We launch into an intentional research space

By Carolyn Rundell

Groupwork Centre has embarked on a research pilot project that will note its thirty-year accumulation of practice-based evidence. “Drawing on the group's wisdom, and that of our elders, and collaborators, we aim to consolidate and expand the organisation’s evidence-based knowledge systems and strengthen its practice-based approach to evidence gathering,” says Carolyn Rundell, the project lead. “We want to articulate the transformative theories, processes and individual stories of change for the times we are in.”

"The centipede was happy, quite, until a toad in fun said, "Pray, which leg goes after which?" This worked his mind to such a pitch, he lay distracted in a ditch, considering how to run."

Watts, A. THE WAY OF ZEN (1957)

The launch of Groupwork Centre’s ‘Research Pilot Project’

Groupwork Centre (GC) has undertaken a Research Pilot Project (November 24 - June 25) to consolidate and grow organisational knowledge and a structured, practised organisation-wide self-awareness. After thirty years of exceptional service and expertise in facilitation, supervision, coaching and training, the organisation is poised to scale. The intuitive wisdom and the evidence-based theories that underpin our success will be harnessed through this project.

The cautionary zen quote above seeks to "re-mind" us that analysing the 'how and what' can derail the exquisite beauty of intuitive, embodied wisdom. There is a felt sense of truth in Groupwork’s well-practised, grounded action; an energy that bursts the bubble of separateness. And so, with this project, we will embrace a double model of knowing; one grounded in evidence gathered, documented and referenced; and another grounded in the everyday stories of practice, of connection and mindful, engaged awareness.

Led by two-time Groupwork Centre graduate, Carolyn Rundell the project will deliver three significant outputs:

an online open-source database called Zotero to collect, tag, organise and utilise reference materials

a literature review of our core knowledge areas looking for the practice and knowledge gaps for 'the times we are in’; and

a 'research framework ' that will support us in exploring ways to tackle the big questions of our time and demonstrate the impact of the transformative trademark models and practice competencies for which Groupwork Centre is renowned.

Working with practice-based evidence?

This project is mindful of the pioneering work of Groupwork’s co-founder Glen Ochre. Glen’s work as a facilitator with many people facing tough challenges helped her to build the processes, skills and self-awareness for gathering practice-based evidence. Her complex struggle with power, rank, cultural diversity and relational dynamics, as documented in her autobiography, Child of the Earth, 2016, enabled her to develop a truly authentic method of connecting and learning with groups and clients. The practice-based evidence she held, in agreement with a group, generated a presence and attunement that empowered possibilities for transformation—drawing heavily on the evidence-based practice derived from the work of Amy and Arnold Mindell’s Process Oriented Psychology.

We also acknowledge the wisdom of the Commonground elders, the staff and associates at Groupwork Centre, and the gifts of everyone with whom Groupwork has worked.

Intuitive wisdom is at the heart of Groupwork’s intellectual property and culture. This distilled wisdom embraces the relative nature of power and rank, the unlearning of stereotypes and the enabling of a wisdom-centred self-awareness. As such, Groupwork Centre’s offerings stand out from those of our contemporaries. Our training tends to eschew wordy, disembodied, theory-dominated and conceptually complex courses in favour of models of practice and knowledge drawn from direct experience and values of love and goodwill. These models transform individuals, groups and organisations from micro to macro. We build from theoretical evidence and stay anchored in the evidence of the present moment.

In her book Decolonising Health, Healing and Care, researcher, counsellor and academic Dr Sandra Collins emphasises the power of practice-based evidence. She explains it as a vital complement and counterbalance to evidence-based practice. You can listen to Dr Collins' brief presentation here.

Respecting the limits of evidence-based practice

“First, facilitate thyself” is the GC catch-cry that heralds unlimited and powerful opportunities for facilitation practice at a personal level. By actively stepping into awareness, applying micro-skills and self-compassion to our inner multiple selves, we build self-evidence of the powers of ‘seeing, hearing and connecting’, well before turning our attention to the external world. We use processes, presence and connection in combination with models, facts and assumptions to work well with clients seeking sense-making. We tend to take the road less travelled to get to the heart of the present moment reality and to allow the facts to become part of the many elements in a greater story.

Evidence-based practice can be dangerously reductionist, adopting assumptions based on statistics rather than engaging in connection with ourselves and the people at the centre of our focus. Instead, we aim to draw on evidence and mindful practice to collaboratively develop, embodied knowledge to become new knowledge.

Metaphor and the power of imagining: Groupwork’s Tree of Knowledge

At the recent 2024 Groupwork staff retreat we launched the Research Pilot Project in a workshop featuring a cardboard Boab Tree as a metaphor for our developing Tree of Knowledge. We were invited to share personal stories of how each team member came to work with Groupwork. Powerful stories of transformation rooted in culture, learning, courage and fear were shared by all without exception. These ‘experiential trace elements’ built the rich soil that will continue to feed the growth and capacity of the Tree of Wisdom and the work of Groupwork.

Metaphorical rocks were placed at the base of the cardboard tree. These represented the evidence-based bodies of knowledge that shielded the Tree of Knowledge as it sprouted and grew. Its roots represented awareness in the soil of experience. Those bodies of knowledge still hold as foundational knowledge: the natural world, Systems Theory, Feminism, Nonviolence, Process Oriented Psychology, Psychodrama, First Nations Wisdom, and Structural Analysis of Power.

The great swollen trunk of the Boab symbolises the exchange of past, present, future, spirit and action. It wraps around a hollow, nurturing place of exchange and reflection. And now, in the pilot project, we flesh out the few branches, to reveal the core knowledge and concepts that reach out in a powerful engaging dance with our communities. The leaves that change with the seasons represent the practice-based evidence, changing with each group-focused, co-created collaborative encounter.

In our times of information and knowledge economies, our grounding practices at Groupwork Centre have transformative power, taking us, our students and our clients on an inner journey to the hollow centre of the Boab. We invite all to deepen their roots and refine their stories, build a fire in their bellies for living the wisdom that nurtures many, and sustains the community through arid times.

The Boab tree as a metaphor for the research aspect of Groupwork’s culture arose intuitively in a discussion with Sarah Norton and Gini Gough, of how the project could safely hold and include all GC collaborators. Glen Ochre saw herself reflected in the Boab; timeless, adaptive, nurturing, creative, strong and yet hollow. As this metaphor develops, together, we can embrace the wisdom of nature and allow the metaphor to reveal how knowledge, practice, research and evidence can best serve the times we are in.