What Liz thought:

Having worked in various children & family contexts over 15 years, and then as an educator, this article resonated with me in relation to different roles, but also on different levels. Indeed, I’d even say that as I read it a second time and reflected precisely on those concepts and processes discussed in the paper (anxiety, defences, climate, pace, space), I had to catch myself to ‘slow down’ and make deeper connections. Specifically, I recognised a coherent defensive ‘fit’ that developed between my own practice and that of the agencies I worked within (‘enduring the work’ together). I recognise that whilst I actively denounced the sort of ‘depersonalised defensive practice’ (Hingley-Jones & Ruch, 2016) cited in O’ Sullivan’s (2019) paper, I was less aware of my own raft of defensive responses – none really identified, visible or accepted at the time.

I also recognise a preference for comprehending as a way to approach practice, rather than apprehending. So, I have a preference to understand something in a rational way, rather than through feeling or intuition. This is not to say I am not moved, consciously or unconsciously by intuition or feelings, or that I don’t pay attention to it in a conscious way. It’s just that defences against “the experience of emotional distress and anxiety” are usually a few steps in from of reason.

This information about myself was something that I gained from a work discussion group (more specifically from a SCT (Systems Centred Training event facilitated by GAPS chair, Juliet Koprowska) 15 years after becoming a social worker. O’ Sullivan’s paper reminded me of how safe and structured groups can provide both containment and challenge, and also made me wonder what my practice would have been like if I had taken up opportunities for group reflection earlier..

As an educator, I now engage in case-work discussion by proxy. I facilitate WDG’s as an educator, creating safe spaces for practitioners to recognise their responses to anxiety, and to consider practice more thoughtfully. This runs alongside and hopefully is complimentary to the supervision within the agency. That I did not experience the profound transformative potential of WDG’s until I left practice is not lost on me. I am curious as to whether I could have acknowledged my defences from within that context, and what it would have taken for me to apprehend, rather than simply endure, or defend against the pain inherent in practice.

What Katharine thought:

Like Liz, I find myself responding to the article on different levels. As the person I am now and more painfully as the childcare social worker I was working in frontline practice during the 1980’s and 90’s. I remember the sense of struggling alone with the emotions and anxiety described by Katy in the absence of the kind of space and pace provided by the project. In the years since and at least partly as a result of intense emotional experience I chose to study on the same doctoral programme as the author developing and extending my understanding of the theoretical framework and learning from experience informing and shaping the research project and article. Making connections between the two has involved a kind of resurfacing and late processing of my own experience during these years.