Process Work as an ingredient of our method

"Process Work" is a method of working psychologically, with individuals and small and large-scale groups, developed by Arnold Mindell out of a background in Jungian psychology and quantum physics. It is an effective integration of these influences, as well as drawing upon shamanic and Taoist traditions. Out of this broad practice, I wanted to take a selection of elements friendly to our own emerging method.

The process work ethos would encourage us to nurture a sensitive attunement to the subtleties of the present moment and to our co-presence within the now. We will be helped in this, by drawing upon other, related disciplines: the Feldenkrais Method, Eugene Gendlin's method of "Focusing", and the Nose-to-Nose style of clown impro. All of these enable a fine-tuning of our subtle awareness, helping us to bring the shifting energies and contours of the interactive field into sharper focus. This becomes a much simpler task when we have the support and co-presence of others who are doing it with us. In other words it is greatly enhanced by the mutual encouragement and inter-personal facilitation we shall bring into play.

Here are some of the aspects I want to pay attention to:

• The "dream quality" of our feeling and our awareness - of both self and other.
  
• The underlying pattern of roles, of invitations and inhibitions, that guides the flow of our interaction.
  
• The recognition of "no go areas" (also known as "hot spots") which are regions - or topics - that seem to carry a high emotional charge and that in normal social situations we are mostly enjoined to avoid. Given a level of emotional "holding" by the whole assembled group, it is possible to find ways of inhabiting these "hot spots" and allowing the emotional high tension to find real pathways for expression and reconciliation.
  
• A similar recognition of "edges" - which are the barely recognised borderlines of our emotional or cognitive comfort zones. We tend to behave as if straying "over the edge" were absolutely unthinkable. But with support we can come to realize there is always a choice and that exploration "over the edge" can bring real enhancement of personal power and flexibility; the expected catastrophes from this straying beyond the zones of habit and comfort, are either an illusion, or have a very different meaning than our habitual fears would have us believe. (For example, the risk of "losing face" may be unconsciously confused with the fear of death.)
  
• It is an important aspect of our own way of working, that we will fully value and respect the aspect of ourselves that wants to stay on this side of the "edge". We will support and help to clarify this aspect, so that it fully participates in any re-appraisal of what this "edge" is really about, and how we will conduct ourselves in relation to it. (This is an application of the "Focusing" method, mentioned above.)
  
• A willingness to "role play" in order to bring out the underlying tensions or polarities in the interactive field.
  
• A willingness to surrender to the ongoing drama; this needs to be coupled with the building of the maximum possible trust between the "actors", the "audience" and those in the group who are acting as our facilitators.
  
• The recognition of unexpressed or "ghost" roles who may have a decisive influence in structuring the field we inhabit. (Sometimes we are massively freed up, as soon as someone is willing to play the part of "the tyrant", "the monster", "the other woman" or "the person we are all leaving out".)
  
• A recognition of the essential role of facilitator: he or she who helps to maintain some of the aforementioned emotional "holding"; who will also try to attune and amplify the processes flickering in the background. these are processes and patterns that may be needing attention and encouragement to flow more freely. The facilitator will also help us keep our bearings and remain to some degree anchored in the consensual reality. (Some of us are fearful we may be engulged by our fantasies, or by the fantasies of others, or simply by the unleashing of the flow of our own emotions. It helps if we will trust that the facilitator has the capacity to "bring us back" to a shared reality in which we will be able to find ourselves - and the other people - again.)

Several of us in the research community for "Grace in the Now" have experience in Process Work, though none of us is involved in continuing training, and none of us has a formal qualification. My personal view is that we are offering here an alternative context for the process-work sensibility, and we are looking to provide a new integration for it, within our contrasting set of working methods. This is a form of piracy, it must be admitted, but we are not stealing anything that has formal copyright attached to it. (Very much the same situation applies to the discipline "Discovering the Clown Within" which is covered in a separate section.)

More information about Process Work in the UK