Reports from the Crisis Intervention Seminar held in Nyborg, 17 – 23 April , 2004.
From the moment the group met until we bade farewell, this conference was remarkable for humor, friendship and readiness to share personal and professional experiences plus absolutely first-rate guidance in supporting schools during difficult times. The Nyborg Strand Hotel provided a pleasant venue with a lovely sea view – and a long-suffering barman who searched for tunes to keep psychologists (aged 20+ to 60+) on the dance floor until the early hours!
The program was packed from morning until evening, but did allow time for friendships to develop and discussion of school psychology across Europe, with representatives from Germany, Latvia, France, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, UK and Denmark. The presenters complemented each other well. Bill Pfohl (USA) gave clear guidance, based on experience, on working as a team to support groups in the aftermath of crisis, including handling the media. Shulamit Niv and Yehuda Shacham (Israel) introduced their BASIC Ph model, focusing on resiliency. They taught this life-affirming message through many activities, from those which touched powerfully on our own losses (with which we must cope before reaching out to support others) to those which made us laugh until we cried.
Nyborg 2004 – valuable, unforgettable, a
privilege to have been there.
Lynn Fletcher (UK)
It was a wonderful but hard experience being on the crisis management course. Meeting a number of other psychologists from approximately fifteen countries meant it was a truly international conference.
I had to immediately try to bring into practice on my return skills I had developed during my time at Nyborg to help the Educational Psychology Service cope with the sudden death of a colleague. In particular, BASIC PH.
B Believe I am equipped to deal with this
A Affection is available from different directions
S Social support will be needed by lots of people, including me and the
Educational Psychology Service
I Imagination needs to be kept under control
C Cognitively there is a lot to think through
PH Physically build a comfort zone for myself and colleagues
I would like to thank all the group members and presenters for their friendship, humor and for sharing their emotions during the course.
Lauretta Walker
Manager SEN Service/Principal Educational Psychologist, Bury MBC
Click here to see pictures from the Nyborg seminar