I’ve long had a difficulty with names and labels – they feel like an invitation to other people to stereotype and project whatever they associate with that label on to you.

So, if I call myself a ‘coach’ or a ‘facilitator’, you are likely to think ‘Ah yes, I know what they are like …. ‘

And we do it to ourselves too ….

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I’ve resisted the label ‘teacher’, because of the associations I make with it from my own experience.  My dominant experience of  teachers  is of people who want to create a distance between themselves and their students, by demonstrating their expertise and thus the non-expertise of the student.  (I acknowledge this is just my partial perspective ….)

I’ve resisted the label of ‘artist’, I think because it hasn’t felt serious enough and after all we have some very serious things to be dealing with.

In fact I’ve resisted labels full stop, because I want you to know me as me and not rush to project on to me.

And yet labels do serve, we don’t always have the time to get intimate with each other and we have to start somewhere.

So, I’m playing with some new ones.

For now, I am increasingly labelling myself as a teacher – reclaiming the idea that I do have expertise and searching for the best ways to deploy that whilst empowering and without creating unnecessary distance.

And I am trying on for size the label ‘process artist’ too – it’s harder to project on to, because we probably haven’t met many, but I want to own that I am a creative person and creative process art is what brings us into the deeper relationships that build our resilience in difficult times and take us to better outcomes.  So am I going to try labelling myself a ‘process artist’ for a while and see how that goes.

What new labels might you fancy trying for size ?

I think this could be a good game to play amongst friends.