I’ve written an article for Coaching Perspectives, the magazine published by the Association for Coaching.
I explain how creative processes and artmaking can enrich your reflective practice.
Chronic stress, uncertainty, high emotional and cognitive load have become standard in today’s workplaces. Leading, mentoring or coaching people comes with greater complexity and requires an awareness of our own embodied and emotional responses and patterns. To do our work well, we need to stand on solid ground, and a robust reflective practice is no longer a nice-to-have, but an essential part of ethical practice and professional development.
For most of us it’s easy to bring our intellectual side to reflection: hypotheses about a client or what unfolded in a session, or an analysis of our own responses, behaviours or choices. But limited to cerebral examination, reflections can feel stuck, stale or overwhelming and sometimes lack impetus for action.
Artmaking can enhance your existing reflective practice as it activates the whole brain and supports the brain-body connection.
It helps you tap into implicit knowing instead of staying with the explicit. What you create can uncover rich metaphors and imagery which can be translated into action.
Download the full article:
If you want to develop or deepen your arts-based reflective practice, let’s chat.
Whether you are a coach, leader, therapist, facilitator, mentor, educator… anyone really who seeks time and space to think and is curious about more than journaling, work with me to develop a richer reflective practice that is tailored to you and your life.
I offer arts-based and trauma-informed coaching in a 1-on-1 setting: book a free Discovery Call or find out more here.
If you’re curious about building a reflective practice that you can stick with, check out my group programs: get in touch or look at current programs.