Welcome and thank you for visiting my website. I am Noelle Branagan and in 2000 I set up Change in Action.

The central focus, of Change in Action, is in promoting personal effectiveness in interpersonal and communication skills for individuals and teams, groups and organisations. Creativity and spontaneity underpin the work delivered.

As an experienced group facilitator and psychotherapist, I have been using Morenian Action Methods in my work for over 20 years both in psychotherapy, and, in the design and delivery of courses and workshops for staff and management groups across the business, community, education and voluntary sectors. My expertise lies in facilitating personal and professional change and development, using these methods.

These are a series of techniques that are effective in 

• facilitating shifts in perception,
• developing adaptability, 
• enhancing skills of communication.

What are Morenian Action Methods?

Action Methods is a term given to a series of techniques devised by JL Moreno (1892-1975). A Romanian born doctor, Moreno’s passion was to find ways of communicating more effectively so that people’s daily living could be enhanced. He found creativity and spontaneity to be two of our most important resources. If we can develop these resources we can meet old problems in a new way and new problems in a more adaptive fashion.

Moreno used these methods both in a therapeutic context (Psychodrama) and a non-therapeutic context (Sociodrama).

The application of these methods is wide and they offer real potential for personal change and development.

Why use Morenian Action Methods?

• To move from verbal representation to motor representation.
• To make things concrete i.e. explicit.
• When issues are seen it helps to clarify what can often get lost in misinterpretation using verbal means only.
• Moving into action promotes energy, which can fuel creative ideas for finding solutions & new developments.
• When we ‘do’ we understand.
• Through action we can experience the impact of proximity and distance.
• Skills experienced through action in one setting are likely to be transferred to another setting.

How and where have I used them?

In both indivdual and group psychotherapy and short-term counselling.

In facilitating workshops and courses including: 

• Team development/Managing Change/Effective Communication/Maintaining Professional Boundaries
• Promoting Interpersonal Skills/Dealing with workplace stress/Dealing with verbal violence in the workplace
• Managing Challenging Conversations/Assertiveness in the workplace/Managing people problems in the workplace

To clients who include:

 University of Ulster;  Council for the Homeless Northern Ireland, Glenfarm Holdings Ltd, Mooney Hotel Group, Allied Irish Bank,  The BBC, Coca Cola, Nortel Networks, NIPS, F.G. Wilson’s, Housing Rights Service.

In the delivery of training in Professional development, Groupwork Skills, Fieldwork Education in Trinity College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, and The University of Ulster.

As a UKCP Registered Psychotherapist, I offer both short-term counselling and longer-term psychotherapy to adults, on a one to one and a group basis.

I use creative methods to promote wellbeing and develop confidence with people experiencing personal difficulties in their home or work-life.

Originally trained in Occupational Therapy (1983) and then in Psychodrama Psychotherapy (1995) I have over 25 years experience of working with people experiencing difficulties in the areas of mental health, addiction and trauma. I draw from all this experience to enhance  my work as a private practitioner.

Where I work from :

Southampton at  The Grove Natural Therapy Centre, 22 Grosvenor Road, Highfield, SO17 1RT. www.grovetherapy.com                   

Portsmouth at  The Marple Cross Centre, Albemarle House, Osborne Rd, Southsea, PO5 3LB. www.marplecrosscnetre.co.uk     

 Contact me directly on 07980607658  or go to ‘Contact us’ page to send an email.

CREATIVE FACILITATION

MORENIAN ACTION METHODS  help ‘bring alive’ the learning experience and testimonies of our work serve to honour this assertion.

Do you want to: 

• promote more effective collaboration in partnership working
• develop better working relationships within or between teams
• enhance training delivery
• broaden and deepen your own communication skills repertoire

If so then our Creative Facilitation using  Morenian Action Methods will truely add value to these desired outcomes for you.

For individuals, shifts in self perception can open up real opportunites for change, either as a more effective communicator in your workplace, or in your capacity to step into an interview with confidence .

For groups and teams, developing creativity and spontaneity can help members to become more adaptable and this can lead to changes in how they deal with situations at work.

What we can offer you is :

To come and facilitate effective collaborative working, team development or doctoring, promotion of effective communication and interpersonal skills on site at your organisation or at a designated venue.

To provide training in effective collaboration, in communication and interpersonal skills, and in creative facilitation.

Who are we:

 Noelle Branagan, I am an experienced group facilitator and have been using creative Action Methods in facilitating personal and professional change and development, across the community, business, health, voluntary and education sectors over the past 25 years .

I work  in collaboration with my colleague, Sue Orton, who has been developing and using creative Action Methods to promote positive change effective learning, well-being and social justice in education, private, and voluntary and community sectors and for outdoor learning for 30 years.  www.comfortableshoes.ltd.uk

For enquiries contact Noelle directly on 07980607658, or through the ‘Contact us’ to send an email.

Noelle Branagan, MD Change In Action.

 I started my career as an Occupational Therapist working in Mental Health and moved into the area of Addiction and Trauma, working as a Psychodrama Psychotherapist. I left the NHS in 1997 to combine my work as a therapist with that of a facilitator in staff personal and professional development and the process of managing change. Having moved from Dublin to Belfast in 1986 and from Belfast to Southampton in 2005 I have had the opportunity to work across the sectors throughout Ireland and more recently in England.

Promoting personal effectiveness in interpersonal and communication skills for individuals and teams/groups has been a long standing passion of mine, not only in the work arena, but in life in general. As well as my trainings and experience of work I draw from my deep interest in sport and creative theatre. As an ex-captain of Ireland’s Womens Hockey team and a past-member of Belfast’s Playback theatre I have a wealth of experience to bring to the table.

Sue Orton, MD Comfortable Shoes:learning in action, has been developing and using creative action methods to promote effective learning, well-being and social justice in education, private, and voluntary and community sectors and for outdoor learning for 30 years. An experienced humanistic therapist and facilitator, she focuses on putting people at the heart of their own learning and encouraging, emotional awareness and competence and training clients and educators to do the same.

“I found the session really refreshing for the way in which you both made it very dynamic and participative.  Ideas just seemed to flow freely because of the atmosphere which you both created in the room.  I liked the way that you both directed the session to give it some structure and timing, and yet it all had a very ‘democratic’ feel to it as if we were all creating something together.”                                                                              (Collaborative Network Event Feedback. May 2011)

“I thought that the energy you [Sue] and Noelle brought to the evening was terrific. Given the number of people present together with their varied interests and skills, you were able to achieve a great deal, responding to the movement of the group to alter the route of the task and still produce the result required, very important given the enormity of what is ahead.”                        (Collaborative Network Event Feedback. May 2011 )