Guidelines for Mentoring
The purpose of mentoring within the context of SoulAdvisor is to provide learning opportunities and assist in the positive professional development of TCIH practitioners as well as to increase cross-disciplinary literacy within our field.
The values underpinning this are Collaboration, Openness, Respect and Empowerment. The approach to mentoring relationships is both person-centred and goal-oriented. Professionally nurturing ourselves in order to continue to heal the world, is SoulAdvisor’s intention in encouraging mentorship.
The aim of a mentoring relationship is to enhance professional and personal development. It involves encouraging the mentee to make the most of opportunities and to enable them to be responsible for their own learning and decision-making. It is a partnership between two people of differing roles and usually differing levels of experience, but who work in the same or similar fields. It is based on trust and mutual respect.
The mechanism to activate Mentorship through SoulAdvisor is this:
- Mentors need to have ten years of experience in the field of TCIH. If so they can login and navigate to SERVICES in their dashboard and choose to offer MENTORING in the drop down of OFFER at the top of the page.
- Their offer of mentoring will be clearly labelled on their SoulAdvisor listing in Services and searchable here.
- All mentors are eligible be interviewed within our SoulConnect channel on SoulAdvisor YouTube and will also appear on our Podcast page.
- We strongly encourage Mentors to make themselves known to our community and the wider TCIH community through social media such as our FB Practitioner Collective.
- When choosing a mentor, we suggest having a Discovery call to test the water once you have decided who might be best suited to your specific needs.
- Once a mentor is chosen we encourage you both to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Mentoring that will be tailored by the Mentor but will include all the elements found in this SoulAdvisor prototype.
The role of the mentor is to:
- Provide guidance
- Support decision making
- Assist the mentee in developing their professional networks
- Coach the mentee on a particular skill
- Ask lots of questions
- May involve working through case studies
The role of the mentee is to:
- Be open to opportunities
- Be clear about what they wish to gain from the relationship
- Examine their own role in contributing to the healthcare system
- Take responsibility for their goal-setting, learning and development
- Identify their own issues and work with them
Essential elements of the relationship:
- Confidentiality. Unless a legal or ethical boundary is crossed, what is discussed in the mentoring relationship is treated as confidential.
- Trust
- Mutual respect
- Person focussed approaches
Frequently asked questions
Mentors are senior members of their profession, having at least 10 years of practice in their chosen modalities. They may or may not come from the same profession as the mentee. A mentor meets the mentees where they are and supports them to discover their own strengths within their practice and take appropriate directions in their professional development. It helps if they have received mentoring themselves.
You can find a mentor by using the search functionality here : https://www.souladvisor.com/explore/10-years-experience-practitioners?offer%5B%5D=2
The mentor or mentee can initiate the relationship. In the context of SoulAdvisor, all practitioners will offer this in their services and can be reached by the SoulAdvisor message service or by making a Discovery Call. However the relationships emerge, it is useful to have a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as to how often the mentor and mentee will meet, how long each session will be and how the effectiveness of the relationship will be measured.
The relationship may last months or even years, with renewal terms mentioned in the MOU.
If the mentoring relationship is not working, for whatever reason, either party may decide to terminate the mentoring relationship and the terms of this will be noted in the MOU.
Receiving the benefits of the Mentor’s skills and expertise.
Identify and foster skills and attributes that may enhance professional standing.
Creating a positive flow towards identified professional goals.
Enhance professional development. Mentoring may often be considered CPD by the associations to which the Mentor and Mentee belong.
Reduces the ‘silo’ effect between disciplines within TCIH and provides different perspectives.
Enhance a person-centred and supportive community culture within our TCIH field of endeavour.
Both parties should be clear about what they expect from the relationship, how frequently they will meet and how long the relationship will last. The Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) will outline the considerations and is to be considered as a focus of discussion and agreement before being signed by both partners.
It is a good idea to set up a way of monitoring the relationship between the partners in the mentoring relationship (see the Mentoring Partnership Review).
If the relationship is not working for either party, for any reason, it should be discontinued. If the mentoring was part of a program or course (i.e. formal), then the program coordinator should be notified by the participant.
You need to be clear from the beginning that you are only involved in providing your perspective based on years of experience. You may choose to make sure that your mentee has appropriate insurance and that they understand your advice is meant to be helpful, not guidelines for their practice.