We Have Our First Benefactors!

After talking at the practitioner day in Sydney on Friday, we have been blessed with our first donations from some wonderful and generous benefactors.
Please send prayers of thanks to these people for their support of the set up of JPAA.

If you feel called to donate. We would love to hear from you.

with love & gratitude,
The JPAA Steering Committee xxxxxx

Our bank account is currently being set up and then we will be in the position to contact all of the kind people who volunteered to contribute to our start-up fees.

Many thanks & much love The JPAA Steering Group xxx

For me the idea of an association began right after I finished the Practitioner Program in 2004. Being a counsellor and therefore a member of counselling associations, I was aware of the meaning and importance of being part of an association and the acknowledgement and support practitioners receive through their membership. After a while I started talking to Laurie about the fact that it would be important for Journey practitioners to be part of a professional association and specifically the need for ongoing professional development, insurance, supervision (or mentoring) and recognizing practitioners who are currently practicing in alignment with the Journey organisation.

During the last practitioner week in August 2008 Jan Henderson (VIC) got up during Satsang and started talking about the need for an association and Laurie Collins immediately got the two of us talking. The consciousness had already been present for a while and now it was brought out into the open.

In all the steps we always have been supported by The Journey organisation, at the beginning through Laurie Collins (NSW) and Gaby Burt (UK), and currently through Phill Camp (NSW) and Megan Bardsley (ex UK, now NSW). The association also had Brandon Bays and Kevin Billett’s blessings and follows the example of sister organizations in North America and Holland.

Jan Henderson (VIC) and I started having regular conversations and were joined by Marian Van Daalan (NSW) and Linda O’Leary (NSW) for a while. Other commitments took Marian and Linda’s attention and Carolyn Dean (NSW) and Jacqueline Musgrave (VIC) joined the steering committee instead. We started having regular fortnightly calls and started planning the next steps in forming the association.

During the last practitioner meeting in January 2009 in Sydney I spoke about the idea and the progress of building the association and it was brought to the attention of the practitioners that we would be sending out a survey soon. Gaby Burt spoke about The Journey organisation’s support for this project and gave us their blessings.

Recently, we became aware that we needed more continuous support, a larger steering committee team and also different skills in setting up the association. We had Christine Karl (NZ), Alan Dawe (NZ) and Jill Beattie (VIC) join and commit to the regular calls. In addition to that, we also have the support of many practitioners who take part in focus groups on different topics. The list of names of people involved could go on… with all the practitioners who filled out the survey, those who offered financial support (as a benefactor) etc, so we would like to THANK YOU ALL in this way.

Each one of us knows that we’re contributing to this as a group with the intent of making this association work. Everyone contributes with their skills, knowledge, personality and energy. None of us could do this alone.

Personally, I also think that setting up an association is a valuable exercise to stay out of ‘ego identification’ with ‘who we are and what we do as part of the association’ as well as for the practitioners joining and who they are as part of the association.

So everyone please put your hands together *drum roll* for everyone who helped, who is currently helping and who will help in future, bringing this association to life and fruition and making it thrive! Woo-hoo!!!

Namaste,

Nathalie for JPAA

Achieving a presence in Australasia means that JPAA can provide its members with outcomes that they actually need and want. You see, we’ve been actively surveying practitioners across Australia and New Zealand to find out what they need in order to deepen further into their practice, their training as a practitioner, or equally so, deepen as a member of the wider Journey community. We feel we have a good understanding now of what those needs are, and we will continue to reach out to uncover what further needs arise so that we can continue to fulfill JPAA’s ‘raison d’etre’.

So with love, come back and visit the site again to find out what’s new in JPAA!

In gratitude,
Jacqueline for JPAA

Benefactors will help our association to get on its feet…

In the initial practitioner survey some of you have indicated that you would like to donate some money for the setup of the association.

Once the preliminary stages for the association are set up we are looking for the benefactors to transfer their donations into the JPAA bank account. We will personally contact those of you who have already indicated your support.

We are still looking for additional benefactors beyond the ones from the survey. If you’re interested – please let us know (leave a comment here at the end of the post or send an email).

All benefactors will be listed on our website (unless you prefer to stay anonymous).

Thank you &

Namaste, Nathalie for JPAA

An ourstanding 80% of you said that you wanted a Journey practitioner association which is great reinforcement that we are doing something that is dearly needed & wanted.

Below is a summary chart of  the the benefits that practitioners see as key to JPAA membership:

Many many thanks again to all of those who responded

Namaste, Carolyn for JPAA x

Even though all of us have certain business and personal skills, none of us has set up an association like this before. We are learning as we go and we are also supported by the Journey organisation and the 2 countries, US and the Netherlands, who already have their association up and running. These are resources that we draw upon.

In the meantime we also have additional Practitioners joining our meetings and later they may join the steering group, either as full steering group members or in helping us run ‘focus groups’.

Please be sure to fill out the practitioner survey (from the main page) if you haven’t done so yet, as this will give us information on your skills, which we might need to draw on in the future.  Here is the link:
Complete our practitioner survey

We’ll keep you posted about our progress.

Nathalie for JPAA

Please send us your blessings. laughter and  support. Any of your specialized skills and knowledge is welcome – please leave  a comment explaining what you could help us with. (Click on the title of the blog entry and a comment box will appear).

All the best,

Nathalie for JPAA