| SUBSCRIBER LOGIN |
|---|
| News Briefs | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||
| Polls |
|---|
| 20% + off all books |
|---|
|
 |
| What Science Teaches Us About Counseling |
| Columns - Clinical Supervision | |
| Written by David J. Powell, PhD | |
| Tuesday, 07 August 2007 | |
|
Ever walk into a store and immediately sensed “good service?” You knew
that people there would tend to your needs. (The opposite is also true,
isn’t it? You sense immediately you will not be waited on or tended to
in that store). We just “feel” good service when it is offered. You
might get more specific by looking for visual cues, merchandise, store
layouts, or facial expressions, but none sufficiently explain the sure
sense you have when you walk into a store and know you will be treated
well. Something else is going on. You feel it although you might not be
able to describe why you feel it.
Quantum physics tells us that we might not be able to see what is termed “a field,” but we can easily see its influence by looking at behavior. Science tells us that attention is given to relationships within networks. You think because you understand one you must understand two, because one and one makes two. What we need to understand is and, the relationship of one AND one to make two. In the quantum world, relationship is the key determiner of everything. Subatomic particles come into form and are observed only as they are in relationship to something. The unseen connections between what we previously thought to be separate entities are the fundamental ingredient of all creation. Chaos theory tells us that a system can descend into chaos and unpredictability, yet within that state of chaos, the system is held within boundaries that are well ordered and predictable. In scientifically-based motivational theory, attention is shifting from the use of external rewards to an appreciation for the intrinsic motivators that give us great energy, refocusing on the deep longings all beings have for community, meaning, dignity, purpose and love. Many scientists now work with the concept of fields — invisible forces that occupy space and influence behavior. Each organism maintains a clear sense of its individual identity within a larger network of relationships that helps shape identities. Each being is noticeable as a separate entity, yet it is simultaneously part of a whole system. Paradoxically, disorder is the source of new order. Dissipative structures demonstrate that disorder can be a source of new order and growth appears from disequilibrium, not balance. Quantum physics speaks in terms of probabilities, not prediction. Newtonian physics operated with a different belief — that the world behaves in a deterministic way. (Freud, adopting a deterministic viewpoint on life, believed that once patterns are established in early development, we deterministically follow those patterns through our lives). Yet, in the new physics we see that behaviors are the result of quantum interconnectedness, of a deep and intimate order, a constant weaving of relationships, of energies that merge and change, of momentary ripples that become noticeable within a seamless fabric. In life, the issue is not control, but dynamic connectedness. Gregory Bateson, the sociologist, best known as Margaret Mead’s husband, spoke of “the pattern that connects” and urges that we stop teaching facts — the “things” of knowledge — and focus, instead, on relationships as the basis for all definitions. With relationships, we give up predictability and open up to potentials. This enactment is co-created through our acts of observation, what we choose to notice and tend to. Changes happen science tells us, when we provide fewer descriptions of tasks and instead focus on facilitating process. By being savvy about how to foster and nurture growth and development — becoming better listeners and being more apt at conversing, respecting one another’s uniqueness — change happens generated by relationships. We would do well to realize that love is the most potent source of power to generate relationships. Physics speaks of non-locality — where we experience influences that we cannot see or test — and strange occurrences pop up everywhere. People seem to get well for unknown reasons. Bohm, the physicist, said that there is a level we cannot discern, an unbroken wholeness, an implicate order in life. He said, in this exquisitely connected world, it is never a question of critical mass, but always critical connections. The music of life comes from somewhere, a unified whole, we have accessed among ourselves — a relationship that transcends our false sense of separateness. Greater things are possible when we increase participation. Rupert Sheldrake, biologist, says the substance of life change is “invisible, intangible, inaudible, tasteless and odorless” — the feeling of walking into a store where you sense good service. Morphic fields and resonance influence behavior. Communal space is filled when these interpenetrating influences and invisible forces connect. Space is not empty. There are unseen influences affecting behaviors. Psychiatrist Thomas Lewis in A General Theory of Love calls this limbic resonance. As humans, we seek to create a power, not a place; an influence, not a destination. Science tells us that disequilibrium is the necessary condition for growth. (Think of these scientific terms in relation to the disequilibrium experienced by our patients). All life lives off-balance in a world open to change. All of life is self-organizing. Instead of fearing disequilibrium, we realize that we grow and evolve in the midst of constant flux. (As the 1960s songwriter Leonard Cohen wrote, “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”) The issue in change (in science and in counseling) seems to be not who or what position will resolve a problem, but what energy, skill, influence and wisdom is available to contribute to the solutions. In quantum physics, a change process is described as relational whole-ism, where systems are created by the relationships among subatomic particles. Thus, life is involved in fundamentally new relationships with order — order that is identified in processes that manifest themselves only temporarily as structures. These are paradoxical concepts, matter that is immaterial, disequilibrium that leads to stability, and chaos that is ordered. Only chaos creates the abyss in which we can recreate ourselves. Most of us have experienced this ride of chaos in our lives. At the personal level, chaos has gone by many names, including the “dark night of the soul,” or depression. Always, the experience is a profound loss of meaning — nothing makes sense in the way it did before; nothing seems to hold the same value as it once did. There is a spiral dance of form, formlessness and new form. As it ends, we emerge changed, stronger in some ways, new. By far, in all segments of life, the most powerful force of attraction is meaning. Our greatest motivation in life, writes psychiatrist Viktor Frankl is “not to gain pleasure or avoid pain but rather to see a meaning ...” For all of us, we search to feel that we are meant to be here, that we can leave the world a little different in a small way. Nothing lives life alone. All living things change only if they see change as the means to preservation. And what transforms people? Transformed people transform people. Being in the presence of a loving person always changes us, for the better. Real change happens only when we discover a sense of what’s worthy of our attention. We don’t accept a life redesign because a counselor tells us it is necessary. We choose to accept it if, and only if, we see how this new life enables us to find meaning and love. Held by this rich center of meaning, we let go of our many grievances and work around traditional hindrances (i.e., “addictions”). It is essential we remember we’re working (in science and counseling) with energy, not matter. Life is a process of becoming. The capacity for becoming lives in everyone, for in life, there is a web of interconnectedness weaving the world together. We live in relationships, connected to everything. Many disciplines, in different voices, now speak of the behavior of networks, the primacy of relationships, the importance of context, and new ways to honor and work with the wholeness of life. Even if you do not suffer from “physics envy,” you can see from science that we need to develop a different relationship with discovery. We’re called to encounter one another (in counseling) in the messiness and beauty that names us as alive. Instead of seeing yourself as a counselor, perhaps a more apt title might be a gardener, midwife, steward, servant, missionary, or convener of energy. Perhaps you need to see yourself as a bundle of energy, of potential; and relationships evoke this potential. People change as they meet different people or if they are in different circumstances in connection with loving, caring, transformed people. So, next time you walk into a store and are drawn into the pull of the environment, realize it might not be the products or the place that attracts you, but the caring people you encounter there. May our patients say the same about us. One person has commented on this article. 1. Untitled Larry, Unregistered Alot of verbal "clutter" to get to the point. Posted 2007-08-17 15:24:01              |
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|