Arrgghhh! I’m having a bit of a crisis with telling others what I do. It’s called marketing and I absolutely hate marketing. I’m stuck on the part about “how do I actually get people to GET what my workshops are about, before they’ve come along to EXPERIENCE what they are about?”
People come back a lot to my workshops. But why do they come back? I don’t actually know, and any good marketing consultant will tell me I need to know that. Okay, how do I go about that? I do feedback forms. They tell me that people “loved it”, found it “inspiring” and “really useful”. But I’m still left not really knowing. It’s sometimes the same in therapy. People change and turn their lives around, but I’m left thinking “which bit actually made the difference?”
And the answer is in the question. It’s not one bit that does it. It’s the package. I use hypnosis in my work, and that means that I focus on how people feel more than what they know. So, my workshops aren’t so much about what facts you learn. You can learn facts by getting on your computer. (And then, when you’ve got off your computer, if you’re anything like me, you can promptly forget them again). I’ll give you an example of what I mean. I heard a talk by the wonderful Sheila Kitzinger a few years ago. She had me completely entranced. She moved me. But when it came to tweeting some parts of what she had said, I couldn’t remember a thing that she actually said! She had immediately put me in a state of hypnosis with her storytelling (she didn’t know she was doing this to her whole audience, or rather, she may not have labelled it as “hypnosis”). I came away feeling powerful, excited, enthused and motivated to change maternity for the better. Hypnosis works at a deeper level than your cognitive, rational mind. It transforms how you feel.
So, in my workshops, we integrate the facts bit. If it’s about compassion, I give you the science and physiology behind compassionate caring. I give you a working definition of compassion. I tell you that there is a very important difference between compassion and empathy, and that you need to know the difference to protect yourself from burnout. But I also work at the emotional level. The workshop is designed to enhance your motivation and excitement. You leave feeling that you are an amazing midwife already, and the course helps unlock that potential even more. I leave you wanting to get back to work, and be excited about your next appointment. It also translates to home life, not just work. I leave you wanting to go home and cuddle your children or your dog. I leave you feeling encouraged. Not just because it feels nice to feel great, but because research shows us that it makes you a more compassionate midwife. Win-win.