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Emmaly Perks, M.Ed.'s avatar

Absolutely love this Alis. I've been thinking a lot about your words with my coaching clients this week. My job isn't to solve their problems, it's to help them expand their thinking. Really appreciate your valuable insights!

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Alis Anagnostakis, PhD's avatar

So happy that perspective was useful, Emmaly!

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TKRok's avatar

A wonderful read. Like you said, there is so much we learn as a coach or educator when we work with our client and students (if we are intentional about it). Every session offers us a glimpse of our own capacities, the outlines of our own glass and the content it holds. It's always a mind-opener when we see with greater clarity the assumptions, cultures and ideologies that we have been embedded in.

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Andrew Gerkens's avatar

Thank you Alis, although I am familiar with the analogy of the cup, the idea of the water flowing, moving and swirling really resonated with me. This movement and the idea of people being lost or struggling in/with it reminded me of the way Dr. Miriam Rose, speaks about Dadirri, a deep listening practice of first nations people of the Daly river region of northern Australia. Miriam says, 'We are river people. We cannot hurry the river'.

As an alternative to the cup and water, I might start talking about the river as content and the banks of the river as process. How might we expand and shape the banks of the river to understand and nurture the flow?Miriam's video is beautiful to watch and to listen to. 'To listen to me is to breathe with me. To breathe with me is to connect'. You can access the video here - https://www.miriamrosefoundation.org.au/

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Alis Anagnostakis, PhD's avatar

oh, such a beautiful reference and analogy, Andrew, thank you so much for sharing, I’ll go on and watch and follow Miriam’s work too! So much wisdom in the First Nations perspective - I always feel like I’ve received another nugget of gold. Thank you for gifting me one!

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