Philosophers

The Strengths Philosophy has a rich and long tradition. It stretches back to educators like Heinrich Pestalozzi and Friedrich Froebel. The tradition was then picked up by people such as Maria Montessori, John Dewey, Rabindranath Tagore and Sylvia Ashton-Warner. From the 1940s onwards it was strongly influenced by the work of psychologists such as Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Virginia Satir. This also helped to give birth to the Self-Help Movement, which placed great emphasis on people taking responsibility and using their inner strengths.

Bernard Haldane helped to found the modern strengths movement. Working with veterans returning from the Second World War, he invited them to revisit their best working experiences. Clarifying their successful patterns, they translated these into transferable skills. Don Clifton, later the co-author of Now Discover Your Strengths, was already embarking on a similar path. Viktor Frankl, Al Siebert and others encouraged people to tap into their inner strength to shape their futures. David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney helped to found Appreciative Inquiry. This has enabled many organisations to build on their strengths. During the past 20 years people such as Martin Seligman, Marcus Buckingham, Tom Rath and Thomas Armstrong have made many more people aware of the strengths approach.

The following pages provide brief introductions to the work of these Strengths Philosophers. We will be adding to these pages over the coming months. Each piece covers three areas of their work. It focuses on their:

* Philosophy and background.

* Principles.

* Practice.

January 18th, 2009

Sylvia Ashton-Warner’s work on strengths

Sylvia Ashton-Warner was a gifted but complex teacher who worked with Māori children in New Zealand from the 1940s onwards. Experts flocked to study her methods for helping children to learn to read and write.

She produced excellent results, but had the reputation of being somewhat difficult. So what was the secret of her success?

1)Philosophy and background.

Sylvia believed in organic reading and writing. Learning must be real. It must start from a person's experience and relate to their world. Children were then able to learn quickly and, in the process, develop their inner strength.

Let’s explore how this worked in practice, starting with an example from her best-known book Teacher.

Bringing learning to life

Sylvia calls the children to attention each morning by playing the first eight notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. She asks the class to tackle their work, then invites each child to her in turn. Gay is the first child to come to her desk.

Sylvia asks: "What word do you want today?"

Gay replies: "House."

Sylvia writes the word on a piece of cardboard. She then asks Gay to trace the word with her finger and say it out loud.

Gay 'owns' the word, it comes from her guts. Sylvia makes sure that Gay says the word, sees the word and feels it in her body. She gives Gay the cardboard and asks her to keep her 'word' for the day.

Sylvia repeats the process with each child. When the class finishes, she collects all the words on the separate pieces of cardboard.

The next morning Sylvia starts the class by tipping the cardboard words onto the floor. She tells the children:

"Find your word.”

Gay leaps from the chair and rummages in the pile.

"House," she shouts, "I have found my word."

Children have two visions, an inner vision and an outer vision, says Sylvia, and it is the inner vision which burns brightest. Gay grasps the word which she spoke from her inner vision.

Sylvia asks each child to choose a partner, speak their words and hear their partner's words. While the children teach each other, she repeats the process of inviting each child to choose their word for today. They build up what Sylvia calls their Key Vocabulary.

What happens if Gay fails to find her word? Sylvia rips-up the piece of cardboard. The word has failed the 'one look' test and cannot have any great meaning for Gay.

Classrooms often display Jack and Jill illustrations for introducing the reading vocabulary to five-year-olds, says Sylvia, but it is a vocabulary chosen by educationalists in Auckland or London.

Gay owns only those words that come from deep within herself. She is more likely to love these words and want to write them on paper.

Shouldn't these Māori children be learning Oxbridge English? Once they know the joy of creating their own words, says Sylvia, they reach out longingly to learn about other cultures. She believes that:

"Reaching out for a book must become an organic action."

Sylvia’s methods were controversial at the time – as was some of her behaviour. But her work enabled many people to develop their inner strength and believe in their own experience.

Nowadays we see it as vital that people keep alive their traditions through language – as well as go out to discover other cultures. Sylvia pioneered a trail that was admired by many in education, but she generated criticism.

She displayed what some considered unprofessional behaviour – such as long absences from school, cancelling appointments and heavy drinking. She also published several novels, one of which was made into a Hollywood film. Like her teaching, however, her novels received a mixed reception.

Sylvia was a troubled soul, but she made a key contribution to education. She often fought the New Zealand Educational Authorities and, in some cases, the antipathy was mutual. Many years later, however, the University of Auckland dedicated one of its libraries to her name.

Sylvia led a tempestuous life, so let’s explore it in more detail. The following pages draw heavily on an overview of her life written by Emily Dobson. You can find her complete text at:

Emily Dobson's Overview of Sylvia's Life

Lynley Hood has written a much acclaimed book called: Sylvia! The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner. You can find more details on Lynley’s home page at:

Lynley Hood's Home Page

Growing up

Sylvia Constance Ashton-Warner was born in 1908 in Stratford, Taranaki, located on the Western side of New Zealand’s North Island. She was the fifth of eight children.

Emily Dobson describes how the family had another child named Sylvia, who was born 3 years earlier, but unfortunately she only lived for 4 days. Sylvia Constance may have felt she was a replacement for the first Sylvia.

Francis Ashton-Warner, her father, was 16 when he arrived in New Zealand from England in 1877. His family had a history of links to nobility, but he had no money. He worked as a labourer across the islands, eventually taking a book-keeping job in Auckland.

He then met his future wife, Margaret Maxwell, a teacher whose family originated from Scotland. Francis suffered from deteriorating health and, by 1904, Margaret was left to provide for the family.

She was a tough woman and a strict teacher, reports Emily Dobson, which often resulted in conflict with the educational authorities. Combined with accumulated debts, this meant the family kept moving from place to place.

Margaret was ambitious for Sylvia, however, and drove her to succeed. Emily describes how this sometimes produced odd results.

