PANZ Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
The PANZ Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Campus provides training leading to certification as an AANZPA practitioner of Psychodrama, Sociodrama, Sociometry or Role Training. The Campus curriculum and practice is governed by the AANZPA Code of Ethics and the AANZPA Board of Examiners’ Training and Standards Manual.
Training Information
Enrolment
About training
Training agreement
Training plan
Complaints procedure
Policy manual
The Structure of the Training Process
Training involves attending the year-long programme, other training and personal development workshops, reading, writing, practising with peers, attending supervision and other social activities. Training is open to those who wish to develop their professional abilities without necessarily becoming certificated practitioners in psychodrama.
For some people attending a year or two of training enhances their ability to do the particular work they are focused on. Other people experience a desire to develop a level of sophistication and excellence in working with people using the psychodramatic method. These people work for 5 to 7 years to achieve certification with the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Psychodrama Association (AANZPA) as a Psychodramatist, Sociodramatist, Sociometrist or Role Trainer.
At the end of the training year, each trainee has a 40-minute consultation with members of the training staff to review role development, progress and next steps in their training.
PANZ Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Training Programme
Intermediate & Advanced Training Group 2025
Begins: 28 February. Auckland: Group Leader: Vivienne Thomson. The training will focus on the integration of the method and developing the identity of the practitioner.
Foundations & Developing Practice Training Group 2025
Begins: 14-16 February. Epsom, Auckland. Group Leader, Martin Putt. Foundations and Developing Practice Training Group is to provide new trainees with an introduction and overview of the entire content of the method – psychodrama, sociodrama, sociometry, role training, and group work; and to deepen and extend the theory and practice being learned by returning trainees.
PANZ Tāmaki Makaura Auckland Staff
Vivienne Thomson
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Campus Director of Training
Vivienne is a Sociodramatist and Trainer Educator Practitioner (TEP) and is the Director of Training of the PANZ Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland campus. She served on the AANZPA Executive (2003-2005) and Board of Examiners (2006-2014), including as Secretary of the Board (2009-2014) and is currently the Chair of the Ethics Committee.
After working as a primary teacher in the public system, Vivienne ran an alternative school for several years. Following her teaching career she established a training and consulting company in the 1980s which continues today. She has used her experience in psychodrama to develop innovative approaches to her work which have led to significant organisational developments in New Zealand and overseas. Results of her work have been published by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Great Britain, the New Zealand Resource Centre and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has also developed training resources that have been used in the University of London, the Centre for Post Graduate Pharmacy Education Great Britain, and in many NZ organisations. Currently, Vivienne’s work is mostly providing supervision and mentoring to individuals enabling them to apply their talents in their particular chosen field of work.
Vivienne has a Diploma of Teaching, a B.A. majoring in Education, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Product Design Enterprise. A little known fact is that she’s a qualified International Wildwater Judge. Now she tends to have more sedate interests such as being a Board member (Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand Trust), private pianist, handbell ringer, keen gardener and cook, and grandmother.
Martin Putt
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Campus
Martin is a Psychodramatist and Trainer Educator Practitioner-in-training (TEPit) with PANZ working at the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland campus. He is the immediate Past President of AANZPA (2019-2023) serving on the AANZPA Executive from 2013 to 2024.
Martin began his working life in youth work, acting and working as a hospital play specialist with adolescents. After spending the 1990s involved with theatre, improvisation and Playback Theatre in Australia and Aotearoa he discovered psychodrama in 1998 and never looked back. On the strength of his psychodrama qualification, he became a registered psychotherapist in 2013. Following clinical work in public sector NGO’s and Te Whatu Ora’s Mason Clinic Regional Forensic Psychiatry Service, he now works in private practice in Herne Bay, Auckland seeing a wide range of clients, mostly boys and men, and supervisees. After 25 years of practice in the field, he continues to work with clients presenting with harmful sexual behaviours.
Martin has a B.A. in Political Science (Canterbury), a Post Graduate Diploma in Drama (Auckland) and two Post Graduate Certificates in Advanced Psychotherapy Practice; one in Group Psychotherapy (AUT) and one in Clinical Supervision (AUT). Martin is also a proud graduate of the John Bolton Theatre School (Melbourne, 1996)
Martin brings creativity, playfulness and a love of the psychodramatic method to his work as a trainer and psychodramatist. He is a husband and father and loves to be in the sea, in the garden, in the kitchen or in an audience and is steadied by practices on the mat and on the cushion.
Training Interview
When your enrolment is received campus trainers will interview you to ensure you have the necessary pre-requisites for training in Psychodrama in Aotearoa New Zealand. Acceptance into training is at the discretion of the trainers in the campus.