Creativity Encounter

I am somewhat disturbed by the Hellinger material I read. However there new clarity around the creativity inherent in dialogue (see the last Bhom quote in this post.)

Here are two snippets which I find illuminating. Especially if we hold in mind that reality includes an observer.

No two people can have the same insight about the same thing. If they both have an insight about the same thing, that of one differs slightly from that of the other.

… when awareness meets awareness both are enhanced by the encounter.

Hellinger

That “enhancment” is the new, something is created.


Later: Sunday, 6 December 2015

Why two way sends are useful: difference – enhancement of the relationship – creativity i.e. Newness. Spontaneity? The Visitor/Host creates Love Maps, heals, and role development in the listener.

The Dance

I’ve been overdoing my exploration about the “relational paradigm”. I’ve been reading, writing, integrating & putting into practice Imago & Psychodrama ideas about systems and the locus of therapy.

So I thought I’d give myself a break and read a thriller.

book


Blinded by Stephen White
, who I have read before & enjoyed.

I am only a few minutes into it and there are passages that stimulate me right back into my work passion, no rest!

I will quote them here and share my reflections.

Continue reading “The Dance”

Three relationship questions

Three questions to ask the couple to work on before they come to the first session:

  1. What would the relationship look like if it were working well?
  2. What are doing right now to prevent that?
  3. What do you imagine you could do differently?

(From the supervision workshop with Maya Kollman)

Systems Approach to Social Networks

While tidying up my cupboards I found a sheet of info from my Social Work training in the early 80s. I have OCRed it and it appears below. It is one of the best things I got from the Social Work training. SYSTEMS.

Systems Approach to Social Networks

The conceptualisation of the human body into systems e.g. digestive systems circulatory system, autonomic nervous system assists in the treatment of individual people. Social work is developing system concepts which can assist in the treatment of social problems.

The system concept used in the management of cases includes the following four systems:

CHANGE AGENT SYSTEM.
The initiators of planned change. Usually .kis unit, but at times other agencies – e.g. Child and Family Guidance Centre.

THE CLIENT SYSTEM,
The individual, family or group-that is the expected
beneficiary of the change.

ACTION’ SYSTEM
The various people that effect the change – this
can of course include the client or the chance agent but also any other avalilable.resources.

TARGET SYSTEM.
The people or groups that need to be changed in order to achieve the goals.

It is important to note.that in one “case” there may be a variety of goals and that for EACH goal there will be a different content in each system.

E.G.

A patient may wish to improve her relationship with her
husband – (goal 1). She may wish to have her children back
from a foster placement (goal 2). Each of these goals may
have quite different TARGET, ACTION, CLIENT systems.
Note: that each goal is contracted with the client and social worker
and must be acceptable to both

Social Work Practice
Model & Method
Pincus & Minahan., Peacock Pub. 1975.

Continue reading “Systems Approach to Social Networks”

Psychotherapy Registration

I am now official. In the past my credentials were confirmed by NZAP, now by the GOVT. There are some pro & cons, but one pro is that for Online Psychotherapy clients can see my credential online.

REGISTRATION
From the 1st January 2009 you must be registered or have submitted a completed application for registration with the Psychotherapists Board of Aotearoa New Zealand and hold or be eligible to hold a current Annual Practising Certificate to practise as a psychotherapist in New Zealand.

The Annual Practising Certificate (APC) year will run from the 1st October to the 30th September.

pbanz.org.nz

Reason: You’d Have to Be Crazy: Mental illness is the new normal

Reason: You’d Have to Be Crazy: Mental illness is the new normal:

In the sketch Steve Martin plays Theodoric of York, a medieval barber with a patient whose condition has not improved despite a bloodletting, a sheep’s-urine-and-staghorn poultice, and a night buried in the marsh up to her neck. ‘Medicine is not an exact science,’ Theodoric tells the girl’s mother, ‘but we are learning all the time. Why, just fifty years ago, they thought a disease like your daughter’s was caused by demonic possession or witchcraft. But nowadays we know that Isabelle is suffering from an imbalance of bodily humors, perhaps caused by a toad or a small dwarf living in her stomach.

That funny bit makes its point well. As does this more serious bit:

Judging from the way psychiatrists respond to Szasz’s critique, most of them believe schizophrenia and perhaps a few other conditions described in the DSM are diseases of the brain in the same sense as Alzheimer’s or multiple sclerosis, albeit with etiologies that are not yet clear. But when it comes to habits and traits such as smoking, gambling, gluttony, shyness, impulsiveness, inattentiveness, dishonesty, and nastiness—not to mention diagnoses that have fallen out of psychiatric fashion, such as homosexuality and multiple personality disorder even psychiatrists recognize the arbitrariness of their taxonomy.

In my eyes psychotherapy is a way of talking about the psyche that is nothing to do with health or illness, it is a way of reclaiming a holistic account of the self that was provided by religion and superstition and in the past. The language of medicine distorts the holistic endeavour.

Later Saturday, 6 February, 2010

Metaxy.

How does the “way of talking” relate to science? I think it is something of value, even if it is full of “dormative hypothesis”.

My defense of the dormative hypothesis (ie that it is not so bad if seen in the right way) is that it is a poem, and that poems are a way of compressing and making order. Making order is a form of science.

Define: projection

Interestingly this one word generated some profound definitions:

Definitions of projection on the Web:

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your
own traits and emotions are attributed to someone else

www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

a kind of unconscious identification with the
object (participation mystique). All projections cause
counter-projections; that and being spellbound into living out the
projection are very close to M. Klein’s “projective identification.”
There are personal and collective projections. National or global
crises feed collective projections.

www.tearsofllorona.com/jungdefs.html

the fundamental law of mind: projection makes
perception — what we see inwardly determines what we see outside our
minds. w-m: reinforces guilt by displacing it onto someone else,
attacking it there and denying its presence in ourselves; an attempt to
shift responsibility for separation from ourselves to others. r-m: the
principle of extension, undoing guilt by allowing the forgiveness of
the Holy Spirit to be extended (projected) through us.

www.facim.org/acim/glossary.htm

a defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in
which what is emotionally unacceptable in the self is unconsciously
rejected and attributed (projected) to others projective tests
diagnostic tests in which the test taker “projects” some aspect of his
or her personality in response to the presentation of ambiguous test
materials

specialed.peoriaud.k12.az.us/psygloss.htm

In Psychoanalytic Theory, the defense mechanism
whereby we transfer or project our feelings about one person onto
another. Projective Techniques A generic term for the psychological
procedures used to measure personality which rely on ambiguous stimuli.

allpsych.com/dictionary/dictionary3.html