For Therapists, Facilitators, Coaches, & Guides

Works in the Centre

Learning in real time with a client session

Learn ways of orienting to the unpredictable nature of the human experience, align with the change that is trying to happen, leave with a clearer sense of how what’s arising moment-by-moment can guide you.

Works in the Centre is a two-hour session focused on live client work, and exploring how we can engage when things go off the known map.

Over time when we are steeped in any kind of practice we can easily become distanced from what we know and the sensing that informs our actions. To stay alive and attuned to the moment asks us to continually find new ways of engaging, to notice where our edges are so we can keep deepening or evolving our practice.

When we are starting a new practice of working with others we may question how we can engage most effectively. We may wonder what it actually looks and feels like to work with someone's process, to track and follow what is arising while holding a sense of the larger arc of their becoming.

What this is

This is a co-learning session where you observe a real piece of work with a volunteer participant. It is a deep dive in wayfinding, informed by processwork: how we work with what's arising in the moment to discern our next steps, when the path forward isn't clear and we're facing some form of uncertainty.

The rest of the group gets to watch, learn and notice what wayfinding looks and feels like in practice, as well as what they pick up on through being with the work.

Over the years doing this kind of work, I've noticed that often whatever is shared in the centre will ripple out to resonate with others in the group. In other words, the struggles, questions and joys we all grapple with are often mirrored in other people's stories. People will feel themselves in the work, and experience a shift that extends beyond the person working in the centre.

What you will learn to notice

Together we will pull back the curtains and explore what transpired in the client session. I'll share what I was tracking, why I did what I did and how I followed what was unfolding. This is when we put our thinking on the table and have the opportunity to get closer to our practice.

We explore questions like:

Why did the work go one way and not another?
What was closer to and further from the clients identity?
What edges arose and how did we notice them?
What happened unintentionally and at the periphery that influenced the direction of the work?

The intention is to surface more information and learn to navigate the dynamic space between identity, emerging possibilities and the unknown. We then debrief the structure of the work to hone our pattern awareness and identify the adaptive scaffolding we can orient to and follow in any situation. After that we have time for questions and insights from the group.

Overview of our time together

Inner work - Time to reflect, connect with your experience and stabilise your attention

Demo - Elsa works with someone in the "centre."

Debrief of the process - This is when we break down the flow to explore what was happening. Elsa shares her thinking and sensemaking and we explore the [client's] signals and different directions that could have been taken.

Discussion - Together we explore themes and patterns that arose. As with supervision, the sessions will honour confidentiality, and the appropriate practices will always be in place. Groups are limited to 12 participants.