Joyologist managing grief and depression and bringing joy

Joyologist managing grief and depression and bringing joy

The Worlds First Joyologist Pat Armitstead is an award winning international speaker and mixed media artist. She presented at The Inaugural Australia and New Zealand Humour, Health and Education Conference, at the University of New England Armidale, Australia. An Australian who has been living in New Zealand for twelve years she says she was delighted to be invited to contribute to the program themed “Laughter, Wellness and Engagement:Connecting the Comedy Dots.

Included in her giggliography are some ground breaking achievements, testimony to her ability to successfully combine her business acumen, creativity, and wit. Initially a NSW Registered Nurse she worked for 16 years in Education and Management roles and was part of the group of nurses in NSW that took nurse education out of hospital based training and into Universities. In 1989 she founded her own Advertising Agency, Take One Productions and won many awards including the NSW Northwards Tourism Award, Media Section and an award from Cacharel in Paris. She has presented over 11,000 hours of keynotes, workshops, seminars and lectures reaching an astounding 55,000 people throughout Australasia.

In 2006 she hosted New Zealands first Humour in the Workplace Awards and is the Anchor for herown radio program, “Radio Improv – Joy in the moment” which she says is a voice for all that is joyful about our humanity.

She has appeared on National Television and been featured in many magazines and newspapers. She has written 2 books, one called Humour Works and the other called There ought to be Clowns ( a new release ) . She is featured in 2 other books called Land of the Long White Cloud by Chris Dodds and Woman 2 Woman Amanda Ellis and June McCabe.

Alongside the development of her positive psychology based programs Pat has developed her Good Grief program. A post traumatic recovery and grieving program, it was developed almost 5 years ago. Pat worked with 4 Jungian Psychotherapists for 12 months where they met monthly and shared their personal journeys using storytelling. They cast (using plaster of paris bandage) each others body parts, relative to what was present and causing grief or angst in their lives at the time. Then, using their knowledge of myths, legends, fairytales and symbolism they made meaningful art of the cast piece. This process enabled the past trauma to be released and put to rest in the art.

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