Clean post-it

[Corrie van Wijk]

Workshop clean space

At the 15th congres of the Dutch Institute for Eclectic Psychology (April 14, 2007), Maaike Nooitgedagt en Annemiek van Helsdingen gave a workshop clean space. They demonstrated the process and then split the group into pairs of two to try it for themselves.

In the evaluation there was only one complaint: everybody should have a choice of all the colours of post-its available!

This seems to me the perfect proof of how psycho-active CS can be.

Anyone experiences with something similar?

Corrie van Wijk

[super_yacht@hotmail.com]

Hi Corrie,
I don't know if this helps but in the arena our horse has a perference for green and yellow post-its (which it eats). Producing a challenge for the client as their space (post-it) is chewed up and moved around.
So we tend to provide bright coloured post-its........limiting the client is sometimes easier than dealng with the consequences :D

Regards
All
John Farrell

[phil]

Eating your landscape... this could form a new therapy!

Working outside can provide a challenge to post-it notes, especially in gusty conditions. I have seen pebbles and stones, bits of wood, garden implements, clothes, shoes and chairs all used to anchor bits of paper. One client used twigs pushed through the paper into the soil to keep them there. Some bright spark thought of using clothes pegs which is the best way I have seen so far to prevent markers moving without the client's intention. Clamping a post-it to a branch or a sprig of grass also allows the client more control over the height of the markers, which so often end up on the two-dimensional plane of the ground or floor.

Sometimes when paper moves without the intention of the client, this can stimulate change in the client's landscape. I saw a client start with surprise as a marker suddenly slipped from the place where it was wedged in the crook of a tree branch and flutter/slide to the base of the tree. The client said something along the lines of 'mmm, it looks happier there'.

At other times a client will pick the paper up and move it back to where it was without comment or apparently being influenced by the change.

Occasionally trainee facilitators jump to 'help' when a marker moves in this way, restoring the post-it to its 'proper' place. A modelling (rather than rescuing) response might be to notice how the client 'deals' with the change in the system, perhaps feeding that awareness back into the system if it seems relevant to the client's desired outcome.

Of course, if the client decides to eat their markers, it behoves the facilitator to intervene fo health and safety reasons - that, or provide edible markers.

[Corrie van Wijk]

At the IEP-conference (all participants being new to the subject), while some were working outside the room at the bar, the personnel of the venue removed a few post-its and put them into the dust-ban, which made the client eagerly recover them and realize how important they were. People can get very emotional about that!

Indeed, as a facilitator never intervene or help, unless specifically asked (David would like to ignore even that): there can be so much information in an unexpected event, synchronicity emerges from that!

John, I experienced myself that you're very good at feeding: make sure your horse gets enough, so it won't need to eat post-its!

[super_yacht@hotmail.com]

Thanks for the complement Corrie, that dinner seems a long time ago, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then :rolleyes:

Eating your psyche scape, there is a whole area to in the “psyco active gastro-space”, something I definitely cannot do in the arena, our horse while over weight (its all the spring grass), doesn’t know the meaning of self control when it comes to food. :)

I have had clients set fire to their post-its, drop them into a fast flowing river. The best was putting them into the rubbish bin, which of course became part of their psychoactive space. But the horse is the only one to have eaten part of some ones space. The power of using a horse is that it is the perfect mirror, they come with no judgement or politics, and as such the client develops learnings and understanding they would not get to with a human facilitator. So when ‘Sparkie’ (the horse) eats, or walks off with the clients space it’s all part of the process, as in “& what do you know about that?” :D


Psyco active gastro-space :p
“place the vegetation where it needs to go’
‘& what do you know about that carrot?’
‘& what does that carrot know about you?’
‘& where could that carrot have come from?’

And of course at the end of the session you can have lunch – get sorted spiritually and nutritionally at the same time.


Back to work
Regards
John