Simon Cavicchia

Use of Self - Online Webinar Series

Making skillful use of our moment by moment experience of being with clients in service of their development and change is a core component in more relational and dialogic coaching and consulting.

Bringing more of ourselves as coaches, consultants and human beings with a shared humanity to our relationship with clients is a powerful way of supporting conditions for transformational learning. It is particularly suited to working in contexts characterized by uncertainty, complexity and volatility, where our clients may be increasingly challenged personally as well as professionally in their particular roles.

Use of self is crucial in:

Helping to contain anxiety in clients so that they can develop and maintain wider perspectives on their presenting issues and challenges.
Enabling clients to make meaning from their situation and create new maps for navigating uncharted territory.
Tracking the subtle yet powerful processes that occur between practitioners and clients and making use of these creatively to support awareness and change.
Supporting creativity and experimentation with new perspectives and strategies.
Fostering a sense of connection to others and the wider humanity in which we are all situated.

Use of self can initially seem mysterious and daunting. This is in part because much coaching and consulting theory is steeped in the positivist and individualist traditions where the practitioner is seen as an "expert other" who deploys techniques onto the client whilst remaining personally detached and "in role".

Whilst expertise undoubtedly has its place, use of self emerges from the relational tradition where learning and development are seen as an emergent collaborative inquiry process occurring between client and practitioner as two "subjectivities" who meet and mutually and reciprocally shape one another’s experience, feelings and thinking. In teaching use of self for many years to coaches and consultants, I have become more and more convinced of the value and relevance of working in this way. Drawing on and expanding from the work of Michael Clemmens I have worked to break the process down into a series of orientations and practices that serve to demystify the process and offer practical ways of incorporating greater use of self as instrument into our practice.

In this webinar series you will:

Learn the developmental benefits of making use of self.
Learn and understand the key components involved in making greater use of self.
Learn how meaning arises and evolves in relationship.
Understand, explore and begin to work through the main obstacles coaches and consultants can encounter in making more use of self.
Practice use of self with peers.

All webinars will comprise theoretical input, large and small group exploration and discussion and supervision of live cases where appropriate.

Webinar 1 - Embodiment

What do we mean by use of self?
Complexity, uncertainty and meaning making.
How to tune into and tune the instrument.
How to cultivate presence and receptivity.
Core-organisers of present moment experience.

Webinar 2 - Attunement

How to deepen presence and open to being impacted by being with our clients.
How to use core organisers to track the internal movements and sensory responses we have to being with our clients.
Noticing more.

Webinar 3 - Resonance

Learning to notice what becomes figural in our awareness.
Practicing "holding lightly" and the principle of "potential relevance".

Webinar 4 - Articulation

How to make use of resonances to craft interventions.
Cultivating an attitude of "offering", hinting at possibilities.
Cultivating non-attachment to specific impact or outcome.
Embracing multiple perspectives.
Checking for resonance in the client.

Webinar 5 - Integration of learning

Practice and reflection.
Supervision.
Feedback.
Endings.

Dates and times

This will be an online webinar on alternate Mondays starting on September 30 2024.

September 30 17:00 - 19:30 UK time

October 14 17:00 - 19:30 UK time

October 28 17:00 - 19:30 UK time

November 11 17:00 - 19:30 UK time

November 25 17:00 - 19:30 UK time

Fee £600.00 plus VAT for 5 webinars of 2.5 hours.

Numbers will be limited to 12.

For more information and to book a place, please email me at: simon@simoncavicchia.com

What participants say about the programme

"I would thoroughly recommend Simon's 'Use of Self’ programme, which offers a very generative and safe space to explore and practice different ways of being together, as well as robust theoretical frameworks, with a group of open-minded and supportive professionals. I found that it permeated my practice without me feeling that I had to ‘do it right’, so that I became more aware of when the four areas (Embodiment, Attunement, Resonance and Articulation) show up in my work, and to make use of them more intentionally. I loved the programme!"

Executive Coach, OD Consultant and trainer.

"This embodied coaching programme has been a wonderful path to enriching my coaching practice end supporting clients to access different ways of knowing. I thoroughly enjoyed this not only because Simon is superb but also because of the great selection of people in the cohort"

Executive Coach and OD Consultant.

Who am I?

I am an experienced coach, executive coach, team coach, coach supervisor, and OD practitioner. My work is informed by human systems dynamics, Gestalt, psychoanalytic ideas and adult learning theory and practice.

In my consulting practice I am particularly interested in exploring relational perspectives on organisational life and consulting, and am committed to continually researching how these perspectives can be used to inform practice and learning in organisations. Relational approaches place the quality of interactions between organisation members and their teams at the centre of how meaning is made and behaviour generated. This is particularly relevant in today’s organisations with matrix structures, where different individuals and teams with different levels of authority, designation and agendas have to work out how to join together in service of the organisation’s success.

I am deeply committed to creating respectful, supportive and challenging learning environments, where clients can increase their awareness, confidence and skills for intervening in new and effective ways.

Publications

Cavicchia, S. and Sills, C. (2024 in print). Skills in Relational Coaching London, Sage.

Cavicchia, S., Stoeffels, D. (2023 in print). Why relational? in Erik de Haan and Dorothee Stoeffels (Eds) Relational Team Coaching. London, Routledge.

Cavicchia, S., Knight, A. (2023 in print). Gestalt Perspectives on Team Coaching, in Erik de Haan and Dorothee Stoeffels (Eds) Relational Team Coaching. London, Routledge.

Cavicchia, S., D Haan, E. (2023 in print). The Present – Working with the Team in the here and Now in Erik de Haan and Dorothee Stoeffels (Eds) Relational Team Coaching. London, Routledge.

Cavicchia, S., Gilbert, M. (2018) The Theory and Practice of Relational Coaching - Complexity, Paradox and Integration. London. Routledge.

Clarkson, P., Cavicchia, S. (2013) Gestalt Counselling in Action 4th Edition. Sage.

Cavicchia, S. (2012) Shame in the Coaching Relationship, in Charlotte Sills and Erik DeHaan (Eds) Coaching Relationships – The Relational Coaching Fieldbook. Libri.

Cavicchia, S. (2010) Shame in the coaching relationship: reflections on organisational vulnerability, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29 Iss: 10, pp.877 - 890.

Cavicchia, S. (2009). Towards a Relational Approach to Coaching – Integrating the Disavowed Aspects. International Gestalt Journal Vol.32, No 1 pp.49-80.

Cavicchia, S., Coffey, F. (2005). Revitalising Feedback – An Organisational Case Study. British Gestalt Journal 14, 2, pp. 15-25.