What Do We Offer?
Baobab offers all its services to private individuals, community groups and organisations. Give us a call if you are uncertain about what might be useful to you. If we think our services are not a good fit for your problem we will help you think about who else might suit you better.
Psychotherapeutic Counselling – Talking Therapy
“The villagers gather and talk about the day’s events and problems and the baobab is the benevolent listener to all these problems,” (Pakenham, 2004)
Life always has ups and downs and sometimes it is difficult beyond belief. Being human and relating with other humans is often messy and hard to understand. Sometimes the things that happen to us can change the way we experience ourselves and others and affects the way we make relationships.
“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.”
Carl Jung
Everyone’s journey is different, and the focus of the therapy work will be discussed and tailored to each person’s circumstances. Talking therapy is about offering a safe, confidential, non-judgmental space where a person can unpack and understand better why they feel, think and respond the way they do. With new understanding, a person may be able to explore different ways of dealing with their difficulties.
Carl Jung says “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” A therapist’s privilege is to accompany you on this journey.
Team Development
When teams work well together, they can get stuck in their thinking, limiting their view about what works and what doesn’t, gradually decreasing their willingness or ability to be creative or expansive.
“The strongest instinct in human beings is to do what is familiar.” Virginia Satir
Team development includes bringing different views and approaches for the team to experience and evaluate. Sessions are tailor-made, experiential and focused on real situations and issues faced by the team. Communication skills, vital to team effectiveness, are often part of team development.
Team Conflict and Mediation
Human beings make decisions based on their values, competencies, experiences and ways of thinking and feeling. In each of these parts of decision making, there are likely to be both conscious and unconscious processes involved although these may not be clear to those involved in the conflict.
Difficult relationships within teams often increase when these processes between individuals clash or when the process of an individual conflicts with those of the organisation. Baobab is skilled at unravelling these threads, finding tools and techniques tailored to each team and situation and providing targeted ways forward.
Wisdom is like the baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it.
East African proverb
Baobab trees have a huge circumference. If a view of every single side of it is to be gained it requires many people and each one will see different aspects and different gaps.
Organisations and teams can have problems which feel so big no one person has a complete view of it. Baobab Centre can bring a different perspective and can support teams to co-ordinate and complement their individual views of a problem, bring a clearer overall view.
Workshop Facilitation and Training
We work collaboratively with managers and individuals to design training and workshops to fit specific, identified needs. All our groupwork is theoretically evidenced and delivered in a practical, experiential way focusing on how the the learning can be applied.
We cover a wide range of topics although most of our training and workshops focus on:
Power Dynamics
Creative Thinking
Enhanced Leadership Skills
Emotional Intelligence
Communication Skills
Managing Difficult Issues and Relationships
Executive Coaching
Senior executives, managers and leaders are called on to provide strategic thinking, clear leadership, and skilled management of a wide range of issues and people.
Coaching is matched to each person’s development needs but often focuses on self-reflection and interpersonal dynamics necessary in any leadership role. This includes sound, self-reflective critical thinking, an understanding of power dynamics and the skills to communicate effectively.
Coaching sessions can be off-site providing a confidential, dedicated space useful for exploration. On-site sessions can offer observation and greater clarity when team dynamics and interpersonal relationships are being considered.