PANZ Trainers
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.
Hamish Brown
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Campus
Hamish is a Psychodramatist and Trainer Educator Practitioner (TEP). He delivers training in Aotearoa New Zealand through the Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin Campuses of PANZ.
Hamish is a psychotherapist who has worked in private practice since 2002. He sees a wide range of clients including individuals, couples and groups. He was appointed to Te Poari o ngā Kaihaumanu Hinengaro o Aotearoa | Psychotherapists Board of Aotearoa New Zealand (PBANZ) in 2016 and served as the PBANZ Chair between 2020 and 2023.
Hamish has been an organisational consultant since 1997. He has worked in several countries on projects including training people in group facilitation, and leadership and has led large-scale projects oriented to producing systemic and organisational change. He co-founded Phoenix Facilitation in 2008 to provide organisational consulting based on Moreno's social theories.
Hamish holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and a Master’s Degree in Dispute Resolution from Massey University,
Hamish is the father of two grown-up daughters. He grew up on a farm near Kaikohe in Te Tai Tokerau and is now based in West Auckland. In his spare time, he loves playing contract bridge.
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.
Bev Hosking
Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington Campus Director of Training
Bev Hosking is an experienced counsellor, group worker and supervisor who has been in private practice since 1987. She is a Role Trainer and TEP (Trainer, Educator and Practitioner); and the Director of Training for the PANZ Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington Campus.
Bev has been actively pursuing new approaches for us to meet with each other so that we can develop our capacities to respond creatively to our current social, cultural and political realities.
She works with active methods to promote social dialogue and is committed to bringing spontaneity and creativity to all aspects of life and work.
Chris Hosking
Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington Campus
Chris Hosking is an AANZPA registered Psychodramatist and Trainer Educator Practitioner and a Distinguished Member of AANZPA. Chris has served on various committees within AANZPA including the Executive, the Board of Examiners and the Ethics Committee. Chris has been training people in Psychodrama and its various applications for many years working in Australia and New Zealand campus programs as well as being an active trainer in the psychodrama programs in Greece and Japan. Chris has worked as a consultant in Community Development in South East Asia for many years in particular working in the recovery programs in post-war Vietnam and during the uprisings in Myanmar.
Diana Jones
Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington Campus
Diana Jones is a sociometrist, and Trainer Educator Practitioner with AANZPA. She was AANZPA Executive Treasurer for four years, past President of FTINZ, the former Chair of PANZ and the current AANZPA Journal Editor.
For 35 years, Diana was executive coach and leadership advisor to business leaders and their teams applying sociometry, role training, group work, and sociodrama to refresh informal relationship networks, radically improving group dynamics, and assist executives grapple with business dilemmas. She helped over 450 senior leaders to shift to being in the moment as they influenced and led groups in her Executive Presence programme. Diana has published two books on sociometry in leadership; Leadership Material: how personal experience shapes executive presence (2017) and Leadership Levers: Releasing the power of relationships for exceptional participation, alignment and team results (2022).
As academic supervisor in the MA Applied Programme at Victoria University for nine years she worked alongside business and arts leaders as graduates developed policy and its application in practice. Diana led residential leadership programmes for senior leaders based on group work and peer learning for the New Zealand College of Management for six years. She is an accredited organisation behaviour observer and feedback giver with the Centre for Creative Leadership in North Carolina.
Diana is a portrait artist, a former chair of the Wellington Women’s Homeless Trust, a gym and Pilates enthusiast, a te reo tauira, and not having children of her own, lives the miracle of being the third grandmother to four.
Cher Williscroft
PANZ Whakatū Nelson Director of Training
Cher is a Sociodramatist and Trainer Educator Practitioner (TEP) with PANZ and is Director of Training for the Wakatu/Nelson campus. She currently sits on the Board of Examiners and holds the role of the Practical Assessment Registrar. She has served twice on the AANZPA Executive as Membership Secretary and Secretary.
Cher’s early career was in Community Arts, Community Education, Community Recreation and Community Development, working for Nelson City Council and Nelson Polytechnic.For 8 years she worked in leadership roles at the Sealord Group Ltd as Human Resources Manager and then Organisation Development Manager, where she applied herself as a sociodramatist in the leadership of Maori and Japanese owned commercial seafood organisation.
As Managing Director of her business, Conflict Management Ltd (since 1986), she developed her lifelong interest in conflict resolution working as a mediator, facilitating breakthrough communication in the workplace. In 2004 she developed a successful workshop called
Courageous Conversations running several times each year since 2004 and she continues to teach the conflict resolution methods that she has developed, today in Courageous Conversations Masterclasses. She currently supervises clients in leadership positions.
Cher holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Women’s Studies from Murdoch University in WA
Living in Nelson, by the sea with her partner John, she kayaks, hangs out in nature, and cooks from the garden. She performs in a singing duo, keeps fit, and drafts and constructs her own clothes. Her daughter Maddy and her partner with two mokopuna are the joy of her life.
