Empty your mind and be Present
By Joan Wright Howie
Robin Shohet talks about the process of emptying our minds to undo projections to be present to the supervisee and the dynamic they are presenting. He describes working with groups and asking one member to present an issue. He’ll then invite everyone in the group to pay attention to what is happening in them, to notice. It might be a physical sensation, thought, fantasy, image or feeling. They are invited to share what is stirred in them without filtering or wondering if the response is relevant. The presenter listens. Group members speak to the facilitator, not the presenter, and name what they notice: ‘I feel sad’, ‘I am suddenly drained’, or ‘I switched off and stopped listening’. The presenter listens. After a while, the facilitator will create an opportunity for the presenter to share what stirred in them as they listened. What insights emerge?
It's astonishing how the group can become a container for the dynamics presented in the case, in which different dynamics almost land on other people. Robin talks about this as connecting to the ‘field’. As a presenter brings a case into the group, the case is in the field of the group space. Technically, this occurs as the group becomes mindfully present to the felt sense in their shared space. They pick up on the countertransference. The group members mirror the dynamics in the case, and the presenter can start seeing more clearly what’s unfolding in the case or context.
Robin says that when the group can empty their minds and be present to the dynamics of the case being shared, the group can embody the feelings and behaviours that might be hidden.
I’ve worked with this technique in the groups I facilitate, and it can provide the presenter with insight and clarity, which they can take back into their context. It also allows each group member to think about their own work in a new way as they consider why the particular dynamic they experienced from the case resonated with them.
Robin reminds us that in many cultures, the self is firstly a community and only later an individual. When one suffers, we all suffer. As individuals do deep work within themselves, they work on behalf of the community.
Thank you for the deep and supportive work you do with your supervisees on behalf of the communities they engage with. In this time of global uncertainty, we certainly need people willing to become open to the dynamics at play to facilitate honesty, forgiveness, healing, and peace.