“When (Sylvia) was learning to write, under her mother’s instruction, she was forced to use her right hand against her natural left-handedness.

The practice was common at the time, but left Ashton-Warner with an ambidexterity that dazzled witnesses later in life. She could, for example, simultaneously write a sentence from both ends and join it neatly in the middle.”

Sylvia preferred her own company and had difficulty in building relationships. She was a talented artist, however, and loved playing the piano – enjoying the opportunity to give a ‘performance’.

When leaving school she chose to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a student teacher. Her studies would be held in Wellington. Tragedy struck before she departed when her father died in January 1926.

Teacher Training and Marriage

Settling into Wellington, Sylvia began to express herself. She completed the course to qualify for the actual teacher training, which would be held in Auckland, but she still wanted to pursue a career in the arts. Emily Dobson writes:

“Her classmates there remember her as daring and unconventional: she wore make-up, smoked, and wore exotic outfits to social events. They were charmed by Ashton-Warner’s magnetic personality, and impressed by her artistic and musical talents.”

During her time at the Auckland teacher training college she met Keith Henderson, a fellow student. They became romantically involved and he proposed to Sylvia just before he left to take a permanent teaching role in Taranaki.

She accepted but, as she still had to complete her training, it meant her staying and them having a long-distance relationship. They eventually married in 1932.

Keith got another teaching role in Taranaki, but economic times were hard – it was the midst of the Depression – and there were few other teaching posts available. Sylvia spent her days at home, but preferred artistic activities to home making, so Keith also did much of the housework. Jasmine, their daughter, was born in 1935, followed by Elliot, their son, in 1937.

Sylvia now wanted to continue her teaching career and, Emily Dobson suggests, it was probably she who urged Keith to find work in a remote Māori school. They eventually began working together at a school on the East Coast of the North Island.

She learned to speak Māori, but did not find the teaching easy or fulfilling. Emily writes:

“She began to suffer from insomnia and in 1939 had a nervous breakdown. She saw Doctor Donald Allen in Wellington, who introduced her to the notion of there being two opposite forces at work in the world: survival of the individual and survival of the species …

"Ashton-Warner re-labelled these forces Fear and Sex, and the concept became crucial in the development of her ideas about teaching. Dr. Allen also encouraged Ashton-Warner to write as a form of therapy.”

Sanctuaries and The
Development of Her Teaching

“She called it ‘Selah’, a Hebrew word from the Old Testament Psalms which meant, for Ashton-Warner, a pause or rest. Having such a space for herself was important for Ashton-Warner’s internal well-being.

Wherever she happened to be, seeking out and claiming a Selah became a tradition she maintained for the rest of her life.”

Sylvia was also beginning to find a sanctuary in the classroom. She began encouraging the Māori children to express their own stories in words, music and dance.

She also began to write her own ‘text books’ for the Māori pupils. These related to the children’s experiences, rather than the conventional Westernised books.

She submitted these for publication, but her demands and inconsistent behaviour caused problems for publishers. Her educational ideas were evolving, but she still suffered emotional difficulties, frequently staying away from school. She also increasingly sought solace in alcohol.

She and Keith moved to Fernhill, Hastings, on the North Island’s East Coast in 1949. This is where her ideas, both as a teacher and as a novelist, began to bear fruit.

She would later collate her educational ideas, particularly those regarding the Key Vocabulary, in her book Teacher. Before then, however, she would become known as a novelist.

Spinster

Spinster depicted the life of Anna Vorontosov, a teacher working in a small school in New Zealand. The book was initially considered too financially risky to publish in her own country, but it was eventually published across the world. Reviewing the book for The New Yorker in 1959, John Wain wrote:

“Everything about her (Anna) is credible, and yet one never catches oneself thinking: ‘How well the author has imagined this character!’ One simply responds immediately, as if it were all happening in the room where one sits reading.

"Analyzed, Mrs. Ashton-Warner's technique seems quite simple; everything goes into the present tense, the voices of the children continually chime through Miss Vorontosov's unbroken solipsism, and nothing is allowed into the picture that might suggest an author, a sensibility outside Miss Vorontosov's.”

Sylvia went on to write many other novels in her life, but none matched the success of Spinster. Some say this was due to her increasingly critical observations about life in New Zealand; others say it was due to the decreasing quality of her fiction.

Her books did have their admirers, however, and in 1980 she won the New Zealand Book Award for her autobiography I Passed This Way. Sylvia was also awarded the MBE in the Queens Honours list. This was in recognition for her services to both education and literature.

Teacher

In 1957 Keith and Sylvia moved to the largest Māori school in the country at Bethlehem, Tauranga, near the top of the North Island. By this time her methods had gained recognition.

The magazine National Education having already published her work on The Māori Infant Room – Organic Reading and the Key Vocabulary. Paradoxically, while her fame grew as an educationalist, her interest in actual teaching diminished.

Employing her writing skills, however, she compiled her notes and wrote her most famous book Teacher. This was published in 1963.

Teacher explained how she helped children to write by inviting them to draw pictures and add their own captions. They built up their words into sentences and create books about their experiences.

Children wrote one word, then two sentences, then three, until six-year-olds were writing half a page a day and seven-year-olds a page or more a day. Sylvia explained the impact of this method.

Teacher was well-received internationally, but got a lukewarm reception in her native country. Partly due to her stated anger towards the educational authorities; partly because of her criticism of life in New Zealand.

Some people who knew Sylvia were disillusioned with her behaviour which was, in their opinion, far from the heroic picture she painted. She was also in the habit of cancelling interviews and meetings at the last minute. Emily Dobson underlines, however, that there were many admiring visitors from abroad.

Keith, Sylvia’s husband, died in 1966. Some saw him as the real driving force behind the school in Bethlehem and, by now, Sylvia was ready to escape New Zealand.

