17 Apr Reflective practice as a powerful life changer
Recently in a reflective practice session, my client was showing up smiling, happy, confident., plenty of energy since the beginning.
She told me: ” A shift was happening to me due to our work together, I’m more confident about my work”.
Then she added that her direct superior was noticing her tone, affirmations transferring more self-confidence.
The exploration was going around the shift happening in her, based on reflective practice.
She is my client since more than a year, with life and professional experience, in a country with a different culture than mine.
Within the exploration couple of things came out:
- an increased self-awareness;
- becoming confident as a human being and professional;
- learning to respond to own emotions rather than reacting to them (as she was describing);
- connecting different dots over the entire journey;
- being encouraged;
- reflecting on herself and direction in which she would like to develop her role and professional practice;
- living the life with love and happiness.
Meantime feedback from her clients validated the impact of her shift. There is a deep transformative process which took time, as she recognized. And time is very different for each of us.
The case is a good example of how the three functions of reflective practice are coming together: normative, formative and restorative.
Being self-confident about your work is translated into serving better your client. From recognizing the boundaries of your role and redirecting the client to a proper professional, to self-development (increased awareness, recognizing emotions and responding, showing compassion and understanding) and self-care (continuing reflective practice and integrating it, exploring different situations and discovering own meanings).
The session is an example of bringing into the reflective practice space a topic about own strengths and what is going well in your practice, something that can be maintain as a good impact not only for you as a professional but also for your clients.
I was happy, grateful, surprised, satisfied, thankful. After the session it was my turn to continue the reflection about this journey, which is moving forward, being aware about integrating such a valuable experience into my practice.
Thank you, A.M., for everything I’ m learning besides you on this journey and for accepting to share a bit from our experiences!