Eight routes to a reflective habit

The word 'Reflection' can conjure up, for many, a way in which new insight can reveal itself. I say 'for many' because that was not the case for me. For many years, I found reflection a wrestle and a battle with self-discipline accompanied by a sense of hypocrisy that I was espousing reflective practice with my supervision and coaching clients but struggling to do it for myself. When I did manage to reflect, I almost always uncovered interesting new perspectives that had alluded me in my 'in the moment' practice. Logically, it was clearly a worthwhile endeavour - so why did I find it so tricky?

What exactly is this 'it' that I refer to? I would support Butler (2023) in her view that reflective practice is:

an iterative, open-ended, creative process, where we take deliberate conscious time to explore and interrogate our practice in a systematic and systemic way. This enables us to adapt what we do and consider how we might develop our future practice, in service of our stakeholders.

It is interesting that while we know there are four prevailing learning styles, of which 'reflector' is just one, (the others, according to Honey and Mumford (1986) being activist, theorist and pragmatist) the predominant encouragement while training practitioners is to write and journal. So much so, that journalling has almost become synonymous with reflection. Yet Fleming (1987) also identified that we have many different processing styles ie. we each have preferences about which of our senses help us access learning most easily. Written journalling is predominantly a cognitive or left-brained activity. Conversely there are some more right-brained activities which can also aid reflection – visual (what we see), auditory (what we hear), kinaesthetic (what our body and more somatic senses notice) and metaphor (more conceptual and abstract activities, including the use of poetry) to name a few.

A turning point in my own journey as a reflective practitioner came while I was working with a colleague developing imagery that could provoke rich conversations for client work (Lucas and Housden, 2020). I discovered that working with abstract imagery fired my curiosity and when used to review client situations, I was able to surface latent information with relative ease. Once I opened myself up to the possibility that I wasn't 'bad' at reflection, rather that journalling wasn't a preferred processing preference, I noticed how reflection worked for me. With a love of dance, it's perhaps not surprising that useful insights often occurred while I was moving. A twice daily dog walk offered time and space for preparation and review of my client work; long train journeys offered similar space and inspiration.

During my own journey I spent time looking at what my struggle involved. If I return to the start of this piece, 'reflection' gives the illusion of being a single thing. However, my sense is that there are at least eight components to reflective practice. Below I offer some ideas to help build your own reflective practice further.

Finding space

Reflective practice is not the same as musing about our client work. The difference is about being deliberate and intentional. Going out for a dog walk and noticing that a particular client comes to my mind, is a musing. Going out for a dog walk with a particular client in mind to consider what more I notice about the session, is reflective practice. Yet what is important is to notice is where our 'natural opportunities' for some protected space in no doubt otherwise busy lives. Where might these natural opportunities occur in your life? Or where might you create some? Perhaps there is a park on the way back from the school run and before returning home that could offer a segue between home and work that will give you a protected space where reflection can occur?

Finding focus

As a developing coach I noticed my tendency to bring to supervision topics which fitted the 'what could have been better?' category. However, a turning point came when I agreed with my supervisor we would deliberately consider 'what was great and how was that possible?'. While reflective practice is intended to improve our client work, I believe we can access this from many directions. Our focus for reflection could be 'what was tricky?'; it could also be 'what went well?'.

More than that, there is a working assumption that 'reflection' is only about looking back, however, I see preparation and planning as an essential ingredient of reflective practice. I'm not alone, Thompson and Thompson (2018) identified 'reflection for action' which has become known as 'pre-flection' and Ghaye (2010) identified a focus on future with his 'reflection with action'. As a supervisor I have also noticed that the increase of online working has caused isolation, intensity of screen-facing work and more flexibility in boundary keeping - all of which have had an impact on our self-care. As helping practitioners if we are not putting our own oxygen mask on first how can we expect to truly serve our clients? This can therefore be a specific topic for reflection.

Finding prompts that match (or mis-match) your processing preference

Perhaps you too were encouraged to use written journalling for reflective practice; indeed you may have been more successful than me in finding ways of making this work for you? However, putting your journalling practice to one-side; what do you know about your processing preferences? There are many questionnaires available to help assess if you are Visual or Auditory or Kinaesthetic (see Resources below). How might your reflective practice evolve if you used a different sense? Indeed, no matter what your preference, what might you discover if you challenged yourself to reflect using alternative methods?

Finding your reflective self

I remember once, picking up an unplanned call from an HR client shortly before a scheduled coaching session. The impact? I was not at my coaching best – the directiveness of my consultancy identity leaked into my coaching work.

