Training Topics:  Applied Pactice

If your organisation is interested in approaching me for teaching on applied practice, please review the descriptions below of the one or two day presentation topics. You might prefer to use a combination of these workshops or presentations in order to meet the particular needs of your group.

When Good Intentions Fail

A two day workshop for practitioners.
This workshop will prepare you to engage in conversations that allow people to reconsider both their participation in injurious acts and their response to being subjected to injury.
 
Many therapeutic and life conversations stall when people fail to meet the intentions they have previously committed to. As people attempt to act on stated intentions  they often discover a gap between what they say they’ll do and what they actually do. This gap  produces discomfort as it is often constructed as evidence of failure.
 
We can all find examples in both our lives and in the clinical work where stated intentions fail. In these instances people, including therapists, move into blame or shame. It is rare for us to have the capacity to take up a discovery stance to the struggle to enact these intentions. Instead people restate the intention whilst imploring themselves or other’s ‘to try harder’.
 
In this 2 day workshop we will address these topics:
  • Nourishing the therapist empathetic imaginative ability
  • Exploration of the impact of experiences, such as, guilt, fear and shame
  • Creating a subtle dance between cognitions and experience
  • Using the experience within the therapeutic relationship as a site for change
  • Contextualising the explanation and experience of ‘being at fault’
 
I will draw on examples of therapeutic and consultation  work with, individuals  and relationships , including organisational relationships.

Challenging Conversations:  shifting ‘stuck points’ (therapeutic, super-vision or management)  

A 1-3 day format is available depending on the group or organizational needs.
THIS WORKSHOP WILL BE CONFIGURED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF PARTICIPANT’S INTERESTS IN EITHER A THERAPEUTIC, SUPER-VISION OR MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT. ​
Noticing that therapeutic, super-vision and management processes are stuck or have become limited in some way provides all participants with an opportunity to extend both their technical capacity and their repertoire of relational and life knowledge.  This extension relies on a process that illuminates the relational environment. In turn, this illumination draws attention to the part all conversational participants play in constructing the therapeutic, super-vision and management 'story'. 

In this workshop we will reconstruct 'stuck' moments into opportunities for discovery. Creative possibilities for change will emerge when all participants in the conversation are liberated from the effects of problem constructions. This workshop will aim to reacquaint participants with a sense of excitement and creativity. 

Sustaining the Discoveries: using letter writing, audio reflection and other change-making activities 

​A one day workshop for practitioners
Many practitioners notice that the discoveries that people make in therapeutic conversations begin to fade as soon as people leave the room.  Consequently people can struggle to practice and anchor with new ideas in their everyday life. 

This workshop will assist practitioners to develop the skills to hold new discoveries by creating a practical narrative platform.  There will be a particular focus on the following:
Drawing conversation threads together in a comprehensive manner.
Translating summaries into a textual form, such as letters or notes.
Using resources other than text to hold and extend the discoveries made in therapeutic conversations.

In this workshop I will draw on examples from individual, couple and family work.

Working With Men:  negotiating the gender edge 

A one day workshop for all practitioners.
Statistically most counsellors are women. Significantly more women attend counselling than men. However, whether men are physically present or absent, we need to feel confident to effectively work with and develop an understanding of men's experience.

For therapists, male or female, our gender training shapes the questions we ask and the themes we avoid. There can be strong invitations from clients to collude, side-take or to underestimate the impact of a relationship dynamic by assuming a common gendered understanding.

This workshop is an opportunity for therapists to be guided through the gender maze and to see the mirrors that are confusing and distorting our practice.

The Narrative Spiral Workshop:  centralising the practitioner
The Narrative Spiral workshop emphasises discovery through the practice.  Throughout the workshop you will be supported to identify and stretch into the next phase of your development as a practitioner. 

This process aims to reawaken or stimulate enthusiasm and passion for therapeutic or super-vision work.

The pre-requisites for participating in a Narrative Spiral workshop are:
  • Attendance at 2 or more workshops that Johnella has facilitated. 
  • Actively participating in a super-vision or skype consultation process with Johnella.
  • Numbers will be limited.