Happy New Year, if that’s a thing for you!
This year, I plan to continue my efforts to be the best practitioner I can be, assisting SE training modules around the country and the world, and expanding my deeply potent group offerings.
Over the last month or so, I’ve had a few discussions with clients and colleagues about what makes a “good” practitioner.
That term is so subjective…
In this case, though, we were talking about someone who is effective, confident, and can hold a compassionate container for you (the client or group member) to feel “safe enough” to do your work to resolve and grow.
So, what is the number one criterion?
Doing the work in both ways.
I’m going to make this personal. As if my process can be held up to some sort of bar. To be clear, I am a good practitioner, and I constantly strive to be a great practitioner. …And I know I’m not a good fit for everyone, just as I know that there are better and more experienced practitioners out there.
As I practice and work with clients, I gain depth and breadth of experience. I am better able to hold space for whatever comes and not be surprised or thrown by topics or presentations. With time in the practitioner seat comes the ability to guide people through their own experiences, even if I haven’t dealt with them before (personally or professionally).
It’s true that some practitioners specialize, and I certainly have in the group work I offer. But when it comes to individual work, I am versatile because I am curious and know that a single body holds all kinds of experiences and traumas. Although each type or stage of trauma can show up in distinct ways, if we are familiar with the way our bodies show things, we can work with them and resolve them.
The other “way” to do the work, to be a better practitioner???
To do my own work. I got into this work because I have had my own lifetime’s worth of trauma; I can’t possibly tell clients that this work can take years while pretending I don’t need the same.
Working with my own practitioner allows me to go deep into my own process. I feel different things in multiple ways through different channels.
In a very real way, I can only allow or take a client as deep as I have gone.
When I started working with clients, I kept them from looking too closely at any one thing. I couldn’t do so, and, of course, that’s how we are taught at the beginning of the SE training.
But as time has gone on, and I have been held as I delved deep into my own trauma, I am able to (and comfortable with) reciprocate with others.
So, this essential combination of internal and external experience becomes the foundation of the recipe for a “good” practitioner.
Of course, so does continuing education through reading, more training, supervision, and in-depth discussions with colleagues.
Having this discussion intermittently over the last month has cemented in my mind that I’m not at all afraid to talk about having my own practitioner. I’m continuing to take classes, and at this point, I have over 1,300 hours of experience working with people using SE.
For those in the know, that’s a far cry from the 10,000 hours typically necessary for becoming an expert. And I would never presume to call myself that. However, interesting research shows that it takes dramatically fewer hours if you practice from a place of deep curiosity, play, and effort.
If you’ve worked with me, you can probably attest to that quality of my attention.
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