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Ettalong Beach

NSW 2257

 

30 April 2009

 

Dear Carlos

 

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to attend the Play of Life Course, which I have attended over the last two months.

 

As you know I work as a Volunteer in Prisons in Thailand, and have been visiting a number of inmates over the past 10 years. The sentences are often very long up to 50 years and Life, and there is an early Arrest/Court period lasting 2 years, so I am meeting individuals at all stages of incarceration.

 

While conscious of being a non-professional, I am often the most constant visitor/ friend/counsellor that they have so I feel a sense of responsibility to make the meetings a worthwhile, supportive and enlightening experience.

 

As background I would add that visits are non contact, and via telephone intercom. The inmates have little access to medical attention, few books, no newspapers, no DVD’s, or CD’s and no education courses, and mail is not dependable. They live in crowded rooms of up to 60 inmates, and are locked up from 4pm to 6am every day. Day time is spent queuing for food, showers and shopping for whatever is available, including drinking water and ice.

 

Missionaries and Churches visit, but are often not allowed inside the walls to operate Services or Communion. Being a Buddhist country (95%), the Thai Corrections Department does not make provision for minority religions and does not understand the needs of other religions. Missionaries are usually attending to non Christians inmates suffering severe hardship, and who do not receive Embassy support, and they are very busy indeed providing financial assistance for simple medicines and basic personal supplies.

 

On a daily basis I encounter depression, fear, illness, aggression, serious discussions on all sorts of interesting topics, relationship problems, lots of laughter and tears, requests for educational material and Google searches, and unrealistic requests for goods, money and shopping. Plus the frustration of the Corrections system, and ever changing Rules and Regulations.

 

Over time I have also become involved with Inmates’ families, sending and receiving emails and writing letters.

 

It is therefore obviously necessary to have an intuitive feeling for many of the situations presented, to be very flexible in approach, and also to be diplomatic, discrete and to maintain the correct psychological distance between self and inmates.

 

It can be an exhausting and rather lonely experience! So, I was delighted to be introduced to The Play of Life, which I see as a learning opportunity for myself to better understand a whole variety of situations, and which can be adapted as a counselling tool to (quickly and efficiently) get to the root of problems which arise on a daily basis. I can work out strategies using the modules, so that I can arrive at visits equipped to offer advice and alternatives, and I can introduce tools that the inmates can use themselves for their own evaluations and problem solving. 

 

Through studying the material, I am better able to understand the causes of the situations that inmates find themselves in, and the cycles of events that keep recurring, and how to encourage change. I find this a wonderful process of discovery for myself and I feel confident that I have been prepared, by the Course, to apply this in real life situations. Knowing that you and Rosemary are also ready to assist me, via email and telephone is also a huge confidence boost.

 

I intend to attend as many Day Sessions as possible when I am in Australia, as it is so important for me to receive supplementary information and hear other opinions and experiences and to meet Student’s who are successfully applying the principle’s of the Play of Life in their own professional lives.

 

I hope to also bring the Play of Life to bear in encounters with inmates (clients), my own family, friends and associates.

 

Warm regards

 

Yvonne

(Yvonne Ziegler)