ABSTRACT
Disorganization and fear may be unavoidable in groups that are developing the professional’s capacity to bear the troubles of human life, in every field of practice—counseling, organizational consulting, education, and psychotherapy. As a response to such experiences, the author engages with two recurrent, researchable questions: When facilitating professional growth, what is the framework for recovering thoughtfulness amid such distress? And what are the evolving challenges of the group’s designated leader? The author acknowledges in particular the field of education within transactional analysis and its impact on his own evolving approach to training. He also addresses the importance of developing bodily capacity for the intensities of what must be learned not just intellectually but also emotionally, as well as the process of contracting for learning outcomes in a dynamic, relational context. How can the group facilitator learn to listen with her or his body to the complexity of emergent signals? How can the lesson plan be abandoned and recreated spontaneously in response to the learning needs arising in the moment? What is the impact of the facilitator’s continued commitment to learning or abandonment thereof?
