Continues professional and personal development
If you are a therapist, then I am pretty certain that you have heard of continuous professional development (CPD). Your membership body may have guidelines around how much you need to do, in what period of time you need to do it and what constitutes as CPD.
I have been focusing recently on the forgotten ‘P’, which is related to personal development. I came across this in my supervision diploma (a year long CPD training I undertook to become a supervisor). Being a therapist is so much more than simply knowing theories and techniques (although this is massively important and shouldn’t be overlooked), it's also about your personal development as a human being.
Why personal development?
Therapy is about the relationship you build with your client, which makes you, as the therapist, your most important ‘tool’. Knowing yourself, challenging yourself, and growing is your duty to your practice and to your clients. Being a therapist will test you and your resilience, but hopefully, it will also inspire you. A focus on your personal development will grow your capacity for self-awareness, which is essential to your practice and relationships with your clients so that you can differentiate between what is their material and what is your own.
We hope that our clients can work through their years of conditioning to build different patterns of being, that bring more harmony to their inner and outer worlds. This requires work and being uncomfortable. I say we must be doing this, too. We must be doing our own, personal work towards growth.
What is it?
Personal development can be anything that helps you ‘better’ yourself. It can be anything that helps you grow as a person or expands your awareness of what it means to be human. It’s something that increases your confidence or self-esteem and something that challenges you. It can be something that helps you to relax, switch off, or have fun!
My experience
Recently I attended a fiction writing workshop called ‘Crafting complete characters’. Although I have always been interested in writing fiction, this was out of my comfort zone. The workshop allowed space not only for developing my skills as a fiction writer but also for being vulnerable in front of others, of reading my work and being open to criticism. It was a big fear to face! But I managed it, received lovely feedback and felt amazing as a consequence!
I have also attended a Kintsugi class recently, which is the Japanese method of using gold to repair broken ceramics. It was a slightly unexpected experience in that I really had no idea of what it entailed. I knew I loved the concept of Kintsugi, where flaws or breaks are highlighted and celebrated rather than discarded, but I wasn’t aware of how delicate and thoughtful the process would be. It was a mindful three hours where I had to focus on holding broken pieces of a beautiful bowl together, applying glue and gold dust and working through my inner perfectionist noise. It was quite an experience, and now I have a stunning golden, still slightly broken reminder on my therapy room desk.
Personal development doesn’t always have to cost money, like the two examples I gave above. There are lots of free ways of doing this. Join a local book or walking club, look online for free workshops—the possibilities are really limitless.
Essentially, do something new, that makes you feel uncomfortable. Think about what interests you outside of therapy, and watch how it ultimately helps you grow into a better and more rounded therapist and human being.
Feel free to share your experiences in the comments. I always love hearing new ideas!
Lesley
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