TALKING WITH A MAP

This workshop introduces ten key skills to aid conversational and relational awareness using methods of mapping out the keywords and phrases of our discussions on paper as we talk.  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 ten key skills are: 

            1.  Creating a time, a place and a context to talk

            2. Active listening with words spread out on paper 

            3. Sitting side-by-side in a room or working mutually online

            4. Micro map the moment and find words with legs on that resonate and connect 

            5. Tolerate mapper anxiety and learn to hover and shimmer in the spaces of the conversation

            6.  Link 'doing' words to 'feeling' words and 'voices' to roles and relationships 

            7.  Zoom in and out of big picture and detail; or between this story and that story 

            8.  Link past and present; self and other to what is between us, within us and around us (and beyond us)

            9.  Draw out patterns from stories and keep the story open in a conversational way

           10. Reflect and recap with the map and write a note to the session or one aspect of the map 

When we talk, we relate and awareness of how the relationship is going links to how the conversation is going.  If we can negotiate and navigate this double awareness we can help each other have better conversations and better relationships that are more attuned to the context and the moment of the discussion.  Mapping and tracking the conversation as we speak with pen and paper, side by side, one to one or in a group is an application of some of the concepts and tools of Cognitive Analytic Therapy.  It also draws on lessons from relational psychotherapies more generally and creative writing.      A workbook with illustrations of how to have conversations with pen and paper is included with the training.  This half-day introductory workshop is for anyone whose work involves individual or group reflection and would like to contribute to a more conversationally aware society. 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 fifteen years.