Augusto Boal's theatre of the oppressed (TOTO) techniques have been used in education, health, welfare, and prison systems world-wide. However, the link between family therapy clinical supervision and training and TOTO has not been explored, either in Australia or overseas. This innovative action research project explores the ways family therapists and supervisors apply these theatre techniques in their everyday practice. Employing a group-based, cooperative inquiry method, 12 experienced family therapists from the Bouverie Centre, Melbourne, reflected on what these techniques have to offer family therapists and counsellors, applied these theatre techniques in their work, and contrasted TOTO with other action techniques used by family therapists. The researchers found that TOTO provided a safe and grounded process that brings 'action' into both therapy and supervision in ways that enable clients, families, students, and therapists to explore their own agency in a range of settings.
In this article, I describe and reflect on the rationale, development and teaching of the first university-based postgraduate course in family therapy delivered to Aboriginal child, family and health workers. Alongside my Cultural Consultant, Shaun Coade, and with support from key staff at the Bouverie Centre in Melbourne, I developed and delivered the first four iterations of the La Trobe University Graduate Certificate in Family Therapy to Aboriginal students and a relatively small number of non-Aboriginal students. Since 2008, the course has been successfully completed in six Victorian locations and is currently being delivered at Shepparton and in Cooktown, Queensland. The term, 'Black and White' was coined by Shaun and by the Aboriginal family therapy students to describe the delivery of a family therapy curriculum that meets mainstream University requirements while being embedded in Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal wisdom. A largely unanticipated bonus was the realisation that the model of teaching also has important implications for the mainstream teaching of family therapy. After providing a brief summary of enrolment and graduation rates, the article picks up on elements of the teaching and learning that proved to be central to the successful delivery of the course.
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