During the rest of her life she travelled to many countries. Sometimes this was to be with her son Elliot – first in Mauritius, then in London. Sometimes it was to work on educational projects – such as in Israel, America and Canada.

Invited to work on a pioneering approach in Aspen, Colorado, Sylvia wrote a book about her experiences, called Spearpoint.

Emily Dobson points out that Sylvia was less than fair in her reporting of the work done by teachers in Aspen. The school at the centre of the project proved quite successful.

But she devoted much of her book to commenting on the ‘de-sensitisation’ of American children, which she attributed to watching too much television. Sylvia planned to return to New Zealand, but remained indecisive. Emily writes:

“Although she continued to book journeys home, Ashton-Warner returned to Aspen, where she worked in a more agreeable role as a ‘Teacher of Teacher-Trainers’. She set up her living room as a model infant room and took groups of trainees in a ‘Key Vocabulary’ lesson …

"As she had done in her Māori infant classrooms, Ashton-Warner encouraged her students to find the words that held the most significance for them. Those who took part greatly enjoyed the sessions, and Ashton-Warner soon had a social network of adoring fans.”

In 1971 she was offered a position in Vancouver at the Simon Fraser University. Emily reports: “The twice-weekly sessions (that Sylvia ran) were immensely popular; participants found them both unusual and invigorating. The theories were implemented in ‘The Vancouver Project’, which introduced the method into several Vancouver primary schools.”

Sylvia again became unhappy, however, and finally returned to New Zealand.

The Return Home

Soon to be overtaken by poor health, Sylvia relied on alcohol to get her through the day. She eventually began working on some projects, however, such as co-operating on a television documentary about her work.

She also embarked upon writing her autobiography, I Passed This Way, which took three years to complete. Published in 1979, it was well-received, winning several prizes.

Sylvia received her MBE in 1982 and, in 1983, chose Lynley Hood to be her biographer. Suffering from the effects of various operations, however, she grew weaker. Elliot, her son, travelled over from London, spending a year helping to care for her. Jasmine and he were by her side when Sylvia died in April 1984.

2) Principles.

Sylvia had a tumultuous life, making friends and enemies along the way. Despite her idiosyncratic behaviour – or maybe because of it – she made several key contributions to education. Perhaps the greatest was enabling students to develop by drawing on their own experience. She applied the beliefs that learning must be real, relevant and rewarding. So let’s explore these principles.

* Learning must be real.

Learning must be real: it must relate to a person’s experiences. The key rule is: “Start where the person is at.” Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, a scholarly yet practical treatise on the learning organisation, wrote:

"The learner learns what the learner wants to learn."

Sylvia believed people developed best when giving voice to their own experiences. This theme was pursued in later years by many people who wanted to empower individuals and communities.

Such an approach enables is more likely to help them to develop their own literacy and shape their future lives. The Talimi Haq School in Howrah-Calcutta, India, for example, uses Sylvia’s approach for helping 3 year-olds to learn Urdu.

This organic approach develops what is already within; rather than imposing from outside. One of the school’s blog pages quotes her as saying:

“By organic, I mean that way of growth where the strongest thing pushes up ahead of the less strong. I think of trees growing in a clump. The strongest get to the light. In speaking of a child’s mind I mean the strongest impulses push up, irrespective of whether or not they should, at any given time …”

You can find out more about their educational approach at:

talimihaqschool.blogspot

Sylvia’s recognition that each person has a ‘key vocabulary’, a set of words with a special meaning relating to their emotional life, enabled her to develop a reading scheme for children who were otherwise failing at school.

Though she despaired of being recognised in New Zealand for her contribution to education, she enjoyed a warm response overseas.

* Learning must be relevant.

Learning must be relevant: it must be able to be used today and tomorrow. Nowadays this sounds obvious, but in the 1940s the traditional approach saw children as ‘empty vessels that must be filled’.

The pupils were then judged on their ability to memorise and repeat this information. Sylvia believed it was vital for children to learn from the wisdom of others. But the best way to stoke a child’s hunger to read and write was to focus on the events that made up their daily lives. She wrote:

"Back to these first words; to these first books. They must be made out of the stuff of the child itself. I reach a hand into the mind of the child, bring out a handful of the stuff I find there, and use that as our first working material …

"And in this dynamic material, within the familiarity and security of it, the Māori finds that words have intense meaning to him, from which cannot help but arise a love of reading.”

“For it is here, right in this first word, that the love of reading is born, and the longer his reading is organic the stronger it becomes, until by the time he arrives at the books of the new culture, he receives them as another joy rather than as a labour."

* Learning must be rewarding.

Learning must be rewarding: it must give a feeling of success. Great educators take students through the stages of inspiration, implementation and integration. They create an inspiring environment, provide implementation tools that work and enable the students to integrate the learning in their own lives and work.

Great educators enable people to get a quick success. The IT teacher who is helping Adult Learners to embark on their first computer lesson, for example, encourages them to write and print something straight away. They do not ask the student to start by reading a 300 page manual.

Sylvia’s approach enabled children to get short-term rewards – learning a word, writing a page, creating a book or whatever. They then developed the appetite for achieving medium and long-term rewards – such as rehearsing and performing a play.

Much of older-style schooling was based on the idea of ‘delayed gratification’. Teachers implied: “You must learn these things by rote. You may not see the point now, but one day it will make sense.”

They followed the ‘factory model’. Knowledge was broken into pieces, like jobs on the production line. The pupils were expected to master each piece without seeing the whole picture.

This process increased at children got older. Peter Senge once observed: “Secondary education is a more purely industrial age institution than any business.”

Sylvia recognised the key principles of effective education. Learning must be real, relevant and rewarding. Students are then more likely to remember the learning – because they had internalised it – and use it to live fulfilling lives.

3) Practice.

So what have been the effects of Sylvia’s work? Her methods for helping children learn through their key vocabulary have been applied across the world.

