I am starting to feel a bit like Bridget Jones as I keep checking in on my progress in various Roffey-related areas: 3,500 words (good); new library books 6 (average); free Roffey chocolate chip cookies: 12 (disgusting) (my eating them, not the cookies); readability of latest seminar paper draft: 10% (pathetic).

Today was my first day back at work after Christmas, although I was at Roffey for an MSc day on Friday, along with the rest of my learning set so it feels like a little bit longer than that.

It was great to have a bit of a break over Christmas. At least, it was good to have a bit of a break from work, as a reasonable portion of my holiday was taken up with reading and scribbling for my next piece of work, the 5,000 word seminar paper. It wasn’t too bad though, and I still had time for Christmas visiting, present wrapping and sales shopping. According to our Set Advisor it’s next Christmas that we need to keep blocked out as completely as possible in our diaries: because we finish the course in, and have to complete our full portfolio by, February 2012, she warned us to expect we’ll be spending most of that break ‘finishing up’...She has so far given sterling advice on how to tackle and cope with fitting in and getting the most out of the MSc, so sadly I have no reason to doubt her.

In the meantime I am enjoying the reading and investigation part of the seminar paper, for which I have chosen the subject of the theoretical underpinnings of coaching. I had no idea there were so many different possible ways to look at it from: existential; solution-focused; person-centred; behavioural; cognitive-behavioural; developmental; trans-personal... I am hoping to get to the point where I can critique the different positions, and articulate which ones I find most useful, relevant and applicable to my practice, although at the moment that feels quite far away – I will let you know how it goes.