10 KEY SKILLS IN TALKING WITH A MAP

This workshop introduces ten key skills of mapping and making diagrams using the tools and concepts of Cognitive Analytic Therapy to help us hold, shape and guide personal, therapeutic and reflective conversations one to one or in groups.  This live, mutual and reflective process helps us see what we are saying, shape what we want to say and reflect on how the conversation is going.   The mapping process and the diagrams created help show how the patterns of relating once mapped out can help us disentangle (and reweave more freely) the social narratives of our lives from the unique stories and memories of personal experience

 The ten key skills of talking with a map are: 

1.   Agreeing and establishing the purpose and context of mapping and talking together  

2.   Spontaneously tracking and recapping on paper the initial conversation to help make an open listening relationship  

3.   Finding and addressing words that resonate with our feelings, ideas, roles and relationships

4.   Using the shared process of mapping and talking to separate personal stories from social narratives 

5.   Hovering and shimmering between mixed feelings and contrasting ideas and beliefs and their importance for self and others 

6.   Noticing, naming and negotiating what is here and now between us

7.   Taking turns in participating or observing in search of our own authority/authenticity through moments of working side by side and not going head to head 

8.   Writing short letters to all or part of the map to discover and give voice to new points of view and ways of feeling 

9.   Zoom in and out of big picture and detail; or between this and that part of the story or conversation

10. Managing the use of time and noticing and negotiating how to end and what to take away.   

This half-day introductory workshop is for anyone whose work involves individual or group reflection and would like to test out a method for improving their conversational skills. The workshop is led by Steve Potter who is a Cognitive Analytic Psychotherapist, teacher and supervisor and had been teaching the skills and ideas of 'talking with a map' to many teams and individuals in the UK and internationally for the past twenty years. The approach is an application of some of the concepts and tools of Cognitive Analytic Therapy.  It also draws on lessons from relational psychotherapies and creative writing.  A workbook of handouts and pre-reading is sent to participants one week prior to the workshop and the book Talking with a Map is available to purchase with a discount code after the workshop.  Follow up small group supervision is available in some cases.