Disorienting Dilemma Toolkit Transcript

Disorienting Deliemma Toolkit: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Welcome to the disorienting dilemma tool kit. So earlier we talked a bit about Jack Mezirow's transformational learning theory. That is really instrumental in guiding this project that you're going through right now. Part of that is really wanting to be mindful of the emotional and spiritual dimensions that take place when we navigate entering new learning.

Especially as adults that already have well-established roles and experiences when we are. Really reentering educational experiences and volunteering to be open to seeing the world in new and different ways. That is a necessarily disruptive process. It's at once disruptive as it is generative, it's the, new [00:01:00] soil where really amazing innovations and.

Contributions can be born from it's this underutilized capacity. All of us that have exited our formal education have entered the field with maybe some preconceptions that didn't match totally right to our environments that we entered into. If you can go into these environments, learn from field application, and then go back.

To those theoretical foundations and explore it is. An amazing potential for really meaningful insights. That's why I think we really do need to source clinicians and all sorts of folks that are working in the field. We need to combin when these two worlds, because it is gonna be [00:02:00] where really amazing innovations and generations of thoughts can come from.

So I just wanna collaborate, congratulate you for being here, but I also wanna acknowledge that this disorienting dilemma process. It's not always fun. Disruption. Isn't always a comfortable experience. It is something that sometimes creates tension and pressure. And it's something that needs to be are benefits from being mediated with some intention.

And that's really what this module is. And really it's gonna be somewhat of a collaborative discussion. And I am curious what you guys can think of to offer as well to this community. So that might be something that as we get going into our forum discussions is figuring out things that you find that are resourcing and supporting and affirming for you.

As [00:03:00] we go through some of these disorienting processes together I would love to know what you have to contribute this space. Some of this is the things that we're so used to offering the clients that we support. We have this mindset and it can be difficult to apply that same lens for ourselves and for each other.

So maybe that's something that we can practice. So anyway, we really should orient first to really defining what a disorienting dilemma is. And so this is one of the definitions that's been provided by the McKay and Kimble text that really says that it's an experience in which. One's expectations are disrupted and it requires a reconsideration of the conditions that gave rise to that experience and the self that engaged in the experience.

So really what Jack Mero encourages us to understand a disoriented dilemma as being is, when we are really challenged to question our assumptions. About a [00:04:00] phenomena, what we thought was going to happen and it didn't turn out the way that we thought it would when we are caused to really question our worldview in some way, as we encounter new perspectives and new information, we end up going through.

A critical self-reflection process and hopefully an openness to some curiosity and taking in new perspectives and then creating some space to play around and try out new ways of doing things. And then maybe then with our new learning and what we reintegrate through learning, especially in a collaborative community.

They can have this gift of enhancing our worldview and creating this sort of synthesis of our old identity with the new information, as well as openness to more creativity and, more collaboration and interest in [00:05:00] the new potential of a situation. Maybe with less fear of difference or maybe less rigidity in our practice.

For example. So that's some of the basic philosophy around Jack MIS Rose's learning theory and something that we're hoping that we might have the opportunity to mediate together, to get some really cool and interesting results. So the first step of this is to be pretty diligent about recognizing that we're all entering this space with.

A great diversity of past experiences. And anytime that we have past roles, experiences, associations. That all we, we carry that with us into a space, into the context that we're entering in. Even if we're not fully conscious of that. For example, in this course, we're [00:06:00] gonna be talking about.

Say occupational therapy theory. We're gonna bring up some terms that maybe we haven't interacted with since we last graduated from our bachelor's program, from our associate's program, from our master's degree program I'm well aware even just in my cohort and a lot of people that I talked to, many of us left experiences with academia.

being a bit. Shook by the experience it's, it tends to formal education tends to be a very high pressure learning environment. And it's not one that's well adapted to really support the needs of, yeah. I would say even most people it's very likely that having these words. Get brought up again, and these topics could be triggering from some of these past academic experiences and maybe [00:07:00] these past experiences, maybe it wasn't a very welcoming environment for you.

Maybe you felt that you had to perform and make your answers look just right, so that you could get a passing score on a test that could have distorted in some. The relationship to this information and to this material. Maybe some of it wasn't fun. Maybe some of it felt like it was just a game to play or something that you just needed to do to get through the works, because all we needed was that credential.

