We know that one of the - if not the - most important factor in coaching and other similar work is creating meaningful relationships with your clients. Relational mindfulness helps us to create meaningful relationships by bringing mindful awareness right into the moment of interaction.

This four-session programme is aimed at coaches, team coaches, mindfulness teachers, facilitators and anyone for whom relationship is a core part of their role. It will offer the opportunity to build your Relational Mindfulness (RM) through practising mindful dialogue. We will explore how RM can not only benefit awareness and relational qualities, but also support insight and understanding of the habits and patterns that help and hinder our work (and life).

The value of attending

This programme will enable you to build a practice of RM and experience how it can help us:

- Bring present moment, non-judgemental awareness to speaking and listening in our work and beyond

- Build moment by moment awareness of our own and others’ relational habits and patterns

- Establish more resilient ways of being in relationship with our clients and others

- Develop supportive, collaborative relationships in order to enhance our work and what we embody for our clients.

While Emma will ground the sessions in relevant theory, they will mainly be designed to generate experiential learning. They will combine guided individual mindfulness and RM practices (particularly mindful dialogue) with reflection, exploration of how to apply the learning, and building understanding of relevant frameworks and models.

Before the first session, you will meet with Emma for a 1:1 orientation session to help you prepare and get the most out of the programme.

Between the sessions, you will be invited to buddy up with at least one other participant in order to practice relational mindfulness, enhancing the learning opportunity.

Testimonials from previous participants include:

"The programme provided me with a perfectly-balanced combination of the theories underlying the concepts of relational mindfulness combined with a safe space in which to practice. Emma provided the ideal learning environment ..."

"For me, the programme provided space, connection and development. Space to pause, to reflect, to share, to breathe. Connection with myself and others, to individuals, the collective and what it is to be human and to listen. Development that gently challenged some of my dialogue habits and helped me to let go of the tightly held roles and expectations around speaking and listening."

"...Relational mindfulness is helping me to listen more deeply, to be more curious, to notice more. The result is I’m feeling I’m walking alongside people more (rather than pulling them) and difficult topics are easier to discuss..."

Ways in which this work can be applied

- Becoming more present and aware when interacting with clients and others

- Deepening your awareness of and choice over what you embody in your work

- Creating greater psychological safety in your work, thereby supporting clients to explore openly and think generatively

- Enhancing your capacity to listen and your comfort with silence in client sessions

- Creating greater empathy, compassion and sense of common humanity in your work and beyond

- Building your resilience in the face of reactivity, challenge or difficulty in relationship

- Spotting your own relational habits and patterns, in order to have greater choice about whether to continue to engage in them or choose other ways of behaving

- Spotting your clients’ relational habits and patterns in order to support insight and change for them where appropriate

- Gaining new perspectives and meaning-making

What resources will attendees receive?

- Pre-programme reading and reflection materials

- Between-session and post-programme reading

- Guidance on practising relational and individual mindfulness between sessions and after the programme

- Copies of the slides from each session

- An audio recording to support mindful preparation for client sessions and other interactions

- Completing this programme makes you a member of the Relational Mindfulness community, which means you have access to programmes that are only open to community members

Dates and times of sessions (all UK time zone)

- Wednesday 24th April - 9.30-13.00

- Wednesday 8th May - 9.30-13.00

- Tuesday 21st May - 9.30-13.00

- Wednesday 26th June - 9.30-13.00

About Dr Emma Donaldson-Feilder

Emma aims to support the development of kinder, wiser workplaces, with more relational leadership and people management, improved employee health and wellbeing and greater inclusivity. Emma’s varied professional portfolio includes teaching relational mindfulness, coaching senior managers and executives, individual and group supervision for coaches, consultancy for organisations and teams, research, writing, speaking, and public policy. She is a Registered Occupational Psychologist, a Chartered Coaching Psychologist, an Accredited Executive Coach and a Certified Coach Supervisor.

For more information about Emma and Relational Mindfulness, please visit: https://affinitycands.com.

Early bird and concessionary prices are available - contact Emma at emma@affinitycands.com for details.

You do not need to have practised relational mindfulness before to attend this programme. Prior experience of mindfulness practice would be helpful but is not essential.

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Building presence and awareness - April-June 2024