ADVANCED: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

PLEASE READ THESE NOTES CAREFULLY

Growing as a hypnotherapist

Being a reflective practitioner - reflecting back on our work, analysing personal strengths and weakness, etc. Knowing when it is appropriate to reflect and maintaining good work-life boundaries (i.e. not over-reflecting).

Getting the best from supervision.

How to set up and run a peer group.

How to work with complex presenting issues. Examples might include skin disorders, working with grief, and tinnitus.

What is a Reflective Learning Journal?

A reflective journal is designed to help you think deeply about your learning, especially on issues such as: your progress in learning, the difficulties you encountered in the process of learning, the strategies you have taken to get around those difficulties, and your evaluation of your own performance.

What can you get from writing reflective learning journal?

For the study, writing a reflective learning journal helps you:

• bring together theory and practice,
• yield better understanding of the course material

For your development as a successful and independent learner, it helps you:

• See your strength and weakness as a learner
• Find out the methods of learning which suit your own learning style
• Notice how you can improve your learning in the future
• Gain a clearer picture of your learning progress and so in a better position to plan your learning

“I don’t know what to write!”

5 tips on what to write in a journal entry:

• Start off with whatever in your mind about your learning experience in the course
• Describe the meaning of what you have learnt. Also, your reaction, feeling, opinions, views on both the learning process and the learnt material
• List the goods and the bad, the strengths and weaknesses you consider you demonstrate in the course of your learning
• Make advice for yourself and make a plan for your learning in the near future

“Now I know what to put in the entry, but how should I write it?”

• Write in first person, as if you are writing a letter to a friend
• There is no right or wrong answer for a journal entry. Therefore, feel free to express your ideas, opinion, and thoughts
• Don’t hesitate to share your personal experience if that helps to illustrate your point
• Don’t limit yourself to words – diagrams and pictures are ok too
• Don’t be too intimidated by English rules. It’s okay to make minor grammatical errors if that does not interfer the transmission of ideas. So don’t put too much thought about how to write good English, instead spend more effort on what to write

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL OF PRACTICE

Reflective journal of practice - here you are asked to reflect briefly on what happened as you implemented advanced techniques and skills you have learnt during your course. Please do this for at least one session with two different clients ensuring you have used a different technique/skill with each client. Learning outcomes 1.1 and 3.7 will be covered here, possibly others too.

Reflective Journal of practice:

REFLECTION ON COURSE LEARNING

Reflection on course learning - this section is specifically mapped onto learning outcome 6.2. It requires the student to document how they feel their learning has developed over the duration of the course and how else you can improve your practice.

Reflection 1: What did you learn from the activity/experience/discussion? Something about yourself or others and/or new knowledge or skills? These reflections may well feed into your thoughts and comments on progress in your PDP, and help you to identify new priorities or learning opportunities.

Reflection 2: How will you use this learning to develop your practice as a hypnotherapist or as a reflective practitioner?

Reflection 3: How did you use this learning and what difference has it made to: Your awareness? Your perspective? Your practice? Your clients?

Reflection 4: What further learning needs do you have, or what actions do you need to take to further develop?

Reflection 1	Reflection 2	Reflection 3	Reflection 4
What did you learn? Use this column for personal thoughts/ reminders	How will you use this learning?	How did you use this learning? What difference has it made?	What further learning

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (PDP)

Personal Development Plan (PDP) - this is where learning outcome 6.3 is realised. You are asked to create a plan of action for an area of practice that you wish to improve.

Your PDP represents your view of the key personal and professional priorities that you need to focus on, in order to develop as an effective Hypnotherapist.

Your PDP will be informed by your reflections in your Journal the outcomes of your time/discussions with your tutor, your own view of your skills and attributes and so on. It is likely that your PDP will be amended over the course of your learning journey.

Personal Development Plan

Objectives What do I want to be able to do or do better?	Success Criteria How will I recognise success? How will I review and measure my improvement?	Actions What methods will I use to achieve my learning objectives?	Implementation How will I practise and apply what I learn?