This presentation was delivered live over zoom on December 8th 2021 at our annual academic symposium. Rebecca was a third-year student at Ikon at the time of recording. This talk is the result of her personal research."Psychotherapy is an interactive process summated by the dynamic communication of verbal, nonverbal, and paraverbal information between therapist and client. While psychotherapy – touted as the ‘talking cure’ – originally focused on the verbal realm, the nonverbal properties of communication were only of fringe interest until more recently. In particular, the paraverbal – or prosody – is under-examined in the literature. Prosody – the qualities of voice including intonation, rhythm, volume, speech rate, pauses, and voice quality – communicates much more than most of us are aware of. It is a major stream of relational, affective (emotional) information exchange, and an important component of the Gestalt of human- human reciprocity; the intersubjective matrix that fills and enriches the therapeutic container. When prosodic dimensions of dialogue are attended to in therapy, therapist and client may begin to know and articulate previously unavailable, dissociated self-experiences."- Rebecca Hirst, Bachelor of Counselling and Psychotherapy

This presentation was delivered live over zoom on December 8th 2021 at our annual academic symposium. Alexandra was a third-year student at Ikon at the time of recording. This talk is the result of her personal research."Discussing political affiliations can provoke and expose social divisions and prejudices, and with no less troublesome outcomes, the field of political psychology elevates this discussion to the level of academic inquiry as researchers and theorists attempt to explain why individuals vote for a given party. This symposium serves as a critique to the inconclusive and heterogenous field of political psychology and in lieu offers provisional suggestions as to a new theoretical framework for future study. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, Gregory Bateson and developmental psychotherapy, a more complex conception of the dynamic interplay between the political and the personal is offered. Finally, this systemic analysis is applied to the field of psychotherapy, revealing the implicit politics of therapy and the hidden ideological bent of psychological theories." - Alexandra Scoleri, Bachelor of Counselling and Psychotherapy

This presentation was delivered live over zoom on December 8th 2021 at our annual academic symposium. Jack was a third-year student at Ikon at the time of recording. This talk is the result of his personal research."Every decade or so, research in clinical psychology forces shifts in how we think about the mind and organise treatment in psychotherapy. In the last decade, several eminent theorists have pointed to Sydney Blatt’s Dynamic Structural model of dialectic personality development as just such a shift, potentially serving as the foundation for the future paradigm of psychopathology. For Blatt, personality development is understood simply as the integration of the capacity for relatedness and self-definition. Here, establishing meaningful, mutually satisfying, reciprocal interpersonal relationships as well as establishing a differentiated, integrated, realistic, essentially positive sense of self are the most fundamental processes in personality development, from infancy to old age. Importantly, these twin processes are engaged in a constant dialectic; a mature sense of self cannot develop without satisfying interpersonal relationships, just as mature, reciprocal, interpersonal relationships cannot exist without a coherent sense of identity and relatively clear self-definition. This talk will illustrate Blatt’s dialectic model of development as it manifests in early infant development, as well as extending into the realm of biology and physics, demonstrating this dialectic process from the perspective of systems theory and ecology."- Jack Dale, Bachelor of Counselling and Psychotherapy

This presentation was delivered live over zoom on December 4th 2020 at our annual academic symposium. Levi was a third-year student at Ikon at the time of recording. This talk is the result of his personal final research project.ABSTRACT:Psychotherapy helps us to grow up. In part through integrating the past and promoting the development of self-awareness, it supports the growth and maintenance of a healthy, robust self-structure. Development beyond this phase is usually considered in light of the possibility of a departure from what is personal. But can change continue along first personal lines after the self has become integrated? And what is the role of truth in this process? There is an incomplete but growing body of theory that explores this subject. The synthesis of which has far reaching implications.Levi Carroll, Bachelor of Counselling and Psychotherapy

This presentation was delivered live over zoom on December 4th 2020 at our annual academic symposium. Michael was a third-year student at Ikon at the time of recording. This talk is the result of his personal final research project.ABSTRACT:This presentation will explore how the unconscious is created by an artificial division between mind and body, and man and nature, through the theory of Enactive Cognition; ultimately explicating a perspective of the unconscious as being a fundamentally embodied process. This proposal aims to transform the theory of the unconscious from an inert theoretical concept, into an intimate aspect of our immediate reality, through re-situating the unconscious as a living process that is actively constituted by the sensate awareness of the body, with vast implications for our conceptualisation of mental health and the human psyche, with the singularity of the self, and for conceiving therapy as a process of embodiment.Michael Schibeci, Bachelor of Counselling and Psychotherapy

