I'm prepping in earnest now for the southern based Fusion Therapeutic Coaching Diploma running from September.
The northern hub training went really well. I ran the new 'Mindfulness Based Mind Management' trainers' day for the first time. I hoped it would be well received, but was absolutely bowled over by some really enthusiastic feedback, such as the email I received from BACP counsellor Donna Ward :
'The Fusion training model has picked up the best of other therapeutic models, fused together with Frances’ knowledge and evidence of what really works. Incorporating coaching, it is the full package!
For me it has provided the missing pieces of the jigsaw. I now feel hopeful and confident that I can really move my clients past sticking points and make some major breakthroughs. Frances’ knowledge and delivery was clear, professional and EVERY bit of what she taught us was useful. This was certainly not a course that was padded out.
It has changed my mind-set in so many ways. I have realised we don't have to complicate this process. What Frances has done with this model is fantastic. The Mindfulness Based Mind Management was a great course. It is very clear and easy to follow, concentrating on the facts and what really works; also what is realistic so it can be maintained.
Honestly, this has been the best training I have been on. Every bit of it was so valuable. I definitely got what I needed from the course. …definitely great value for money.
I feel very honoured to be part of Fusion. The skills I have learned will help gives people their lives back.'
Mending the world
At the start of the MBMM day, we set our intention by stating what we wanted from the training. I surprised myself with the level of emotion attached to my own response:
'I just want to help. I want this training to help you and to help your clients.'
It took me back to a saying I came across right at the start of my own journey as I emerged from a frightening experience of post natal depression, 'If every man would mend a man, all the world would be mended.'
It set me thinking. I reframed the word 'would' as 'could'. Through my experience, I had seen that many people wanted to help me, but didn't know how. Now training as a counsellor, I realised with a sense of despair that, not only was the mental health system broken, but that the training for mental health practitioners was seriously flawed too.
My dream
A dream started to take shape to make fast, efficient and effective help available to those who, like me when I was so ill, might be clinging on by their fingernails, desperate for someone to offer hope, practical information and a plan to help them reclaim their lives. It led me found the mental health charity Reclaim Life.
And that dream now continues with the launch of the 8 week Mindfulness-Based Mind Management programme; something that has the potential to touch even more lives and help more people improve their emotional resilience.
Thank you to everyone who has joined me now in a growing movement to change the face of mental health in the UK.
Thanks to the Foundation for Ribble Valley Families for sending me your trainees and for putting the model to good use improving the lives of local Lancashire families. Thanks to Social Sense and the Mindful Me team who are putting so much energy into getting the model into schools where it is so desperately needed.
Thank you to a lovely Fusion coach who is just starting on her own journey to found a charity to provide therapeutic coaching in Wales.
And thank you to all the Fusion Therapeutic Coachers and Trainers now out there doing great work.
1 day can change your life
Fusion coach-trainers Cindy Shilton and Jenny Capaldi are running a Fusion Breakthrough workshop together on Saturday 14th October at Simpson Village Hall. Please contact them if you are interested in attending. You can help publicise the event for them by sharing with your contacts.
Lots of good luck Cindy and Jenny
Bouncing forward
For me, as for many, personal change started with a terrible experience. It was German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche who said 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.'
The reality of post trauma growth means that many of us who have travelled for a while along the road of despair can emerge the other side of the experience with a powerful message and motivation to help; what someone on the recent diploma course referred to as 'bouncing forward.'
Comments