tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64383537322155251722024-03-12T19:59:01.927-07:00 writing groups for personal developmentWriting in groups as a means to personal development. A creative pathway for lifelong learning. This blog accompanies a doctoral study. write in grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17076683805143307356noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438353732215525172.post-47487116099086610092015-06-04T05:05:00.001-07:002015-06-04T05:05:40.359-07:00Thesis is out!It's been a long while, but the moment has arrived. My thesis is completed and rewarded with a PhD by the University of York.<br />
<br />You can read and even download it here:<br />
http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8940/<br />
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For those of you who are short of time or patience for this long academic text I am going to write a book, in English first and Hebrew second, with the operative principles of writing groups for personal development and practical guidance for facilitators.<br />
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Believe me, writing groups are going to be acknowledged as a useful medium for adult personal development in many settings! More research is being done and pilots all point to similar benefits as stated by participants.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438353732215525172.post-76791726463206451022013-07-16T05:36:00.000-07:002013-07-16T05:36:20.509-07:00Can adults learn by writing in a group?<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To accompany the <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/writeingroup/can-adults-learn-in-group-writing" target="_blank">slides of a seminar presentation</a> I am about to give next week, I have written out some of my thoughts around it. They form the tip of a theoretical iceberg that I am carving out in my thesis. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One reason for my study is that
facilitators and participants are excited about writing groups, but that it is
impossible to explain how and why to those who have never been in such a group.
To insiders it is obvious, for outsiders utterly elusive.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Little has been researched
about group activities and interventions that generate sustained beneficial
effects for adults, and even less where writing is the medium for their
development. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">
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of the benefits of individual writing, which is mostly not shared with others
(e.g. Pennebaker).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> I hope to play a part in the formation of a
systematic conceptual base, starting with my own experience. I want to find
academically accepted concepts to tell what happens to people in the process of
writing ‘together’. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">My experiences of facilitating
writing groups with participants who had issues in common, like post-traumatic
stress, showed me that people got much more out of the process than they
expected at the start. Studying these reactions several years after the groups
had ended, I concluded that the ‘much more’ above their initial expectations
was a complex of changing behaviours and attitudes to the world. This
combination of features I have come to call personal development in a wide
sense of the term.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If ‘clinical’ writing groups
(with persons who share particular problems) indeed possess such a
developmental potential, they might be useful in non-clinical populations too.
This is the heart of the study “Personal Development in Structured Writing
Groups’, which is now in its last year before completion.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The immediate purpose of
clinical groups may be easier to comprehend. In groups that share a common
issue, like refugees or sufferers from and survivors of an illness, trust often
begins with a helpful illusion of mutual understanding: ‘We’re all in the same
boat’. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In a similar vein, assessing the extent of coping with the affliction,
rather than with life in general, appears a straightforwardly practical
evaluation of effectiveness of clinical groups. It seems to me that if personal
development can be convincingly shown to occur in adults who do not share a
particular clinical feature, it would be a strong argument in favour of using
structured writing in adult groups of any kind.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Four 12-session writing groups,
20 people, recruited from ‘general’ populations in the Leeds area provided much
enjoyment and - not to forget the data. Will the analysis of these data show my belief
about the developmental power of writing in a group to have some foundation?
