Organisational History

Organisational history of psychodrama training in Queensland

The Queensland Training Institute of Psychodrama (QTIP) had been for many years the local Institute accredited to run Psychodrama, Sociodrama, Sociometry, and Role training in Queensland. This accreditition was provided by the Australian and New Zealand Psychodrama Association Incorporated (ANZPA) through their Board of Examiners. QTIP went through two ANZPA Institute reviews as part of the process of keeping their acceditation and maintaining demonstrably high standards. There were also many trainers who ran programs through the Institute from all parts of Australia and New Zealand and other parts of the world.

The Institute had been regularly running year long training programs in psychodrama and often smaller weekend series as well. This had been going on for over 20 years. Prior to that, training in Queensland was offered through the Psychodrama Association of Queenland Inc.

The Institute has been staffed by people who are passionately committed to psychodrama as a significant force for life in the world. All the trainers have had other full time occupations and concerns such as work, families and businesses. So the Institute, while a significant source of stimulation, challenge and pleasure, has mostly operated as a voluntary organisation with significant contributions of time being the main input from staff. Programs mostly paid for themselves though at times it seemed as though the whole process was being subsidised by one or other trainer. Seeing the value of the training in people's lives made this process manageable.

The Next Step

As noted, for nearly twenty years the Queensland Training Institute of Psychodrama (QTIP) has been delivering psychodrama experiential development programs and related training programs in SE Queensland. At the same time Macquarie House Pty Ltd, a local specialist consulting firm working in Queenland has also been developing a great reputation for delivering deep learning programs on leadership. Elizabeth (Diz) Synnot and Peter Howie have been crucial to both these organisations. In 2007 they became convinced that the training and consulting could together be taken to the next step. The next step being a single entity that could deliver a wide range of psychodrama related products and services as well as psychodrama related consultancy and learning programs to industry and organisations both public and private.

Working with their colleagues, Brigid Hirschfeld, Charmaine McVea and Don Reekie, they developed the idea of a new organisation that includes QTIP and Macquarie House and yet has potential and room for so much more.

This new organisation is the Moreno Collegium for Human Centred Learning Research and Development. We had been keen for the name to be meaningful as well as remarkable. We consider it to be both. In consdieration of using the name Moreno, which is name of the founders of psychodrama, Jacob L Moreno and Zerka T Moreno we wrote to Zerka asking for her blessing in using her name in our organisation. This she agreed to wholeheartedly, Here is her response printed with her kind permission.

Dear Elizabeth,

Sounds exciting. Good for you and Peter Howie.

You have my blessing to call your centre Moreno Collegium.

It will especially bring non-clinical aspects of our work, the kind that teaches humans to live a better way, which was Moreno's vision, not just therapy, to the attention of the larger public.

Good luck and best to both of you.

I'll be happy to receive any publicity about the project.

Hope you will be able to invite doscents from other countries in the future.

Love, Zerka

Since then, further changes

As an organisation that is answerable to a professional body for our ongoing accreditation, we have been scrutinised by the Board of the Australian and New Zealand Psychodrama Association directly in 2008 in Sydney.
This scrutiny was the results of the organisational restructure that moved QTIP to join with Macquarie House Pty Ltd to become the Moreno Collegium for Human Centred Learning Research and Development (the Collegium). The board was concerned with a number of governance areas. During this time Charmaine McVea resigned as a staff member.

Following this interview with the BOE in 2008, Diz and Peter created a new entity called simply "Moreno". Moreno has the marketable elements of psychodrama training such as organisational trainings and consulting. Moreno is also the arm that other's can work with in joint ventures who are not qualified psychodrama trainers. Moreno also has taken the lead role in promoting psychodrama in Brisbane.

The Collegium is now the psychodrama training Institute in Brisbane. We see it as a Department within Moreno . It is staffed by TEPs and TEPITs. This is a qualification that a qualified psychodramatists or sociodramatist can train for over a number of years. The Collegium has as its principal function to train people in psychodrama, sociodrama, sociometry, role training and group work. It is managed and controlled by the trainers.

Moreno is concerned with the outreach aspects that were contained within the Collegium. These are to do with promoting psychodrama usages, methods, training and practice in the larger community. Moreno is an organisation that is promoting psychodrama to people in a way that is familiar and useful for their immediate usage. Such as: short training programs: in group work; in action methods in therapy; in leadership development; for group facilitators and trainers and in other arenas. It is hoped that this structure will funnel interested folks towards the psychodrama training institute, the Collegium, and provide a very broad base of people interested in Morenian methods and their applications. These can be viewed at www.moreno.com.au.

Current Staff

As mentioned we have separated off the psychodrama training. The Brisbane trainers now manage this area: being Brigid, Don, Diz and myself. This group has developed its own strategic and operational plan. We meet regularly to discuss institute business, work together, co-supervise one another and discuss issues pertaining to being trainers. In 2010 we have increased our meetings to include in-depth discussions of curriculum development, trainee's development and a range of other improvements for our training body, programs and resources