Eyes and Noses, Trees and Toes

In many schools of psychotherapy and also in facilitation trainings you may learn about the dangers of judgement making, how your own unconscious biases and your usual patterns of observation can lead you astray.  You may learn about how you unconsciously see things that are not the whole story; perhaps there are red herrings leading you and the client or group down the wrong road and/or unconscious and discriminating stereotypes that cause serious pain or harm to others or yourself.

We live in a world naturally rich and awash with far to many signs and signals, far too much information for us to fully take in and process. Whether we are beings who are transferring information through mycelium webs like the trees and fungi or algae that form the Wood Wide Web. Or like many animal species through colour, sound and shapes or bacteria that communicate using autoinducers a type of molecule similar to a pheromone. We live in an information rich world, where signals are being continuously communicated. 

Human to human communication consists of words and their meanings, but also many other signals and signs that act in tandem or go against the words we are using. There are the feeling states with which the words are expressed and many types of  eye contact, body movements and pheromones are involved too. Even pauses and rhythms of speech and communication contain signals that affect the dynamics between us. 

Photo: River Tyne eastern Scotland by Andy Smith 

We can’t take all of this in at the time and if you have studied videos of your work through a multi-layered lens, exploring not just language, but unintended signals, the nuances, timbre of speech, and unknown body experiences, you will have noticed how there is so much going on, more than our rational mind at the time could ever have been aware of.

So we have at least two serious challenges as therapist or facilitators. 

The first is to realise our own personal patterns our tendency to observe some signals and not others. This includes becoming more aware of the the unconscious prejudices and perceptual tendencies that our upbringing and culture has given us, because of privileges or discriminations due to race, gender, class, abilities and more.

As the diarist, essayist and novelist Anais Nin says 

“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.”

The second is to learn how to spot and engage with signals that are less know to us and perhaps that might not fit with the individual or groups idea of itself. There is much in front of our eyes or nose that our unconscious brain has decided is worthy of focus and much it has discarded. We are pattern seekers but we are not always conscious of the patterns that we are paying attention to and the ones we are missing. Or as George Orwell famously said

“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” [1]

Photo: River Tyne at the Linn Eastern Scotland by Andy Smith 

Let’s take a few examples, from the worlds of coaching, group facilitation and finally innerwork. 

First of all, the world of coaching. Imagine you are coaching a new client (if you are not a coach imagine you are supporting a colleague or friend), imagnenyou are listening to the person tell you about their new role in an organisation and the blocks they are getting from their boss. They talk about depressions and the difficulties they are facing in their life. Their voice is low, they are sitting slightly hunched in their seat. It would be all to easy and understandable as you slide down into the atmosphere that is very present and sympathise, you slow down to the pace and rhythm of the person’s speech. You tilt your head to the left as if you are signalling, ‘i am here, I am listening”. But then you notice they are tapping their toes at the same time. The toe-tapping is another signal that is not going along with the earlier ones. We call this a ‘double-signal’ in processwork. It’s another part of the person signalling. It is like a wave from a deeply unconscious part. It is maybe unknown to both you while even the person you are working with does not realise what it means or even that they are doing it. What can you do? There are many techniques but one simple way is to ask the person to do it more, with a little more awareness,. You welcome the foot tapping and before you know it, they are remembering a song from a decade earlier in their life and you help them connect to the spirit of that time. Together you find a new spirit and attitude to deal with their problems at work.

Here is an example from a group. The group seems to be acting very politely, people don’t talk over each other, folk seem to be attentively listening and refer to each other when they speak. So far so good, you might be thinking, but there is a niggle, an atmosphere, you sense it and if you could see it, well it would be like a fog in the corner of your eye. It’s as if a weather system has settled on you all, creating a mood. You decide to let the atmosphere into the process. You do this by sensing it in your body and scanning around the group – it’s like you are little foggy your eyes are slightly more closed than would be usual and then you realise that it is if many of the group are leaning backwards or letting the chairs and sofas in the room do most of the carrying. Here it is! A double signal in the group’s way of interacting. You invite the group to notice the comfort or support and the leaning away. It turns out that some are feeling hopeless about the future even though they enjoy the teamwork. You open a process to explore the hopelessness and things move on.

A final example about innerwork ( when you are facilitating yourself to solve a problem or learn more about who you are). Innerwork is another way to study yourself for the signals and signs you are noticing that are also present but further away from you awareness. Yesterday I was again studying my particular practice of meditative walking, something I do slowly and with awareness as part of a series of processes I had begun in order to help my recovery from long covid. These short walks were designed to support me to both learn how to pace myself and to help develop more relaxed meditative states.

I am aware that I am definitely developing a skill in this way of walking. Perhaps in more mainstream psychology it could be said that I was developing my executive functioning skills, through a disciplined practice of focusing awareness. Amongst these reflections I as having I realised that I had unconsciously stumbled into thinking about my walking practice as something that has to be measurable and useful; if it was to be worth something. Somehow it had to be defendable as something that was good for me. 

Instead I imagined my walk more as an exploration in imagination and visioning.  I slowed further and suddenly what had been the woodland I was walking through became rich and alive, vibrant in the signals and signs surrounding me. An array of individual trees in communication with each other. The trees became more like a constellation in the sky, individual yet in relation to some mysterious pattern.

I noticed an old ash tree, then the younger birch and alder nearby. I noticed the willows and I had a sense of an eternal moment and movement – the river as an entity stretching out, reaches reaching backward and forward in time, at the same time. The origin and end of the river are diffuse, non-definite things. There was a sensuous aliveness in the world that had been hidden but that now is clear. So this is this the direction and meaning of slowness, a process in order to experience the world as more creative as both sensuous, and alive.

In his book Wild Signs and Star Paths: The Keys to Our Lost Sixth Sense, Tristan Gooley quotes the 19th century polymath John Ruskin:

“The first great mistake that people make in the matter is the supposition that they must see a thing if it is before their eyes.” [2]

I like this quote it reminds me that what I am usually focussed on or noticing is not anything like the whole of what is actually here in front of my eyes and nose; within the rich sea of signals and signs and pattern-making.

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Awareness of how all the parts are interacting is key to the Worldwork paradigm and if you are interested in how to utilise the shared wisdom of our dreams, and difficulties to transform projects or help facilitate groups then the upcoming intensive training workshop in February 2025 might be for you. We will explore what is trying to emerge in our lives in our projects as new patterns that are shared with others. This intensive can also be taken as part of a longer two years Facilitation Training: Facilitating Our Future created with CFOR and which is now accepting applications.

Andy Smith (he/him) is a member of Processwork UK faculty. He is also a UKCP registered psychotherapist, supervisor, training supervisor and faculty member of the Spanish Processwork training programme. He centres his work on transformational change in communities, organisations and participative democracy, inclusion and diversity. This has resulted in international awards for educational design at both university and grassroots levels, with awards for inclusivity, diversity, changing workplace practice, lifelong learning. A GENE award for global innovation in education was recently given to the Go Deep Project.

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[1] See Orwell’s 1946 essay In Front of your Nose, Tribune, 22 March 1946

[2] Modern Painters. (1843) Vol. 1, Part 2, Sec. 1, Chap. 2