Advanced Mentoring
On November 15th, Grand Area Mentoring and other local agencies brought Dr. Julia Pryce of Loyola University to Moab for staff and volunteer workshops. In two sessions serving about forty trainees, Dr. Pryce provided an introduction and details about the Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) model. In this framework, mentors center themselves in preparation to meet the mentee in their mode of being – such as feeling, thinking, doing, reflecting – and then bridge to other modes as appropriate. This approach affirms the mentee’s experiences and invites the youth to try other wedges on the FAN, especially with an opening question like: “What has this day been like for you so far?” and bridging questions such as: “Can I take just a second to check in with you? Is there anything else you wanted to cover with our time today?” and “What was one thing that stood out to you from our time together today?” Approaching a
On November 15th, Grand Area Mentoring and other local agencies brought Dr. Julia Pryce of Loyola University to Moab for staff and volunteer workshops. In two sessions serving about forty trainees, Dr. Pryce provided an introduction and details about the Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) model. In this framework, mentors center themselves in preparation to meet the mentee in their mode of being – such as feeling, thinking, doing, reflecting – and then bridge to other modes as appropriate. This approach affirms the mentee’s experiences and invites the youth to try other wedges on the FAN, especially with an opening question like: “What has this day been like for you so far?” and bridging questions such as: “Can I take just a second to check in with you? Is there anything else you wanted to cover with our time today?” and “What was one thing that stood out to you from our time together today?” Approaching a mentoring session with this model in mind prepares the mentor to be youth-focused, attuned to the values and experiences of the young person, and ready to maximize the value of each mentoring minute. To understand the importance of attunement takes only a moment of imagination: picture a mentoring session where 100% of the session is spent with mentor and mentee out of sync, a mentor in the reflecting wedge, for example, while the mentee yearns to have their feelings acknowledged. Attunement is the bedrock on which meaningful relationships can grow. Big thank you to Dr. Pryce and collaborators Seekhaven, BEACON, & Youth Garden Project!
To view the full newsletter, click here or the image below:
