully, if I have internet access in the hotel, I will be able to upload a little bit on nightly basis. And get used to using this web site a little more. Workshop and Conference Blog |
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Learning and Healing with Phototherapy Symposium 3-5 February 2011, Turku, Finland History of the Conference Conference Website (where you can see the programme) |
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