Lessons for Clinicians from the Art of Gathering and Beyond

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Session Type: Workshop Programs

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The forms and purposes of gathering in a Clinic are diverse. We gather at Orientation, for class, in supervision and evaluation sessions, at staff meetings, and celebrations with or without clients. These gatherings are opportunities to share knowledge, solve problems, reflect, provide support, nurture social and professional connections, develop interdisciplinary collaborations, strengthen community engagement, and connect movements.

In this Workshop, we will describe strategies to enhance clinical gatherings of all kinds, including virtual convenings. We draw from our own experiences as hosts as well as from the book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters, by Priya Parker. We will provide examples of how these strategies can be applied in the clinical context. The strategies include committing to a bold, sharp purpose for each gathering and designing the gathering around that purpose; “priming” participants for upcoming gatherings; ushering participants into a gathering in a way that is welcoming and that focuses attention on the gathering’s purpose; opening the gathering to reiterate the purpose and coalesce the participants; infusing vulnerability into gatherings in order to encourage connections among participants; creating a mixture of informal and formal spaces for participants to connect; closing gatherings in a way that leads participants to reflect on their experiences and prepares them to return to the “outside world;” and following up in a meaningful way. Following the presentation, Workshop participants will be invited to join breakout rooms to devise, share, and critique ideas for applying these strategies.