Mindfulness-Based Relational Supervision

Mutual Learning and Transformation

Fiona Adamson, Jane Brendgen

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781351664882
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Psychologie
• Categoría: Psychotherapeutische Beratung

Mindfulness-Based Relational Supervision explores a relational and mindfulness-based approach to adult learning and development that is mutually transformational.

The initial focus of the book is a case study that shows the evolution of a dialogical supervision relationship that was transformational for both parties. The authors present their reflections and analysis of key transformational moments that brought insights which significantly enhanced their personal and professional development. The authors adopt an interdisciplinary approach, discussing relational neurobiology and relational mindfulness practice together with ideas from child and adult development, attachment theory, intersubjectivity, somatic experiencing, and adult learning theories. The case study narrative charts the development of the authors' supervision relationship, following which they share a meta-perspective on their learning journey. Finally, they discuss the implications of the study for the education and training of relational practitioners insupervision, coaching, and related fields.

The book will appeal to students, practitioners and supervisors in the helping professions, in particular counselling, psychotherapy, and coaching.

Chapter 1Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781315161280-1

Introduction

We – Fiona and Jane – wrote this book because we are passionate about our commitment to our own development as supervisors and coaches. This involves learning more tools and theories to broaden and build our professional competencies. It also includes attending to processes that support our becoming who we really are so we can offer our true selves to our clients, to work with and to relate to them.

Our primary intention in writing this book is to illustrate how, in practice, a mindfulness-based relational approach changed the quality of our supervisor–supervisee relationship and deepened our capacity to learn together. In support of this, we show that supervision relationships that are co-created challenge us to be open to generative and emergent experiences. The personal capacities and meta skills required to stay open to this way of being relational need time to develop. Learning to be relational requires that both parties are on both an inner and an outer journey of exploration.

The account of our supervision relationship is one that goes beyond what many may regard as conventional. We have developed a post-conventional supervision partnership through a range of learning contexts and role relationships, which include facilitator–participant, coach–coachee, and co-authors reflecting on our dialogical process.

I, Fiona, was inspired to write this book as a follow-up to a chapter that was published in Robin Shohet’s (2011) book on transformational learning, where I referred to my work with Jane (Adamson, 2011), which was developed further (Adamson, 2012, 2013). Jane brought the skill of relational mindfulness to our working relationship, opening my eyes to the potential for reciprocal learning and the developmental opportunities for supervisors themselves. In relational work, both supervisors and coaches are engaged in a process of reciprocal influence: we are learning about our capacity to stay in contact, to give and to receive, and to develop our potential for change (Cavicchia and Gilbert, 2019). Outside the therapy literature, I had not seen much acknowledgement of reciprocity, with one notable exception being De Haan, who published two collections of the results of his students’ reflective inquiries into their coaching relationships (De Haan, 2012, 2016).

Revisioning

Originally, Jane’s contribution was limited to the case study in Chapter 4 and our mutual reflections on our learning process. We experienced significant delays in the completion of our manuscript, largely due to Jane’s periods of illness and incapacitation, about which she writes in Chapter 3. Fiona also contributed to the delays when she experienced periods of tiredness because of a heart condition and some minor health problems, which influenced her confidence in her capacity to write. As a result, we were unable to meet the deadline we agreed with the publisher and needed to repeatedly request further extensions to our submission date. Although challenging for both of us, we appreciate that our experience and understanding of dialogical relationships has deepened through our extended inquiry. This also changed what we chose to write and how we wrote, and we feel this has enriched our book. Pertinent to the time delay, we wrote our case study four years ago and this was the first part of the book to be written.

During this extended timeframe, we both came to realise that the book needed to be co-authored to render it an authentic expression of our reciprocal relational process. As a result, we made some significant changes to the structure and content of the book, deciding that all the chapters except for Chapter 6 would be co-written. In Chapter 6, Fiona writes from the depth and breadth of her experiences in the field of postgraduate education and training.

Structure

In Chapter 2, we introduce the theoretical foundations of our transformational learning process, which include Bowlby’s theory of attachment and child development, Kegan’s adult development framework, and relational mindfulness – the bedrock of our learning process. We include this early into the book in the hope that it will facilitate a deeper appreciation and understanding of the depiction of our relational learning process in Chapter 4 and our reflections in Chapter 5.

Chapter 3 is titled ‘Coming Home to Ourselves’. Much has been written about the value of writing and sharing stories to raise self-awareness, deepen appreciation of difference and unite us in our common humanity. Aligning with this wisdom, we offer you a transparent personal account of the stories of our respective learning journeys to illustrate how we were shaped as individuals and how we contributed to each other’s growth. In our individual narratives, we share what growing up has been about for each of us. We write of the many times in our lives when we have been challenged by life events, yet have been transformed by them. The process of writing evoked much grief and tenderness in each of us at times. We know that our experience is not unique, as loss and change continue to challenge all of us as we journey through life.

Chapter 4 introduces our case study, the heart of the book. Here we share our experience of how a mindfulness-based relational approach facilitates a reciprocal learning journey. Through our jointly written detailed analysis, we invite you to enter the world of a supervision relationship as it was experienced from moment to moment. We share our vulnerability, highlight our breakthroughs, and explore what enabled us to reveal that which had previously been hidden and had blocked the flow of our work. We offer vignettes of our learning journey to illustrate how we created the kind of dialogical supervision relationship that brought about transformational learning for both of us. Fiona’s reflections on each of the vignettes is somewhat lengthier than Jane’s. This is a remnant of the original form of our book, which we decided to leave intact to preserve the richness it offers.

