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Masterclasses - 2016

Possibilities from past, present and future

Three solution-focused coaching/facilitating masterclasses with Dr Mark McKergow

  • Tuesday 16th February 2016: Working with the future
  • Wednesday 27th April 2016: Working with the past
  • Tuesday 14th June 2016: Working with the present

London, UK, 10am-5pm each day

For the first time in five years, solution-focused (SF) coaching and organisational change pioneer Mark McKergow will lead a series of masterclasses in the UK.  Mark’s experience over nearly a quarter of a century with SF ideas has led him to think and re-think, experimenting with the original work of Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, putting into coaching and change contexts, and peering closely at what happens in SF work is in action.  Having worked all over the world at the invitation of others, he is finally bowing to pressure to do something in London – his own home town. 

The structure for this series of masterclasses is innovative in itself: over a total of three days, Mark will look at how SF works with the future, the past and the present.  Mark will share classic SF ideas, his latest thinking on ways to deploy these in organisational and management contexts, new developments within the SF world and his latest idea on quite how this all comes together as an elegant, brief and effective modus operandi.  The atmosphere will be participative and collegial, there will be coaching demonstrations and activities as well as tapes and transcripts from other SF coaches, and lots of chances to ask questions and really expand your know-how about SF and how it can help you to help your clients. 

These sessions will appeal to experienced coaches wishing to explore the SF approach in depth, those already using solution-focused ideas who want to go further, and those wanting to refresh and rejuvenate their SF skills.  You can participate in each session as a stand-alone learning experience, or come to the whole series for the full effect (and save some money into the bargain).  Come and join us! 

Read this short article Going Further With Solution Focused Practice, written by Mark for the prestigious AAMFT on new developments in the SF therapy world.

Tuesday 16th February 2016: Working with the future

If the future is unwritten, as Joe Strummer once said, then how can we talk about it?  In this first session, Mark will look at the very distinctive ways that SF coaches can work with the future, both far distant and close at hand.  We will be looking at building platforms and projects, miracles, unscrambling the Future Perfect and using Mark’s new ‘User’s Guide to the Future’ tool.  And all this without the aid of goals, which can put you in gaol if you use them ineffectively. 

Wednesday 27th April: Working with the past

It has often been said, even by Mark himself a long time ago, that SF work is future-oriented.  Well, it is and it isn’t.  In this second session Mark will be looking at how the past comes into SF coaching. We will be looking at how to find useful pieces from the past, draw on different know-how and experiences and look at how rearranging our ideas of the past can be highly influential in our views of the present and future.  Mark will also share his work on the idea of ‘Counters’ in SF coaching, and how he wouldn’t call it that now.  The theoretical perspective of narrative emergence will come into play alongside real-life coaching sessions and activities.  And maybe if the future is unwritten, the past is less written than we thought…

Tuesday 14th June 2016: Working with the present

In this third session, Mark will look at how to work with the present – what’s going on here and now – in SF coaching and change.  What does an SF coach look for?  What do they overlook?  How do they filter distractions from vital clues?  And what, in the end, is the coach trying to do?  Join us for this final session when we will examine what goes on in the head, body and mind of an SF coach as the work progresses.  We will look at bringing future and past into the present, how to build it all together and what might happen next.  This session will also include element from Mark’s HESIAN project at the University of Hertfordshire on enactive cognition and how new ideas from philosophy of mind can shed revealing light on how SF work works. 

Venue: We will be hosting these events at Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green, London E2 6HG.  Oxford House is about a five minute walk from both Bethnal Green tube station (Central Line) and Bethnal Green Overground rail station.  For detailed information please go to http://oxfordhouse.org.uk

Lunch and refreshments are included.  SFCT/ASFIO members can obtain a 20% discount when booking. 

Money back guarantee:  We offer our no-quibble guarantee with this and all our events.  If you are not completely satisfied that the event has given you what you are looking for, we will refund your fee. Tickets for the second and third masterclasses will be on sale again at the same price after the conclusion of the first event. 

“Mark McKergow is one of the key figures in contemporary solution-focused work. If your interest is coaching, consulting or personal change Mark’s solution-focused approach will resonate for you. Highly recommended.”  Anthony M Grant PhD. Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit, University of Sydney 

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