Key Terms

The whole person is involved in learning. People don't learn just through their brains alone. Most approaches do not include the emotional, physical or spiritual dimensions of the person in their content and the programme of learning. Whole Person Learning means what it says – we work with the whole person – even the difficult bits.  >> more

People learning together are in free association as facilitators and participants, not only as teachers and students. That means they have to negotiate their way of approaching the work they are to do together. This means more than developing a few simple ground rules: it involves working through the context; content; timing; management and assessment of the learning of any substantial learning experience. >> more

The learning people gain with us is ‘theirs’. It isn’t only measured by what others think, but most importantly it is measured by what the learner understands. Self assessment, then learning how to help others assess their own learning and then taking part in ensuring that assessment comes alive in a direct way is all part of self and peer assessment. >> more

We prefer Affective Competence to emotional intelligence and this is what we have been using for over twenty years. It is about emotional competence, knowing when and how to express feelings, when and how to manage them; when and how to control them or even to sublimate them into some other form, all are part of learning about emotional competence. >> more

Inquiry based learning is a way of recognising that it is the task of the facilitator to enable the individual participant to identify the questions that really motivate them to begin the journey of participating fully in their own learning and development. It is out of the unfolding curiosity and interest that people really learn and learn deeply. Joining an inquiry.

Counselling is a form of person-to-person help that can be offered through any number of different approaches. Our approach derives from the Seven Stage Model, it follows from the peer-based approach to learning and development in which the counsellor is another person just like the person being helped. The counsellor’s aim is to facilitate the client’s learning, he or she is not an expert in other peoples’ lives.

Coaching is a way of helping someone to develop a particular skill or understanding. It is more task-focused than, say mentoring, and less therapeutic than say, counselling. A coach is usually someone who has a grasp of what the person learning requires and has enough understanding of how people learn. The objective is to assist them rather than do it for the learner.   >> more

A mentor is someone who has long experience - usually in areas of life or work - within which the mentee is seeking support and guidance. A good mentor is therefore an invaluable ally; someone to be treasured. When you find him or her you are likely to have a longer working relationship with than say, a coach. 

A mentor is not interested in converts or in gaining disciples but has reached that stage of their life that they can listen thoughtfully and reflect deeply with another person without believing it is important that they supply the answers for someone else.  >> more

Supervision can mean management oversight of a staff member’s work, or it can mean a clinical examination of the work an individual performs with their own clients. This distinction between managerial supervision and clinical supervision is an important one. 
 
To make it more difficult non-managerial supervision is a way of distinguishing between both of the above. On the one hand, it isn’t supervision from a manager and it isn’t supervision of clinical work necessarily, but a reflective opportunity to review progress and consider the impact of work upon oneself with the impartial contribution of someone who is not directly involved in the outcome. >> more

When Oasis began Human Relations were thought to be much more predictable. There was much more shared agreement about what people expected of one another whether that was at work, in the home, or at school. In today’s fast-moving world we have learned much more about how our human relations are being constantly adjusted shifted and overall redefined. What does it mean to be a parent? How do you act toward someone from another culture? How far is it acceptable to retain the right to…? What is the best way of relating to…? These are the kind of questions the citizen in a modern society is likely to face regularly.

A Human Relations approach recognises that first and foremost we are on the planet as persons; and persons are only persons and only fully become persons in relation to other persons, the planet and the wider world. It is how we relate to our environment and other persons and how they relate to us that provides the basis of our wider understanding of life and purpose.  

At Oasis we recognise that the spiritual (we use the word Transpersonal) purpose of life arises out of the way in which we understand and act toward one another. That’s why we don’t have a great deal to say directly about such things as ‘equality of opportunity’, ‘diversity’ or ‘inclusivity’ – for us these things are part and parcel of what we expect to have to work with both in ourselves and with others as an evolution and recognition of the true worth of the person, each a unique spiritual entity in their own right.

Development is a term that often replaces the word ‘training’ to imply that there is more to be done than simply attend a programme. ‘Training’ is something associated with changes in behaviour rather than a deeper consideration of the implications of values in action. We can ‘train’ animals, but people, when they learn in a whole person way, develop and we all develop for better or worse. There is no inevitable law that says that all development must be progressive and in the end, as a stage in our development, we all die. Oasis approaches its work with a deep understanding of how development occurs; what is involved and what needs to be taken account in supporting the development of others. When we talk about development we mean it in this much more transpersonal sense, than purely as an educational term. >> more

When people learn with Oasis there are a number of routes they may take to have that learning acknowledged. There is the self and peer assessment process that all programmes embrace – though, as you might expect, it is followed with more depth the longer the programme.  In addition, individuals sometimes seek and achieve accreditation to bodies in the wider world that are relevant to their practice.  One of the things we prize about the way in which participants respond to accreditation issues is that they know what they know and they can communicate effectively – we call it ‘speaking their practice’. This often means that they gain more recognition for the learning they have achieved than they might expect at the outset of a programme. Our own accreditation system is based on the peer and self assessment method and is time-limited to a period of three years after which you would go through the assessment process again.   >> more

