Interconnection
At this time of year, when people typically come together to celebrate their faiths, cultural traditions and their connections to one another, Assagioli’s words “a person is always in a social context; he is not an isolated unit” (1) reverberate, and serve as a reminder of how important it is to pay attention to the small connections, with ourselves, our loved ones and communities, the world of ideas and imagination, as nourishment, bringing increasing beauty and inspiration into our lives. At this closing of 2021, we look back and celebrate connections, both at the Trust and wider psychosynthesis communities, as we see a pattern of interconnection.
Like its predecessor, 2021 continues to challenge that social context, as the global pandemic affects our physical proximities and choices. We have all had to adapt, have (or know people) who have or are suffering pain and, or loss. Alongside this, we have also witnessed the incredible love, care, hope and sharing, as we have found new ways to stay connected and continue to honour our need for “meaning” and connection, the spiritual aspects of life alongside our biological and social needs.
Our Students and Trainers
For the Trust, unpredictability around the coronavirus has meant that we continued working, training, and teaching online. Just as we were planning to be back in person, new strains of coronavirus have interrupted this transition. Looking ahead, again, we face uncertainty about how next year will unfold. To allow us more flexibility, we are introducing options across each group/ year, to support those who can be in person (as and when appropriate) and those in the same group who have a particular need to be online, allowing greater choice with inclusion at the core, whilst maintaining meetings with the whole group.
We have seen such courage, resilience, and gratitude from our students, with our trainers expanding and evolving, stepping up to each and every challenge. We wish Alannah Tandy Pilbrow and Brian Graham well as they pursue other interests in their lives and thank them for their dedication over the decades. We look forward to celebrating with them in person when that is possible.
We have also seen a greater number of participants drawn to our work, in search of meaningful ways to engage, not only on their own psychospiritual journey, but also in their career choices. We have been able to expand our recommended therapist list, to increase choice and approach for our students.
Across this year, we have worked on developing an integrated intersectional approach of inclusion, and recognise we still have a long road to travel, as we continue to seek ways to evolve, embed and meet an important initiative. We have introduced smaller community group meetings, for students from ‘BAME’ groups, and ‘Responsible single adults in a household’ and in the new year will be looking to continue these, expanding this offer to include group meetings for neurodiverse students.
To support our core training in becoming increasingly accessible, we have worked towards gaining student finance eligibility for the Trust. This is work in progress and we hope this widens opportunities for students who might not otherwise be able to afford them.
With all this comes opportunity and we are recruiting a new post of Programmes Project Manager to be able to continue this good work. Find out more about this exciting new role.
Our Counselling Clients
Our Counselling Service saw an 49% increase in referrals for our low-cost client service. Many of which are word of mouth, really showing how valuable the offering is to people in need, and the incredible value our counsellors-in-training bring. This is such a worthwhile service, both in supporting developing therapists and serving an increasing need. We have continued to expand our trainee placement service to include trainees from other transpersonal studies.
For a while, we have been looking at ways we can support recently graduated trainees, particularly those trained through the pandemic. We are delighted to start a pilot graduate referral scheme within the Counselling Service, supporting our graduates in developing their private practice after completing their studies. This is a complementary service to our professional counselling members, whose work continues to share the psychosynthesis philosophy of practice. Gratitude to their dedication over the decades.
Our Room Hire Community
Our room hire community has stayed connected through ‘#TrustCuppa’ catch-up mornings. We have welcomed back so many of our room rental community over the course of the year, and the efforts of the facilities team, including our caretaker and cleaners, have allowed us to be able to offer the safest possible space for such important client work. Hybrid rooms now provide an option for counsellors and therapists to work in-person and online in the same boundaried space.
During the pandemic we have been busy ensuring our building has the latest technology to ensure it is a safer environment for counselling and training. When we return, we will also have the top floor of our building to use for large training groups. The training room in the basement and the library have had a sophisticated update, ready for when we are back in the building. Our IT infrastructure has been enhanced, strengthening the Wi-Fi across all floors, and enabling plug-in broadband in many of our rooms.
In 2020, we started using online learning platforms, which has upped our game in making training resources accessible for all our students – gone are the days of skew photocopies with hard to read print! We are particularly proud of the Study Skills resources, created by Ryan O’Kane, under the steerage of Heather Wignall which offers a complete walk through on studying and learning skills, including quality links to external videos and resources. In autumn, we plan on further developing this offer, bringing an even more streamlined communication submission, and understanding to what needs to be done on our courses and when. Watch this space.
Looking ahead
Meanwhile, our new Marketing team look for new ways to forge new connections among those in the psychotherapy field and beyond, helping to spread the word – and power – of Psychosynthesis. As we step into the new year, we are also excited to see how the new role of Social Impact Director unfolds and will keep you posted on how this develops.
Finally, we would like to thank each and every member of the Trust, for your enthusiasm, insights and generosity. We also want to acknowledge the tremendous benefit we, in our leadership roles benefit from the steerage of our Board of Trustees as we have negotiated successes and continued to evolve.
On behalf of our faculty, staff teams at the Trust, we wish you all well over this period and offer you hope, joy, love … the choice is yours as a blessing over this festive period.
With appreciation, from Kim and Jamie, and all members of the Trust teams.
References
(1) Keen S. The golden mean of Roberto Assagioli. Psychology Today; December 1974: 97–107.