Bob Sullo

Jill Bayly sent this email to her colleagues at TAFE in Queensland about her attendance at the workshop Bob Sullo presented on the Gold Coast this week.

I went along to a teacher’s workshop yesterday to listen to a man from the U.S. named Bob Sullo.This was an interesting workshop where I once again connected with the work of William Glasser. Bob is a psychologist, G.O. and student counsellor and works mainly out of the William Glasser Institute U.S.

It was refreshing to revisit skills whereby teachers encourage and inspire students to engage in their learning simply by participation and interaction with their teacher.

I resonated with the idea that we do indeed teach the whole student, both morally and academically and that each and every person working within an education setting plays an enormous part in supporting that student to reach their potential.

Bob spent some time speaking about developing what he called a ‘shared vision.’ I thought this idea was a great metaphor for both our work and with the journey we frequently share with students and staff here at GCIT.

Bob shared with the group his belief as to how the ‘reward of learning is feeling good’ and reminded us to check in regularly with ourselves asking questions such as:

‘What sort of teacher/counsellor/ manager do I want to be?’ 

“And what would the teacher/ counsellor/ manager I want to be.. do in a situation such as this?”

Nothing we haven’t heard or seen before, however as practitioners it can be rewarding to reconnect with the viewpoints that often work to make our hearts sing and our clients happy.

Twelve Hours Sleep

Following a Counselling with Choice Theory session recently, a woman who had been in great pain, slept well for the first time since her accident six months ago.

A three meter fall from a ladder had left her in severe pain with a compression fracture of her L1.  This required her to wear a brace she calls "Lady Gaga".  The fall also set off neuro pain from a previous surgery to remove a tumour.

The accident and resulting pain was impacting on her relationships with family and her husband.  Others wanted to give her advice, telling her what to do.  Her husband was frustrated and angry at the length of time it was taking her to function as she was able to before the accident.

Her medical team, while supportive, was unable to give her pain relief that she felt comfortable with.

 She was feeling unsupported, alone and worthless.

During the counselling session she was able to identify a plan using a metaphor.

She and her husband had owned a yacht and leaving the mooring each Friday evening and sailing up the Broadwater was a refuge for her from an extremely busy work life.

Her plan was to ‘take her sails out of the wind’ when she was faced with criticism from others and to ‘tack away’.

She re-created a strong image of herself in charge of the yacht, hand on the tiller and the wind on her face. The energy shift and the change in thinking when discussing this image was noticeable.

With this plan in place she was able to relax enough to sleep.