Article In Pathwords International October/November 2000, p. 12.1
Progress
Towards a Pathwork® Helpers Association of North America
Susan
Thesenga introduced the idea of forming an association of Pathwork Helpers in
her President’s Letter, published in the Spring 1999 issue of Spark!
Her letter envisioned the association as “a voluntary, self-regulating body
– a professional association of Pathwork helpers … made up of whoever
chooses to help define and support Pathwork helpership.”
The Summer 1999 issue of Pathwords announced the formation of a Pathwork Helpers Association of North America (PHANA) Council, with
the following membership: California: Melanie Tarkenton, Canada: Roddy Duchesne,
Mid-Atlantic: Jeff Fishel, Montana: Catherine Nelson, New York: Irene Koenig,
Philadelphia: Donna Evans-Strauss, Administrator: Maraiel Ruth (California).
The
formation of an association was strongly supported by the respondents to two surveys of
helpers in the US and Canada in 1999. Both surveys had a response rate of
approximately 60%, which is very good for this type of survey. 90%
of respondents were in favor of proceeding with the formation of PHANA, and 83%
said that they would be willing to pay yearly dues.
Based on this strong
expression of support, PHANA Council is doing the considerable preparatory work
required for setting up the association and its professional
register. Following this preparatory work,
invitations to join the
association will be
sent to all helpers, helper apprentices and trainees, and Pathwork counselors in
the US and Canada. It is envisaged that
the register will be accessible by all members and will serve to promote
communication, sharing, and cooperation among them. It is proposed to mount an abbreviated version of the
register on a publicly accessible web site, while at the same time enabling
individual members to restrict the information that is made public about
themselves. One of the functions of
the publicly accessible version of the register will be to help publicize the
practices of helpers who choose to be listed.
Preparatory work towards setting up the association
includes work to compare Pathwork training programs. In addition to its
relevance to the professional register, this work lays the foundation for
promoting transferability between Pathwork training programs,
between regions, and between different approaches to the Pathwork.
Jan Rigsby (Australia & CA) is preparing a report comparing the information
collected to date on helpership and Pathwork transformation training programs.
So far, documentation has been obtained from six helpership training
programs and six Pathwork transformation programs.
The Council seeks to expand this work to include all Pathwork
training programs in the US and Canada.
The
Council also seeks to include in its membership a representative of each ongoing Pathwork training
program in the US and Canada. At this writing, Council membership includes representatives
from the following Pathwork regions (affiliates) and chapters, all of which
provide Pathwork training programs: California:
Maraiel Ruth, Georgia: Cynthia Schwartzberg, Great Lakes: Lonnie
Leidlein, Mid-Atlantic: Jeff Fishel, New
York: Irene Koenig, Philadelphia: Donna Evans-Strauss, Vermont: Sahra Aschenbach.
Additional members with particular roles are Lorraine Marino
(Philadelphia), providing liaison with the 50/50 approach to the Pathwork; Jan
Rigsby, with the important task mentioned above; and the Council Coordinator,
Roddy Duchesne (Canada), phone (416) 925-6613; fax (416) 923-7923; email: roddy.duchesne@sympatico.ca.
If
you have access to the Internet, a good way to obtain further information on
PHANA and to track our progress is to visit the PHANA web site: www.phana.org.
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This article is Appendix 5 of
the printed Consultation Package. |
