LOOKING FOR FACILITATORS WHO ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR VULNERABILITY

22 Nov 2018

We continue to be short of facilitators as we have clients on waiting lists in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. If you or someone you know would like to find out about training to be a facilitator, please email michelle@acsyl.co.uk

Experience has taught us that when recruiting facilitators we need to look for people who are not afraid of their own vulnerability. This is essential if they are to enjoy working with our clients, proceeding at their pace and celebrating them as uniquely talented individuals who have so much to give their community.

Much has been written about the importance of vulnerability. Dr Brené Brown is one author we highly recommend. So is Bonnie Sherr Klein, the feminist film-maker who suffered a catastrophic stroke at the age of 46. As she puts it, "Before my stroke, I had the mistaken notion that feminism meant 'independence'; the unspoken corollary was that disability (and ageing) meant shameful dependence on others. What I have learned finally is that in asking for help I offer other people an opportunity for intimacy and collaboration. Whether I'm asking for me personally or for disabled people generally, I give them the opportunity to be their most human. In Judaism we call this gift a mitzvah."

Another author we recommend is Dr Temple Grandin, the autistic scientist who has famously said, "The world needs all kinds of minds."