Dr Chené Swart

Narrative therapist/trainer and MBTI® Facilitator

About the facilitator and her work

Thank you for your time and for the privilege of presenting some of my work and expertise to you.

I have completed my Doctoral Degree in Narrative Therapy in September 2006. For the last 7 years I have been working with the MBTI® and have found it an enriching and challenging experience. This work has been done with a diverse range of groups.

In order to aid your understanding of the contribution I believe I can make to your organisation, I would like to explain the kind of organisational work that I am involved in.

The MBTI® is built around deconstructing those discourses that lead us to believe certain things about ourselves that limit our existence. When an individual internalises these detrimental discourses, it keeps that individual from reaching full productivity and staying motivated. This might impact negatively on their work, the way they are perceived by peers and the public, and ultimately influences the functioning and profitability of a company.

A day with a team in your organisation will be conducted in the following manner:

It will be an interactive journey where everybody will be invited to participate and contribute at their own pace.

Your needs as a team/organization will be my first priority and I will draw on the expertise of the participants. A safe space will be created where participants are able to explore their type as provided by the MBTI®.

I believe that the key to the future success of our country lies entangled within the paradigms of innovative thoughts, creativity and mutual respect. The MBTI® will help you to unlock this success and will therefore make a positive contribution to your life and the care given in your organisation.

I hope this explanation clarifies the contribution that I believe I can make to the team/organisation in which you serve. I would appreciate an opportunity to further explore my potential contribution. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Chené Swart

The different services that can be rendered to your organisation are:

1. Teambuilding with the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator®
2. Therapeutic services
3. Employee wellness services
4. Facilitation services
5. Training services

1. Teambuilding with the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator®

You probably have wondered why some people can really annoy you and why you seem to get along really well with others. Is there a good explanation for these differences? How can you use knowledge about these differences to make your life easier, more fun, more productive, or just to feel more content?

The MBTI® is the most widely used personality inventory in history. Approximately 2,000,000 people a year take the MBTI®. The knowledge that this indicator brings, helps people to improve work and personal relationships, increase productivity, and identify leadership and interpersonal communication preferences for their clients.

What is the MBTI®?

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator® is a model of personality that identifies your personality preferences. This is analogous to handedness. You have two hands. You use them both. But most people are either "right handed" or "left handed". That is, they have a natural inclination or preference for one hand. In a similar way, you have many facets to your Myers Briggs personality. You use all of them. However, you have a natural inclination or preference for certain ways of thinking and behaving.

A profile for each of the sixteen types has been developed. Each profile consists of a list of characteristics frequently associated with your type.

There are no secrets or magic tricks, just knowledge based upon almost 60 years of scientific research and thousands of studies. Here are facts you can use to make sense of the world we live in. The more you understand your personality type, the more you'll want to learn about yourself and others. Now you can go about it in a rational, systematic way.

What MBTI® does for your team/organisation?

The MBTI Type Indicator will provide useful information to restructure your current job and teams, find out why your colleagues sometimes seem so different and understand why your colleagues appear so unlike you.

• your organization
• your leadership style
• preferred methods of communication
• your problem-solving
• learning style
• work preferences

You will also uncover potential pitfalls that can make your work and life harder and discover which work environments your type prefers. Further suggestions for personal development will make you a better leader or team member.

Programme for Day 1 (9h00 - 13h00)

• Administering the MBTI®
• Verifying your type
• Understanding your type

This programme will be administered in a playful and creative manner involving all of the team members.

