Reflection on a session designed for the Western Cape branch of OTASA
This was the challenging question posed to me by the Western Cape OTASA branch. I was invited to present my thoughts on this subject, and it gave me much to reflect on.
But before I share my perspective, I want to pause and ask you:
- How do South African OTs cope with global and other changes?
- How can you position yourself for a future in which the world is changing at such a great pace?
- How do you position yourself when the future can’t be perceived — because if we’re honest, we can’t even imagine it as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
- How do you stay relevant and informed so you will be able to cope with all the changes coming?
These are daunting questions, and even considering them can feel overwhelming. As I prepared for this presentation, three thoughts remained with me:
- How we do anything is how we do everything. True to the Interactive Group Model principle: how I deal with small changes in my life is the same way I’ll deal with large global and national changes.
- Facts do not change behaviour. Experience is a great teacher, especially when reflecting on an experience.
- Mindfulness offers a theoretical basis for dealing with change. Principles of focusing on the present (Here-and-Now), curiosity, nonstriving, acceptance (not resisting), letting go, and trusting.
In my YouTube video How do I plan or rather design my group (CLICK HERE), I explain how I set about preparing the session to answer these questions. One step I did not mention in the video was the final activity before the post-activity discussion: I instructed group members to make a poster of all their mandalas put together. They were allowed to cut up aspects of discarded mandalas and arrange everyone’s work to form a whole. They also had to give the completed poster a title.
Group Feedback
What surprised me was the group members’ feedback and evaluation, which included:
- “I don’t know when last I laughed and played so much (for the Caboose warmup).”
- “This was special as it was the first in-person meeting since COVID and I loved being with you all.”
- “I realised how much I fear messing up, especially other people’s things.”
- “I realised how working with others inspired and energised me.”
- “I realised how I keep focusing on what has gone, so much that I can’t focus on the new.”
My Reflections
I wish to thank WC OTASA for the privilege and honour of working with you and facilitating your session on change. As I reflect on the whole experience, three things stand out for me:
- I love designing groups and seeing it all come together and “work.”
- I was deeply struck by how being attached leads to not being present to everything this moment brings us.
- At the end, things I thought were a “waste” became useful as we saw when group members incorporated previously discarded mandalas into the final poster. It stirs in me the proverb: God does not waste any tears.
