Carol Poon
I have appreciated reading all the pieces that have been posted on the reunion website so as a phantom reader I thought I should contribute something in return. I agree that covering 50 years in one hit is very difficult. Do you construct a narrative that highlights events that might be read as a success story or reflect on the vicissitudes of life that produce different narratives?
I have worked for a very long time as a counsellor/psychotherapist. My individual story sits alongside the multitude of stories I have heard over the years about the lives of others. People have talked a lot to me about hardship, trauma and suffering. Many of the stories I have been told are far more complex, tragic and interesting than anything I might cobble together from a rather ordinary life.
I admit I was relieved to finish my education at Balwyn High School. Despite all the years I spent there, I sometimes felt uneasy with many of the teachers and students. In those days we had no idea of how to begin to talk about difference, especially race, with any understanding, respect or sensitivity. I remember feeling numb and ashamed in an English class when a humorous story about the persecution of Chinese goldminers on the Australian goldfields was read out. Some students apparently found it amusing when the chinks pigtails were torn off with pieces of yellow scalp still attached. The story ended with the bludgeoning to death of a number of Chinese miners. I was stunned that anyone could find such an horrific scene funny.
I completed an Arts degree at Melbourne University majoring in Psychology and Philosophy. Thus my experience of the world was broadened somewhat. I briefly worked in the Family Welfare Division of the Victorian Department of Social Services- today’s equivalent would be the Department of Human Services, Child Protection. I fled to Sydney and spent a year as a trainee psychologist in the Department of Labour and Industry working in Vocational Guidance in country N.S.W. I returned to Victoria to work at Monash University from 1968-1974. This was an exciting place to be in fairly radical political times. I started out as an Administrative Assistant in the Student Counselling Service. At high school I had been directed into the commercial stream- considered a suitable preparation for those of us whose job it would be to support (the more intelligent?) men who naturally would hold the most important jobs. I completed some more study and was promoted to the position of Student Counsellor. I resigned to go backpacking overseas. In 1976 I took up a challenging position as solo counsellor at the recently established Preston Institute of Technology (PIT). This was a liberating job. I spread my wings and spent many exciting years acquiring the extensive group facilitation and psychotherapeutic skills that I rely on to earn my daily bread. These were heady times in tertiary education. A lot of people working in Colleges of Advanced Education were highly politicised and many innovative courses were established. During that period I also performed with Melbourne Playback Theatre, an improvisational, community theatre and story-telling group. Over the years, the changing political regimes impacted heavily on tertiary education. PIT amalgamated with Coburg Teachers College to become Phillip Institute and was eventually swallowed up by RMIT. I was happy to quit RMIT in 2008 although I was sad to leave behind the interns program for counselling trainees that had been my special project. Since then I have worked in private practice seeing people individually and in couples for counselling and psychotherapy, worked as an outreach counsellor for the Veterans & Veterans Families Counselling Service, and provided professional supervision and secondary consultation for people working in various counselling and psychology roles. Along the way I completed a masters degree in counselling and for the last 10 or so years I have worked as a sessional teacher at Latrobe University providing group supervision and teaching in some of their postgraduate counselling programs. My partner of 39 years Jim, is a painter and we have a daughter, Jessie who is an architect. My siblings all attended BHS. My brother Kevin still lives in Melbourne, Elaine and Annie are in Queensland. Libby also moved to Queensland but has been travelling with her husband in America and Asia for the last couple of years.
I have worked for a very long time as a counsellor/psychotherapist. My individual story sits alongside the multitude of stories I have heard over the years about the lives of others. People have talked a lot to me about hardship, trauma and suffering. Many of the stories I have been told are far more complex, tragic and interesting than anything I might cobble together from a rather ordinary life.
I admit I was relieved to finish my education at Balwyn High School. Despite all the years I spent there, I sometimes felt uneasy with many of the teachers and students. In those days we had no idea of how to begin to talk about difference, especially race, with any understanding, respect or sensitivity. I remember feeling numb and ashamed in an English class when a humorous story about the persecution of Chinese goldminers on the Australian goldfields was read out. Some students apparently found it amusing when the chinks pigtails were torn off with pieces of yellow scalp still attached. The story ended with the bludgeoning to death of a number of Chinese miners. I was stunned that anyone could find such an horrific scene funny.
I completed an Arts degree at Melbourne University majoring in Psychology and Philosophy. Thus my experience of the world was broadened somewhat. I briefly worked in the Family Welfare Division of the Victorian Department of Social Services- today’s equivalent would be the Department of Human Services, Child Protection. I fled to Sydney and spent a year as a trainee psychologist in the Department of Labour and Industry working in Vocational Guidance in country N.S.W. I returned to Victoria to work at Monash University from 1968-1974. This was an exciting place to be in fairly radical political times. I started out as an Administrative Assistant in the Student Counselling Service. At high school I had been directed into the commercial stream- considered a suitable preparation for those of us whose job it would be to support (the more intelligent?) men who naturally would hold the most important jobs. I completed some more study and was promoted to the position of Student Counsellor. I resigned to go backpacking overseas. In 1976 I took up a challenging position as solo counsellor at the recently established Preston Institute of Technology (PIT). This was a liberating job. I spread my wings and spent many exciting years acquiring the extensive group facilitation and psychotherapeutic skills that I rely on to earn my daily bread. These were heady times in tertiary education. A lot of people working in Colleges of Advanced Education were highly politicised and many innovative courses were established. During that period I also performed with Melbourne Playback Theatre, an improvisational, community theatre and story-telling group. Over the years, the changing political regimes impacted heavily on tertiary education. PIT amalgamated with Coburg Teachers College to become Phillip Institute and was eventually swallowed up by RMIT. I was happy to quit RMIT in 2008 although I was sad to leave behind the interns program for counselling trainees that had been my special project. Since then I have worked in private practice seeing people individually and in couples for counselling and psychotherapy, worked as an outreach counsellor for the Veterans & Veterans Families Counselling Service, and provided professional supervision and secondary consultation for people working in various counselling and psychology roles. Along the way I completed a masters degree in counselling and for the last 10 or so years I have worked as a sessional teacher at Latrobe University providing group supervision and teaching in some of their postgraduate counselling programs. My partner of 39 years Jim, is a painter and we have a daughter, Jessie who is an architect. My siblings all attended BHS. My brother Kevin still lives in Melbourne, Elaine and Annie are in Queensland. Libby also moved to Queensland but has been travelling with her husband in America and Asia for the last couple of years.
