Branching
In session you will be dealing with real live people. They are all different, they behave differently and present you with different situations. You can not count on simply laying out a plan and then following it exactly. If you did, you wouldn't be dealing with the actual person there. A processing session is interactive, it goes two ways. You do or say something, then the client does or says something, you notice it, and based on that present your next action, and so forth.
The facilitator is responsible for carrying through certain actions. She will get certain loops and processes started and will see that they get finished. But most likely that won't happen in a straight line. Other things will come up that need to be dealt with. We might have to branch off to another, more immediate loop and then get back to the major loop afterwards. Or we might have to juggle several minor or major loops at the same time.
The facilitator's flexibility shows in how well she deals with the branching of the flow of the session. How well she is responsive to anything the client might come up with while at the same time carrying through her own session objectives relentlessly.
This requires taking decisions. The facilitator must evaluate several possible courses of action and their priorities and must choose the appropriate ones.
It is useful to be flexible, to be able to handle whatever might come up while in the middle of something else, to be able to branch off when necessary, and to juggle several active loops at the same time.
Exercise
- The trainer gives the student a simulated subject to "process". Like "clumps in the porridge" or "no peel on the banana". The student will ask questions and engage in a dialogue about the subject attempting to carry it through to a resolution. The trainer will go along with it at first, but will then produce various situations that require attention. She might give originations, disagree, become upset, come up with other subjects needing handling, and so forth. The student must handle these branching points appropriately without losing track of the original subject.
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