Philosophy for better living

In searching for ways in which we can we learn more about relating, most of us turn to our personal experience.  It is after all our primary way of knowing and one that shapes our patterns of relating.    Beyond that however, modern society seems to rely mostly on social and psychological research to understand and shape our notions of collaboration, attachment and even love!  

Philosophical insights however provide further weight to the importance of relationships.    Despite Stephen Hawking assertion in his book ‘The Grand Design’ that philosophy is dead and that science is the new provider of answers to the "big questions", science has yet to capture the fullness of emotion and the complexity of relationship.   

Cicero says "that to study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die".   We also however feel that it enriches our lives and equips us to better live.   Heidegger for example coined the phrase “being-in-the-world-with-others” as an existential given of life whilst Sartre looked at it differently as “Hell is other people”… What did they mean and how does getting to grips with their way of viewing the world teach us how better to live today?  

Interested?  If yes, join us in our monthly philosophy reading/study group.  

The group will be facilitated by Marie-Anne and Sally.  We will start off reading some materials giving an introduction to philosophy and the work of phenomenologically orientated philosophers and discussing if/how the reading influences our work.  The group is suitable for coaches, psychotherapists, consultants and trainers and can be joined via Skype or in person in London or Malvern UK. No prior knowledge of philosophy is necessary.   Please call us to discuss this further and see if it will meet your interests/needs.  Both of us believe that studying philosophy has hugely enriched our practice and our lives and we'd like to share this with you.

Marie-Anne & Sally

Welcome to Relational Change

First, a big thank you to all of you who have subscribed to our Relational Change mailing list and then patiently waited for our first communication- here it is! 

It has been an exciting start for Relational Change as our community has begun to form with a first meeting of associates, advisers and affiliated centres at the beginning of the month.  It was a wonderful moment to finally sense and feel the energy of 14 of us sitting together in one room in London and starting to co-create a future direction.  Thank you to all of us for travelling to London that day, some from as far away as Stockholm and Istanbul. There was great energy around specific projects that encourage and support relationality in various contexts and we will be sharing some of these with you as they form in the next few months. 

In the meantime, we are keen to keep growing our network of practitioners that work relationally be it as therapists, coaches, community builders, leaders, managers or consultants.  We are building a social movement together and hope to become a powerful voice for relational approaches and supportive, sustainable initiatives   We are planning to have an Open Event on the topic of relationality towards the end of the year, so watch this space!

Sally is currently out in California for 6 weeks, having been at the Esalen Couples Conference where there was a focus on developing Field-Relational thinking. It was a great opportunity to hear, and contribute to, latest thinking and also to share the news of our Relational Change community.  Folks were very inspired by what we are starting and some of the RC models that are currently awaiting publication.  We will post these on the website once they are in print.

We would also encourage those of you who might consider attending The Relational Turn Conference at Esalen in June. It is organised by our partners at The Relational Centre (TRC) in LA in collaboration with other key practitioners, and will also see the launch of our Australian partner, ‘Relational Matters’.  This will be an important moment as we become part of a more global possibility that we both with Mark Fairfield and Leanne O’Shea have worked hard to develop.

We would love to hear from you and your views on our vision, projects, website or anything else that might excite you around what we are doing (email us at connect@relationalchange.org).  If you haven’t already, check out our latest changes to our website www.relationalchange.org

Marie-Anne & Sally