Join Dr Louie Gardiner, Director of Presence in Action Collective (PIAC), Chris Murphy, a member of PIAC and Laura Kinsler, Associate Director of PIAC, for a 90 minute discussion exploring the life of writer Agatha Christie through the lens of our praxis Presence in Action. What do we know about Agatha? How did her being and doing reflect core principles of Presence in Action? How can we draw on our insights to better serve our clients? In this session we will explore facets of Agatha Christie’s life touching on various themes, including but not limited to, helping clients to illuminate the ‘un-noticed’; transform meaning-making to sense making; move from pretence to presence and most importantly create conditions to help clients ‘advocate for themselves’. For more details please see below.
Agatha Christie was an extraordinary woman living in extraordinary times. She is well known as a writer of over 66 detective books, has sold an estimated 2 to 4 billion books across the world, created two of the greatest known detectives in the world (Hercule Poirot and Mrs Marple) and one of the longest running plays in history, The Mousetrap. But who was she, and what can we discover about ourselves through her? A daughter of migrants, she experienced wealth, loss, death, two world wars, love and heartbreak. In learning about her we realised, that she modelled many of the principles of Presence in Action (PIA) which help us navigate our daily lives
Our praxis helps us illuminate and liberate ourselves and others from stuck and destructive patterns in our lives, transforming our relationships with ourselves and others. The framework was developed over a lifetime of work by Dr Louie Gardiner in the field of complexity sciences which forms part of her PhD called Attending, Responding and Becoming. PIA combines an acuity practice, our Symmathesic Agency Behaviours and the P6 Constellation framework.
Join us in conversation as we explore Agatha Christie’s life with the aid of PIA. In this session we will touch on various themes including but not limited to:
- Illuminating the un-noticed: The majority of time spent in Agatha’s novels is around the ‘detective work’ gathering data. In early novels, this includes the things seen and more latterly the things we don’t see. How do you facilitate this ‘data gathering’ in clients and what does this deliver them? How can we help clients see what is there which they are not seeing, and why is this important?
- From meaning-making to sensemaking: As Agatha’s stories unfold we begin to make meaning but this can change in the blink of an eye as more data comes to light. When does our meaning-making shift to sensemaking and what difference does this make to ourselves and those we serve?
- Presence vs Pretence. Core to PIA is noticing when we are consciously or non-consciously pretending or living in pretence, rather than presence. This thread runs through Agatha’s books and life. Where did it come from? Why was it important to her? How is it important in our client work? In our experience, by being present to ourselves, we can better navigate our own lives and how we work with clients.
- Advocating for Self: Time and time again Agatha was met with societal ‘fictions’ about what she was expected to do or not do and she often chose not to collude with these. This is at the heart of what we are holding for our clients, i.e. it is up to them to advocate for themselves. How did Agatha do this? How do we do this? How does this help us in our own lives? What makes it so difficult for us to do this in some contexts; and with some people?
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
- An insight into Presence in Action (PIA) and how this might serve you as an individual and a practitioner.
- Space to pause, attend to yourself and reflect on your own practice.
- An introduction to the P6 Constellation framework and some of our distinctions.
- A discussion about a different perspective to serving clients.
- More insight into Agatha Christie as a person.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- We will be opening and holding a space for you to join us in conversation about Agatha Christie and PIA. In creating this opportunity, we recognise that each of us will experience surprises and unexpected encounters because we will be arriving with all our differences of context, history and experiences. What a gloriously unpredictable mix this will generate! All of us will learn much about ourselves and each other, though the nature of this will be impossible for any of us to anticipate. Come ready to share and discover together!
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- Anyone engaging in their own personal development as well as those supporting the development of others e.g., professionals, managers, leaders, educators, therapists, counsellors, psychotherapists, coaches and supervisors.
Course Content
Presenter
Chris Murphy, PIAC member, has a BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy from the University of East London and a PG Cert from University of Brighton. He has run a training business and worked as physiotherapy lecturer. He now works as a public speaking coach. He has been a PIA practitioner since 2017.
PhD, MBA, BA (hons), FRSA, Author, Poet; Accredited Supervisor and Master Coach, Change-maker, facilitator, learning partner.
Louie is passionately involved in liberating human potential, drawing upon the natural processing dynamics of ‘Presence in Action’ and ‘Symmathesic Agency’ which pulse at the heart of all she does with individuals, groups and organisations.
These accessible approaches for catalysing personal and systemic change tap into diverse modes of exploration and expression that leverage all that makes us human. Deploying a fusion of poetic, visual, kinaesthetic, intellectual and performative modalities, Louie tickles out authentic human exchange, invoking those who engage to surface their personal and collective brilliance.
Louie’s work is grounded in her doctorate which epitomises the integration of deep personal and collective inquiry; emergent symmathesic professional practice; coherent philosophical and theoretical foundations, and a pioneering approach to academic research.
Her past roles include CEO, Board Trustee, Head of Corporate Performance & Development; visiting lecturer to undergraduate and post-graduate degrees.
She has contributed articles to both academic and practice-based journals e.g. Human Arenas, Cybernetics and Human Knowing, e-O&P Journal, Coaching Today, the3rdi magazine, and Book Chapters in Coaching Supervision Groups: Resourcing Practitioners (2021); Coaching Supervision: Advancing Practice, Changing Landscapes (2019); and The Collaboratory (2015); poetry anthology Attending, Responding, Becoming: An anthology of surprises beyond intention or design (2021) see Louie’s website.
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Laura Kinsler, Associate Director & Founder of Presence in Action Collective, has a Masters of Coaching Psychology from the University of Sydney, a published paper on Authentic Leadership & Mindfulness and over 10 years’ experience coaching and delivering workshops in Australia, Asia and the UK. She has been a PIA practitioner for the last 6 years and a Director of PIAC for the last 4.
