Why the Boab tree?

The creation of a logo always evokes consternation. While it can and necessarily does mean different things to different people, that meaning is subjective, open to debate and often intensely personal. However, it must also have relevance to the core meaning of its business. The ACIS logo is no exception.

The Boab tree, for reasons which will become obvious, was a compelling choice for the founders of ACIS. However, integrating it into a concise logo was a challenge. As integration is our professional edge, this activity was more than fitting for the development of the logo.

The Australian Boab Tree (Adansonia gregorii) is related to the Madagascan and African Adansonia species known as baobabs. Each Boab Tree is unique, individual and eccentric in shape. Every tree has its own character, charm and appeal.

This reflects the human psyche. While the genetic and molecular makeup is similar in us all, just like the Boab tree, the remainder differs greatly. Each human being has a personality or disposition that is unique in moral fibre, quality and with a character of its own.

The Boab tree has further relevance.

We sometimes liken our work to family; be it our professional family, our work place family, peers and more. The Boab Trees also express this by their atypical feature of having more than one trunk.

Boab Trees live longer than any one human; they have been known to live for over 1500 years! However this longevity echoes that of our race.

Mature trees are spectacular. Although they do not grow extraordinarily high, their girth can extend to over 20 metres. Like humans, the Boab Tree can take a long time to form, shape, grow and develop. This reflects the very ethos of our training programs.

Boab trees are deciduous and so lose their leaves. In this they can appear like naked skeletons. For our logo we have chosen the ‘naked’ version. The reason for this is to enhance and replicate the process of personal and professional development.

Boab trees have been used for centuries as medicine, food and shelter and now, because of their relevance to our profession and special meaning to the founders of ACIS, they are an icon for this organisation. As a result there are two Boab trees planted on the training institute grounds. One appears at the front entrance and one at the rear in the courtyard.

We hope you can find your own special meaning in our Boab trees and now have an insight into why the Boab tree is our logo.

The Faculty

Elana Leigh

B.Sc. Social Work (University of Cape Town). MSc. Integrative Psychotherapy (Middlesex London).
Certified Transactional Analyst CTA and Training and Supervising Transactional Analyst TSTA (ITAA).

Elana has trained and supervised nationally and internationally across a range of cultures for the past 26 years. Her specialty is long term training where the task is to take trainees through the rigorous journey of becoming an ethical professional. Having been trained as an integrative psychotherapist, her passion lies in integration and diversity in both theory and application. Elana is actively involved both nationally and internationally on bodies which maintain and advance training standards in the field of psychotherapy. She currently works as a psychotherapist in private practice, supervisor and trainer in Sydney.

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Servaas van Beekum

Drs (sociology and psychology), Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (TSTA)

Servaas is a social scientist (Universities of Nijmegen and Utrecht) with a background in analytic, relational, systemic and humanistic modalities. He is a founding member of several associations for Supervision and Consulting (EAS, ASCCANZ, Group Relations Nederland and Group Relations Australia) and he has served as president of EATA and ITAA (Transactional Analysis Associations). He is the immediate past president of Group Relations Australia. He has extended international and intercultural experience as a psychotherapist (PACFA reg.) supervisor and executive coach (ASCCANZ reg.) and as a psychodynamic and systemic consultant. He is a member of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARRP). He has worked as a speaker and trainer in over 50 countries, is an author and runs a private practice for psychotherapy, supervision and consulting in Sydney.

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Jo Frasca

Bachelor of Social Science (BSocSc) - Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA - ATAA & ITAA)

Jo is a psychotherapist in private practice in Sydney. Her passion and clinical work is long term where the understanding of family of origin, attachment, early childhood ruptures and the unconscious process are predominant. She works within the framework of Transactional Analysis and the Relational model. Counter transference and transferential issues greatly inform her work. Jo’s client base centres on those who have had long histories of experiencing various forms of mental health treatment.

She is also an advocate of the counselling and psychotherapy profession and constantly works to improve ethical procedure, training and professionalism of practitioners. As a result, for most of her career, she has been involved at the association level. She is currently President of the Australian Transactional Analysis Association (ATAA). She is the immediate Past President of the Counsellors and Psychotherapist Association of NSW (CAPA NSW). She was on the CAPA NSW Board for seven years with three of those as President. She has also been on the PACFA Register Committee. Jo remains committed to the ongoing professional development of practitioners and the training of potential practitioners. Apart from her clinical work she is committed to the growth and development of the profession.

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Administration

Jenny McCarthy

Jenny McCarthy comes from a background in administration and began working with the Australian Centre for Integrative Studies in 2003. Her role began as support staff and has now emerged into the management of the database, finance control and monitoring of all courses and training. Jenny previously worked at the Australian College of Applied Psychology for 10 years in the Administration Department.

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Other Faculty

Charlotte Daellenbach

Training and Supervising Transactional Analyst (TSTA).

Charlotte grew up in Switzerland where she obtained a translator’s diploma at the University of Geneva. Emigrating to New Zealand in 1970, she retrained as a social worker and worked for ten years in acute psychiatry, and in alcohol and drug dependency. During that time, she trained in Transactional Analysis with Ian McDougall, a psychiatrist, and subsequently opened her private practice in 1986, specialising in long-term psychotherapy with severely disturbed people. She started her first training program in 1987 and has been an active trainer and supervisor in Transactional Analysis since then, working in New Zealand, Australia, and South India. Currently, she still runs a flourishing private practice as a psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer in Christchurch.

