Why Mediation Institute?
01/10/2025
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Why Mediation Institute? Find out the benefits of training with or joining Mediation Institute.
Looking Inward: The Art of Reflective Practice
What is Reflective Practice?
Reflective practice is a process and skill professionals use to think critically about and improve their work.
It is a way to learn from experience by thinking about what you did, the effect it had on you and on the results that your client got. The next step is to consider what other options you may have had and how you may apply them in the future to see if you can get better results for your client.
We all think about what happened in the past from time to time, and sometimes, this can even be a problem if something traumatic or distressing happens to us. Reflective practice can be protective and help us come to terms with difficult client situations so that they do not affect our mental health.
There is a difference between thinking about something and reflective practice. Reflective practice requires us to consciously think about events to develop our insight, taking the learnings and then letting go.
Once you get into the habit of using reflective practice, you will probably find it useful both at work and at home.
Reflective practice is, in its simplest form, thinking about or reflecting on what you do. It is closely linked to the concept of learning from experience, in that you think about what you did, and what happened, and decide from that what you would do differently next time.
Thinking about what has happened is part of being human. However, the difference between casual ‘thinking’ and ‘reflective practice’ is that reflective practice requires a conscious effort to think about events, and develop insights into them. Once you get into the habit of using reflective practice, you will probably find it useful both at work and at home.
Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/reflective-practice.html
The Reflective Practice Skill Set
According to Moon, J. (1999), Reflection in Learning and Professional Development: Theory and Practice
“Reflective practice is an active, dynamic action-based and ethical set of skills, placed in real time and dealing with real, complex and difficult situations.”
Reflective practice allows us to explore the theories we learn in our formal training and develop based on our beliefs and values and apply them to our experiences in a structured way. It increases self awareness by encouraging us to explore our own beliefs and assumptions, helps us to recognise unconscious bias and to find solutions for problems.
Developing Reflective Practice Skills
Neil Thompson in his book People Skills advises the following to support reflective practice.
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Read
read about the area of interest you want to learn more about and develop -
Ask
ask others about the way they do things and why. Mediation Institute's Online Peer Group Supervision is an ideal environment to ask others how they handle specific situations or parts of the process. -
Watch
watch what is going on around you. Co-Mediating is an excellent process to participate in as part of your reflective practice. Why not commit to a co-mediation each month as part of your reflective practice committment. -
Feel
pay attention to your emotions. They are the messengers of your intuition. Do you have triggers that client's set off? How do you deal with situations where you do become emotionally involved? -
Talk
share your views and experiences with others in your organisation or in external supervision. -
Think
value and prioritise time spent thinking about your work. Failing to do so can result in you repeating mistakes over and over again until poor practice becomes a habit.
Webinar July 2024
The Reflective Learning Journal
Step One – Identify the situation
Identify a situation you encountered in your work or personal life that you believe could have been dealt with more effectively.
Step Two – Describe the experience
What happened? When and where did the situation occur? Any other thoughts you have about the situation?
Step Three -Reflection
How did you behave? What thoughts did you have? How did it make you feel? Were there other factors that influenced the situation? What have you learned from the experience?
Step Four – Theorizing
How did the experience match with your preconceived ideas, i.e. was the outcome expected or unexpected? How does it relate to any formal theories that you know? What behaviours do you think might have changed the outcome?
Step Five – Experimentation
Is there anything you could do or say now to change the outcome? What actions can you take to change similar reactions in the future? What behaviours might you try out?
Reflective Practice can be a team activity
In fact reflective practice has much better perspectives when it is a shared activity.
Getting the input of others is an essential part of reflective practice because if you have nothing to compare your practice to it is unlikely that you will develop new insights or innovations as easily.
Sharing ideas also requires a process of refining them in order to say them out loud. This is part of learning and remembering. We all remember brilliant ideas that we know we’ve had but forgotten!
Some learning theoreticist believe that is because ideas need to be written or spoken to be remembered. That indicates that keeping a practice journal may be a good idea for those who are working alone such as dispute resolution professionals.
Peer Supervision is an option for reflective practice. Visit our Events in the Members Portal to register for the next session. Events | Events (mimembers.au)
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