Dear reader,

Here’s what happened after the training day (see post I had a dream and the Earth responded). I wrote an email to London. Guess my adrenaline went wild and I was so enthusiastic about it that I made a complete fool of myself. I don’t remember it literally, but it went something like “Hi, I don’t know anything about you but I’ve been told that you are the best so I’m writing to you in order to see if you really are…” well. A reply was prompt, very kind, very polite. So I felt a bit embarrassed, but after a few emails back and forth the plan for a foundation course for education professionals was settled.

I sometimes like to think of me as a scientist, which means that I only trust strong empirical evidence, accurate facts, careful methodology, verified hypothesis and examined all possible variables (realising there are probably many unnoticed left). I find it difficult to trust (and respect) non-scientific methods and statements like “this is how it is” and so on. On the other hand I have a rather strong intuition on what might be interesting and worth exploration. This is how I felt with my first foundation course – very excited, but at the same time scientifically sceptical.

So of course I also had to check the literature about Solution Focused Brief Therapy. It turned out it has a pretty long tradition, very strong empirical base and is wide acknowledged among psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, education professionals, to mention only a few. This temporary calmed my cautious doubts. But still I was somehow worried if “it would suit me”. You know, you can adore skinny jeans, but if your legs are short it just doesn’t look right (my personal opinion, please don’t generalise it!). What I want to point out is that in order to be good at something, it has to feel natural to you. If you are working with people, you have to be genuine, because people are really sensitive about this and you can’t fool them (at least not for a long time).

The course. Lasted for two days in March 2014. We were a nice group of approx. 15 people, all very dedicated and willing to learn. Most of them were educational psychologists and various therapists with much experience in their fields already.
The exercises felt right. I got some compliments about how good I am performing certain skills and if I already do that in my work (I’ve done it for the first time), so that probably meant I was doing it right. But what was a breaking point was observing a live session through camera (with client’s permission of course). The session came unexpected, which means that our teachers didn’t prepare and choose it for us in advance. What happened at the session was just amazing. This is where I realized: I HAVE TO LEARN THIS. I want to make a difference in client’s lives like the therapist did. It felt so right. It felt like home. It was one of this moments where everything suddenly makes sense and you feel powerful determination and courage to go for it.

The therapist who ran the session (was also my correspondence partner in the emails mentioned above) invited me for lunch afterwards. We connected and soon we both knew this was a start of a promising professional relationship.
So here I am now, in the programme of learning Solution Focused Brief Therapy. In the next post I’ll tell you about what happened when I got back home and tried to put newly learned skills into action.