Cost for the day

• R400 per person (Minimum of 6 participants)
• All the material that will be provided are included in the above price
• Conference facility and beverages provided by company
• Travelling and overnight expenses for the facilitator paid by the company

Programme for Day 2 (9h00 - 13h00)

• Understanding your place in the team
• Conflict and communication within MBTI®

Cost for the day

• R400 per person (Minimum of 6 participants)
• All the material that will be provided are included in the above price
• Conference facility and beverages provided by company
• Travelling and overnight expenses for the facilitator paid by the company

Programme for Day 3 (9h00 - 13h00)

• Stress profiles
• Self-care and self-leadership

Cost for the day

• R400 per person (Minimum of 6 participants)
• All the material that will be provided are included in the above price
• Conference facility and beverages provided by company
• Travelling and overnight expenses for the facilitator paid by the company

Programme for Day 4 (9h00 - 13h00)

• My unique contribution
• Working with energy

Cost for the day

• R400 per person (Minimum of 6 participants)
• All the material that will be provided are included in the above price
• Conference facility and beverages provided by company
• Travelling and overnight expenses for the facilitator paid by the company

2. Therapeutic services

I am a Narrative therapist registered with the Association for Pastoral care work in South Africa. I have been involved with therapeutic work for nearly 10 years and have journeyed with people feeling trapped within various and diverse problems.

Cost per session

• R300 per person per hour
• Travelling and overnight expenses (if necessary) for the therapist paid by the organisation

3. Employee wellness services

Programme for Day 1 (9h00 - 13h00)

• Identity: The key to employee wellness
• Self-care practices

This programme will be administered in a playful and creative manner involving all of the team members.

Cost for the day

• R400 per person (Minimum of 6 participants)
• All the material that will be provided are included in the above price
• Conference facility and beverages provided by company
• Travelling and overnight expenses for the facilitator paid by the company

The rest of the agenda for the Employee wellness programme will be assessed according to the needs and gaps identified from the participants on Day 1. The facilitation of this care process can last up to four sessions/days.

4. Facilitation services

I facilitate teams when they feel stuck regarding some difficulty they experience as teams or as a team regarding any aspect of their organisation. I have done some work for ABSA's Organisational Development teams. After a morning or day with such a team we will be able to write an alternative story and co-construct some actions steps to walk away from the problem story.

Cost for the day

• R5000 per day (R2500 for half a day)
• All the material that will be provided are included in the above price
• Conference facility and beverages provided by company
• Travelling and overnight expenses for the facilitator paid by the company.

4. Training services

• Training in listening skills

This course will enable employees to listen to those in need and refer them to whoever will be able to attend to their problem.

Cost for the course

• R2000 per person (Minimum of 3 participants)
• 3 days
• All the material that will be provided are included in the above price
• Conference facility and beverages provided by company
• Travelling and overnight expenses for the facilitator paid by the company

Here is what participants had to say about the way I facilitate, care and interact with their teams:

What did these narrative facilitations do to you?

• "They changed my perspective on how I view my colleagues and interact with them. They made me to understand my interactions and to be sensitive to other's needs."
• "This time out was very special en extremely necessary for me. It gave me time and space to talk about things that bothered me, things that I carried because of the work I do. Sometimes I do not even realize what this is and also not even how it influences me. When given the opportunity to work through some of this it really revitalised me and helped me to cope more and better with challenges in my work life and even personal life."
• "Challenging and very therapeutic at the same time. Very helpful in terms team connection at an emotional and cognitive level. These interventions served as a dumping zone for what I carry during the generic interventions."
• "It made me realise once more that self care is critical in our roles and that I need to set apart alone time to do just that. It also helped me to refocus my life journey and quest to realise my purpose in life."
• "Allowed me some time to do some self-introspection as well as to debrief in terms of the work we do. I also learnt more about my team members and got to connect with them on a deeper level."
• "It was both group and individual therapy.  It brought the team much closer to each other and the personal introspection helped me to reflect on my work- and personal life in an integrated way."

What resonated with you in this narrative facilitation?

• "The great learning that I received from each of my colleagues, acknowledging their joys and struggles in life. The sharing we did was at a deeper and meaningful level."
• "The calmness and relaxed atmosphere helped me to work with my own "issues". It felt like a safe space. Also hearing other stories and sharing in other's experiences, who do the same work as I do, helped me to make better sense of my own feelings and experiences."
• "Realized how much we share in common with team members."
• "All of my colleague's story telling stirred something in me. I could identify with so many issues, successes, and failures. I particularly enjoyed the almost non-directive way in which the sessions were conducted, allowing us to co-create the journey. The feedback sessions were extremely valuable and uplifting."
• "The experiences shared by others were so similar to my own experiences. We could relate to each other and also support and encourage one another. What resonated with me was the importance of having balance in life. It's not just about work. We need to make space for all facets of life (personal, family, spiritual, etc) and to ensure that we take care of ourselves."
• "The creative ways of getting people to tell their stories."