So we could practice. That's of one of the common things that I've heard about before. And I also wanna acknowledge that those of us that you we've all been practicing in the field that comes with some really clear realities where oftentimes our practice isn't fully Representative of how it gets talked about in OT education and in academia, it really ends up [00:08:00] being the insurance policies or the workplace politics dictating how, where and when, and how occupational therapy is defined.

And that's something, that's a reality that we've been practicing it for years and potentially decades. And I have these images of the Lego people here to acknowledge that most of us are entering this environment here with some formal roles and uniforms that we put on in relation to the medical environment, maybe the school based practice environment these models that we practice in.

Over time we can used to that. Get used to them having pretty formal and at times, very like black and white definitions of what is or is not. Okay. And what we're allowed to think about in this se section. One of the things that we do, especially for working in high stress [00:09:00] environments. It can be really tempting to compartmentalize some of these experiences and to separate when we're at work.

And when we're at home really over time, these things become our job or we can have ways that. We've put tight boxes around how we're defining this experience. And I just wanna acknowledge that this is something that we bring in is these rules and, we can reflect on maybe we've had a variety of rules and how that's shifted over time, especially over the last three years and everything that we've been going through.

These Massive global crises that we've been navigating in many cases, we're on the front lines of that. If it's in pediatric practice it's, in medical practice. If it's in school based practice, if it's in mental health we've all been holding space from really tough experiences that we've been going through in the United States and internationally part of why I included the [00:10:00] I'm fine image is that a lot of us are also.

Navigating having coming out of this crisis. And even before this crisis, maybe feeling a little bit burnt out maybe having some difficulty navigating what these disruptive dilemmas have for our professional identity. I know that's what brought me. Back to school because I felt like I was so in love with the occupational therapy that I learned about in school and that I really wanted the opportunity to experience, but I needed the sense that I needed more guidance and more support on how to find that and needed to see more avenues, to even create something where I could keep the spirit of occupational therapy alive in me.

So I, needed to bring in some supports. So I just wanna acknowledge that a lot of. Are potentially entering this space, having to navigate a professional identities with some really tough emotional experiences [00:11:00] and what I found from that and what I've invited occupational science to offer me and what I have the intention of hopefully creating together is some space for.

Some space for processing some space for imagination, creativity, cultivating agency, PO possibility, and even spaced for mindful disillusion, maybe not destruction, but maybe allowing some parts. Of the institutions that we're part of to melt away and form and come together in new understandings of what's possible in some, spaces to explore with less tethering to the day to day policy constraints.

One of the things I love about the lens of occupational science and how it. [00:12:00] In a way that's symbiotic with occupational therapy, but also separate from occupational therapy. Is there some freedom to imagine, and to engage with a phenomenon occupation that allows. The signs to take you in an unexpected direction without having to be so tied down to the day to day concerns and constraints of day to day practice.

And it also expands the lens of occupation beyond the typical quote patient populations to thinking about. Humans in general, thinking about the natural world, thinking about how science plays out through purposeful doing and how these different philosophies integrate. So that's one of my intentions in cultivating this space.

And acknowledging how we're all entering this conversation about occupational therapy and [00:13:00] changing our practice is I found that I need this and maybe you need, this is a space for some, play a space for some processing, a space to navigate these tough and difficult emotions so that they turn from like really negative.

And I wanna say Poo pooey situations, but we need to turn that into compost so that it can be soil so that we have the generation of new possibilities from some of these possibly painful experiences that we've been going through in this growth process together. So from that, I wanna talk a little bit about really common emotions that can emerge from experiencing a disorienting dilemma.

When there is a disruption of where we previously were putting a lot of our identity, a lot of our certainty, a lot of our foundation, whenever [00:14:00] any of those things that we've anchored in gets disruption or get. Put position in such a way that we have to reflect on our foundational assumptions. I listed here a lot of motions that are totally normal and common to come up as part of this process.

Um, I just want to quickly interject for those that are listening to this. This recording Podcast format. Uh, some of the listed emotions that are on the PowerPoint slides. So those include frustration, confusion. Anger. Grief. Pain shame. Agitation. Disdain. Aggression betrayal. Sadness disorientation.

Embarrassment, resentment grief. Critical. Numb. Irritable surprised. [00:15:00] Overwhelmed conflict defeat. Jealousy envy apathy. Apprehension fear, discomfort, concerned, anxiety, intention.

