micro teaching – all about love

 “People often ask me why I have spent most of my life concerned with the consequences of conflict and violence. The simple answer is, why not? The honest answer is difficult. It is about the suffering of refugees. It is about the short life of compassion, how quickly it is born and how quickly it dies. It is about the stranger to whom we owe nothing. It is how our society will be judged and how we discover our humanity. It is about love”-

Helen Bamber OBE

pebbles and stones

for the microteaching exercise I wanted to share some of my work as a psychotherapist and the topic of using objects and artefacts made me think back to my time working with asylum seekers at the Helen Bamber Foundation, whereby the founder, Helen Bamber, who was an incredibly charismatic and inspirational woman, would have a bowl of stones and pebbles in the centre of the table of her consulting room and would invite each client to choose a stone, to hold it in their hands, to feel it and to describe what it meant to them. the responses were rich in meaning and metaphor – the stones were worn down, like them, but also strong and resilient, they were both hard and solid and soft and smooth, they were of this earth, of nature and their homeland, from the sea, the farm, the mountains, the stones became an object of which to tell their story.

holding and describing the stones also acted as a grounding exercise, bringing the client out of their mental distress and into the present moment. the stones were also transitional objects – the stone representing the therapist, and the therapeutic relationship, could be taken out of the consulting room. The client would then have this tangible thing to hold, which would illicit feelings of safety they had felt with the therapist.

for the microteaching exercise I invited the members of the group to choose a stone and to work in pairs and to share with each other what came up for them, and just like the clients of the Helen Bamber Foundation rich feelings and meaning were evoked. the feedback was similar, that by holding the stone and by feeling the surface and the texture, it brought about a sense of peace and calm. It made some people think of their home countries, or where they grew up, of childhood, of identity.

I thought the exercise went well and I was happy with the aesthetic of the bowl of stones and how it was presented. for me the teaching was more contemplative and reflective and I think the group found it a calming and interesting exercise. I felt a little bit nervous before hand and on reflection I think the is because it is an emotive subject and a time in my life which is close to my heart and I think the emotion showed. due to feeling nervous I rushed through the informative bit – talking about Helen Bamber and about the use of objects in working with trauma. I had a handout with this information, which was a bit of a crutch.

next time I would like to add more thought to the pace, structure and timing and leave enough time to talk about the use of stones and pebbles in trauma work.

the micro teaching exercise made me think about my teaching style and I would say that it is more contemplative and reflective. I resonated a lot with Ike’s exercise, which I think was similar in style – using objects to illicit emotion and contemplation, and also a little with Tom’s exercise on memory.

in my work as a therapist and with students I am always advocating the power of vulnerability and by sharing our vulnerabilities we connect with others and become powerful as our authentic selves. the micro teaching exercise I experienced this first hand and I would like to embrace this more and more.

for the microteaching exercise I wanted to share some of my work as a psychotherapist and the topic of using objects and artefacts made me think back to my time working with asylum seekers at the Helen Bamber Foundation, whereby the founder, Helen Bamber, who was an incredibly charismatic and inspirational woman, would have a bowl of stones and pebbles in the centre of the table of her consulting room and would invite each client to choose a stone, to hold it in their hands, to feel it and to describe what it meant to them. the responses were rich in meaning and metaphor – the stones were worn down, like them, but also strong and resilient, they were both hard and solid and soft and sooth, they were of this earth, of nature and their homeland, from the sea, the farm, the mountains, the stones became an object of which to tell their story.

holding and describing the stones also acted as a grounding exercise, bringing the client out of their mental distress and into the present moment. the stones were also transitional objects – the stone representing the therapist, and the therapeutic relationship could be taken out of the consulting room and the client would have this tangible thing to hold to illicit the feelings of safety they had felt with the therapist.

for the microteaching exercise I invited the members of the group to choose a stone and to work in pairs and to share with each other what came up for them, and just like the clients of the Helen Bamber Foundation rich feelings and meaning were evoked. the feedback was similar, that by holding the stone and by feeling the surface and the texture, it brought about a sense of peace and calm. It made some people think of their home countries, or where they grew up, of childhood, of identity.

I thought the exercise went well and I was happy with the aesthetic of the bowl of stones and how it was presented. for me the teaching was more contemplative and reflective and I think the group found it a calming and interesting exercise. I felt a little bit nervous before hand and on reflection I think the is because it is an emotive subject and a time in my life which is close to my heart and I think the emotion showed. due to feeling nervous I rushed through the informative bit – talking about Helen Bamber and about the use of objects in working with trauma. I had a handout with this information, which was a bit of a crutch.

next time I would like to add more thought to the pace, structure and timing and leave enough time to talk about the use of stones and pebbles in trauma work.

the micro teaching exercise made me think about my teaching style and I would say that it is more contemplative and reflective. I resonated a lot with Ike’s exercise which I think was similar in style – using objects to illicit emotion and contemplation, and also a little with Tom’s exercise on memory.

in my work as a therapist and with students I am always advocating the power of vulnerability and by sharing our vulnerabilities we connect with others and become powerful as our authentic selves. the micro teaching exercise I experienced this first hand and I would like to embrace this more and more.