Tag Archives: private practice

Unleashed Potential

Dear reader,

you haven’t heard from me for quite a while. The statistics still shows you keep coming back and I’m grateful for your patience.

After a period of stress and unbalance, I’m back, brand new and shiny. I feel energized, thrilled and powerful. In May we had our last Solution Focused Professional Training and with this act, Slovenia got her first generation of future Solution Focused practitioners. I’m so proud of them and so happy not to be alone anymore but to be a foundation and meeting point for a thriving community.

I’ve been very busy as well. In May and June I’ve hosted several workshops at the Faculty of Economics for English speaking students. I’ve also done some presentations and a workshop for a conference on advanced business approaches for business analysts. And I’ve delivered a training for experienced trainers who work in the youth field. Quite a dynamo!

Not spending much time online, I’ve been thinking of you, dear reader, as well, realizing that I somehow miss you, even though I don’t know you. Both of us, we form a community by inspiring and supporting each other mutually. I’m happy to have you and as Ribalon is thriving, I realized you play an integral part in it. So thank you very much for following this blog, for your presence, your engagement.

It has happened several times that I got messages from people saying they follow my work and are really happy to see me actually do things and make a difference. They often say how wonderful it is to see someone pursuing their dreams and really enjoying what they do.

Yes, this is truly such a privilege. To be born in a continent that is somewhat safe and has rather good estate regulations and public instititutions that care about its people. You might complain they suck, but hey, try travelling round the Globe a bit and you’ll see that what we have is far from being taken for granted. Women rights for example. Clean water. Public education. Democracy. You name it.

The second privilege is to be born with capacities that allow you to evolve and develop in what you aspire to be. You know – the things you want to do and you’re good at. Not necessarily parallel. So if you are able to do what you like to do and you are good at what you do, this is a winning combinaton! Most of the people I know have jobs they go to. Very few actually belong to the profession and call it passion.

The third, and not unimportant thing, is that you are able to do what you like and love to do, you are good in doing that and it brings you enough money so that you can live from this. Ribalon is a bit less than a year and a half old. And it is self sustainable already. Not really making profits yet, but certainly capable to take baby steps forward. And I don’t know anything about marketing, business plan, strategy, sales or entrepreneurship (not even know whether the spelling is right!). I just do my thing and I do a lot of it. I engage in conversations with people and use every opportunity to let them experience useful and meaningful conversations. People love it and they keep coming back and asking for more. And I don’t use any marketing or google adwords to make that happen.

This is a jewel, a true gem. And I feel alive and thriving! And happy to share it with you – there is enough light for all of us and it only multiplies by sharing!

Biba

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Our first Slovenian Solution Focused reunion. 

New Start, New Services

Dear reader,

it is said that the darkest hour is right before the sunrise. Yesterday I told you about my “Blues” and ways forward. Today is a brand new day.

For quite some time now, I’m noticing I’ve come a long way from being a beginner in Solution Focused Approach. My supervisors also agree that I’ve reached a point where I can really pursue meaningful and useful conversations that create a context within which the clients are quickly able to find their own solutions that last.

Since I’ve grown from voluntary services and community work, it took me a long time to acknowledge I am not a volunteer anymore who helps others because she likes to do it and it’s the right thing to do. After more than 8 years of such work, my identity has changed. I’m now an established skilled professional who has made a lot of efforts to build up the knowledge, develop the right skills and enjoy the privilege to have such a strong international background. My work is not just pleasure. It brings results. Having said that, of course it makes a difference. I’m getting more and more requests to do Solution Focused work and lately, I’m also working within business settings with organizations. I’m beginning to receive more requests than I am able to process, so I had to make a choice: whether to go broad and do more quantitative work, or narrow my target group and do more qualitative work. I chose the latter.

After consultation with my UK partners, we’ve shaped a selection of new services you can enjoy and benefit from. Also our prices have gone up, because we have limited the number of clients and we believe our work has a value that is supported by evidence as well as client’s testimonials (there is a nice proverb that says if you want cheap services, hire an amateur, but eventually you will see this is really expensive). Still we have kept our research programmes, that enable those who have it difficult paying, to join as well.