Also on the other side. There's listed relief. Empowerment. Hope connection, compassion, curiosity. Intrigue. And excitement, comfort and passion.

Disorienting Deliemma Toolkit: I wanna quickly frame that disorienting dilemmas are so important to be aware of for almost anybody that is signing up to be part of. A scientific endeavor and a scientific enterprise because. Being open and in integrity and a scientific discipline is knowing at the beginning that you're signing up for your foundational assumptions to be routinely [00:16:00] critiqued and challenged in the face of new information and new data and being open to your ideas about how it works.

Somehow being questioned and disrupted regularly. So I think that's part of, I just wanted to frame this, but this is part of. Why we're talking about emotions and of course about science is it's so important to be aware of this process, because if we can start getting the tools to navigate this with awareness and with supports, it actually makes us better scientists.

So in addition to obviously for clinicians and practitioners and therapists, the more mindfully we can navigate our emotional experiences, it's obvious that we can hold a, therapeutic container and intentional use itself to a higher degree. So these are just important skills for us to really cultivate mindfully, no matter what, [00:17:00] but I do wanna put out there, this is part of.

Being in scientific integrity is mediating emotions wisely and getting the right supports in place. Because if we're not careful, these navigating and disorienting dilemma inappropriately can really compromise the integrity and of a project and can really distort how we're making meaning. If we're not really aware of how we are navigating our own.

Our own growth process with new information. So anyway I, just wanted to list out and I'll be honest. A lot of these are emotions that I have personally been facing, especially over the last couple years and in my own journey with the disorienting dilemma in relating to occupational science again, and understanding the new developments of our field.

I've navigated a lot of these emotions [00:18:00] frustration. Especially frustration with the documentation systems that I'm working with with how, difficult it is to explain what I do and offer, or to justify the value of what we do or feeling anger and grief about the loss of the potential of work that maybe could have been done decades ago, but hasn't been done yet.

There can be shame that like all of a sudden you learn that you could have been offering a service as billable this whole time, but you had a manager that told you from years ago that you couldn't offer that service. And there's maybe shame that you provide services in a way. Now we're finding out is maybe hurtful to the PA to the patient population we're working with.

That's a really good example of something that is common to feel [00:19:00] really tough emotions. When we start to question some of the foundational assumptions about our practice, about our history, about the legacies that we're a part of in being Particularly affiliated with the United States, getting exposed to this information and being open to it.

It's normal to feel. Irritable surprised, overwhelmed. It's normal to be in a state of conflict with ourselves and with others that are practicing from a different worldview. It's normal to have anxiety, to be concerned at times it's normal to feel a sense of resentment or jealousy or envy or apprehension for others that practice in different ways.

Feeling this not only within our own discipline, but also at how other fields are developing [00:20:00] or I've honestly been feeling a lot of envy about how occupational therapy has developed in other countries, for example. So these are things that. Are possibilities that could come up as we start to learn about broader perspectives that occupational science and other disciplines have to offer.

As we're open to understanding our practice in different ways as therapists going into this new world where you know, information is going to rapidly adapt as fast as the outside world is changing. As we navigate these crises together. So it's really important that we notice that these emotions are expected and are totally normal when we're ever we're called to really question.

And critique and reflect upon those assumptions that we've developed in relation to our [00:21:00] worldview. And I also want to compare and contrast this, that at the same time, by being open, to adopting new perspectives and thinking about our worldview differently with new information. I've also personally experienced the relief that comes from that, the clarity, the empowerment, the hope, the new connection and compassion and curiosity, intrigue and excitement and passion.

All of those things are also opened up as we embrace some of these more difficult emotions that come with new learning. Another way to think about this is really. Thinking about the disruptions that we often help our clients and their families navigate. Whenever anybody's interacting with occupational therapy services, it's never for an event that they thought or anticipated and expected happen.

It often does trigger that sense of [00:22:00] processing of what your identity is now that you're experiencing a disability and illness or A developmental trajectory that's different than you expected. And as a therapist, right? That for the families that engage and are open from learning from the supports and perspective that they often gain some of the deepest wisdom and some of the most humanly, rich, beautiful moments in life from being open to what these experiences have to give as gifts, as much as they bring.

Disruption and pain. , it's sort of those things, you get pain and love and that and that joy and that same container. So what's great in new learning and navigate these dilemmas together is they're very rich and meaningful fodder for developing a meaningful life trajectory and really rich innovations for how we're seeing the world scientifically.

