As someone who gets tired very quickly of teaching the same old stuff over and over, I wanted to introduce people to Type and Temperament, and to do it in more depth. So I offered a ten-session program that I gave in an Ottawa church back in January of 1997. I went to the first session with all my overheads and flipcharts and was disappointed when only four people showed up. But they were keen so I kept going. Gradually some more people joined and some others dropped away.We met one evening a week for the ten weeks. We soon moved out of the church and began to meet in people's homes.
When the ten sessions were over, the group wanted to continue. We kept going until the end of May. Over the summer we had a couple of barbeques with the gang and their significant others. Then the group decided they wanted to keep meeting next fall. They felt that meeting every week was a bit too much so we began to meet twice each month. The group is now open to anyone interested. A donation of $5 per session is requested.to cover costs of rental and handouts.
The group has been meeting ever since and we have covered a wide variety of topics. (see http://www.trytel.com/~jfalt/mbti-top.html. I feel that leading the group has been a fantastic gift as it causes me to study the material and learn it well enough so I can present it, and of course I have learned so much from the participants themselves.
When new people want to join the group, I have prepared two videos that cover the introductory sessions of True Colors® and MBTI®. I give them a little package of material that accompanies the videos. I find that with this background they very quickly are up to speed with the rest of the group.
The internet has been a great way to keep in touch. Almost all the people have e-mail which is the way I notify and remind them of upcoming sessions.
One of the women in my group started a newspaper that has a circulation of 50,000 in Ottawa. It is called Energy Medicine and came out once every two months. This woman asked me to write a regular column based on personality. I have all of the past articles on my web site. (See http://www.trytel.com/~jfalt/articles.html) The newspaper has since folded but an online newspaper is posted at the first of the month. Click on http://www.energymedicineonline.com/ and see my article and other articles on wholistic health and spirituality.
As a member of Ontario Association for the Application of Personality Type and on the Board of Directors, I began writing book reviews for our newsletter Tell~A~Type. These I put on my web site as well. (See http://www.trytel.com/~jfalt/articles.html)
I have most of the books on MBTI® and Temperament that are out there. As I began to accumulate these, I kept a bibliography so I could keep track of all the books. I added the bibliography lists to my web site as well. The books are listed by author, title and topic. (See http://www.trytel.com/~jfalt/bibliog.html) I have since added lists of audio and video materials as well as lists of professional handouts.
There are lots of links on my web site to other Type and Temperament sites that you can go to. There is so much out there. You might find http://www.trytel.com/~jfalt/web-mbti.html a good place to start.
Jack Falt (613-256-3276 or jfalt@trytel.com) leads an ongoing Appreciating Differences group in Ottawa.