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June 30, 2008
Family constellations
I recently went to a "Family Constellations" weekend workshop conducted at the Chiron Centre in Ealing and based on the work of Bert Hellinger. What an amazing process. We were a group of 12 people, virtually all strangers to each other. The workshop was led by Alun Reynolds, who facilitated all 12 constellations in a very astute and sensitive way.
Each of us brought some specific personal issue that we wanted to explore or resolve, ranging from relationships with men to difficulties with a sibling or parent. When it was our turn, we selected members from the group to represent different members of our family, who were usually ancestors. We even chose geographical locations or the presenting issue itself to be represented, as these, of course, have a significant bearing on our existence and history.
On each occasion, what was amazing was how the representatives engaged with their sensory responses as they stood within the constellation and found words and feeling that seemed to resonate from the past – and through this process enabled each of us somehow to let go of or release or replace the issue where it belonged, sometimes with past family members, rather than continuing to carry it for ourselves.
I feel this is a rather superficial description of what for me was a very powerful experience, both as a representative in another's constellation and when watching my own develop.
As many of you may have already experienced, this approach is being adapted and applied in the organisational and coaching arenas, and its power as a change intervention is exciting. For me, I wanted to live my own personal constellation before moving on to learn how and when it can be best applied in the organisational setting.
Posted by Alison at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2008
Off and on the rails
During this last week I worked with a supervisee who presented the following case.
During a two-day training workshop, a coachee, let's call her Doris, became very distressed and in fact experienced a significant and extreme psychological reaction, later described as a possible psychosis. Amongst other symptoms, Doris reported that she had fainted in the shower at home, been unable to sleep or eat properly, had disturbing dreams and seriously feared that there was a conspiracy theory being acted out within the training group. All of this was new and exceptional behaviour for her.
My client the supervisee, let's call him David, stayed calm. He contacted me the following morning and we agreed that he needed to ensure his client contacted her GP and seek additional psychiatric help if recommended. David and the team running the training programme kept each other informed and were very supportive of each other. They also made sure that the other delegates were supported, without disclosing confidential information about Doris.
What struck me when David was telling me the story was how I felt my adrenalin pulsing through my system. My heart beat quickened, my breathing became shallower and faster. And I heard alarm bells in my head as he described what had happened. This was not just some brief blip.
I shared all this with him for a number of reasons: partly to offer another reaction, partly to empathise with his own anxiety and concern, partly to inform us both through the parallel process of what might have been happening in the client system as a whole (delegate, rest of the group, coach trainer, colleagues), and finally to alert us both to the potential seriousness of what was happening.
So, what a rich experience. And what do we do with this? Doris is now "back on the rails" (my words – interesting metaphor).
David has shared with me his own emotional reaction to this experience. We both agreed that it would be good to have an extra session to reflect on the whole process and what learning we have gained. Some questions for reflection include:
> What worked?
> What could my supervisee have done differently?
> What else might he do next time?
> Could this have been pre-empted?
> What triggers may have been pulled, consciously or unconsciously, during the training programme?
> Any other questions that emerge.
> And let's research some more about possible psychological disorders, how to spot them and what to do about them.
Posted by Alison at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
Mental health issues in the workplace
Mental health issues are in the air at the moment. I attended an evening workshop this week at the Association for Coaching entitled "Darkness and Light: Psychological disorders, how to spot them, what to do about them".
The workshop was informative. We discussed the diverse nature of personality disorders included in the range of psychopathic, narcissistic, depression and anxiety. Notwithstanding the complex nature of some of these phenomena, I came away from the evening ever mindful that "labelling can be a self-fulfilling prophecy", so, as coaches, consultants and supervisors, we need to handle with care and respect!
Here is some suggested reading, available from Amazon...
> Narcissistic Leaders: Who Succeeds and Who Fails by Michael Maccoby
> Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work by Babiak & Hare
And here's another resource...
The Royal College of Psychiatrists website has some really good leaflets outlining different disorders, checklists to help recognise when someone may not be functioning as effectively as possible and suggestions for where to seek treatment.
For additional Association for Coaching workshop information and future events, email email them here
Posted by Alison at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
June 12, 2008
Ethical dilemmas workshop for coaches and mentors
Good news! My fellow European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) Ethics Committee members and I received confirmation that our proposal to run a workshop at the EMCC conference in Prague in December has been agreed. This will be a half-day session entitled "Ethical Awareness Workshop".
We'll be reviewing the research we conducted in the UK regarding the EMCC Code of Conduct and Complaints Procedure, then working on a series of case studies posing ethical dilemmas, and concluding with some practical exercises to addresses specific incidents.
We've now run this workshop twice in the UK (in London and Nottingham). Feedback was very positive as, until now, there has been no dedicated forum to explore and debate the ethical dilemmas that face coaches and mentors in their client work.
Posted by Alison at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2008
Right-brain creativity in Sydney
I've just returned from a trip to Australia where, amongst other things, I was invited to run a half-day workshop for members of the New South Wales Chapter of ICF Australasia, during their annual programme of Coach Week.
On my last trip in October 2007, I ran a session at their ICFA conference entitled, "Making the Most of our Supervision: an Appreciative Inquiry". So this time I decided to be even more adventurous and run a workshop that explored the power of right-brained creativity, working with metaphor and visual imagery as a means to help us to reflect on our coaching practice.
We had a great time. There were 21 of us, gathered at the Menzies Hotel in Sydney, where we spent the morning "playing", using picture cards and furry toys to experiment with ways to facilitate our coaching of clients when either they or we feel stuck. The discoveries and new insights that people made for themselves, their practice and their clients were fantastic. I was really encouraged and excited by people's curiosity and interest in the whole idea of coaching supervision, which is quite new to many.
Here are some comments/feedback from participants...
"Good experiential introduction to some concrete methods for supervision and metaphor."
"Great tools, so relevant and insightful. Alison is a great example of a coach who is apt, eloquent, but very human and real."
"I loved that we came away with structure and useful processes."
"I learnt heaps about creative ways to supervise and coach."
"Emphasis on and support of supervision was a big takeaway for me."
Posted by Alison at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2008
Challenging the idea of "challenging goals"
During May, I facilitated the West London Co-Coaching Forum on behalf of the Association for Coaching. We had a good turnout in spite of heavy rainstorms and a couple of last minute cancellations because of ill health. Thanks to everyone who came and I think we put in a good evening's work.
Because of numbers, we agreed to work in two groups. In the group I was in, we decided to explore "how to set the client challenging goals". Here are some of my reflections as a result of our work.
We looked at how we might establish and agree on what constitutes a challenging goal for the client in terms of their development -- and if indeed this is what they are looking for. We discussed the importance of spending time exploring their view of what "challenging" means, and how we attend to this. We realised how easy it may be to continue with a coaching session, perhaps accepting "challenging" at face value, without probing its contextual meaning.
We also found that we needed to differentiate between meeting the client's need or aspiration for a challenging goal and establishing the specific session outcome. Does this too need to be "challenging" and if so, what does that mean?
One further reflection I have in all of this is how easy it is to make assumptions about and accept such expressions as "challenging goals". Who says that's appropriate anyway? And what happens if we don't agree "challenging goals"?
The next Chiswick Co-Coaching Forum meets on 10th June 2008 from 6.30-9.30pm. Dates to the end of 2008 are...
24th July
10th September
21st October
11th December
Posted by Alison at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)
