Psychology
Chew Valley U3A Psychology Groups
There are two Psychology groups in the Chew Valley U3A, the Morning Group and the Afternoon Group. The Afternoon Group has been going since our U3A started, and the Morning Group started because the original one had a waiting list. The style of the groups is open, friendly, focused, connected and fun.
For well over a year during the pandemic we met together as one group every Tuesday on Zoom and, in warmer weather, and when it was legal, we also met socially several times when we could be out of doors or in a safe airy space.
We now meet fortnightly,and we have two kinds of meetings which alternate with each other. One type of meeting is for both groups together and we usually discuss a relevant TED talk at these meetings. TED talk meetings are always held on Zoom in the morning.
At the other, alternating, type of meeting we discuss our current book. Book meetings are held in morning and afternoon groups and when we agree its Covid safe we hold these in my sitting room. When we don’t think it’s safe, we use Zoom for these meetings.
Here are our ground rules, which give an idea of what we are about:
The purpose of our groups is to learn more about psychology for our interest and enjoyment and in order to understand ourselves and others better. If we choose, being a group member offers us the opportunity to use the learning to become more fully ‘what we may be’.
We achieve our purpose through reading high quality books about psychology and discussing what we read, and from viewing and talking about appropriate TED talks (or similar material).
We are not a therapy group, but being in the group can, in itself, enrich our lives, through new insights and through the experience we share. To flourish, the group needs members who contribute – and this can be by their quiet presence, or through what they say. In order to help members make contributions, here are some agreed ground rules.
Group members are expected to:
• In advance - read the agreed part of the book, or view the TED talk chosen for the meeting, unless there are insuperable impediments to their doing so.
• Make contributions which are relevant to the material agreed for the meeting.
Introduce personal stories, if they wish, where they are relevant and reasonably succinct.
• Respect people when they wish to be silent, or speak less, while welcoming their contributions when they make them.
• Respect the group when they speak, by asking themselves whether they are taking an appropriate and fair amount of time.
• Offer others deep listening and respect.
• Respect the confidentiality of any personal material people may share, and not discuss this material with those people themselves or others outside the group setting. Personal material remains ‘owned’ by the person themselves.
Over the years we have studied many TED talks and books and they have all given us a lot of insights and understanding. We have looked at understanding personality difference, non-violent communication, the power of habit in our lives, the power of vulnerability, we studied “I’m OK – you’re OK” and other books about Transactional Analysis, recently a book about our having a wide range of feelings to accept – we cannot always be ‘happy’ - but we can flourish - and many other insightful books. Currently we are learning about how to free ourselves from some common patterns which get in the way of the lives we really want to live.
If you would like to join a psychology group please send your enquiry to Jocelyn Ryder-Smith via the “Contact” page.