More about workshops

NB. Important note that these workshop formats are more risky than non-risky (that is, if you can actually measure risk - one person's risk is the next person's safe activity, so this whole area is very subjective.). Like any co-counselling workshop then, attendance at any of these is entirely optional, and no one has to do anything they don't want to do.

HIGHER-RISK NON CO-COUNSELLING WORKSHOP: FEEDING AND BEING FED
At this workshop the participants have an opportunity to feed each other, and be fed. I have offered this twice so far. Each time there has been quite some discussion about who feeds whom and how etc. The discussion and processing takes up the morning, then we set out the table etc and do the eating at lunchtime. There is some processing time afterwards. As food and feeding is pretty basic stuff early on in life I think this workshop easily provokes our primitive feelings.

HIGHER-RISK NON CO-COUNSELLING WORKSHOP: CHOOSING AND BEING CHOSEN
Each individual in the group is invited silently, in their mind, to choose someone with whom they would wish to do a session. The actual session takes place within the last third of the workshop. The first (longer) section of the workshop involves the unfolding of the choices people have made.

HIGHER-RISK NON CO-COUNSELLING WORKSHOP: LIFEBOAT ROULETTE
This is a challenging version of ‘Choosing and being Chosen’, and could be re-titled ‘Working on my feelings about rejecting and being rejected’. This is an issue that everyone faces (eg in choosing one dance partner instead of another). Although it is a variation on the Big Brother TV show, there are important differences: there is space for processing and relflection together, and it its intent is to help learn about oneself in a supportuve space. The group members vote someone out of the group every 10 minutes. The first part of the workshop is for making everything clear about the process. The second part is the periodic voting and evictions. The evictees have the opportunity to go into a breakout room to be together. For the third part (very important this), the whole group re-convenes to process what has happened. I have run this five times and experienced all sorts of feelings that have been provoked. It helped me say to someone that I loved them.

HIGHER-RISK NON CO-COUNSELLING WORKSHOP: HERE AND NOW
This is an interpersonal group, no equal time contract etc. The object is to stay in the here and now. Just that one instruction inevitably gets us more in touch with who we are. In the many here-and-now groups I have attended I have experienced moments of beauty, frustration, grief, love, anger, envy, regret etc.

There is another version of this called ‘Here and Now Intensive’: if someone strays from the here and now, anyone can say: ‘here and now’. The group then has to remain silent for 10 seconds. My experience is that this can provoked intense and difficult feelings, and is a great opportunity to confront my internal world.

HIGHER-RISK NON CO-COUNSELLING WORKSHOP: MONEY

I think that money has the potential to bring up lots of feelings in anyone. It is a touchstone for how we relate to the world and to ourselves. It can represent all sorts of things for individuals eg the energy we have or spend, achievement, hate-objects, and can conjure up, for example, envy, joy, relief, grief, victim states etc. In these workshops there is a structure to the workshop and what happens, but in each case there is an emphasis on exploring in the here and now moment what is happening for particiants.

I have been to three types of money workshop. The first one was offered in CCI Europe 1999: participants brought a sum of money with them that they must be prepared to lose. It had three sections:

First section – about taking, and being taken from (non verbal): participants put their money on the floor in front of them. Participants could take money from anyone. After a while, the facilitator called for a session, in pairs. Second section – about giving and receiving (non verbal): participants put their money on the floor (it may now be a changed amount depending on what had happened in section one) in front of them. Participants could give money to anyone. After a while, the facilitator called for a session, in
pairs. Third section (about asking for, receiving and negotiating): participants put their money on the floor in front of them. Participants could ask for money from anyone. The persons asked would either agree, or not agree, to give their money. After a while, the facilitator called for a session, in pairs.

The second workshop was run by me at Unstone 2002. The participants are invited to reveal to the group the extent of their wealth (property, pensions etc), indebtedness and income, past and present.

The third one is a mixture of the first one above, and choosing. The participants each bring a sum of money to the workshop. They put it in an envelope and put it in the middle. People may reveal how much they have put in. Participants may ask for the money. The group as a whole chooses who gets the money.

More workshop ideas (click here...)

Richard Mills
December 2005