SALT training sessions in English on their way to becoming a mainstay in Brussels and beyond

[Anita Sheehan-Nutz]

On September 17-19, we had our second SALT training in English in the Belgian capital. 

12 inspired, curious and inspiring participants came from many places (even as far as Switzerland), but most were from around here and many were professional facilitators who came to know and appreciate the SALT approach and who expressed their dream of building it into their work. 

The days were filled with fun, reflection and learning all around (also for us as facilitators), and--a new element that Alessandra Satta brought into the mix:  2 beautiful exercises from the Social Presencing Theater world, which the participants enjoyed thoroughly and which contributed greatly to the richness of the experience.  Thank you, Alessandra, we will continue the tradition! 

We also managed to do a SALT visit, by "killing" two birds with one stone:  The organization that brought our lunch on Saturday, a group of immigrants who do their magic with food items that supermarkets would discard because they are just about to expire:  Collectactif.  We "visited" with them and listened to their stories while savoring the delights they had cooked up for us. 

The weather cooperated as well, and we could take our meals and some of our group work into the sunshine.  

[Célicia Theys]

So great to feel the energy of yet another heightening moment of transfer :) !

A specific question to Alessandra and you: when did you introduce the SPT exercises, and in which context?

I read that there was a sense of adding the labels in, so was this during "who are we"?

Did you discuss the possibility of doing the 4D mapping exercise or something similar for dream-building?

Thanks for sharing :) !

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Thanks dear Anita that I can learn from your experience. 

How do you ensure that dreams are deep and not superficial?

[Anita Sheehan-Nutz]

Dear Rituu and Moses, 

To answer your questions, a) about the Social Presencing Theater exercises, Alessandra introduced us to "the Village," an exercise for sensing the social body through movement.  Participants were asked to move about the space while asking themselves questions, such as: 

Simplicity in the motion helps us to realize a situation and sense the developing “social body”. The practitioner focuses his/her awareness to:

Where am I in the space? Where is the other? Do I choose to interact? How do I do that? Do I respond or set an impulse?

Noticing an ever-changing quality of the “social body”.  

We practiced the village with three moments:

• Being in the village
• Being in the village with our labels
• Introducing the greetings in the village, i.e., making eye contact with each person and greeting each person through the eye contact. 

The other exercise is called stuck.  Rather than explaining the whole exercise, here is a beautiful video by the author of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Balut4LAVLA.

And b) to answer Moses' question, these exercises were certainly some of the highlights of the weekend.

Another learning came from the question by one participant to debrief after the dream exercise and go over the instructions for creating the dream.  What occurred to us was that words create worlds.  What seemed clear and understandable to one group was not necessarily clear to another.  Not sure we came to a conclusion on how to do it the next time, because perceptions can differ so racially from one group to another . . .

 

[MOSES OKOMBO AYANY]

Great work. Please share some of the greatest highlights?

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Thanks Anita. What were the two exercises from the social presencing Theatre?

Any reflections after the SALT visit?