Why Reflect?

I was first introduced to Reflective Practice as part of my physiotherapy degree in the late 1990's.  Our first ever essay was to carry out a SWOT analysis and discuss our strengths and weaknesses that we brought with us to the course.  It filled me with horror, which is why I can still remember it more than 20 years later.  I'd trained as a dancer, decided that I wanted to teach and had been teaching for 7 years before I began my physiotherapy training, what experience could I possibly have which was relevant to physiotherapy?

The acceptance of Dance within education has come a long way in the last 20 years.  For example I didn't think that it was relevant to add to my UCAS form that I had a Dance Teaching Diploma, it never crossed my mind that it had any educational value at all!  However the dance related anatomy that I had studied meant that I knew more in relation to anatomy than most of my peers, but in those days it was unheard of to get UCAS points for dance examinations and in my experience dance wasn't considered an academic subject not until much more recently.

Until recently my two careers ran very separately.  I was a dance teacher and a physiotherapist.  Then I was made redundant from the NHS, my 'proper job', my 'job for life', the job with the regular income, which made me re-evaluate my life and I began reflecting upon what physiotherapy career pathway to take, as unless I relocated I was no longer able to practice as a physiotherapist in my chosen specialty of adults with learning disabilities.

Eventually and I have no idea why it took me so long I reflected upon why I went into physiotherapy initially and it came as no surprise to many that it was to work with dancers.  From a physiotherapy view point I just had to re-specialize in musculo-skeletal physiotherapy, but from a dance perspective what qualifications did I have that would be considered academic?  One dance society had an APEL system and I was able to do some courses and submit some written work to enable my previous qualifications to be updated to that of Level 4, another just stated that my diploma was prior to any educational frameworks being developed so could not be equated to any current educational level!  So following extensive research, lots of thought and some procrastination, as well as a period of ill health, I finally enrolled on this course to hopefully obtain a recognized educational qualification in dance, which was not available when I trained in the late 1980s/ early 1990s.

As part of my role as a physiotherapist reflective practice is important and is done in a more formal way, but prior to this course had I ever applied it to my role as a dance teacher?  I would say 'yes' informally.  I am the type of person who 'over thinks' things, 'over analyses' things when sometimes things 'just are' and in all honesty most of this thought process would occur whilst driving home or late at night when I can't sleep. 

Reflective diaries are old territory for me, but writing a Blog is an alien experience, which is why it has taken me so long to actually write my first Blog.  We discussed during the Skype session on 12/02/19 that a Blog was just another method of expressing the reflective process, which is shared with others to develop our thought processes by working 'collaboratively', so why does it feel so exposing?  For me I think that it is in part owing to the fact that my previous academic experience has developed a belief system within me that there must be a right, wrong, correct, incorrect, intelligent, clever way of writing one, especially as I have like many others a perfectionist personality trait.  But surely if it is our thoughts and ideas that we are expressing, this is not the case? 

I feel that reflection is a natural process by which we evaluate all aspects of our lives.  There are specific tools and theories that can be applied, but whether reflective practice is informal or formal it can enhance our knowledge and enable us to develop professionally.  Do others feel the same?