Claire Guy
PANZ Whakatū Nelson
Claire is a Nelson-based Psychodramatist and TEP. She is known for her spontaneity and authenticity. She has learned through 30 years of experience that laughter and a playful spirit assists the digestion of painful memories and almost unbearable circumstances. She supervises many parents, family workers, counsellors and other practitioners who work with children. One client said to her recently, "Coming to see you is like going to a good movie. First of all, I tell you what is going on; then by some miraculous means we have a laugh together; then I have a good cry. I leave feeling much lighter and happier with myself".
Sara Crane
Director of Training PANZ Ōtautahi and Ōtepoti Campuses
Sara Crane is a TEP and Psychodramatist. She is the Director of Training for PANZ Ōtepoti Dunedin and Ōtautahi Christchurch and works as a visiting trainer in Brisbane. Sara’s love of psychodrama is grounded in her belief in the transformative power of spontaneity and human connection.
Sara has worked across multiple regions and sectors, giving her a rich understanding of the varied applications of psychodrama. She supports individuals and groups in navigating complex relational issues including a focus on family dynamics and extensive work with children in the context of their Whanau. She was involved in setting up START which was formed to provide clinical services to people who had survived sexual trauma. She has worked at a systemic organisational level including supervising teams within the NZ Ministry of Justice and attending to children and families in the legal system. She enjoys working with complex family systems supporting them to mediate conflicts and achieve healthier, more supportive relationships.
Sara is deeply concerned about the state of our changing world and the pressure and challenges for our communities. As a trainer, she seeks to support trainees to strengthen their abilities and develop their professional capacities to make a difference.
As a member of AANZPA, she has taken on several roles (President, Journal Editor) and appreciates the opportunities to participate in conferences and the ongoing life of the association.
Sara is a Registered Psychotherapist (PBANZ) and Advanced Clinical Practice Certificate (NZAP).
For her solace, Sara loves to write flash fiction, finding joy in the brevity and emotional depth of the form. Her dogs, cats and llamas continue to be beloved companions in both her outdoor adventures and some of her professional work. Psychodrama has enabled her to bring the threads of her life together and pass on the complexities and wisdom of the method.
Simon Gurnsey
PANZ Ōtautahi Christchurch Campus
Simon Gurnsey is a Sociometrist and Trainer Educator Practitioner in training (TEPit). He provides training in the PANZ Ōtautahi Christchurch and Ōtepoti Dunedin Campuses. He has held various leadership roles within the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Psychodrama Association (AANZPA), including Treasurer on the Executive committee and was the AANZPA Membership Administrator for many years. Since 2017, when he began working as a trainer, Simon has led training workshops and programs that empower individuals and groups to tap into their spontaneity, creativity and relational potential.
Simon's current focus lies in exploring how psychodrama can be used to foster inclusion and equity in professional settings. He has worked for many years in NGO organisations Including post-earthquake with Ōtautahi organisation's Gap Filler and Greening the Rubble. His systemic orientation integrates a focus on the community, the developmental and the political spheres in enabling effective organisation and action. Simon is particularly interested in how psychodrama can support individuals to develop greater self-awareness, authenticity and spontaneity within the context of their communities. He has been published in AANZPA's journal, where he writes about mythical stories, organisational culture, and the application of sociometry.
Simon holds qualifications in Not for Profit management. The skills developed through this complement his psychodrama experience, enabling him to integrate broader theories of human development, organisational dynamics and interpersonal communication into his practice. His leadership training has made him particularly effective working with teams and individuals in community organisations, helping them to navigate complexity with greater clarity and spontaneity.
Outside of his professional life, Simon keeps his creativity flowing through his passion for building things out of wood and earth. He enjoys spending time at the home he shares with Sara Crane and a large number of domestic animals. Simon's dedication to personal growth and community connection drives both his work and personal endeavours, allowing him to bring authenticity, curiosity and warmth to all aspects of his life.
Judith McDonald
PANZ Ōtepoti Dunedin Campus
Judith works in private practice as a Registered Psychotherapist. Her pathway to attaining her interim psychotherapy registration was by qualifying as a Psychodramatist. She enjoys walking, reading, semi-occasional gardening and getting away for weekends and holidays with her family and dog in their house bus.
Maria Snegirev
PANZ Ōtepoti Dunedin Campus
Maria is a Psychodramatist, Registered Psychotherapist and experienced group facilitator. She has been a member of AANZPA since about 2010 and has held various roles on the committee of the Otago branch.
Maria studied at Otago and has a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature, and a Diploma in Teaching. She has 20 years experience in leading Non-Violence programmes and has completed level 1 of Imago training.
Maria’s training journey began with her experiences in teaching children. This grew into a commitment to social justice which has been most strongly expressed in her work at Stopping Violence Dunedin. Her current focus is on expanding the range of her clinical experience by building up her private practice.
Maria’s interesting surname comes from her Russian parentage. She is the daughter of refugees who settled in Southland in the 1960s. This experience has created a life long interest in the transmission of language and culture. An interest in language is shared by her husband Andrew. They both thought very carefully when choosing the names of their two children, who occasionally forgive them.
Maria is passionate about gardening, even the weeds fascinate her! Other outlets for her creativity are; creating with fabrics, mosaics and more recently, macrame. She is currently obsessed with transforming a steep wasteland into a garden with veggies, flowers, native plants, and maybe even a hive of bees