In Chapter 5, we offer a meta-perspective of our learning journey. We explore attitudes, qualities and processes that facilitated a shift in our relationship, from a conventional transactional relationship to a post-conventional dialogical relationship cultivated through mutuality.

In Chapter 6, Fiona discusses the education and training of relational practitioners. She challenges what she sees as the imbalance in some current approaches to education and training, and makes the case for placing the personal development of the learner equally alongside learning of models and tools. She also explores the curriculum and assessment challenges involved and, finally, proposes the adoption of a contemplative and relational pedagogy that facilitates the development of relational practitioners.

Content of the book

While we have become particularly interested in the how of supervision, we are not atheoretical. The material presented here views supervision relationships through several lenses that are derived from our rich theoretical background, which informs our practice. However, ideas are also gleaned from our reflections on many years’ experience in relationships of many kinds – some fulfilling and some difficult, both professionally and personally.

This book is written for you if you are a coaching practitioner, supervisor, trainer, or trainee, and for those of you in other helping relationships who wish to explore and reflect on the value of developing authenticity, often a neglected aspect of supervision relationships; discover and make sense of what helps and what hinders relational work; and consider ways to develop meta skills that will enhance and support the process of co-created learning partnerships.

We have included a few questions at the end of each chapter to offer you the opportunity to reflect on the content and relate it to your work as a relational practitioner. As you read through the chapters, we invite you to pause frequently for reflection, noticing what thoughts are arising and connecting with what you might be feeling emotionally and somatically.

References

• Adamson, F. (2011). The Tapestry of My Approach to Transformational Learning in Supervision. In R. Shohet (ed.), Supervision as Transformation, A Passion for Learning. London: Jessica Kingsley, pp. 86–103.
• Adamson, F. (2012). Looking at Coaching and Supervision Through the Lens of Love. The Listener, A Journal for Coaches New Series, 2, 14–18.
• Adamson, F. (2013). Core Elements of Integrative, Relationship-Based Work. AICPT, 3, 19–25.
• Cavicchia, S. and Gilbert, M. (2019). The Theory and Practice of Relational Coaching: Complexity, Paradox and Integration. London: Routledge.
• De Haan, E. (2012). Behind Closed Doors, Stories from the Coaching Room. Faringdon: Libri Publishing.
• De Haan, E. (2016). Behind Closed Doors, Stories from the Coaching Room 2016. Faringdon: Libri Publishing.
• Shohet, R. ed. (2011). Supervision as Transformation: A Passion for Learning. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Chapter 2Mindfulness-based adult transformational learning in theory

DOI: 10.4324/9781315161280-2

Introduction

The metaphor of the voyage of discovery (Proust, 1923) is apt when we think about the many challenges and changes we encounter during our journey through life, and what we may or may not learn about who we and others are becoming as we engage in supervision relationships. Will we be able to develop new eyes as we see what the world around us looks like, and can we appreciate that others may see the world differently? Are we equipped to transform who we are and how we think as we face and grow through the inevitable losses and changes of life, and are we even open to learning? Do we need to be to be on a Proustian journey to become effective relational practitioners? This chapter is our answer to this question.

Drawing on our experience of our supervision relationship, we suggest that transformational learning is influenced by two interrelated elements: our capacity to relate to others, which is determined by our early attachment styles; and our stage of adult development, which shapes the lens through which we see and make meaning of the world. With the meta skill of relational mindfulness, we believe both these elements can be transformed. A relational mindfulness approach can establish an emotional climate that is conducive to the emergence of a compassionate dialogical process, and it is this mutual process that creates the freedom to learn. It potentiates the expansion of our cognitive capacities and meaning-making frameworks, and can be a contributory factor in healing our attachment wounds.

Mindfulness: the foundation of relational learning

Presence or mindfulness is the cornerstone of a dialogical relationship. In its essence, mindfulness is the capacity to pay attention, intentionally, with interest, to what is happening in our present-moment experience. This includes an awareness of intrapersonal processes such as thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and impulses for action. Mindfulness also includes external sensory inputs such as sounds, sights, and the environment around us, of which a significant part is the awareness of relating to another human being.

With the practice of mindful awareness, certain qualities emerge naturally. These include being an impartial, open, non-judging witness to our experience, which enables us to be fully present and able to reflect at the same time; resting in the wisdom of patience, knowing that things will unfold in their own time; and accepting, by seeing how things are now without trying to force situations to be the way we would like them to be (Kabat-Zinn, 2013). These attitudes support a fundamental shift in our relationship to our inner phenomenological world. Rather than striving to change or avoid aspects of our experience, particularly the unwanted, we are encouraging our mind and heart to turn towards experience and meet it ‘just as it is’, with kindness and compassi...

Índice

• Cover
• Endorsements Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Mindfulness-based adult transformational learning in theory
• Chapter 3 Coming home to ourselves
• Chapter 4 Case study
• Chapter 5 Meta-perspective on our learning journey
• Chapter 6 Personal and professional development for relational practice
• Chapter 7 Summary and conclusion
• Appendix: Excerpt from our supervision agreement
• Index