I met the Process Work through Ulises Escorihuela, in 2006, the year in which I did a facilitation training with him. He translated Arnold Mindell’s “Sitting in the Fire” book and helped make known the Process Work in the Spanish state.
After a time of lethargy, I went to live in a community and experienced what it was like to be in a group in an intense way. My passion with groups and facilitation was still alive, and it was when I left the community, that I connected again with the need to know more. I needed to know in depth a paradigm that would help me to work with the reality of the groups in the here and now, with their conflicts. And it was perfect, because just in that year, in 2010, Fil a l’Agulla began a training cycle, where Gill Emslie with the support of Neus Andreu, gave several seminars on Process Work in Can Girona.
That was the seed to see if there was enough interest to create a diploma here. And yes, we have a sufficient and motivated group. And, the following year, in 2011, the first Base Year began, even with much uncertainty. That first year, there was the base year and the full course. Many students we did either one program or the other, with different requirements. It was a mess of names, because we never knew what program was which. At that time, Gill, Neus and César, with the support of IIFACE also in the beginning, were the ones who created the Institute that was to see the School born and a program recognized by the IAPOP.
After a short time, Evelyn and Andy joined, we already had the three people qualified to form the School.
And while I, with the group at the beginning, we keep moving forward with the requirements and co-creating each new door, towards Phase 1, Phase 2, revision of the midpoint, progress exams, until we reach the final exams.
Now 7 years have passed since that moment. It has been a long journey to get here. The biggest memories that come to me, have to do with very personal key moments and how the Process Work has helped me in these moments. As for example, when I quit smoking or in intense conflict situations.
I have learned a lot and now I feel rewarded and proud of myself and of the school. Well, this has been a shared achievement. A new door opens for the student community of the Process Work School.
The final exams have served me to connect in a very profound way with who I am, what I know and also what I do not know, with my strengths and my vulnerabilities. I had brilliant interventions and others that were not, I even needed help. And this is important for me, because I passed the exams imperfectly perfect or rather perfectly imperfect, and this reminds me of the importance of being a teacher and apprentice, recognizing what I know and what others know, even if they have no diploma at all, and Above all do not disconnect from the human that we are and that as such, we learn through error, that we are wrong and we will continue to be very wrong.
Photo: From left to right Neus Andreu, César Fernández and Mireia Parera on the day of the final exams
I am deeply grateful to Arnold Mindell, for being so crack and starting to develop the Process Work, uniting the knowledge and learning of so many other people before. To all your colleagues and our teachers who have been developing this framework, to that first and second generation of graduates, Amy Mindell, Max Shupbach, Joe Goodbread, Julie Diamond, Jan Dworkin, Dawn Menken, Kate Job …. They are people who have inspired me and who I have followed more or less closely.
And very especially to my closest teachers who have believed in the school project here in the Spanish state. Your support and love has been crucial and has fueled my trust and love in myself. Thanks Gill for being a pioneer in all this. Thanks Andy and Evelyn for following her. Thanks Boris for joining the car. Thank you, Lily Mu, for your unconditional love for the school and your support. You have all been supporting my learning process in different roles as therapists, supervisors and mentors. And I love it and I’m deeply grateful. And I also want to thank Stanya who in this last stage of more than 3 years has been my therapist.
I will continue walking, learning and above all sharing my knowledge, skills and wisdom in the world, to continue spreading the Process Work and its multiple applications.
IEJA !!!!