I have currently two roles, two professions. One is being an Associate Lecturer at CSM, the other being a cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist. In both roles I had to shift my work online since April 2020. When thinking about an idea for the SiP I reflected on what has happened recently in both my professional roles, and I realised that the shift to an online space had been the key change that took place, and that will probably continue to dominate both domains for a while.
Experiencing this change made me draw a connection to something else I had noticed over the years as a therapist: Especially for my younger clients, the virtual world of social media and online communication has a huge impact on their lives in the “real world” and on their self-image. It often brings with it some psychological difficulties. In the world of selfies and likes, people tend to hold on tightly to a rigid self-image and also they are more in their heads than in their bodies. I therefore often employ therapy methods that help clients get grounded back into their bodies, like the body scan (by Kabat-Zinn), breathing techniques or progressive muscle relaxation and others.
When pretty much the whole university started to work online, I wondered what impact this could have on us lecturers, and also on the students. And how could I take physical grounding techniques from the therapy space into the current virtual space of teaching and learning at the university. Could this help to keep the communication authentic, honest and “real”? Could this support connection, collaboration and engagement?
Another key factor is that the grounding in the physical realm is proven to help reduce anxiety and stress. Judging from what I see particularly in my Gen Z clients, a predominant focus on the virtual world is creating a lot of stress, expectation and tension. So in my SiP I would like to find out through action research if the above techniques could aid with this as well in a university setting.