The link below, for example, takes you to a site in British Columbia that explains how teachers can apply the Key Vocabulary approach in school. You will find that, even after 50 years of practice, it follows the methods outlined by Sylvia. (This could mean that education is ‘dated’ – or that the method actually works.) Here is the link.

British Columbia Teaching Guide

Sylvia may have courted controversy in New Zealand during her life, but she later gained in her home country. In 2008, for example, the University of Auckland held a centennial conference dedicated to her work. This featured admirers – and some sceptics – from around the world. Not everyone agreed with how she employed her ideas, but all recognised her pioneering work.

Centennial Conference

Contribution to the strengths approach

Sylvia’s approach embodied some elements of the strengths philosophy. For example:

* She enabled children to ‘own’ their learning.

She did this by encouraging them to reach within themselves to clarify and communicate their experiences. This helped them to develop their inner confidence and strength.

* She employed organic learning to help people read and write by building on their key vocabulary.

She passed-on this knowledge through her books and work around the world. The role of organic learning – developing one’s own experience and resources – is one of the key principles of the strengths philosophy.

* She provided a practical model – through her work with Māoris – that made learning real, relevant and rewarding.

These ideas have been applied by people in many countries – particularly those who want to develop the inner resources of individuals and communities.

Sylvia was gifted and, like all of us, flawed. She did, however, encourage many people. She believed that learning must start from a child’s experience. They were then able to learn quickly and, in the process, develop their inner strength. Her approach proved successful and, as a result, has helped millions around the world.

Links

You can also find out more about the application of these ideas at Peggy Broadbent's site.

http://peggybroadbent.com/blog/index.php?s=A+Sylvia+Ashton-Warner+Approach+for+First+Grade

Posted in Philosophers, The Strengths Blog | 4 Comments »

Tags: Sylvia Ashton-Warner

January 17th, 2009

Abraham Maslow’s work on strengths

Abraham Maslow was one of the pioneers of humanistic psychology. His books inspired many people to explore the positive aspects of human potential. He also gave birth to several key themes in modern management.

Many people are familiar with some aspects of his work, such as ‘Maslow’s Pyramid’ – the hierarchy of human needs. We will cover this as part of the background, then explore Maslow’s contribution to building on people’s strengths.

1) Philosophy and Background.

Maslow was fascinated by people he called ‘self-actualizers’. Looking back at history, he studied individuals such as Abraham Lincoln, Jane Adams, Albert Einstein and Albert Schweitzer.

He also studied living people who were fulfilling their potential. Maslow found that such people were true to themselves. They saw reality clearly and loved using their creativity to solve problems. They had strong ethics combined with a sense of humility and respect. Paradoxically, they could be ruthless to achieve a desired goal.

Writing on his web site about Maslow, Dr. George Boeree explained:

“These people tended to have more peak experiences than the average person. A peak experience is one that takes you out of yourself, that makes you feel very tiny, or very large, to some extent one with life or nature or God. It gives you a feeling of being a part of the infinite and the eternal.

"These experiences tend to leave their mark on a person, change them for the better, and many people actively seek them out. They are also called mystical experiences and are an important part of many religious and philosophical traditions.”

You can read George Boeree’s article at:

George Boeree article

Abraham Maslow is best known for his pyramid of human needs. Perhaps his most pioneering work, however, is encapsulated in the title of one of his books The Farther Reaches of Human Nature.

Reports say that, towards the end of his life, he became disillusioned with how some people applied his ideas. Maslow created an outstanding legacy, however, that has made a great contribution to people’s fulfilment.

The beginnings

Abraham was born in 1908 in Brooklyn, New York City, the eldest of seven children born to Russian-Jewish immigrants. He was shy but loved learning. He would later say: “I was isolated and unhappy. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends."

Abe – as he was called by everybody – became fascinated by how to improve the world. As a 16-year-old he also had something else on his mind. He had fallen in love with his first cousin, Bertha. His parents were shocked and didn’t approve.

Interviewed in 1968 by Edward Hoffman for Psychology Today Magazine, it was suggested that all 16-year-olds were in love. Abe replied:

“Mine was different. We're talking about my wife. I loved Bertha. You know her. Wasn't I right? I was extremely shy, and I tagged around after her. We were too young to get married. I tried to run away with her.

"We eventually ran to Cornell for my sophomore year in college, then to Wisconsin. We were married there when I was 20 and Bertha was 19. Life didn't really start for me until I got married.”

Maslow chose to study psychology at the University of Wisconsin. His professors there believed that ‘behaviourism’ – and the study of animals in laboratories – provided clues to human nature. Explaining his choice to Ed Hoffman, he said:

“I went to Wisconsin because I had just discovered John B. Watson's work, and I was sold on behaviorism. It was an explosion of excitement for me. Bertha came to pick me up at New York's 42nd Street library, and I was dancing down Fifth Avenue with exuberance. I embarrassed her, but I was so excited about Watson's behaviorist program.”

“It was beautiful. I was confident that here was a real road to travel: solving one problem after another and changing the world. I was off to Wisconsin to change the world. I was young Harry Harlow's first doctoral graduate.

"And they were angels, my professors. I've always had angels around. They helped me when I needed it, even fed me. Bill Sheldon taught me how to buy a suit. I didn't know anything of amenities. Clark Hull was an angel to me, and later, Edward L. Thorndike.”

Behaviourism and Psychoanalysis were then the predominant psychological models. Maslow would later, of course, help to give birth to the ‘Third Force’ – humanistic psychology. Whilst at Wisconsin, however, his doctorate focused on dominance and sexuality in monkeys.

He returned to New York to work with Thorndike at Columbia, doing research on human sexuality, before taking up a faculty post in Brooklyn. Abe was also beginning to move away from behaviourism. Talking with Edward Hoffman, he said:

“Then I fell in love with Alfred North Whitehead and Henri Bergson. Their writings destroyed behaviorism for me without my recognizing it.

