Margot Solomon

Margot has done an exceptional amount of distinguished work for the psychotherapy profession in New Zealand over the last 25 years. She has contributed extensively to NZAP nationally and locally, and has been a leader in the field of psychotherapy practice, education and research for many years as a Clinician, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in the Department of Psychotherapy and Counselling at AUT.

Margot has a profoundly depth oriented, non- partisan, respectful approach to helping psychotherapists of diverse orientations engage with their own learning and growth in a group setting, and she has gone on to research and write about this learning process.

She responded to the call to bring University-based postgraduate psychotherapy courses to Christchurch in 2007 and 2008, and 2009. In subsequent years, she again responded to the request for access to this training and qualification pathway and travelled to Napier and Wellington to offer University-based advanced postgraduate training for psychotherapists. This was a personal effort motivated by a sense of justice and fairness in access to resources, given the only University offering such psychotherapy courses is based in Auckland.

Margot has also contributed significantly to promoting and creating opportunities for group work and group therapy in New Zealand in varied ways. She was a founding member of The Hakanoa Group in Auckland, which had links to The Institute of Group Analysis, London, and helped to organise training via this Institute in Auckland. In the AUT Psychotherapy programme, Margot (together with Russell Waetford) started the Community Kōrerō, a weekly large group following Tikanga Māori, for all students and staff. Her firm belief in the value of group therapy has seen her maintain a longstanding group psychotherapy practice herself, as well as maintaining a postgraduate teaching paper in group psychotherapy.

Her involvement with NZAP has been varied and enduring. She has been a presenter of papers, and has bravely stepped into a leadership space as facilitator of large groups at NZAP Conferences on many occasions. She has been on organising committees for Conferences, completed a term on Council as the Editor of the Newsletter, and has been an active member of the Northern Branch. She has contributed to the Association through participating in marking and panels for the Advanced Clinical Practice qualification. She is currently a longstanding member of the NZAP Ethics and Professional Standards Committee and she contributed to the Review of our Code of Ethics in 2018.

Margot’s valuing of group process and group work, ethical practice, academia, and learning as a deeply personal engagement and integration, has been a distinguished contribution to the richness and depth of the NZAP membership and Association as a whole.