My sense is that we have multiple selves – and the self that serves our clients best in the moment of the session, may not be the self that will serve our reflective practice best. In the monthly reflective sessions which I facilitate, we start with 10 minutes of mindfulness. Not only does this deliberately lower us into a reflective space, helping us access the wisdom held in our whole bodies – it also gives us breadth of perspective. Rather than bringing the issue of the moment, we may notice themes and patterns arising from all our client work. So whatever kind of reflective activity you choose to engage in, how will you bring your best reflective self to it?

Finding your reason

Most of us recognise that engaging in reflective practice is part of 'good practice' for a helping practitioner. However, is that 'enough' to motivate us to act accordingly? Certainly, for me, my 'rebellious teenager' is often close by, taunting me with 'why should I?' or 'who will know if I don't?'; my expedient self is not far behind either with encouragement to tick something off the incessantly growing to do list – 'wouldn't the time be better spent elsewhere…you can reflect tomorrow?!'

You may have different voices to deal with, but until you find the voice that truly encourages you to reflect you will be doing battle with the 'shoulds and oughts' of your underpinning training. For me, it is my creative and curious self that drives me – faced with a novel reflective prompt I am eager to dive in and see what emerges. Sometimes nothing does (and isn't that interesting learning in and of itself!) but often the kernel of something not previously seen, comes into view.

Finding reinforcement

When supporting our clients to embed behaviour change, we know that identifying reward systems can help anchor and sustain the change. Yet how easy is it to forget to do that for us?  Perhaps the discovery of new insight is intrinsically motivating? Perhaps like me, you will add the act of reflection onto your to do list, after it has been done, simply to have the pleasure of striking it through!

Finding value

Good reflective practice is not a question of quantity, it's a question of quality. The purpose of reflection is to improve our work – so how do you engage in the checks and balances of understanding what difference your reflections have made to your clients? For me this is hard to do in isolation and where my independent reflective practice dovetails with peer and professional supervision. Reviewing my practice with others helps me calibrate my performance, not against others but with myself over time. How are my strengths deepening? What new blind spots are appearing? I also take pleasure in noticing how hard I make my own supervisor work! If I rock up with a familiar script it takes less time to unpick, however, if I have peeled the first and sometimes second 'layer of the onion' through good independent reflective practice – that's when I notice a heightened enthusiasm to our joint explorations.

Finding themes

Once we have achieved a regularity to our reflective practice it can be helpful to find a way of capturing the inputs and outputs of our reflections. Again, this doesn't have to be written, it could be voice notes, pictures or anything else that offers a record. Perhaps when nothing else seems pressing, or perhaps with a scheduled regularity – it can be helpful to aggregate reflections to see if themes or patterns are present. Often this can help us see what kinds of issues repeat themselves in various shapes and forms, generating an invitation to look beneath at what the root cause might be.

What does 'simple' word reflection look like in your practice? How and where did you learn to reflect in that way? How many of the eight components have you naturally considered? What might you discover if you started in a different place or used a different processing preference? How will you know when your reflective practice is as unique as you?

When I look back at how my relationship with my reflective practice has changed shape over the years, I notice how I needed to 'unlearn' what I had been taught. It took courage and confidence to voice that journalling is not the only legitimate route to reflection. Recognising and embracing my own preferences has been liberating. Engaging in reflection may be espoused good practice and I know now what it needs to look like to truly be part of my practice.

Creating the Reflective Habit by Michelle Lucas is published by Routledge. Michelle Lucas is an accredited master executive coach and accredited master coach supervisor; she runs Greenfields Consulting Limited based in Weymouth, Dorset and Mojacar, Spain

References

Businessballs (2022) VAK Learning Styles Self-Assessment Questionnaire. 

HFE (2022) Learning Style Self-Assessment Questionnaire. 

Liminal Muse Conversation Cards How to use the cards – Charlotte Housden Photography (wordpress.com) 

Fleming, N. (1987) The VARK theory of learning.  21, pp.10-22

Ghaye, T. (2010) Teaching and Learning Through Reflective Practice, A Practical Guide. Abingdon: Routledge.

Honey, P. and Mumford, A. (1986) Using your learning styles. Maidenhead: Peter Honey

Lucas, M and Housden, C. (2020) The space between. Coaching at Work, Toolbox RoadTest.  15(3), pp. 48-50.

Lucas, M. (2023) Creating the reflective Habit: A practical guide for coaches, mentors and leaders. Abingdon: Routledge.

Thompson, S., and Thompson, N. (2018). The Critical Reflective Practitioner. London: Palgrave.