Tag Archives: discipline

May I Present to You …

A Certified Solution Focused Practitioner! I recently came back from England and brought an important paper in my pocket. My first part of solution focused training is behind me and I’m now officially fully qualified to pursue Solution Focused Practice.

The difference for me is rather minor, but it makes huge difference when I present my work and qualification to others. Clients usually don’t mind as well, they are more interested in the outcomes. However other practitioners of all kinds are VERY interested. And I think this is a good sign, they should be, because it does matter where you’ve been trained, by whom, how long and what the structure of your training was. You don’t want to be coached by someone who has only pursued a brief training on a weekend seminar, do you?

So for you dear fellow workers, who are in the helping professions and others who are interested, here’s what my training so far looked like:

Prior to entering the Solution Focused training, I was already engaged in working with students. Counselling and help has been offered through the university tutor system and I was the head of tutors for students with disabilities. I’ve been doing it for 8 years and have been granted two faculty awards for my work.

As I’ve told you in a past post, a miracle has happened and SF found me. My training at BRIEF (London, United Kingdom) has lasted from March 2014 until April 2015. Though I haven’t been in London the whole time, meanwhile I’ve participated in European Brief Therapy Association Conference 2014 in the Netherlands, Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association of America’s 2014 conference and additional training (not included in my primary training at BRIEF) and SOL CEE Conference 2015 in Hungary. And I was at home, working with my clients.

In total, so far I’ve experienced more than 150 hours of intensive training in Solution Focused Practice, about 30 hours of supervision and more than 120 hours with clients (only individual clients are included in the number, not the workshops). I’ve been really lucky to be trained or coached by the world’s famous Solution Focused Therapists and Coaches: Chris Iveson (my number one consultant and supervisor), Harvey Ratner, Evan George, dr. Peter De Jong, dr. Heather Fiske, dr. Harry Korman, dr. Janet Beavin Bavelas, Katalin Hankovszky Christiansen, Marco Matera, dr. Susanne Burgstaller, Hannes Couvreur and have sought consultation and guidance from dr. John Wheeler, dr. Mark Beyebach, Randa Fent, dr. Alasdair J. MacDonald, dr. Lance Taylor and Anne-Marie Wulf. I’m omitting the official titles other than PhD’s, because there are so many and I will probably make a mistake listing all of it. And because they made a difference to my life as people, not as doctors and specialists. What’s consisted a huge amount of my professional development was the EBTA, SFBTA and SOL World Community’s support. I had constant access to resources and immediate feedback from Solution Focused Practitioners whenever I needed one. My work has been recognized as meaningful, so the communities have enabled me to participate in training and conference in the US and in Hungary. I cannot find the right gratitude words to express what difference this has made to my professional standing, so I didn’t say it in words, but have showed it in action by opening the Ribalon Institute. All the above named and unnamed people have contributed to it.

What is coming next, is another year of extensive training for a Solution Focused Therapist and attendance in other Solution Focused events that currently I can’t tell how many will be. Anyhow, I believe I’ll be learning for life and in the end, my best teachers will be my clients. If things continue this way, you’ll be able to read about it as it happens.

It has been a long and arduous time and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

So my dear readers, proudly to present a marvellous journey that has escalated in a certificate paper. In case you’d ask.

porridge

Good and lasting results don’t come overnight. It takes time to be able to perform and produce something meaningful. Like a good porridge for example.

I would if I were you – a Word about the Discipline

Dear reader,

sometimes people say to me they envy me – my work, all my travels, my looks, my grades, my home, even my cat … saying things like: “Oh if I were you, I could do so many things, but I just can’t. It’s too difficult. I just.. can’t. You have it easy – you have everything. I wish I was so lucky”.

Well, sure, I have a splendid life, thank you. On the surface maybe. But what you see is only a top layer, you don’t see the long hours I’ve spent mastering a certain skill, you don’t see days of reading, doubting, worrying, you don’t see all the way I had to walk to get me where I am. And you don’t see that I’m never standing still, never resting on my achievements.

I used to be a professional ballet dancer. Not a very good one, but good enough to be in choir of the National Ballet Theatre. I’d spend at least 3 hours a day practising (weekends included). The same moves over and over, until perfection (or injury). I used to play violin. It took me several years before I could bring the melody out of the instrument without sounding like cats in heat. It really was 10% talent and 90% of work. And by that I don’t mean work for fun. It’s really hard work that you don’t always like, nor you always have the right moods to do it, but you do it anyway. You don’t see the results, but you go on, keep trying in hope that you might get just a little better than you were yesterday.

Then I grew up, went to the university and became lazy :).

Now what I do, not for a nice figure, but to stay in shape because I sit a lot, is I run. Several times a week. Not every day, but mostly. In any weather condition. Not much, a couple of miles, but enough to be really sweaty in the end. I do that straight out of bed in the morning at 6 o’clock – do some yoga warm up exercises and then I go. So often it happens that I’d rather stay in bed and cuddle a bit. Or I’m really tired and just can’t get out. Or it’s raining. Or it is too dark/wet/cold or I’m running late because the alarm clock didn’t work. So many excuses EVERY SINGLE TIME! Want to know the trick? I don’t listen. At least try not to listen (do fail at that a lot, otherwise I would tell you I run every day, and that’s not true). And as soon as I put my sneakers on, the excuses fade away and I feel really proud for being strong enough to do the right thing. Then usually I step into some mud or manure or I twist my ankle, but still, it feels good.

So if today I’m good at something or I have something, I had to work to get that. There is no such thing as a goal achieved fast and easy without any efforts. Or at least not a worthy goal. You might look for some comfort in adverts promising to get you happier, slimmer, healthier in no time, but they’re not real. Sure you can nowadays simply buy many things, even things like a degree, trust, etc. But deep down you know these things have no value. The most valuable things you own, you earn by trying really hard to obtain them. And when you do, you know how much they are worth in terms of self-respect, pride, reputation and last but not least, these things last. Even if you loose a job, home or someone harms you, you know you can do it again. All over if you have to.

So no reason to worship or be jealous. You can do it too. If I can, so can you. If you fail or the result is not coming or revealing itself instantly, you’re not alone in this. I am too.

roze

… to believe in tomorrow (A. Hepburn). This picture is from my garden – I’m still learning how to take care of the plants and these flowers were the only thing that survived this year. Not much, but good enough to be a perfect motif for today’s post.