Content Index

A short dissertation on the nature of intervention with people with problems in living.

This article examines ways that schools can develop services and support for students with problems in living as a means of enhancing social competence.

Values are held at three levels: as ideals which may never be reached but are what is what we hope for; as goals which we will work towards with the expectation that some day we will get there, and as commitments which means that every person is working on these values NOW! Human service staff people often do not hold values as commitments even though they are held as commitments by organizations. This is sometimes due to the vague manner in which they are articulated.

Until recently, programs to train teachers have not moved in an evolutionary process. Training of teachers has progressed in most content areas but has been woefully derelict in the social and affective areas. To a large degree, this has been due to the inability of one set of disciplines (namely, psychology and psychiatry) to communicate effectively, in practical terms, an understanding of disturbed behavior to the related discipline of pedagogy.

The mind and body communicate with each other through a series of sensations [qualia] that are not always expressible in words – a ‘gut’ feeling – a quirk.

1. The act of exchanging opinions and ideas; consultation.
2. Advice or guidance, especially as solicited from a knowledgeable person.
3. Counseling – something that provides direction or advice as to a decision or course of action

One of the marvels of the mind is that once we learn to do complex tasks, they can become automatic and unconscious. For example, when you first learn to drive a car, learning to steer, brake, and judge various driving situations requires all of your attention. Eventually, however, driving becomes so automatic that you need pay little conscious attention to the many tasks involved. Even though you are making decisions every minute, you are unaware of most of them. Instead, you listen to the radio or talk to the passengers, giving driving only a casual thought.

A method of externalization occurs within the Systems Theory of Circular Questioning. Circular questioning is the centerpiece of a group of family counselors known as the Milan Group. Their experiences with families of people with schizophrenia led them to question and discard structural approaches and to incorporate systems theory, which draws heavily on the work of Gregory Bateson, into their work. For Bateson, mental processes are a form of cybernetic feedback.

The article is concerned the beginnings of NeuroLinguistic Programming [NLP] and the heightened understanding of the importance of language patterns and structure in psychological counseling. When we begin to discuss the impact of the cognitive model, we cannot underestimate the use of language, and it is our belief that the impetus for the development of much of what psychologist do with language today had its beginning is the undisciplined, but ultra creative beginnings of NLP.