So there's benefit. From going through some of these [00:23:00] downsides. And I just wanted to contextualize in this too, that whenever we have our critical foundational assumptions questions somehow, or reflect them, it can actually activate a micro level grief process. And that's, I wanna say this to normalize that these difficult motions that we face when we take on this new information.

And this cycle, and it might even be a cycle. I found that a lot of the things I've been navigating as I've been exploring occupational science, it's taken me a lot of time to sit with some of these concepts and to, move through the emotions I'm feeling at sort of their own pace. And some of these things it's taken me a year or two or three to really sit with and to get to that place of acceptance and acknowledgement and empowerment.

But we do. That as we [00:24:00] navigate and live with and take on the wisdom that our grief has to offer us. So I'm sure I'm not the only one that's had to experience loss and grief illness. As you sit with and acknowledge and build a relationship with that reality, it does get to a point of offering some meaning and some wisdom and some really I've found that my.

If I think about it, my life path has been shaped very meaningfully and satisfyingly in reaction to the lessons that grief has had to teach me. And that might be coming in from this outside, but I just wanna acknowledge that this process of navigating disorienting dilemma as we sit with it, it also brings.

Amazing gifts and insights that we may not have otherwise had towards developing a sense of meaning in our practice. So that's, what's [00:25:00] so hard is this trust of sitting with it and that's, what's so great too, about being part of a community as we take on some of these dilemmas and learning together is at least doesn't have to be work that we do in isolation or without supports.

So with that being said, I do wanna go into. Discussing what some of those supports maybe could look like. We'll look at what we can build into our own day and routine and be on the lookout for we'll explore what the course has built into it that you have the invitation to engage with as a student in this course, and also then opportunities that you can maybe source in the community around you as well.

And lastly too we'll, go over some of the things to be mindful of in going through anting dilemma in an online context, in building community, in an online context. So let's look at how do we support, how do you support yourself [00:26:00] and the community? While navigating these experiences and these really big emotions as a dis disorienting dilemma is occurring.

A disruptive event is occurring, and this is some of the general guidance that I have to offer while also acknowledging that everyone's different. And I'm not an expert and we're all coming, into this. So this is something that is hopefully a broader conversation that we can get insight from. A broader cohort of folks.

Cause what works for me might not be what works exactly for you, but we can have an open question of exploring what could work and what does feel good and getting towards cultivating that soil that we can grow from. So the first general guidance that I wanna offer is sitting with and acknowledging the experience that's taking.

Allow space for that feeling to reveal itself without judgment. So it can be recognized, acknowledged, and validated.[00:27:00] It's so important that we can be in touch with ourselves. We can get the wisdom from the experiences that. Are really happening to our minds and our bodies and our spirits. If we listen to them, they can guide us to where something's not feeling right or where we might need more information.

But that first step is being attuned to if we're having some of these emotions. Coming up. So we really wanna recognize, and we wanna validate them. And as, as much as we can get into a practice of validating our motions within ourselves the more richness that we can gain from really getting the nuances of what those can occur.

Sometimes when we rely on validation from the external world, it can misguide us and we don't really get exactly what our bodies are trying to tell us. The next thing we wanna look at exploring is how those emotions can be expressed and explored [00:28:00] that can allow us to get to those nuance of what's taking place.

And that guidance that can come up and commonly, this can express itself through our, through writing through movement, through ritual sometimes Say for example, we had a program that we were a part of that we developed as an occupational therapist that got cut or disrupted, or maybe we really had a way of practicing with the previous rug system in skilled nursing that now that it's transitioned to PDPM, we can no longer offer the service in that format.

We almost need to have a ritual to. Recognize how beautiful that contribution that work was and the pain that has been caused of no longer having that same model and maybe [00:29:00] a ritual of rebirth into openness of the new possibilities or, asking that part of you that created that program.

Where it wants to go in its next iteration or how it can be evolved in a new format or where it can find new home. So connecting to those ways of expressing those emotions can be a really important part of processing and moving through what they have to tell us and where they can guide us to what could be next.

We also wanna look at how we can. Understand these experiences in a way of building supportive relationships and. Being open and aware that there might be others that are having similar experiences that we're having, or have similar interests that are interested in supporting healing and recovery and exploration towards new constructive [00:30:00] outlets.

