Newsletter Three
‘Playing with Heart around the Globe’
Hello Everyone!
Firstly, I must thank those of you who have taken out a paid subscription. It does make such a difference and is keeping me going. I have been able to increase my administrative help which has also helped. And believe it or not, I have found someone who loves cooking so that is a huge help as I am eating home-made food, but don’t have to cook myself!
It makes a big difference to have time just to write, especially the stories which are sometimes for children, others for adults, and some that are adapted from ancient tales. I wrote to one airport to ask if they would like me to tell stories for children, when flights had been delayed and people were becoming fractious. Unfortunately, I received no answer. Perhaps I should try again. However, I am developing ideas for ‘Flying Children’ to try and cut back on tension and meltdowns when children have to travel on ‘planes. One that works well is to have a bag of small wrapped goodies (toys rather than sweets) and agree a time, say every 45 minutes that one can be opened.
You would have been amused to see me being pushed in a wheel chair by an airport cleaner – there are rather strange rules regarding when ‘Special Assistance’ commences, and they vary from country to county. The cleaner had to clean at the same time which he was doing with his left hand while he pushed me with his right!
On that joyful note – see you next week
With Love,
Dr Sue
February 2024
Main Feature:
New Things Happening in NDP!
My time in India was very full; not only was I running three Modules of the Diploma Course but also a Trainers' Course for five people who wish to start NDP training courses. A large proportion of the staff at ‘Children First’ have now been trained in NDP and they are planning to offer programmes for staff from other organisations. They are forming a partnership with an adult psychiatric service and out of that will come a joint training institute.
A very useful discussion took place on the question of NDP Supervision. I will write about it at greater length later, but it is important that we recognise that the NDP model of intervention is different from psychotherapeutic models or CBT. It is an exploratory model, or a model of discovery where the child’s often latent curiosity is encouraged.
NDP Supervision needs to take that into account so that there isn’t a conflict of practice models, and practitioners can feel confident of the support of their supervisors.
My thanks to Dr Kavita Arora and Anand Chabukswar for their valuable contribution to these discussions.
And love to you all too!
Dr Sue
Bits and Pieces:
I have just returned from India where an excellent centre in Delhi ‘Children First’ is hosting the NDP India training.
China have announced today that they wish to continue their online NDP training programme.
Meeting up with Aanand Chabukswar was the icing on the cake, I will be reviewing his new book on arts-based therapy in the next Newsletter.
Aanand Chabukswar
Judi Dench says:
‘Be kind, be curious, be playful. And keep a sense of humour.’
And I will finish the free part of this Newsletter with a Butterfly Story from long ago…
There was a beautifully coloured butterfly who so needed everyone to look at him. He would flutter past groups of people and hope that his movement would capture people’s attention.
One day he was delighted when two very beautiful young girls looked across at him and talked about how lovely he was. He hovered near them and felt as if he grew with all their attention.
The next day he returned to the garden where he had first seen the girls but they were busy talking to a huge white butterfly. He was very insulted and asked himself why they would pay attention to a colourless and plain creature when he could dazzle them with his beauty.
He decided on drastic action - and he killed the white butterfly. And at that moment a large cloud of beautifully coloured butterflies was released throughout the land.
If you prefer to listen to stories, look out for my YouTube Story channel which will be announced soon.
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