Recently I had an interesting QandA with students. I learned how my training course design and content – especially the in-depth language and context built into the Tier 1 modules – helps students feel confident creating their own approaches to end of life work.
I. Am. Thrilled.
When I set out to design the end of life training courses I offer, I was determined not to write something that insisted that students had to be ‘just like me’. I’m not a fan of forcing people to duplicate ideas or information in a set, rigid way – so my training approach is always to encourage students to think about how information and knowledge sits as a part of their own life experience. Happily, critical thinking helps ensure everyone keeps healthy learning boundaries, and this is also built into my training.
However, to hear directly from students themselves that, even partway through the course, they are already confident in moving forward and developing specialist areas of practice and trying to make changes in their communities makes me happy. Because this feedback tells me I’m on the right track with my training ethos and approach. I cannot think of anything better to help me powering forward with new course content and expansion, as well as maintaining the overall course and support approaches already in place for students.
There is so much that each of us can offer to the people we care about when it comes to end of life, after-death and grief work. Often though, we see someone with a lot of followers on social media, or read an article about a high-profile person, and we forget about being ourselves and set out to be just like the person we read about. This is a pity, and certainly not a sustainable approach to working and networking in any field.
End of life training doesn’t mean you become a clone!
While we can definitely always keep learning – and some of us will always have more experience than others – it is important to remember that each of us brings a particular skill set, perspective, and communication style to our work. Who we are cannot be duplicated, and we shouldn’t try to deny our own individual talents, insights and strengths.
The QandA discussion about the new and specialist directions of students and their fresh ideas has inspired me. There will be some guest posts coming up on the blog where we can hear from different students about what draws them to different aspects of end of life and grief work. I like the idea that we can all take on new information and skills, yet maintain our own flair, communication style, and personal values in what we offer to those we support in the end of life spaces.
Want to know more? You can email me at info@gdep.com.au with your questions. Or, if you would like to enrol in my training course, please go to gdep.com.au
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