Being Meaning-Makers: embodying our selves in our practice

^{hosted by Karen Ellis and Christina Lombardi-Somaschini}

Last spring, Karen and Christina invited colleagues to be fellow travellers on a journey into embodied meaning-making by investigating what it is to be a meaning Maker rather than a meaning Taker. We looked at how we can develop our ability to build the bridge between our sensory-motor embodied realities and our ability to communicate in words so that we can co-create new worlds of meaning. This time, we are venturing further into our shared world of professional practice as coaches, consultants and supervisors, to consider how we can bring bodymind approaches into our direct work with clients.

In this second chapter in our ongoing explorations, we are inviting you to play with layered listening, embodied presence and meta-relational spaces. Woooh! What even is any of that? Good question. And Karen and Christina definitely will create the space to explore and discover for yourselves and, as usual, offer some of their thinking and being around it – quite a lot of this stuff isn’t always easy to put into words!.

Maybe have a little sit with these:

• When was the last time you felt your client’s story in your body, and how did you respond? 
• What thread of your own story might currently be influencing how you hold a client in any given moment? 
• What happens in your body when you stop trying to be useful and simply become present?

Karen and Christina’s intention with these sessions is pretty simple: to facilitate our being humans, fully embodied, alive, moving into spaces beyond an identity as “coach” or whatever. Our identity is not the tool. Neither is our knowledge or certification. Our presence, however, is a significant part of it. 

We’ll be looking at things like:

• Subtle states of disconnection that can arise during a conversation – where they come from, how to recognise them, how to work with them
• Discerning between the urgency of a triggered state and the weight of long-held stories
• Practising listening beyond the ears
• The “Stargate” principle – where the client’s topic is not the destination but a portal to expanded/deeper meaning-making.

It’s a two-part session, experiential, relational, deeply human. For anyone who wasn’t able to attend the previous session of Being Meaning-Makers, or for those who’d like a little recap and reconnect, Karen will be holding a free 90-minute prep and review call on 19 January, 3:30-5pm. 

DATES: 26 January and 2 February, 2-5pm

COST: £225 (+VAT where applicable)