For this potential pain for distraughtness and I just wanna emphasize supportive that sometimes when we are navigating painful info, more painful emotions or grief process. Not everyone. That's also going through that is in a place where they're able to hold a supportive space. And I'm sure you have heard that point before that hurt people can hurt people.

So if you're finding that you're not getting the encouragement and the nourishment, you have permission to keep exploring and sourcing relationships that are supportive, that do feel like they are giving grounds and clearance for those emotions to be expressed. And supported and evolving into their highest creative expression.

I really encourage exploring new information and new possibilities in diverse formats and perspectives and context. Sometimes we need to get support and information from [00:31:00] music. Sometimes we need it from movements. Sometimes we need to watch movies that explore those emotions. Sometimes we need to read books about it.

Sometimes we need to escape into a nonfiction intellectual way of thinking about the problem analytically. Other times we might need to explore it in a total play based improv situation. But I want you to give yourself permission to play and access. These emotions from whatever place that your body's telling you, that they're more com most comfortable exploring them in the moment and maybe be open to new possibilities that you haven't experienced before and maybe different vantage points on the same experience.

And it might not come from the OT world at all. Some of the nuggets of wisdom that helped get you through this journey. It's so important to give [00:32:00] yourself space and time to process what it means that these fundamental worldview pieces have been disrupted and have been shaken. This, having this experience, it's hard to put a timeline to it.

Giving time and space and sensitivity is almost a better way to have it be done quicker and faster. Is almost to the measure that you make space for, that stewarding the recognition of it. So please don't put yourself on a timeline with this stuff. Be mindful and intentional with how you are processing this information.

It's so helpful if we can approach. Understanding these challenges with a mindset of curiosity versus one of judgment and disdain and shutting down how you [00:33:00] need to work through some of these challenges. And it's so important, I think to adapt a, playful approach to. Taking on new learning and new expectations.

This is something that we know so well as occupational therapists and that we recognize as like a true need for the health and development of. All humans in their pediatric phase. And we forget about how important this actually is to our ongoing development. Just because we're an adult doesn't mean we've stopped developing.

We still have life stages that we're navigating, where it's helpful to take on a playful approach before inhabiting new roles that are for death serious. Sometimes we need to cultivate that sense of play as we're taking on new learning. Because it's truly important for mastering new skills, developing confidence and finding out our [00:34:00] identity as individuals that doesn't end, just because we turn eight or we turn nine or we turn 18 or we turn 34 or we turn 67.

We're humans for life. And we really truly benefit from an approach of play in just about every stage and every concept context. And this is something that I think you'll find occupational science offers a meaningful lens for. It's also important to have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset that.

Just as we're interacting with new information that we had no idea, we just got totally side swiped and seeing the world in a completely different way. We can have a sense of oh you can't teach an old dog new trips, or I'm stuck in my ways. We know very well as therapists that the brain.

Pretty much, always plastic, and there's always a potential to learn something more and have [00:35:00] something different to offer from a different perspective. We really have such unique challenges in the modern world that we need all hands on deck. And no one of us can see the full picture. And that's a beautiful thing about occupational science too, is it truly needs all of.

To have an accountable understanding of how occupation is unfolding, your perspective matters. And we all are capable of new learning. We also need and benefit from approaching this process with humility. This is not something that we're trying to master or dominate. It's actually just something to surrender to and be open to.

That's something to be in that place of a openness for new learning from everybody that you come across is going to ease and soften just about all of those emotional experiences to the point of receiving the wisdom from them. That's at least what I found in my [00:36:00] own journey.

Here's some other things that I wanna encourage sometimes. I'll bring up this mantra of a song that meant allotted to me when I was going through tough times, particularly in my teenage years. And the core lyric of the song that stuck with me was darling. Don't fear. What you don't really know.

It's so common. We have a natural aversion at times as human beings to fear the unknown and to assume that it has the worst for us. And often I'm sure this as a therapist that not all change is, bad change. A lot of the things that we don't know have the most wonderful blessings to offer us.

And so we have to be careful that natural bias to be adverse to the things that we don't understand that we don't understand yet, and that we haven't met yet. We have to make openness that these unknown things can actually bring. Amazing blessings and possibilities into our lives that maybe [00:37:00] the best thing that's ever happened hasn't happened yet is just waiting across the next door.

We can always be open to those wonderful possibilities, just as much the negative ones. It's so important to cultivate and approach for hope of being open to bright spots in dark spaces is a. Is it just it's hard to undersell the potential that has to support an optimal development. And really there's been times where occupational science has been termed the science of hope.

