Bona Anna has been involved with psychodrama in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia for 30 years, where her capabilities and expertise are highly valued. She was certified as a psychodramatist in 1999 and is currently a Trainer Educator Practitioner in Training (TEPIT). Originally a trainer in the Christchurch Institute for Training in Psychodrama, she is now a member of the training staff at the Sydney Campus of Psychodrama Australia. Bona enjoys working in the psychodrama training programme, in which trainees who are developing and enhancing their personal and professional capacities provide a constant source of inspiration. Bona also served successfully as the editor of the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Psychodrama Association (AANZPA) Journal for five years, 2008-2012.
Bona has a life time of experience working in a variety of fields. In the early 1970s she registered and worked as a teacher in country schools in Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand and later trained and worked in education for the deaf. In the early 1980s, Bona took up a position in a Christchurch primary school which catered for low socio-economic, ethnic and refugee communities, eventually becoming its Associate Principal. Bona successfully used Moreno’s philosophy and methods in her work, thereby increasing the efficacy of classroom teaching and learning and also of school management. Her psychodrama accreditation thesis Moreno in Schools: The Integration of Psychodramatic Principles and Practices in Education details some of these Morenian applications in classroom practice. Bona has also published articles in the AANZPA Journal regarding psychodrama and education.
Bona holds a Trained Teachers Certificate Endorsed Education of the Deaf, a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies, all awarded with distinction. She recently completed a PhD at Macquarie University in Sydney. Her research is focused on the theory of recognition and multicultural inclusion, topics that align well with Psychodrama Australia’s aim of strengthening personal, interpersonal and group functioning in many life world settings.