"When my first baby was born, that was the thunderclap that settled things. I looked at this tiny, mysterious thing and felt so stupid. I felt small, weak, and feeble. I'd say that anyone who's had a baby couldn't be a behaviorist.”

You can read the full Psychology Today interview at the link below:

Psychology Today

Edward Hoffman also wrote a fine biography of Maslow called The Right to be Human.

During the late 1930s Maslow also met some of the European psychologists who were immigrating to the US. These included people such as Alfred Adler, Erich Fromm and Karen Horney.

He also knew anthropologists Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, which led to him studying the Blackfoot Tribe. Researching other cultures taught Maslow that people share similar drives. This realisation eventually gave birth to the 'hierarchy of needs'. Another key influence was Kurt Goldstein, who wrote a book called The Organism.

Kurt was an esteemed neurologist who maintained it was vital to see the human being as a total organism. His views challenged the prevailing 'reductionist approach' of the time. Reductionism insisted on slides fields of knowledge – such as medicine, education, work, etc. – into small pieces. Each piece was then treated separately.

Based on his work with brain-damaged soldiers, Goldstein believed in a more 'holistic approach'. Certainly one must deal with the immediate symptoms, but it was vital to mobilise the forces of the whole system.

Kurt was amazed by the human body's ability to heal itself. He maintained that the 'mind' and 'body' were connected – and that the organism could adjust and develop in challenging situations. Frequently this called for exploring and putting it all together to create a whole solution. Writing on The Nature Institute's web site, Craig Hodrege explains:

“Goldstein gives an unexpectedly simple and concrete example: learning to ride a bicycle. The learner at first makes all sorts of movements in the effort to ‘get it right.’ Many of these movements are actually inappropriate for successful riding, although they play an important role in the learning situation. (One of the worst things a person learning a new capacity can do is to try to avoid making mistakes.)

"After a shorter or longer time, suddenly the moment comes when the child ‘gets it.’ The smile, the coordinated movements and the smoothly propelled bike all reveal the accomplishment … Once we follow a learning process in such a careful way, we can notice this embodiment of wholeness in manifold variations – whether in learning to play an instrument, in understanding a mathematical concept, or in grasping an organism.”

Nature Institute

Maslow also believed that human beings were living systems that strove towards fulfilling their potential. At this time, however, the world was in chaos and America joined World War II.

He was too old to join-up, but one incident set the direction for his future life. Abe told Edward Hoffman:

“I felt I must try to save the world, and to prevent the horrible wars and the awful hatred and prejudice. It happened very suddenly.

"One day just after Pearl Harbor, I was driving home and my car was stopped by a poor, pathetic parade. Boy Scouts and old uniforms and a flag and someone playing a flute off-key. As I watched, the tears began to run down my face. I felt we didn't understand – not Hitler, nor the Germans, nor Stalin, nor the Communists.

"We didn't understand any of them. I felt that if we could understand, then we could make progress. I had a vision of a peace table, with people sitting around it, talking about human nature and hatred, war and peace, and brotherhood.”

“I was too old to go into the army. It was at that moment I realized that the rest of my life must be devoted to discovering a psychology for the peace table. That moment changed my whole life.

"Since then, I've devoted myself to developing a theory of human nature that could be tested by experiment and research. I wanted to prove that humans are capable of something grander than war, prejudice, and hatred.

"I wanted to make science consider all the people: the best specimen of mankind I could find. I found that many of them reported having something like mystical experiences.”

Publishing his theories

Abe published several articles in the early 1940s which described the hierarchy of human needs – something we will explore later. He believed that, as one set of needs were satisfied, then other ‘higher needs’ appeared. He said: “This is what we mean by saying that basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy.”

The articles did not draw a great response, but Abe launched into his next project – researching self-actualising men and women. He believed the key to humanity’s future lay in studying healthy people.

Abe felt enthusiastic about embarking on what would become his life’s work. He was then struck down by fatigue, however, and felt unable to teach.

His brothers ran a cooperage – making wine barrels – in Pleasanton, located in the San Francisco Bay area. They offered him the chance to earn some income by becoming a plant manager at their site in rural California.

Abe enjoyed working in the Maslow Cooperage and recovered his health. His brothers offered him a permanent role, but he preferred to return to teaching. The experience he gained in the factory, however, would influence some of his later writing on management.

Returning to teaching, he took up a post at Brandeis University, near Boston, where he would stay until 1969.

The birth of humanistic psychology

Maslow first published is ground-breaking book Motivation and Personality in 1954. He then revised and reissued it in 1970. The book described the hierarchy of human needs and also outlined his views on human potential. He wrote:

“Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization.”

Motivation and Personality appealed to people who were looking for a more positive view of humanity’s possibilities. Certainly there were doubters, but Maslow’s work went beyond the frameworks offered by psychoanalysis and behaviourism. The Association for Humanistic Psychology web site explains:

“By the late 1950's a ‘Third Force’ was beginning to form. In 1957 and 1958, at the invitation of Abraham Maslow and Clark Moustakas (another pioneering psychologist) two meetings were held in Detroit among psychologists who were interested in founding a professional association dedicated to a more meaningful, more humanistic vision.

“They discussed several themes – such as self, self-actualization, health, creativity, intrinsic nature, being, becoming, individuality, and meaning – which they believed likely to become central concerns of such an approach to psychology. In 1961, with the sponsorship of Brandeis University, this movement was formally launched as the American Association for Humanistic Psychology.”

“In 1964, at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the first invitational conference was held, an historic gathering that did much to establish the character of the new movement.

"Attendees included psychologists, among whom were Gordon Allport, J.F.T. Bugental, Charlotte Buhler, Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Gardner Murphy, Henry Murray and Carl Rogers, as well as humanists from other disciplines, such as Jacques Barzun, Rene Dubos and Floyd Matson.”

