How leading a workshop can be a real eye-opener

Abstract: This article describes in narrative form the author’s experience of personal and professional insight as a result of planning and leading a performing arts-based workshop at the 2013 IASWG Group Work Camp. He shows how this insight occurred in a parallel process with the workshop participants as a result of his willingness to take risks, to share power, and to take a stance of uncertainty when appropriate. The article shows what some of the theoretical concepts of groupwork – such as planning, purpose, stages of development, use of authority, use of program and evaluation – look like in action. Throughout the article, the author reveals the internal struggle of a conscientious groupworker trying to balance the exigencies of normal self-doubt with necessary and appropriate self-reflection.Keywords: mistakes; stance of uncertainty; beginner’s mind; total theater; risk; inner monster; middles; haiku; interdependency; group work; groupwork