October Recap - Katherine Hirsh

Katherine W. Hirsh, DPhil, presented two fascinating programs in October.

​AM Session: In the morning, she presented Once Upon a Time in the Unconscious: Cinderella, Individuation & the Inferior Function. Forty-two attendees participated in this engaging session which was a perfect mix of lecture and experiential activities designed to help us explore how to embrace and appreciate our Inferior function.

Here are some highlights taken from Katherine’s handout:

Why embrace our inferior?

• It is part of who we are.
• It can act as a bridge.
• It can be a source of power as well as a source of challenge.
• It can, therefore, be seen as part of our drive toward balance and wholeness if we start interacting with it instead of reacting to it.

A sampling of comments from the attendees’ evaluations:

• I loved the energy that Katherine created in the room. The content was robust and yet distilled and elegant. Her execution was excellent lively balance of content, exercise and group share. She made it look effortless.
• Katherine’s storytelling approach, deep knowledge of Jung, and grounding in many other practitioners who reveal her philosophy of practice, was very interesting and refreshing.
• I’m still learning. I like relating the story of Cinderella and type.
• Most valuable was “forcing” me to think more deeply about how I use inferior positively.
• Most valuable was the idea that it is OK to express inferior function even though it may have rough edges.

 
PM Session: In the afternoon session, Exploring Your Philosophy of Practice, Katherine led another lively discussion with 19 participants using a basic ground rule of having fun. In her words, the session was about:

• Exploration not mastery.
• Participation not perfection.
• Sharing not stereotyping.

Katherine incorporated several activities – including each of us crafting a cinquain (you gotta look it up!) to express our identity as a Type Practitioner (or Type User for those using Type more informally).

Here are some comments from the participants’ evaluations:

• Wonderful session.
• Amazing presenter, great topic.
• The afternoon session was very helpful and liberating.  I look forward to how it informs my write-ups of my coaching and training practice. :)

​Most valuable were the metaphors: creating them, listening to the stories/comments of facilitator and participants.