You can find more information about the history of humanistic psychology at: Association Humanistic Psychology

Maslow and Rogers remained key figures at the centre of the movement. Rollo May moved on towards helping to found ‘Existential Psychology’.

Abe later captured the excitement of the time in his book Towards A Psychology of Being. Writing in the Introduction: Towards A Psychology of Health, he explained:

“There is now emerging over the horizon a new conception of human sickness and of human health, a psychology that I find so thrilling and so full of wonderful possibilities that I yield to the temptation to present it publicly even before it is checked and confirmed, and before it can be called reliable scientific knowledge. The basic assumptions of this point of view are:

1) We have, each of us, an essential biologically based inner nature, which is to some degree ‘natural,’ intrinsic, given, and, in a certain limited sense, unchangeable, or, at least, unchanging.

2) Each person's inner nature is in part unique to himself and in part species-wide.

3) It is possible to study this inner nature scientifically and to discover what it is like – (not invent – discover).

4) This inner nature, as much as we know of it so far, seems not to be intrinsically or primarily or necessarily evil.

The basic needs (for life, for safety and security, for belonging and affection, for respect and self-respect, and for self-actualization), the basic human emotions and the basic human capacities are on their face either neutral, pre-moral or positively ‘good.’

5) Since this inner nature is good or neutral rather than bad, it is best to bring it out and to encourage it rather than to suppress it. If it is permitted to guide our life, we grow healthy, fruitful, and happy.

6) If this essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, he gets sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later.

7) This inner nature is not strong and overpowering and unmistakable like the instincts of animals. It is weak and delicate and subtle and easily overcome by habit, cultural pressure, and wrong attitudes toward it.

8) Even though weak, it rarely disappears in the normal person ~ perhaps not even in the sick person. Even though denied, it persists underground forever pressing for actualization.”

Humanistic psychology goes to work

Maslow’s views attracted attention in fields beyond psychology. Advocates of humanistic approaches to education embraced the philosophy and, more surprisingly, interest was shown by some people in business.

During the 1950s the approach to running organisations was one of ‘command and control’. The common assumption was that people were lazy and must be supervised in their work.

Maslow’s books introduced a different approach. He suggested that people really wanted to do meaningful work. Providing this approach was implemented properly, it might increase motivation, job satisfaction and productivity.

Frederick Herzberg’s book The Motivation to Work was published in 1959. Seen as complementing Maslow’s approach, it highlighted the importance of what Herzberg called ‘hygiene’ and ‘motivational’ factors.

The hygiene factors included, for example: salary, work conditions and the relationship with the manager. The motivational factors included: responsibility, recognition, meaningful work and a sense of achievement.

Hertzberg’s book gained wide recognition. The acknowledged ‘companion volume’ to Maslow’s books on work, however, is considered to be Douglas McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise.

McGregor was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ‘Enterprise’, published in 1960, was seen as an endorsement of Maslow's work. There is some question, however, about whether this was the case.

McGregor was influenced by Maslow: but some argue that he simply wanted leaders to explore the belief systems they used to manage people. Ground-breaking at the time, his views on Theory X and Theory Y are now taught on basic management courses.

Theory X assumed that people were lazy and avoided work. People should therefore be supervised to ensure they achieved their objectives. Theory Y assumed that people wanted to take responsibility and do satisfying work. Provided with the right environment, people would use their talents to achieve the organisational aims.

(Theory Z – a term coined by William Ouchi in later years – outlined another approach. This aimed to combine elements of Japanese and US led management theories. Theory Z was based on certain assumptions about employees. For example:

* They want to build co-operative relationships with their employers and colleagues. This also includes the need to, when appropriate, arrive at decisions by consensus.

* They require high degrees of support in terms of secure employment, working conditions and development. As part of the package, they accept the process of steady career progression.

* They value their personal and social life as much as material success. Leaders need to recognise this factor and, as a consequence, take an interest in the employees as a whole people. In return, the employees will remain loyal to the organisation.)

McGregor's book The Human Side of Enterprise was taken to heart by many people – as was Maslow’s view of human nature.

Abe was also invited to visit a company that was following Theory Y principles. This was Non-Linear Systems, a high-tech company in California. Andy Kay, the owner, was encouraging people to be more self-directing, co-operative and creative. Line-workers, for example, were encouraged to set their daily schedules.

The results seemed to be promising. Productivity and profits improved, whilst labour turnover and absenteeism was reduced. Maslow should perhaps have been delighted, but he remained wary. Concerned that his ideas were being implemented without any scientific measurement, he later wrote:

"They're being taken as gospel truth, without any real examination of their reliability, validity. The carryover from clinic to industry is really a huge and shaky step, but they're going ahead enthusiastically and optimistically.”

Maslow the ‘scientist’ wanted people to test the validity of his ideas; but Maslow the ‘visionary’ wanted to go further with his own thinking. Reflecting on his experience at NLS, he began to create his view of ‘enlightened management’.

Recalling the work of Ruth Benedict, he returned to the theme of ‘synergy’. Maslow showed how this could apply in the work place. People could, he believed, combine their talents to produce synergy – more than the sum of their parts – and achieve their personal and organisational goals.

He published these views under the title Eupsychian Management. Maslow’s book was well received by many experts in management. Peter Drucker, for example, wrote to him in 1966:

“This letter is about seven years late. For the past seven years or so I have always been on the point of writing you to tell you how very much I have learned from you and how grateful I am.”

Drucker went on to express his admiration of Eupsychian Management – though he had reservations about the title. Whilst not agreeing with everything in the book, he loved the stimulation it provided. Drucker would later say:

“Maslow had a lasting impact on me. I became an immediate convert. Maslow's evidence is overwhelming. But to date very few people have paid much attention."

——————–

Abe spent the rest of his life developing his philosophy and researching how to put this into practice. He gained international recognition – being seen as providing a positive view of human possibilities.