Well, this depends entirely on how I define personal development and on the
assumptions underlying the concepts I use. More widely stated, it depends on my
philosophy, my view of the world. ‘Science probes; it does not prove’, wrote
Bateson (1979) and I learned that he was right. Other assumptions, a different
definition, are likely to show other processes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One basic assumption is that
personal development is possible regardless of age. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A second assumption
is that people construct the meaning of their experiences together through
communication and it is this meaning that guides their behaviour. In a writing
group the individual world views of the participants meet with each other and
can be contrasted and negotiated, possibly leading to adoption of more and
wider perspectives. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Both assumptions are about
learning and learning requires curiosity and openness, which thrive when
feeling safe and shrivel when anxious. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Feeling safe is related to
feeling that one understands what is going on, in the group and in the world,
that one can somehow cope with it and that whatever happens is somehow
meaningful. These three components form the Sense of Coherence, developed by
Aaron Antonovsky (1979, 1987), which plays an important part in my
investigation.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Personal development as
defined for this study is a perceivable change towards lasting flexibility in
behaviour, cognition, emotion, coping, and (inter)personal communication,
occurring in a person.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I strongly suspect structured
writing in groups of engendering such development in the form of generative
learning (Bateson, 1964), which is a change in the frame of reference, a shift
to higher-order thinking, creating ever more changes that give access to
behavioural options (Cune, 2010; Nicholas, 1984). An adequate, or growing Sense
of Coherence serves to curb growing flexibility from causing harm to the person
instead of benefit <sup>4</sup>.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial-BoldMT; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial-BoldMT;">References</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Antonovsky, A. (1979). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Health, Stress and Coping</i>. 1 ed. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Antonovsky, A. (1987). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Unravelling the Mystery of Health, How
People Manage Stress and Stay Well</i>. 1 ed., San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Antonovsky, A. (1987) Sense of
Coherence – Orientation to Life Questionnaire (appendix). In<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Unravelling the Mystery of Health</i>. San
Francisco:Jossey-Bass. 189-94.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Bateson, G. (1979). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mind and Nature, a necessary unity</i>. New
York: Dutton. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bateson, G. (1964). The Logical Categories of
Learning and Communication. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Steps to
an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution,
and Epistemology</i>. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 279-308.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Cune, C. (2010). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Exploration of the Nature of Personal Development Processes in my
Writing Groups.</i> Unpublished MA dissertation. University of Sussex.
Available via email: write.ingroup@gmail.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mead, G.H. (1934). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mind, Self and Society</i>. C.W. Morris ed., University of Chicago
Press.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Neimeyer, R.A. (2009). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Constructivist Psychotherapy</i>. CBT Distinctive Features series,
London, NY: Routledge.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nicholas, M.W. (1984) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Change in the Context of Group Therapy</i>. NY: Brunner/Mazel.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Smyth, J M., and Pennebaker, J W. (2008)
Exploring the Boundary Conditions of Expressive Writing: in Search of the Right
Recipe. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">British Journal of Health
Psychology </i>13, 1-7.</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438353732215525172.post-55086217347304103192013-07-01T12:07:00.000-07:002013-07-01T14:39:07.534-07:00Evaluating<br>
This post is triggered by the <a href="http://trioross.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/evaluating-my-writing-groups-2/" target="_blank">Carol Ross's blogpost</a>, which I consider as the start of a fruitful discussion between facilitators.<br>
<br>
How do we know what is or isn't working for participants?<br>
<br>
The issue of evaluating the writing group process is all about comparing what a person's 'situation' was at the start of the group with the situation at the end. And in my view it is only the person, her or himself, who needs to do the comparing and draw the conclusions. <br>
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The main problem I've found over the years (similar to therapeutic contexts), is that people forget how they were when they started. Thus they cannot really compare the end situation with their baseline.<br>
This led me to develop some subjective tools for participants to record baselines and to employ personal journal writing at each session in order to track the process. When it comes to evaluating the whole process at the conclusion of the sessions, each participant has this record to compare with. <br>
