VOCATIONAL SERVICE AWARD - 2004/2005

DR FRANCIS MACNAB AM DSc, PhD, MA, FBPsS, FAPsS, FACE, FAICD

CITATION - 3rd NOVEMBER 2004 

The Rotary Club of Melbourne established its Vocational Service Award in 1964.  It is presented annually to a person who has achieved a high level of excellence in their vocation and through such vocation has rendered outstanding service to the community.

Dr Francis Macnab is a Victorian-born psychotherapist, clinical psychologist, and group therapist.

Francis completed his post-graduate training in psychotherapy and group therapy at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.  He developed the form of analytic therapy called Contextual Analysis and Contextual Therapy and has lectured in Australia and many other countries including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Japan and Taiwan.  He is a Past President of the International Council of Psychologists.

Francis is the founder and Executive Director of the Cairnmillar Institute which he opened in 1961.  It is the largest clinical psychological institute and the largest teaching body for training counsellors and psychotherapists in Australia.  The Cairnmillar Institute has developed an international reputation in the world of psychotherapy.

Work undertaken by Dr Macnab reaches across a number of specialties.  He conducts a very popular education series for people over sixty years of age to encourage them to embrace the next thirty vital years.  He is founder and Director of the Australian Foundation for Aftermath Reactions for trauma treatment and training programs.

Francis is the author of more than 25 books including "work - what it does for us, what we do for it".

Francis established the first Multi-Cultural Centre in Melbourne in 1967 to assist the migrant population, especially those coming from Greece and Turkey.  He also established the first Citizens Advice Bureaux in Melbourne in six different geographic areas across the suburbs.

Francis has been a council member of a number of health and educational organizations including Windermere Hospital Foundation and Haileybury and St Leonards Colleges.

Francis is the executive minister of St Michael's Church in Collins Street, Melbourne - widely recognised as a leading radical church in its considered support of the practical interweave between psychotherapy and a health-enhancing religion.

In presenting the Vocational Service Award for 2005 to Dr Francis Macnab, we recognise and applaud his distinguished vocational service, particularly in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy and group therapy.