Encouraged that his ideas were being adopted, he nevertheless had some reservations. He was particularly concerned, for example, about aspects of the ‘human potential movement’. Some proponents saw ‘self-actualisation’ as a license to simply pursue their own needs.

Others recognised Maslow’s views that ‘being truly human’ meant being generous. It called for enabling as many people as possible to fulfil their potential. He believed this was the only want to create a ‘synergistic society’.

Abe began to suffer from deteriorating health. He and Bertha spent his remaining years in Menlo Park, California. Abe died there from heart failure in June 1970. He was aged 62.

2) Principles.

Abe was one of the founding fathers of humanistic psychology. As such, he laid the groundwork for focusing on people’s possibilities.

His pioneering work on studying ‘healthy’ people blazed a trail that was later followed by others. Maslow’s ideas have now become accepted in many fields – so let’s explore some of the key principles.

* People can grow in the right environment.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is his best known concept. Put concisely, this says that people have an ascending set of needs. Individuals have an inbuilt drive to climb this hierarchy. Once they are satisfied on one level, they are then more likely to move onto the next level.

These drives start with the physiological needs, then climb onwards towards self-actualisation. Maslow believed that people are more likely to fulfil their potential if they are able to live, learn and work in an environment that enables them to satisfy their needs.

Abe originally outlined 5 levels of needs. He later described several further dimensions relating to the highest need – ‘self-actualisation’. These included the drive to make sense of experience – cognitive needs; to find or create beauty – aesthetic needs; and to have peak experiences – self-actualisation needs.

There are differing views as to whether he meant these to be extra levels or contained within the level of the self-actualisation.

These needs are:

* Physiological needs. These include the needs for food, air, water, rest and all the needs concerned with one’s body.

* Safety needs. These include the needs for security, shelter and stability.

* Love and Belonging needs. These include the needs for love, good relationships and, in the broadest sense, being part of a ‘community’. The latter could, for example, mean being part of a gang, an institution or having kindred spirits. This reinforces the sense of identity.

* Esteem needs. These include the needs for respect, recognition and confidence.

Maslow called these four levels ‘deficit needs’. He believed that if you don’t get satisfied on a certain level, you feel a ‘deficit’. He saw these as ‘survival needs’. You feel fine, but you need something more to thrive and be ‘fully human’ – the person you can become. The final set of needs were:

* Self-actualisation needs. These include the needs for making sense of experience, finding or creating beauty, and having peak experiences.

Reservations

Maslow’s views on creating the right climate for growth have spread to many fields. Few would deny that they have a profound impact. But there are, of course, some reservations.

As George Boeree points out in his article on Maslow, some individuals thrive in terrible conditions. He writes:

“We also have the example of a number of people who were creative in some fashion even while in concentration camps. Trachtenberg, for example, developed a new way of doing arithmetic in a camp. Viktor Frankl developed his approach to therapy while in a camp.”

Certainly there are many people who have grown despite – or even because of – tough circumstances. This point was developed by thinkers such as Frankl and Rollo May, who founded the existential psychology movement.

Maslow certainly questioned his own views: but it now accepted that people are more likely to develop in an encouraging environment.

* People can explore the further reaches of human nature.

Abe was fascinated by ‘self-actualisers’ who used their talents to help other people. (There are obviously – and unfortunately – some people who get their ‘highs’ by hurting others.)

Maslow studied people who, in the broadest sense, were committed to ‘doing good’. These included, for example, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Adams and Eleanor Roosevelt. So how did such people achieve peak experiences? George Boeree outlines these in his excellent overview at:

George Boeree

Self-actualisers demonstrated
some of the following characteristics

* They followed their values. They were ‘real’ – being true to themselves rather than ‘fake’. They had a strong sense of autonomy and resisted pressure to conform.

* They found solutions – treating life’s-problems as challenges to be solved. They frequently saw the ‘means’ – the journey – as being as important as the ‘ends’.

* They enjoyed solitude and preferred to have deep relationships with a few people. They also had a positive sense of humour, rather than laughing at others misfortunes.

* They accepted themselves and, within limits, other people. At the same time, they wanted to improve themselves if they saw the benefits.

* They had a strong sense of respect towards others. Maslow called this quality ‘human kinship’.

They believed in certain values – and were prepared to ‘fight’ for them – but also appreciated and enjoyed differences in others. They were prepared to draw the line, however, if people did not show respect to others or certain values.

* They had strong ethics. These were often ‘spiritual’ in nature, rather than ‘religious’.

* They had the ability to be creative, imaginative and original. They had a sense of wonder – a ‘freshness of appreciation’ – which stretched to seeing the extraordinary in ordinary things.

* They had more peak experiences than most people. Such experiences sometimes gave them a sense of transcendence.

George Boeree added:

“Maslow doesn’t think that self-actualizers are perfect, of course. There were several flaws or imperfections he discovered along the way as well:

"First, they often suffered considerable anxiety and guilt – but realistic anxiety and guilt, rather than misplaced or neurotic versions. Some of them were absentminded and overly kind. And finally, some of them had unexpected moments of ruthlessness, surgical coldness, and loss of humor.”

“Two other points he makes about these self-actualizers: Their values were ‘natural’ and seemed to flow effortlessly from their personalities.

"And they appeared to transcend many of the dichotomies others accept as being undeniable, such as the differences between the spiritual and the physical, the selfish and the unselfish, and the masculine and the feminine."

Boeree explains that Maslow believed self-actualisers needed certain qualities in their lives to be happy. These included: truth, honesty, beauty, unity, aliveness, uniqueness, perfection, completion, justice, simplicity, playfulness, self-sufficiency and meaningfulness.

Boeree says that Maslow recognised that everybody might crave for these needs. He points out, however, that if a person does not have enough to eat or has nowhere to live, those needs take precedence.

Self-actualisers were in the more fortunate position of being able to focus on their higher needs. They were able to explore the further reaches of human nature.

* People can work well together to create synergy.