So once again, I have followed my integral principle that “less is more”. Meaning I want to do good quality work, tailored to clients preferences and driven by client’s contents. Solution Focused Approach has for decades been proven to be highly effective approach in complex situations that helps individuals, teams, groups or organizations move forward. But talking about Solution Focused is very different to doing Solution Focused. Having delivered an entire Solution Focused Training, loads of work with clients and my supervisor’s opinion has recently confirmed I’m really doing pure Solution Focused work and I’m doing it well. Which means my clients experience high quality service that enables them move forward in their lives.

If you consider making desired changes, let go of bad habits, or you have found yourself (or your team) in a situation that seems to be too demanding for your current capabilities (such as implementing or designing a new strategy, facing complex changes, having performance challenges, work overload, etc.) or you simply follow this blog and would like to learn how to ask yourself the right questions, you are very welcome to benefit from sessions and save your time, energy (and money). You can find the options how to participate, collaborate and engage on the renewed page here or in Slovenian language here. Also, if you are keen to learn how to do Solution Focused work yourself and are from Slovenia, check the training programmes here.

I’m very happy to assist you with methodology that works to enable you become the best version you can possibly be and to be there while you make progress.

Biba

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Wake Up, Butterfly!

Dear reader,

Happy goat’s 2015! The Chinese know, what they are talking about.

I hate computers. This time it’s happened to me and I didn’t save my draft, so I had a perfect post written for you and I’ve lost it because my computer went down on me. Really hate computers now for a while.

And yet, guess the previous post wasn’t good enough, so maybe it was a sign I could do better. So I’ll try. Hope you’ve entered 2015 with a few pounds more, because it is predicted, the winter will be long and cold 🙂 anyway, welcome to January. I’ve got news for you. It’s time, to go real. It’s time to open my own practice.

You’ve probably noticed by now the cautiousness and perfectionism. Both not so good when trying something new or making a big step forward. But you know, you want to be sure and you wait for the perfect moment. It is actually similar to when you have sympathies for someone and you don’t know when and how you can let them know that. You plan and wait for the right moment, but you are too afraid for what if he/she says no. Then, when you are courageous enough, suddenly you get ill. When you are healthy and courageous, your significant person goes out of town and you don’t have their contacts. When you collect the contacts, you are healthy and courageous and you try to compose that breaking point email, your computer dies (like mine did just minutes ago). You don’t give up and try over your phone, but then it’s already too late hours and you don’t want to disturb of course. You write in the morning. But it’s too early. So you plan to meet them in person. You have the courage, are healthy, with your phone fully charged, yet a huge pimple grows right in the middle of your face! So the pimple goes away and you are ready and everything looks ok. And then you are told that he/she found someone else in the meanwhile. You go home, throw away your new jacket that you bought for that special occasion and give up.

Sounds somehow familiar?

How many times have you been waiting for the perfect moment until it slipped away from you? Right in front of your eyes? To be honest, a perfect moment never comes. It is indeed never perfect. No matter how many times you try to improve this and that, there will almost always be some room for improvement. Now what you can do:

  1. a) wait a bit more, for your perfect moment to come or
  2. b) take the “good enough” moment.

It’s that simple. And because it’s simple, it’s, as you know, very difficult. How can you tell whether the timing is right? You might not notice. It might never come and you’ll spend your life waiting. When choosing option b and it doesn’t work out, at least you’ll know the timing wasn’t right. And if you stick with a, you might never find out. The time will pass in both cases and it will heal wounds in both cases.

From my experience, option b eventually after some time passes and you look back, suddenly I realise that a “good enough” moment actually was perfect timing. What is good enough? You might notice from signs. If it helps, I’d like to share what signs told me that timing for me was right:

– I’ve reviewed edited a SF book and the author suggested I should think about my professional webpage so that she could mention me in the impressum;

– my first international scientific SF article is about to be published (yay for me!) and the publishers wanted to know my organization’s name;

– there are many international Solution Focused therapists, coaches, trainers and practitioners who are interested in collaboration;

– clients ask about my company and I’ve been invited to deliver a workshop where they wanted to know my prices;

– I feel it inside.

It may not be perfect timing, but it feels right. There’s a proverb that goes something like: “yes, no or wait”. I’d add “and look for signs if the answer is wait”. So maybe “good enough” is good enough. And when you start to pay attention and look for the signs, you might be surprised how many there actually are and you haven’t noticed. January is good for a fresh start. So go, fly, butterfly! Let me know how it goes.

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My first Office. A friend gave that huge mug.