Christine Burgess
My experience and learning on the course
My experience and my learning - how do I separate the two? I loved the course: I found it challenging, energising, liberating and I'm still processing.
“You are brilliant and the Earth is hiring”—the stage, so to speak, was set from the moment we sat down with Tracy's beautiful artwork highlighting the shimmering message. What exactly was our own brilliance ?- were we even aware of it ? - how could we work with it, honour it and lovingly be with it? - what was its part and therefore our part in the world? And so, Sue, under your watchful and caring eye, we talked, we listened, we questioned, we fed back, we told stories, we shared metaphors, we laughed - and we learned: how to be more, much more of ourselves and how to bring our own unique talents to the fore and into the world.
You were a great model of what we were learning throughout - curled up on the sofa you were utterly yourself and totally there for us all and with that wonderful alertness and instinct you wove the course together round who we were and what would benefit and support us. I learned so much from little things like that wonderful 'yes' you have that I can already hear myself saying. I learned so much more about the internal structure of experience from your ease and skill with the logical levels and from your masterful coaching. You probed, you challenged, you questioned, constantly seeking out the language and behavioural patterns to reflect back to us so we could in turn reflect and learn. And I valued constantly being challenged to go beyond content and focus on process in my questioning and answers. I now have a far richer understanding of what nlp and nlp coaching is.
I learned more of the tools of our trade too. It was very valuable to experience and experiment with ‘clean’ and ‘provocative’ questions, to really experience experiential learning and to have to design learning experiences, often on the spot with hardly any time to think (!), and to be reminded of the learning cycle and the TOTE model.
So much of the learning for me has been about strengthening the trainer within, knowing what I have to say and give is of value, it matters. It matters how
I say what I say - speaking up so the significance of what I say can be heard. And lastly it matters that I now take this forward, that the future tense becomes the present , that when is now and - yes - that pattern interrupt was perhaps the most important.
I have shared Paul Hawken's message and speech with family and close friends. It was a message that resonated with and from you, Sue, throughout our time together and so fitting that you both opened and closed our time together with it.
Puy des Vignes—our home
But of course no feedback on the course would be complete without a big thank you to you and Spence for opening and sharing your beautiful and lovingly restored home at Puy des Vignes with us. There is a wonderful sense of warmth and harmony about the energy of your house and land that make it such a special place to hold these courses, and it felt very right and very nourishing to be chez vous.
I have to say too that I loved watching Spence out of the corner of my eye digging up the vegetables for lunch, I loved watching him pare them almost reverently (though he might dispute that!), chop and slice in his own measured and methodical way and I loved his fabulous food - those biscuits, those potatoes, that ice-cream! His dropping in and out of the course was delightful and his feedback always refreshingly direct and to the point.
Our organisation
The organisation of the course was first-class and it was lovely to have time to 'be' in France at your local restaurant, at the market in Riberac and at the fantastic limestone cathedral in Aubeterre. A big thank you for all the ferrying around as well as the pick-up and drop-off at the airport.
Where I stayed
La Porte Rouge…
I stayed at La Porte Rouge, an incredible 13th century house in Verteillac where we were very well looked after by David and Elaine. Perhaps the only point to mention here for others is the somewhat precarious staircase up to the top landing (Maggie was a little perturbed by it when I showed her the rooms and I sensed she would not have been happy having to negogiate it twice or more a day).
And…
All in all I feel I am now just at the beginning of the next stage of my nlp journey and yes I would welcome and I am interested in other programmes - master classes, specials, top-ups and helping with Practitioner courses so I'll keep checking your web-site but if you have an email contact list, please add me for events etc.