And it's something that I encourage you to cultivate, to steward this process in a way that can be nourishing. We wanna encourage taking action towards new growth and reward and give yourself positive reinforcement for embracing new change. That is not easy. We really wanna seek connection over mastery.

So we're not approaching [00:38:00] new learning as something to get the certificate or to be the dominant or the only one that knows things or the person that has the most accurate understanding. Hope to correct an environment where we're seeking connection for ongoing learning and community where we're not trying to dominate any subject.

We're almost trying to surrender and understand what it has to tell us and who we connect with in that journey in a fun, delightful discovery of new information. Really creating a spirit of collaboration and shared resources over one of competition, domination and defeat. I'm sure that a lot of you have experienced the competition that can happen in the rehab sector.

And we makes us lose sight of that goal that we have of supporting our clients. Resource drain set settings. We really just have so much more to benefit from upholding that collaboration over competition mindset. And [00:39:00] really, again, just bring back, allowing that space and time for process allowing for there to be mistakes.

Prepare imperfection, allowing diversity to exist as it is. We can't control any of this process and how anything in our outside world is fully unfolding, but we can choose to understand it and create space to process it and all it's splendid and perfection and hopefully make space for others to do the.

So those are some of my hopes in cultivating the space and something that I hope that you might offer yourself as you go through your own disorienting dilemmas. So that being said, here are some of the common supports that are available for navigating a self, a reflective process. As we really take on navigating disruptions to our core perceptions and.

Some of the things that I like to do is [00:40:00] read others' experiences with the same questions that I am also struggling with and navigating. And I read things from a variety of different perspectives, maybe journal articles, maybe personal reflections narratives, poetry in that same regard, media different shows sitcoms movies that are navigating.

Some of the same questions can be very helpful. Many people really need journaling. Some of the practices like open three pages that you free write in the morning to understand what the emotional experiences are that you're navigating. Another common one is. Maybe picking up quilting, painting, performing, joining a what do you call it?

It seems like a lot comes out for the people that play Dungeons and dragons, things like that. Having those creative expressions, having time and nature. [00:41:00] Going on nature walks going out and just breathing under a tree in your yard. Even just looking at pictures of nature can be very resourcing and contemplative doing outside sporting things like that.

Having meaningful conversations with those that you find supportive and interesting. I personally love going on long drives. Those really help me frost the focus and process things. It's definitely not easy now with the gas prices, probably not the most mindful for the environment, but finding places that put you in that nice reflective mindset, where you have your own space exercise and connecting to your body and realizing.

It's all connected as your mind gets challenged or your body gets put into a straining situation. We really benefit from having practices that support our whole body in navigating these challenges. Trying to [00:42:00] have a space of really observing what's happening. Going through guided questions, guided reflections, guided meditations.

That can be very helpful. I also wanted to link to sensory supports in terms of that embodiment question of acknowledging that if our mind's getting disrupted, if our body's getting disrupted, they're all experiencing it together. I'm a big believer in Tina Champlain's work and how sensory modulation affects the psychosocial.

The psychosocial distressing environment for adults. She has great resources and author to text on this very topic. And she even has a free resource to a sensory diet guide for adults that I think would be really helpful in mediating reflective practice. And I think it's also important for those of us that do have spiritual practices.

I think it can be easily underestimated, just how helpful that is when our [00:43:00] core assumptions get challenged, how helpful it can be to reconnect to those practices that have been helpful to us in the past, or that show up to be helpful in the future. So here are some of the supports that are built into the course to provide.

Support while we are reflecting and challenging some of those previous assumptions. The modules themselves are gonna contain guided learning exercises that are opportunities for you to join in more of a community context. There are open discussion forums where you can share your own content, videos, reflections, maybe some of the media that you're consuming.

That's helping provide insight, your own process. You can share in the community. In our lesson forums, there's the opportunity to leave anonymous or. Or include your identity in the course discussion groups. There's gonna be [00:44:00] a monthly live zoom discussion group that we can connect on and have discussions about the things that we're processing together.

I also have the opportunity that you can schedule one on one office hours. We have group and individual messaging available on the up coach platform. If you meet others that are open to engaging in dialogue outside of the class container, and you can reach out to me if, especially if you find a group of you that want to have your own, maybe more private, small group discussion within up coach, I'm happy to set that up for you.