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Kathy Laverty

Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA) and Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (PTSTA) with a Diploma of Counselling and Communications (ACAP).

Kathy has a background in theology and the arts; she is a graduate of the Royal Ballet London. She has also studied at the American Dance Therapy association, New York. She was born in South Africa where she lived and worked for 33 years. She was the founder and director of the Kgodisong youth Centre in Alexandria, where she worked with traumatised youth for 8 years. She is nationally and internationally involved in training and standards in the field of psychotherapy (ITAA and T&CC). She is a board member of ITAA and an accredited supervisor (ASCCANZ reg.) She runs a private practice in Sydney.

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Prof. Charlotte Sills

MA, MSc (Psychotherapy), Dip. Systemic Integrative Psychotherapy, CTA / TSTA (ITAA), UKCP Registered Integrative Psychotherapist, Visiting Professor at Middlesex University.

Charlotte has a particular interest relational psychotherapy and also in groupwork and the power of groups. She was for many years the Head of the Transactional Analysis Department at Metanoia Institute, UK. She is the author and co-author of a number of books and articles on counselling and psychotherapy, including Integration in Counselling and Psychotherapy by Lapworth, Sills and Fish (Sage 2002; 2010) and Transactional Analysis - a Relational Perspective by Hargaden and Sills (Routledge 2002). In 2007, she and Helena Hargaden were awarded the Eric Berne Memorial Award for their work on a relational perspective of transference and countertransference. She is a psychotherapist in private practice and a supervisor, trainer and consultant in a variety of settings, based in London.

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Mandy Lacy

Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA) and Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (PTSTA) (WPATA/ITAA), specialising in organisational applications.

Mandy is a workplace behaviour and communication specialist working with leaders, managers, staff and governance to develop more effective operating environments. Mandy provides services that are tailored for individuals and teams to meet their goals and outcomes. She is the Executive Director and founder of Star Potential which provides coaching and professional supervision services, facilitation, professional development and Transactional Analysis training and supervision. Mandy is also an international certified trainer in the ‘The Process Communication Model’ (PCM), developed by Dr Taibi Kahler. PCM helps businesses, organisations and individuals to improve their communication and stress management skills. She is an accredited supervisor and coach (ASCCANZ reg.). Star Potential is based in Wellington.

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Lorraine Rose

MA Psychology

Lorraine Rose is a psychologist and an analytic psychotherapist who works in private practice in Sydney. She has a particular interest in primitive dynamics and their impact on the psyche and behaviour. She uses a developmental model to help understand the forces that assist the individual and the group to develop and grow, or conversely, to better understand the forces that inhibit development. She has worked in several departments within the health sector exploring organisational dynamics and unconscious processes that impact upon the work done in the sector.

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Joleen Lasker

BB. Soc. Sc (SW)(Hons); M.Ed; Grad Dip Adult Training and Development; Grad Dip Psychotherapy.

Joleen is a member the Australian Association of Somatic Psychotherapists, PACFA, EMDR Association of Australia and the Australian Association of Social Workers. She has worked as a social worker, counsellor and psychotherapist with individuals, families and groups in a variety of contexts including youth, health, educational and cross cultural. She taught for many years at the Australian College of Applied Psychology, where she focused on the overlap of counselling and cultural diversity, and has also taught human development to psychotherapy students. She has a private practice in Sydney and is particularly interested in attachment relationships from the perspective of interpersonal neurobiology, and in the integration of current developments in this field and the fundamental and extraordinary wisdom of the body-mind.

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Rosemary Taylor

BA Social Work (BaSW), Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA), Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (PTSTA)

Rosemary completed her initial training as a Psychiatric Social Worker in the U.K. in 1970. Her work in therapeutic communities informed her interest in psychotherapy and on arrival in Australia she further trained as an Integratve Psychotherapist, a Trainer and a Supervisor. Her work which focuses on the Integration of Psyche and Soma is influenced by Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, Psychoanalysis and Body psychotherapies. She was the founding member of Oxford House in 1979, one of the first interdisciplinary therapy and training centres in South Australia. Since then she has developed her own Centre , the Queen Street Centre of Integrative Psychotherapy in Adelaide, which offers psychotherapy, and the training of psychotherapists at an accredited level.

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Kerrie Kirkwood

Bachelor Social Science (BSoc Sc) Certified Transactional Analyst (Clinical)

Kerrie’s current employment includes working as a psychotherapist (PACFA reg.) in a private practice in Sydney. Since 1997 she has been employed with the Department of Corrective Services within a Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in the Alcohol and Other Drug Department. She is also an Educator at the Australian College of Applied Psychology teaching Grief and Loss. She is interested in psychoanalytic psychotherapy working with individuals who are experiencing the various manifestations of issues that are resultant of life. She specialises in the area of mental health, process and substance addictions and grief and loss. She also works with couples and older adolescents. Within the Psychiatric Hospital she facilitates individual and group sessions for individuals who are living with a dual diagnosis.

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Sean Manning

Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA) and Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (TSTA)

Sean is a registered psychotherapist in private practice in Dunedin, New Zealand, with a background in psychology and social work. Raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he has lived in New Zealand since 1975. He has published occasionally and is a former trustee of the International Transactional Analysis Association and a former member of the Training & Certification Council of Transactional Analysts. He is currently president-elect of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (NZAP). Though he works with a broad range of clients and trainees, his specialty is criminality and addiction. He has worked for 22 years with a therapeutic community for offenders, of which he was a founding trustee.

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