“It takes a village to raise a child”

Hi LinkedIn friends,

It has been a while since I have written a newsletter. Anyone who knows a thing or two about grief will know that grief can isolate. Since my sister Joyce passed away in December 2023, I have been trying to keep up with my writing and shipping out this newsletter. I did not have sufficient energy to do so. I have been busy with many things, though, which activities I could spend my energy reserves.

Such activities include my ongoing doctoral study, which is advancing. The study has taken on fresh impetus as I am doing it in the active memory of Joyce. Joyce grants the study of relational immediacy, but Joyce is any other person who has to deal with the cancer diagnosis with meagre support systems, even within the medical system. The work continues, and I am not giving up on it.

Additionally, I have been running arts-based workshops for organisations and teams around South Africa. In the last few months, I have facilitated workshops with the Catholic Institute of Education (CIE), which focused on suicidality and prevention, especially in education settings. We emphasised the ecological approach to suicide understanding and prevention. Following that, I facilitated a workshop with the Edmund Rice Education Leadership Forum (ELF), where we explored grief in the context of education leadership, especially in a country where multiple acts of violence converge. After that workshop, I facilitated another with the @Edmund Rice Education Beyond Borders (EREBB). The gathering was for leaders in EREBB schools. The theme of the seminar was well-being for leaders in high-pressure settings. We explored practices, rituals and disciplines that would be resourceful to the leaders who would go on to lead from well-being and not from ill-being.

Further, I facilitated a musical interaction with psychologists, social workers, and therapists who work in schools affiliated with the Catholic Schools Office. The interaction harvested the muted humour and deep playfulness adults seek in ordinarily clinicalised, calloused and cynicalised versions of adult life.

I recently facilitated a safeguarding workshop for Limpopo's Holy Spirit Primary School staff. Safeguarding is an interesting framing of collaboratively creating spaces that allow people to feel safe enough to be courageous to live their desired lives—such commitment to safeguarding stems from a deep psychological commitment to the intrinsic wholeness in each person. We processed the healing of psychological, emotional and social wounds, self-leadership and shared leadership, social artistry and innovation to create an educational space that welcomes and facilitates everyone to thrive. We considered geographical, personal, functional, occupational and political safety in safeguarding. A highlight of the workshop was the evening we all gathered around a fire to sing, dance, tell stories, riddles and proverbs. The video accompanying this newsletter is a demonstration of that.

I have run similar workshops throughout the establishment of Christian Brothers' College Boksburg . CBC Boksburg's commitment to safeguarding is entrenched in the ethos of educating our youth for life. Our whole-school approach to implementing safeguarding protocols is commendable.

I have continued to work as an accompanier for people. Therapy work is heuristic, and its impact on people is foundationally steeped in forming trusted alliances. I know that practising therapy presents serious vulnerabilities, the subject of which was my presentation at the Creative Care Summer Summit 2024 (artstherapies.org). The benefits of treatment are mutual and collective. As a therapist, I take the risk of being transformed by the encounter with another through therapeutic conversation and creativity. We are moving, we are changing!

Most people would read in my usual profile that I love being an uncle. The truth is that I do so with a sense of duty and deliberate engagement. I have been supporting two young women I have helped raise, as it takes a village to raise a child through their tertiary education. Rosemary Moonga and Lushomo Moonga show daily that committing to a child is noble and rewarding. It is how we relate to each other that is meaningful to me. I like that we enjoy each other's company and are at ease speaking our minds, imaginations, fears, and hopes. Lushomo is studying Procurement Management and Rosemary Rural Sociology and Community Development at ZIPS and UNZA.

Finally, I am excited to share that Jacinta Calabro and I have teamed up to bring you a valuable tutorial. Check out the resourceful and stimulating content at the following link: https://lnkd.in/dtSzpuWr. Take advantage of this opportunity to sign up for the course, and feel free to share it with your colleagues and friends. All the best!