(I am thankful to Celia Hunt and the 2009-2010 teaching team of the Sussex MA in Creative Writing and Personal Development for helping me to fine-tune these tools.)<br>
<br>
To help people remember, I ask them at the first session (of 12 ) to write a letter to themselves, in which they set out their goal(s) and expectations of this writing group. Suggestions for this letter can be found at my blogpage titled 'First letter to yourself'. <br>
The letter is then filed at the back of their folder for future reference. No one else will read the letter, but if they want to share anything from it with the group they are of course free and welcome to do so.<br>
<br>
Towards the end of each session about 5 minutes are set aside for personal journalling: "what I want to remember from this session". <br>
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At the last session they are asked to write a second letter to themselves, evaluating what they now feel/think/know that they actually got out of the group. (See blogpage titled 'Second letter to yourself'). <br>
They are then invited to compare the second letter (any outcomes) with the first (any goals and expectations).<br>
After all this there can be a questionnaire, but without any 'leading' questions. In my current study there is a follow up 6 months after the end of the group in the form of a personal interview, held by an external person. Questions are at the page entitled 'Evaluation interview topic guide'.<br>
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These intensely personal evaluations are meant for the benefit of the participants and serve as feedback for the facilitator. They do not fit any quantitative, standardised format that allows for comparisons between people and populations.<br>
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As always I welcome comments of any kind.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438353732215525172.post-25567774545407405562013-06-19T13:25:00.000-07:002013-06-19T13:25:54.786-07:00An excerpt from the intro chapter: why do this study?<br /><br />With the world posing challenges at an increasing pace and life spans becoming longer, adults keep coping as best they can with the need to learn new knowledge and skills. Socialisation and education that society provides during the formative years do not necessarily prepare a person enough to deal with the rapid changes encountered in later - and longer - stages of life. Many avenues exist and are also still being developed to pave ways for adult learners. Lisa Berkman (2000) coming from a sociological perspective has presented a clear model of ‘cascading social processes’ showing how social networks impact health. She based her model on ideas originally developed by Durkheim (social integration) and Bowlby (attachment and social networks), that resonate with the theoretical concepts underlying my study. When considering where in society writing groups fit in as a possible intervention or activity, Berkman’s model places them at the level of micro psychosocial mechanisms.<br /><br />David Gauntlett, starting out from the field of communications and creativity, likewise emphasises the importance of human networks in self-motivated learning (Gauntlett, 2011).<br />However until now writing as a social group activity appears not to have been considered among the possible pathways to salutary development, health and wellbeing. While not completely ignored, it is mainly to be found in the literature about therapeutic interventions for special patient groups (e.g. Bolton, 2008). Writing group facilitators seem to be so convinced of the effectiveness of their practice, that they have not, with rare exceptions (Bolton, 2008; Hunt and Sampson, 2006; Mazza, 1999) engaged in academic study of the field to demonstrate this . No studies have been conducted to my knowledge on the effectiveness of writing groups for adults not diagnosed with any ‘condition’ or disease , as a general path for personal development. My study intends to take the first steps on this road not yet taken.<br /><br /><br />I will argue that structured writing in a group context enhances the ability to consider options, to be flexible and to adapt one’s coping skills to rapidly changing circumstances. This can be seen as an ‘evolutionary’ advantage in an individual’s life course. I use the term evolutionary, because individual benefits appear often to be transmitted to younger generations by means of personal stories. Enhancing flexibility is a form of personal development in the language of my study.<br /><br />(...) My work with long-term structured writing groups has taught me that these groups create experiences that can impact salutary development in adults by strengthening their capabilities for coping with stress, by opening up more perspectives and becoming more aware of their connections with themselves and with a social network. <br /><br />I designed the study to discover whether and how short-term writing groups achieve a similar beneficial outcome of engendering this kind of personal development in the participants, as perceived by them. My present thesis deals with the first question: whether such development can be shown as an outcome of participating in short term structured writing groups.<br />
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<b>References</b>:<br />
Berkman L.F., et al. 2000 "From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millenium". <i>Social Science and Medicine</i> 51: 843-857<br />
Bolton G. 1999. <i>The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing, writing myself</i>. Jessica Kingsley, London and Philadelphia<br />
Gauntlett D. 2011. <i>Making is Connecting</i>.Polity Press, Cambridge UK<br />
Hunt C. & F. Sampson 1986. <i>Writing, self & reflexivity.</i> Palgrave Macmillan UK<br />