CI is a way of doing research that changes people as they do it and doesn’t just inform them.
CI is a form of cutting edge research that involves those who are participating in the research in the design and experience of the research. They come together in answer to a theme or a ‘call’ – for instance ‘examining difference’. When they meet they are informed of the method of CI and taken through its major stages of planning/ action/ reviewing followed by the gaining of meaning  The process is then applied in a mini-version so people get the hang of both being a researcher and being in the research itself. A CI will usually follow between six to eight cycles of research before the inquiry group begins to distil their conclusions and decide whether or not they wish to express their findings in more permanent form.  >> more  

This is the term we have adopted to indicate that we are more interested in an inquiry-based approach to learning and research than a purely academic one. Of course traditional methods of research are important in providing broad data about all kinds of things, but when it comes to human relations – your human relations – it is what you consider, feel, think and is willing to engage in that matters to you. Other people’s views may inform your understanding or influence your actions, but only by you being willing to explore and examine those actions and reflect upon your motivation will you become more aware of what informs how you go about your acting in the world and make any useful changes to the way you act in the future, and hence affect others. >> more    

This is a model of the way people go about successfully relating to one another on a one-to-one basis from the inception of a working relationship to its conclusion. It is the cornerstone of our approach to Human Relations Practice. The model has been successfully introduced to over 5,000 people and applies as much to business relationships as educational relationships, personal encounters or therapeutic meetings. The model incorporates many influences and much practical experience and is based a great deal on various elements of humanistic practice: Transactional analysis, NLP and Gestalt to name only three. >> more

We have adopted a number of models that we find are compatible with our overall approach and stance to the person. In interpersonal development, for example, Will Schutz’s work on inclusion, control and openness has been a major tool for assisting groups understand how individual’s progress in the life of the group.  We have found John Heron’s Six Category Intervention Analysis system a valuable and complimentary approach to the Seven Stage Model as a way of reinforcing and developing further the skills of working at the various stages of a relationship. The clover leaf model of organisational development helps bring a perspective that unites people, systems resource, values and purpose together in a unified view of development. 
 
At each level of our work, we have explored a number of approaches until we have found those that are compatible with our underlying values and which we believe have an enduring value in their own right. Some are well-known; many are relatively little known.  

The idea of the four temperaments (Sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic) is an ancient one. It was surfaced by Jung and transformed by him into his four functions. The temperaments help us understand that we are influenced not simply by our personality, but by our broader type. Our temperament is something that develops and evolves over our lifetime, but gives us some of the essential characteristics and expressions – our stance to many aspects of life. How far people understand their temperament and can accommodate and modify its influence gives them some measure of flexibility. Without recognition of our type many of us are in a constant battle with our selves over aspects of our way of operating in the world that are unlikely to change a great deal. Many of us, through working with the temperaments in a ‘live’ way, discover how far our basic temperament has been stifled by circumstances and upbringing. Releasing our temperament can be a major step in a person’s development. 

It is a gentle and deeply penetrating approach to the work of the person. It runs through much of our work, if not explicitly then at an implicit level.

We use methods that have been designed specifically to help people make connections and integrate past experience and future aspirations. The person stands between the past and future in the living present of the times. The present may be dominated by past history, of a mere moment on the way to a future as yet unwritten. How each of us finds our orientation or stance to the past and the future deeply affects our way of going about living in the present. Many approaches to development concentrate on the present and the future (NLP) and deal with the past when it gets in the way. Others concentrate upon dealing with past until the person is relatively clear of it enabling them to work more effectively in the present. However we understand the influence of the past and the potential of the future, the individual has to manage them in the present. Our biographical approach takes that as the starting point. ‘Where are you now?’ and ‘How did you get here?’ as well as ‘Where are you going?’

The Human Potential Movement that arose in the 1960s unleashed a huge number of techniques and approaches to further human potential and development. People in Oasis have experienced a great many of these approaches and value them in different ways for different aspects of development. Individuals have their own preferences which are easily discovered and you can always ask us. Some the humanistic influences however are core to the building of the Seven Stage Model, for example: Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, NLP, Bioenergetics, and Holotropic Breathwork are only some of the many approaches that influence Oasis.

It is possible to have a view of individual development that goes no further than the individual and the opportunities that they can mobilise for themselves. Or it can go all the way to taking a view of the person that holds them as a unique spiritual entity with a destiny towards which they are moving –  one they many not fully envision. It is possible to see individuals as connected to others simply by proximity, interest or shared concerns, or to recognise that it is a fundamental aspect to being human on a shared planet to be in relation with the whole. It is necessary for survival and certainly for flourishing. 
 
Our view is that the person is a person only in relation to other people and that together we have deeper connections that transcend gender, culture and ethnicity. The transpersonal refers to the spiritual dimension of human life and there are any number of ways of approaching this aspect of development of the person which includes things like meditation, breath work of all kinds; dance, movement, celebration, music and so on.