In terms of connecting with the broader community for support in this I really encourage you to invite your own friends and that you do trust that you have supportive relationships with they're welcome to take this course as well. I really do encourage you to ask for support when you need it.

You never know what can show. Through that kind of vulnerable share. I know I've had to join focus groups [00:45:00] on topics that are of related re rated interest. For example, ones that really focused on processing the legacy of racism or navigating understanding of ancestry from a European standpoint is something that I've been working with special groups on You can also often access really affordable or free mental health supports through your employee assistance program.

Most occupational therapists employers are affiliated with some employee assistance program. So that's a good way to get. Financially accessible therapy supports for navigating this. We also have traditional counseling and therapy options. I'm going to link to some options below. We wanna be mindful that those of us that are accessing this information from different backgrounds might need unique and different supports.

Those of us that are from an indigenous background might need [00:46:00] really nuanced supports and navigating information around colonialism or. And vice versa and it's okay for us to get support separately that can really help in really getting to that place of hope and revital revitalization. So there's other forums, crisis lines that are available outside of this course.

And we want you to help and develop awareness in this course of your own boundaries of processing within our own group and finding the spaces that really genuinely help support your own growth and process. I do wanna support. That non-human and natural supports are also very valid forms of supports too.

Getting support from the animals in your life, engaging in, I know, practices with horses that can be revitalizing for many folks, I wanna validate and acknowledge that. I want you to encourage. [00:47:00] To have some conscious, active reflection in the context that you just naturally have it as an occupational being.

So one of the ways that you can also engage in a reflective process in your community is by bringing this new lens, say, when you go to the grocery store, looking at how people are relating in that context, or observing and noticing your work setting. From a different vantage point with some of the concepts that we're gonna explore here.

You really can start really reflecting almost on these concepts and when your assumptions get challenged by adopting new lenses, almost anywhere you go that can be helpful when it feels like, oh, creating a extra space and time is just not possible in your schedule. You can incorporate some of those lenses and perspectives.

So we'll talk about that a little bit later. So it's also helpful to embrace the diversity of different role models to be open [00:48:00] to Seeing the growth process of other people that are entering it from different vantage points. You might be surprised that somebody in a different generation than you has some of the wisdom that you're look looking for that can help you move to the next stage of your development.

So be open to role models that are unexpected and who you might learn for try out information in new formats than you've ever watched a different show than you ever watched. Or Explore a subject that you've never thought that you would ever do before as an adult learner learning can be so fun because you don't need the grades.

If you sign up for a free course online, you can take a course that maybe before you would never have wanted to pay for, or you would be worried about failing, but it can give you insight into seeing the world from a different perspective. And that just leads into the idea of being open, to exploring a diversity of.[00:49:00]

Cause that can really help in mediating this process to constructive. So I wanna encourage you to embrace the journey and seeing growth that can come through the imperfection of losing a sense of certainty or having a reality disrupted in some way. There's really beautiful things that come from unexpected forces, just the rocks in this stream.

Never. They had their life passed disrupted by the squatter, but it ended up creating a really beautiful result and a context for new habitat for life to grow in. And if you take a look at this volcano, it is an extremely messy and disruptive process of magma unfolding. And yet it is the reason that all of earth is here.

Is a really there's a pattern to [00:50:00] how this new generation in new life unfolds. So while it is disruption and destruction, it's also creation and the grounds for new exploration classically, we have the metaphor of the butterfly that it's previous life entirely dissolves and is being totally.

Revitalized and consumed, and it's a very uncomfortable process, but it emerges into this new stage of growth and development. And maybe that's just, what's coming for all of us. I truly think and believe. Especially from exploring occupational science that the greatest potential for occupational therapy is really yet to come.

I really loved Doris Pierce, which is one of the books that I'll encourage you guys to engage with. She dedicates one of her book characters to the weeds that grow through the cracks. And I really think that's all of us, especially those of us facing hard. And our clients is [00:51:00] that we have that capacity and to grow through the cracks and that resourcefulness.

And that makes me so excited to introduce you to the science of hope. Thank you for joining in this in this discussion right now of what it really means to mindfully navigate a disorienting dilemma and to use that as a potential thread to build community together. And we're gonna host a recorded discussion with a good friend of mine who works as a counselor. And also we have the experience of going to a non-traditional learning environment together. And we wanna discuss about what it means to be mindful of taking care of your milk, being. All engaging in dialogue online. As we're all aware, there are some sensitivities that we can bring into the space.

And often if we are navigating, it is ING direct dilemma. We sometimes can be pretty emotionally raw and it can be difficult to [00:52:00] have really mindful dialogue virtually. So I really wanna give you some resources to support that. And that's gonna be included in the discussion below.

Very quickly, I will outline these slides here that kind of go over some basic practices, which really include exploring navigating and supporting your own boundaries.

When you do choose to engage with community online this platform in particular is developed to try to give you the most autonomy in setting and modulating your boundaries. So there's no pressure. To really communicate in a way that you wouldn't feel comfortable communicating. So really don't feel any pressure at all to share anything that you wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with this group.

You have the accommodation. If you need to write a reflective prompt in your own journal, reflect that on up coach that you [00:53:00] completed it. Let me know how much time it took anything that you want or feel comfortable sharing with me about the exercise. And I'll give you credit for it. You don't have to share it in the.

You can request a small learning group to do online dialogue, where if you don't feel comfortable sharing things in a big group you can always use an anonymous comment feature in the learning platform if you need it. You can use anonymous tracking of your learning activities and participation if you need it.

Wanna make sure that you're not they're protecting any identifying health. Information of the clients that you wanna reflect about just make those basic protections in place. Really want you to encourage you to respect the vulnerability and the confidentiality of anybody that shares anything in the community that we share together.

You do wanna know that there will be a rolling admission to students in this course. And so if there's anything you feel sensitive sharing, please [00:54:00] don't feel pressured to share that and find the places that you do. Safe and that you do feel comfortable. I do want you to anticipate that there likely will be expressions of emotions and triggering circumstances from this new learning in this space.

And we wanna be understanding accommodating and warm about the diversity of different perspectives that are gonna coexist in this space. So please be mindful and respectful. Of these diverse perspectives and expect there to be some messiness and imperfection, if you are hurt or are navigating a tense interaction, you're welcome to reach out to me.

We'll do our best to mediate and hopefully bring repair, but we do wanna consider an orientation in our discussion that lends towards discussion and understanding rather than debate. Or intentionally stewing or I don't mean to say intentionally, but we want to try to avoid things that can escalate into tension into, [00:55:00] or not acknowledging the humanity and everybody's contributions to this platform.

So please orient yourself to the community guidelines, to get some guidance on communication. That's likely to compromise the safety of our learning community that can be classified as harassment or abuse. We do want you to report any concerns of your experiences either within the up close platform or on the threads that could be in violation of those guidelines so that we can work towards repair and moderation.

Well, sup doing our best to support the diversity perspective. And with that being said, here are some of our general guidelines on how to have satisfying online dialogue. Please orient to listen carefully and deeply. To the contributions of all, especially from folks that are possibly entering the position from a different vantage point for you.

Please share time and [00:56:00] space as generously as you would like to receive it. Please be aware of intention and how. Our words, regardless of intention can have a hurtful impact in the context on what we could be exploring. Take any time, take a minute. If you need to there's no, you're gonna have lifetime access to this course.

You can always come back to any of the dialogue that you need to please refrain from using language that. Very predictably hurt or, be damaging to the safety of those experienced in the community. Try to work hard to understand different points of view. And when possible challenge ideas and, not the people themselves understand that there are likely shares happening from a pretty vulnerable place.

And we don't want things to escalate to the point of personal attacks and rather [00:57:00] discussion about the ideas that we are exploring together. Expect and accept discomfort and joy as part of the learning process and seek to engage in the learning from a place of compassion, with an open heart, with a replacement of judgment, with curiosity and an open mind.

That with that being said, thank you for joining in, on this longer content form. And I hope that's the follow up discussion is one that will support your sense of feeling supported. Mentally spiritually and physically and navigating an online learning experience and understanding that we're really all exploring these disorienting dilemmas and critical junctures together.

You're not alone in the challenges that we're experiencing in the field. And I want to connect you with things that can support us, having a [00:58:00] fertile and vital future as a very important. Disciplines that can help us all mediate change constructively and adapting to the challenges that we're facing.

So thank you so much for being part of this community. I hope you feel safe and welcome here, and please reach out if you have any special requests or questions, and I'm gonna open up a part of the forum so that We can share any other supports that have worked for us in navigating disorienting dilemmas together.

Thank you so much.