July 2006
Two weeks ago I returned from the International Summer Institute in Playa del Carmen, and from the Kanankil Institute, in Merida. I am full of Mexico these days... also brimming with the conversations that made up my time there...
I want to speak first of two highlights from the ISI. I am no longer surprised that Harlene, Sylvia and Neca invite us to join them in conversation for the week... but this year I am astonished at the extent to which we are invited... Harlene welcomed our voices into the very complex centre of our first live clinical consultation... and somehow found a way to listen and honour a diverse and enormously detailed response... I was amazed and still am in awe of our movement from the first consultation into and throughout the second one...
The ISI is of course filled with every manner of conversation... conversation across language constraints... across time constraints... across tequilla constraints... The conversations 'by accident' on the sand, between room mates after midnight, in the cool breeze of the hotel lobby, on Fifth avenue around the tastiest foods... even conversations at the spa... and did I hear correctly that the Mexican massage involves chocolate...?
The process of the large conversation is most fascinating for me... the intermingling of accents, gestures, styles of speaking... the emergence of patterns large and small as we speak... What pleasure to feel these interact, take sharp turns, speed ahead with great intensity, seemingly on the way to becoming 'something else.' We fell into the hard-to-break habit of Not Ending On Time... it was wonderfully alive!
Something very special also happened this year with changes to our translation process. Deciding at the outset to pause for translation as part of our way of talking together meant that Spanish speaking participants could be physically closer to those speaking other languages... and as we all know, something changes when we are 'eye to eye,' close enough to hear one another's breathing... to sense the nuances of bodily movement - details we miss from across the room.
And then, Kanankil... I became attached to this learning community of family therapy students in the very first moments of our first conversation together, when in response to my comment about shifting from 'content' to 'process' expertise, one student, with support from others, spoke in favour of abandoning the word "expert" altogether... because for her it did not fit with a dialogical approach to life... "We are not process experts," she offered, incredulously. So I was smitten from that moment on... and because Kanankil is gracious, keen, and passionate, we 'talked back and forth,' together making our way through my favorite conversational places, just as I had hoped we would... fellow learners... laughing (Juanita's Addiction) wondering... celebrating.
Rocio writes after to accuse me of starting an earthquake...
What about the tornado they stirred up in me....?
Gratefully,
Janice
(a.k.a. janis rocker)
I want to speak first of two highlights from the ISI. I am no longer surprised that Harlene, Sylvia and Neca invite us to join them in conversation for the week... but this year I am astonished at the extent to which we are invited... Harlene welcomed our voices into the very complex centre of our first live clinical consultation... and somehow found a way to listen and honour a diverse and enormously detailed response... I was amazed and still am in awe of our movement from the first consultation into and throughout the second one...
The ISI is of course filled with every manner of conversation... conversation across language constraints... across time constraints... across tequilla constraints... The conversations 'by accident' on the sand, between room mates after midnight, in the cool breeze of the hotel lobby, on Fifth avenue around the tastiest foods... even conversations at the spa... and did I hear correctly that the Mexican massage involves chocolate...?
The process of the large conversation is most fascinating for me... the intermingling of accents, gestures, styles of speaking... the emergence of patterns large and small as we speak... What pleasure to feel these interact, take sharp turns, speed ahead with great intensity, seemingly on the way to becoming 'something else.' We fell into the hard-to-break habit of Not Ending On Time... it was wonderfully alive!
Something very special also happened this year with changes to our translation process. Deciding at the outset to pause for translation as part of our way of talking together meant that Spanish speaking participants could be physically closer to those speaking other languages... and as we all know, something changes when we are 'eye to eye,' close enough to hear one another's breathing... to sense the nuances of bodily movement - details we miss from across the room.
And then, Kanankil... I became attached to this learning community of family therapy students in the very first moments of our first conversation together, when in response to my comment about shifting from 'content' to 'process' expertise, one student, with support from others, spoke in favour of abandoning the word "expert" altogether... because for her it did not fit with a dialogical approach to life... "We are not process experts," she offered, incredulously. So I was smitten from that moment on... and because Kanankil is gracious, keen, and passionate, we 'talked back and forth,' together making our way through my favorite conversational places, just as I had hoped we would... fellow learners... laughing (Juanita's Addiction) wondering... celebrating.
Rocio writes after to accuse me of starting an earthquake...
What about the tornado they stirred up in me....?
Gratefully,
Janice
(a.k.a. janis rocker)
posted by Janice DeFehr at 9:19 dop.
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