Where did this narrative facilitation take you?

• "It took me to an understanding of my own reactions towards others, the importance of sharing with my colleagues and the realization that it is ok to be myself in my team."
• "It took me to a safe relaxed place where I could get in touch with myself and deal with things I need to address to help me do my work better. It also helped me to view myself, my work, my life from 'above' (Seeing the bigger picture) once in a while, this helped to deal with things that I needed to address and to ensure that I do not take things that do not belong to myself from what is being projected or transferred onto me by groups that I work with."
• "Took me to a different level in terms of my emotional maturity. Help to exercise patience in whatever I do. It's helpful to share frustrations and achievements with others in my role."
• "They took me to the areas in my life where I spent little or no time exploring. It also took me to my childhood years and allowed me the opportunity to ponder on my development so far. It also took me back to some of my dreams I had forgotten about."
• "Firstly it took me to my own personal life and where I am at the moment, what I need to do in terms of self-care and self-leadership. Secondly it took me to what we, as a team need to focus on in terms of the above."
• "The interventions helped me to connect with my emotions and make sense of my life in all its dimensions.  It also helped me to connect with the realities and emotions of my colleagues."

What value did this narrative facilitation add to your team?

• "A better understanding of each other which will definitely improve relationships and enhance the working relationships."
• "For me it is so important to have a strong team in this work that we do, we often do not see each other in a while and then have to co-facilitate, so if we have strong relationships in our team it helps to be more effective when co-facilitating. Spending time together to talk and listen to each others stories and struggles helps to build team spirit, brings us closer together and creates space for better understanding each other with our own (many) different diversities."
• "Better teamwork within the team. Emotional growth. Love and caring for others. I have learnt to speak for myself when a need arise. To apply the methodology to line managers on one on one basis."
• "I think it added tremendous value! We are closer than ever before. It has opened up our communication with each other, we share even more freely than before and we have a genuine concern for each other's well being. It has also taught us the importance of 'debriefing' and spending some time with each other to ensure we're all still coping. Furthermore we have started to use some of the techniques with great success when working with our business partners."
• "We've been able to connect on a much deeper level with each other. The debriefing has been good for us. It's helped us to let go of some of the stuff we contain on behalf of the system. We were also able to give each other feedback on how we interact and function but this feedback was from a positive, constructive perspective (Michelle)."
• "This is a great team and the interventions facilitated ongoing authentic interaction."

Why would you think it necessary for teams in general to participate in narrative co-constructions of care?

• "It provides an adequate environment to debrief and be supported by colleagues. There is a great opportunity to learn about the self and team members."
• "I believe every team needs to understand each other and value each other's differences, also in general experience of life. By understanding, and being there for each other it helps to make the team more effective in delivery of interventions. The strong team that is build through this process enables the team to be more flexible and adaptable, facing and coping with many challenges easily and effectively."
• "Sharing the best practice. To know where everyone is at on an emotional level. This is the best tool showing how much the system cares about consultants at work. To understand myself and manage myself better in a role."
• "For all of the reasons above, and because we have so little time these days to care for others and ourselves. I really think it's critical for anyone who works with transformation in general. We always talk about maintaining balance in our lives, and this is the ideal vehicle to achieve that."
• "It's necessary to ensure that we take care of ourselves, given that we often contain things in the system as a result of the nature of our work. The "co-construction" aspect enables the team to connect, bond and provide support and care for each other and not only on an individual basis."
• "Our work demands a lot from us on a psychological level and the narrative interventions enables one to restore and optimise your own psychological wellness."

To get in contact, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at the following address: chene@transformations.co.za or visit the Transformations website.