This presentation was delivered live over zoom on December 4th 2020 at our annual academic symposium. Edie was a third-year student at Ikon at the time of recording. This talk is the result of her personal final research project.ABSTRACT:Apparently it is ungraceful of me to mention my period in public, however I bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility. The majority of people are comfortable with the 'pornification' of women, the sexualisation of women, the violence and segregation of women. And while they don’t express their disgust about all that, some may be angered and bothered by the topic I have chosen for my talk. I menstruate and they see it as dirty, as if it’s not a bridge between worlds, a labour, a love, a selfless and strikingly beautiful process. I want to live in a world where people who bleed feel at home in their bodies and in their communities; no matter what cultural or religious ideals influence them. Primitive societies have made the threat of menstrual pollution as concrete as possible, whether it be a belief in an evil spirit, a strict domestic and social conduct or a fear and reverence for something they do not understand. When we take a look around the globe at the ancient, and not so ancient, beliefs around menstruation we can see the damaging effects of menstrual stigma and taboo. When we bring education and awareness into our households, schools, workplaces and society, we will make progress towards a society that accepts menstruation as the natural and essential function that it is. Shame has been termed the “master emotion of everyday life” however shame cannot live in the light, so let’s shed some light on this topic and combat menstrual shame.Edie Bartley, Bachelor of Arts Psychotherapy

This presentation was delivered live over zoom on December 4th 2020 at our annual academic symposium. Jake was a third-year student at Ikon at the time of recording. This talk is the result of his personal final research project.ABSTRACT:Cartesian dualism has dominated dance philosophy since the emergence of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) and Conscious Dance practices in the west. This has had detrimental epistemological implications for dance as praxis of bodily-self-becoming. In this paper I propose a radical new ontology, challenging the popular dualistic mind-body split, through the Enactive view of Embodied Cognition. With foundations in this new ontology, I will present a theoretically integrative hypothesis of how dance, when practiced in the embodied exploration of our intersubjective experience, is a radical way to increase ones sense of self and agency. Furthermore, I propose that this radical ontological and epistemological shift in philosophy of dance not only opens new doors to understanding how dance increases our sense of self but may in fact have larger ethical and environmental implications on the Anthropocene. Jake Potter, Bachelor of Counselling and Psychotherapy

Ikon Student PodcastSubject: Narrative, Identity and Integrative ProcessThis episode explores the diagnosis of Borderline personality disorder. We discuss the lived experience of BPD as well as the psychotherapeutic models which seek to understand this presentation. We interview philosopher and psychiatrist Paul Cammel who sheds further insight into this complex disorder. (Original recording date December 2020). Ali Scoleri & Elky Graham

Ikon Student PodcastSubject: Psychotherapy and the Body in the Treatment of TraumaTitle: Rape as a weapon of war in the DRCThis episode explores rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We explore the experience of women who survive brutal sexual violence in attempting to answer the question “What is it like to be traumatised?”. We discuss the cultural complexities of this heartbreaking situation and outline a local Congolese initiative that is helping women reclaim their lives. (Original recording date December 2020).Ali Scoleri & Elky Graham

This presentation was delivered live over zoom on December 4th 2020 at our annual academic symposium. Isabelle was a third-year student at Ikon at the time of recording. This talk is the result of her personal final research project.ABSTRACT:In today’s climate of Instagram celebrities, endless selfie taking and cosmetic obsession, sexual self-objectification is more rampant than ever. Images perpetuating cultural body ideals are exponentially entering our field of awareness; it’s virtually impossible to go a day without seeing such images if you live in a built-up metropolitan area, and all the more so if you frequent social media. In this evening’s talk I’d like to draw attention to the core experience of shame which underlies this sexual self-objectification. I will examine the developmental origins of early-life experiences which generate a painful deficit embedded in the self and present sexual self-objectification as an adaptive strategy in the face of such. My hope is that it will become evident that sexual self-objectification, especially in its chronic form, is an indication of disruption in the formation of self and agency. I believe that if this was recognised at a collective level it might result in cultural disillusionment for hyper-sexual self-expression and lead to positive effects on psychological and physical well being. Isabelle Ruiz, Bachelor of Counselling and Psychotherapy.