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Systemic Solutions & Mentorship
Mentoring Helping Professionals © Martyn Carruthers & Kosjenka Muk

Online Mentorship for Health Professionals

Most people remain true to their conditioning, whether from families or cult-like organizations. Breaking free from old habits requires more than logical decisions ... freedom requires changes in emotions, beliefs and values. We accelerate these changes with our systemic coaching and mentorship.

Maturity . Reality . Intelligence . Emotional Baggage

While we are specialists in helping people resolve relationship entanglements and emotional blocks, we also act as advisers, role models, advocates, guides, listeners, provocateurs, visionaries and facilitators. We can help you explore options and make your own decisions.

Coaching is not mentoring although a coach might also be a mentor and either may be a role model. Building and maintaining these relationships require different personal qualities and relationship skills.

Who are Mentors?

We apply systemic coaching to goals or projects depending on a person's desires and needs. Our coaching primarily helps people define and achieve specific goals, while our mentorship is primarily helps people develop purpose, meaning and integrity.

Quality mentoring requires expertise in both content and process - collecting appropriate information and giving useful feedback. This includes observing verbal and non-verbal behavior (body language), conversational changework, active listening and analyzing habitual behaviors.

Accelerated Learning . Expert Modeling

Some Benefits of Being Mentored

We often assist students and helping professionals to master our systemic coaching methodology. This methodology transcends mere techniques, rather it offers a much larger world-view than is normally available in alternative therapies (by alternative we mean not taught at universities). Some benefits are:

1. Increased expertise
2. Increased confidence
3. Candid, constructive feedback
4. Ongoing support and encouragement
5. Meeting other successful role models
6. Increased challenges and responsibilities

Some Benefits of Being a Mentor

Both a mentor and a protégé can develop their experience and improve their skills, and improve both their professional and private lives. Some of the benefits of being a mentor are:

1. Satisfaction
2. Recognition
3. Self-respect
4. Exposure to fresh ideas
5. Develops own skills and practices
6. Expands own knowledge and expertise

Some Functions of Mentorship

Systemic coaching and mentorship overlap but are not the same. Both coaching and mentorship helps people develop. Both coaches and mentors are approachable and available. Both coaching and mentorship can be applied to most fields of human abilities and excellence.

1. Role model
2. Specific skills
3. Improve capabilities
4. Knowledge and information
5. Support and encouragement
6. Develop broader perspectives

Choosing a Mentor

The original Mentor was described by an ancient Greek writer as Odysseus' wise and trusted counselor. Mentor was responsible for Odysseus' estate and his son's education. When selecting a mentor for applying systemic psychology, consider people who:

1. are committed to mentoring
2. have experience in mentoring
3. understand systemic dynamics
4. enjoy giving support and encouragement
5. are sensitive to the needs and concerns of others

A mentor relationship can foster your professional growth. We can discuss:

1. Experience in training and mentoring
2. Expectations of both mentor and protégé
3. Goals and objectives of both mentor and protégé
4. Possible opportunities for accelerating development
5. Identifying strengths, weaknesses and ways to improve

Expect a mentor to engage in some of the following activities:

1. Giving you specific behavioral feedback
2. Helping you explore strategies for building on your strengths
3. Exploring your concerns about the skills you wish to develop
4. Observing your behavior in situations where you wish feedback
5. Helping you explore strategies for refining behaviors that you want to improve

Feedback is a powerful developmental tool. After your work, we can discuss what happened and help you improve performance. We can share observations and analysis of your performance - to plan the next steps of your development.

As we often cannot directly observe your behavior, you can record and analyze your behavior for discussion and improved performance. Together we can explore ways to improve your performance. Some of our skills in this coaching activity are listening, questioning and sensitivity to consequences.

Mentor & Therapy Damage

Inappropriate mentorship can be distressing. If a mentor uses protégés as substitutes for friends, partners, children or followers, or if a mentor is perceived by a protégé as a substitute parent, older sibling or master, separation may be painful. If such transferences dissolve during mentorship, one or both may experience unpleasant emotions and resent or avoid the other.

Inappropriate mentorship can hurt both mentors and the mentored - we call it mentor damage or spiritual abuse. It is common. People damaged by inappropriate mentors may avoid further mentorship - by anybody. They have been hurt and they may assume that more mentorship will produce more hurt. We remedy mentor damage in ways similar to alleviating other forms of abuse.

Phases of Mentorship

Long-term mentorship has four phases: initiation, cultivation, independence & redefinition (Kram 1985), similar to what we see during our business coaching and couple coaching.

Mentorship can begin with creating trust and connection through careful questions and active listening. Without this foundation, the likelihood of meaningful mentorship is low. Instead, detrimental parent-child or master-disciple relationships may begin. We avoid this by ongoing discussions and shared integrity.

Mentorship may include building relationships, providing information, facilitating and provoking, and perhaps serving as a role model, while inspiring people to create and achieve worthwhile goals.

Online Coaching & Mentorship

Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers & Kosjenka Muk 2009-2012 All rights reserved.

Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers 1996-2012 All rights reserved. Soulwork Systemic Coaching was primarily developed by Martyn Carruthers
to help people dissolve emotional blocks, improve relationships and achieve goals. These concepts and strategies are for general knowledge only. Consult a physician about medical conditions and before changing medical treatment. Don't steal intellectual property ... ask for permission to post, publish or teach this work.