Bobbie Jo Van Den Plas 7 years, 10 months ago-
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Hi Everyone,
Below are my interview questions. I would love feedback on them. My situation is unique in that I was talking about my older idea about creating courses on energetic boundaries and protection, when my powerful networker Doula friend exploded with relief and said that is exactly what they need. I asked her for more specifics. The upshot is, she said Doulas need to learn how not to give all of their energy away to the birthing parent. They also need ways to be the support for the birthing parent and the protector/advocate for them as well without getting whiplash. She also said they need conscious transition tactics for when the birthing family moves from home to a hospital during labor.
I am still doing informational interviews though to get more of gist of what Doula’s are struggling with.
Here are my questions. I don’t know how many I should have:
What kind of Doula are you? What is your specialty?
How long have you been one?
What is one of your favourite experiences as a doula? Why?
What is one of your least liked experiences as a doula? Why?
What is one of the hardest things about being a doula?
How have you been handling that?
Thank you for your feedback.
These are a great start Akasha. I’d love to see a question or two where you dig in to the topic that you’re really curious about (managing energy). So perhaps ask them…
How do you feel at the end of a birthing experience (energized, drained, exhausted, etc…) That would be a conversation in itself I think wher eyou could really dig in to the answers you want.
Another could be, “would you be interested in learning some techniques that support you to manage your energy so you can better serve the mom, baby and birthing team?”
Something like that.
Stoked for your clarity!
@andyfreist offered this resource on interviewing that I found was really powerful and different from the norm. Adapting the questions used in the author’s customer script it would read something like:
1. What’s the hardest part about giving all of your energy away to the birthing parent ?
2. Can you tell me about the last time that happened?
3. Why was that hard?
4. What, if anything, have you done to creating boundaries to be supportive but not [consumed ??] in their lives?
5. What don’t you love about the solutions you’ve tried?or if you want to go more general
1. What’s the hardest part about being a doula ?
2. Can you tell me about the last time that happened?
3. Why was that hard?
4. What, if anything, have you done to make sure that doesn’t happen?
5. What don’t you love about the solutions you’ve tried?There is also a script generator which where you can input your questions and come out with I believe three iterations to dive deeper.
Another very powerful question to work into the conversations where you can is to ask:
“And that is important because …”
[answer]
“And that is important because …”
[answer]
“And that is important because …”
[answer]
Typically by the third round of asking you start hitting the nuggets of the real problem or underlying reason. Sometimes you have to ask more often or vary the question slightly (eg. “And that makes a difference by … “) but you’ll have the spidey sense of when you’ve tapped into the source.
YES! To the resource Lorraine said. That’s the one she shared on our call when I was asking about coming up with questions too (thank you, Lorraine! and Andy!!). I’m about to dive in to explore it more and think about questions too.
I think it’s awesome you are doing conversations and are off to a great start, and love all the suggestions you received too!!! Think it’s great to have an open ended question like, What is the hardest part about being a doula? to see what they all offer from their hearts as well (and to get it in their words).
THIS that you said:
exploded with relief and said that is exactly what they need
That is HUGE! Exploded with relief! Wow!!! Sounds like you are offering a much needed solution. Amazing feedback to receive on an idea!!!!!
Also love how you have as part of your creative job title: Spiritual Midwife, and here you’re looking at a program that is both connected to spirituality and midwifery in another way too! 😉 Energetic boundaries for doulas.
Excited to hear how your conversations go! All the best to you!! Reach out if you have more Q’s about your Q’s.
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