Mazza N. 1999. <i>Poetry Therapy, interface of the Arts and Psychology</i>. CRC Press, Boca Raton, London, NY, Washington<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438353732215525172.post-73956703166484317952013-06-16T06:32:00.001-07:002013-06-16T06:32:45.417-07:00A short overview of my studyFollow this link: <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17628321/research%20overview.pptx">development in writing groups </a> to watch a slideshow with key points.<br />
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I welcome any comments.<br />
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<br />write in grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17076683805143307356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438353732215525172.post-83207143019419810542013-06-11T04:12:00.000-07:002013-06-11T04:12:49.435-07:00A burning question<h3>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.600000381469727px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">This kind of info is missing from the introduction to my thesis:</span></h3>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.600000381469727px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Does anyone have some facts an figures about writing groups in the UK and/or other countries? </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.600000381469727px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">I don't mean creative writing courses, but group work that uses writing as a tool for general personal development and wellbeing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.600000381469727px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.600000381469727px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Like: how many ’recognised’ (whatever that means) facilitators there are, in which fields writing groups are used (e.g adult education, physical health, mental health, prisons, vulnerable populations (homeless, refugees, disabled). </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.600000381469727px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">And I'd like to know more about the extent to which the use of writing groups has changed (increased?) over the last 20 years or so.</span><br />
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.600000381469727px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sV6pxUK2Ppw/UbcEjl5UhuI/AAAAAAAAAA4/VcD3uJ3Nu_k/s1600/view+of+a+writing+group.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sV6pxUK2Ppw/UbcEjl5UhuI/AAAAAAAAAA4/VcD3uJ3Nu_k/s320/view+of+a+writing+group.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is what a typical small writing group looks like, </div>
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with thanks to the participants of a Leeds Lapidus facilitator course</div>
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April 2013 at the Leeds Art Gallery</div>
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438353732215525172.post-71149105163912632432013-06-10T05:29:00.000-07:002013-06-10T05:30:47.326-07:00one way to picture what this is about: people growing together through writing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OE4BqeDfwZk/UbXGoaNwW3I/AAAAAAAAAAY/cAgVgsPTOrM/s1600/poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OE4BqeDfwZk/UbXGoaNwW3I/AAAAAAAAAAY/cAgVgsPTOrM/s320/poster.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438353732215525172.post-30509020723550782222013-06-10T05:23:00.000-07:002013-06-10T05:23:14.265-07:00<div class="paragraph_style_1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; orphans: auto; padding-bottom: 13px; padding-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
My name is Channa (pronounced<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="style_2" style="font-family: Georgia-Italic, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 19px;">khanna<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="style_2" style="font-family: Georgia-Italic, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 19px;">hanna</span>), I was born in the Netherlands, have lived in Israel for over 40 years and am presently a doctoral student at the University of York in England.</div>
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Past:</div>
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Clinical social worker and supervisor, NLP trainer and facilitator of writing groups for personal development. In private practice and affiliated with the Israel Institute for NLP [<a class="style_3" href="http://www.arna-k-leshem.com/home1.html" style="color: #1284ba; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.arna-k-leshem.com/home1.html">IINLP</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>] and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="style_3" href="http://www.elah.org.il/" style="color: #1284ba; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.elah.org.il/">Elah</a>, the center for psycho-social support of former Dutch residents and their relatives (r.a.) in Israel.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
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I have worked with children, families, adults and groups with holistic, integrative methods, combining verbal and non-verbal modalities. I am trained in several mind-body methods.</div>
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Present:</div>
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After being a practitioner in the field for over 30 years I rekindled my academic side in 2009. I have completed the MA in Creative Writing and Personal Development at the University of Sussex and continue towards a PhD. at York. Staying in England for 3 more years than originally planned also allows me to deepen the relationships with my small grandsons Tom and Ben.</div>
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This blog's goal is to support the final year of my doctoral studies, in which I am struggling with writing up. </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0