‘Synergy’ was a term coined by the anthropologist Ruth Benedict. She used it to describe the way that people co-operated in certain tribes.

People worked well together and combined their talents to achieve common goals. This enabled them to develop a peaceful, satisfying and sustainable life-style. Maslow liked the term. He used it to describe to organisations where:

a) People worked in an environment where they were able to satisfy their hierarchy of needs – this included doing meaningful work and gaining a sense of achievement.

b) People aligned their goals with those of the organisation;

c) People combined their talents to produce synergy, ‘produce more than the sum of the parts’ and achieve their personal and organisational goals.

Maslow saw some of these ideas put into practice at Non-Linear Systems in California. Andy Kay, the owner, found that the most productive workers were those at the end of the line. This was probably because they assembled the final product and achieved a sense of satisfaction.

Aiming to reproduce similar conditions elsewhere, he organised people into teams, each responsible for a complete product. As mentioned earlier in the article, Maslow initially had mixed feelings when visiting the plant, but he became more enthusiastic when seeing it in operation.

Edward Hoffman describes how Maslow began making notes and putting together a manuscript. Hoffman writes:

“Benedict's notion (of synergy) was almost unknown except to Maslow, Margaret Mead and a few others who had known her personally. Now Maslow saw synergy as an underlying principle of management and human relationships in organizations.

"NLS was demonstrating that the company's and the employees' interests could converge through what Maslow called ‘enlightened management.’"

Abe put together his theories and, in 1965, published them in a book called Eupsychian Management. Warren Bennis, a leading authority on management, said: "It was very radical for the time.”

Despite some initial enthusiasm, however, it did not catch on. Bennis and Drucker believe part of the reason was the title. As Edward Hoffman points out, the main ideas that have endured are ‘enlightened management’ and ‘synergy’. Maslow believed people could combine their talents in a way that benefited themselves, their colleagues, their organisation and, in some cases, their society. Everybody would win.

There are several books about Maslow. Edward Hoffman wrote a biography The Right To Be Human. Whilst Frank Goble wrote an excellent portrayal of Maslow’s influence called The Third Force. You can get an preview of Goble’s book on Google Book Search at:

The Third Force

3) Practice.

So what has been the effect of Abraham Maslow’s work? He is considered one of the greatest figures in humanistic psychology.

His hierarchy of human needs has influenced education, work, organisations and many other fields in society. His positive view of human possibilities inspired many people and encouraged them to encourage others. Today’s textbooks on psychology, education and management acknowledge his valuable contribution.

(I still remember the day in 1970 when I found Towards a Psychology of Being in a bookshop near London. Taking it down from the shelf, I opened the pages and read the Introduction.

Suddenly ‘the doors of perception’ opened and I felt an even greater enthusiasm for my work in the therapeutic community. His use of a visual model – the pyramid of needs – also taught me how I learn, by seeing or creating visual models. Maslow helped me to make sense of experience.)

Contribution to the strengths approach

Abe seldom – if ever – referred to people’s ‘strengths’. But he laid the groundwork for the strengths philosophy. For example:

* He pioneered the strategy of studying health – rather than sickness – and identified the principles people followed to become psychologically healthy.

This approach was pursued later by many people in the strengths movement.

* He showed that people are more likely to grow if they are provided with an encouraging environment in the family, school, work and society.

This approach was followed by educators, leaders and many others. They aimed to provide the climate in which people could find their strengths and fulfil their potential.

* He described how people could combine their strengths to produce synergy.

This is demonstrated in super teams where people set common goals, perform superb work and achieve their picture of success.

Abe Maslow was one of the giants of positive psychology. His ideas made a remarkable contribution to human development. He remains an inspiration to many people.

Posted in Philosophers, The Strengths Blog | 1 Comment »

Tags: Abraham Maslow, humanistic psychology, Strengths

January 16th, 2009

Carl Rogers’ work on strengths

Carl Rogers is a name known to everybody who has done a counselling course. Today it is hard to realise how revolutionary his ideas were in the 1930s and 40s.

In those days the medical profession treated people with psychiatric difficulties as ‘patients’. The doctor saw the patient, made a diagnosis and prescribed a ‘treatment’. Few sat down with a troubled person to encourage them to clarify their feelings, set goals and take responsibility for shaping their future.

Psychoanalysis was an option for the rich, but few people had the opportunity of basic ‘counselling’. Carl Rogers changed all that. He was, as one book called him, ‘The quiet revolutionary’.

1) Philosophy and Background.

Carl outlined what he saw as the ‘core conditions’ for building a good therapeutic relationship. He saw the helper’s role as:

* To be ‘congruent’: to be genuine and honest with the client;

* To show ‘empathy’: to understand and experience the world from the client’s point of view;

* To have ‘unconditional positive regard’: to show respect and accept the person as they are, rather than be judgemental.

This may sound basic: but it was radical for an era in which the doctor, psychiatrist or other expert was expected to stay aloof.

Carl also became famous – or infamous – for coining the phrase ‘non-directive therapy’. Later in his career he was challenged to explain the term. The classic question was: “If the client was going to jump out of the window, would you be non-directive?”

Rogers explained that at first the term ‘non-directive’ was a protest against the approach from interventions that were extremely ‘directive’. He wanted to value the client and put them at the centre of the relationship. They would then be more likely to feel at ease and able to shape their future.

Carl even moved away from the notion of ‘clients’ – eventually calling his work the ‘person-centered approach’. He believed:

* The client – like every person – had ‘a drive towards self-actualisation’.

This drive would press towards fulfilment and, if able to be expressed properly, would increase the person’s chances of becoming healthy. If the drive was frustrated, the person would experience difficulties, some of which might be displayed in various symptoms.

* The helper’s role was to create an encouraging environment that facilitated the person’s growth.

They could achieve this by being genuine, showing empathy and having unconditional positive regard – what he called the ‘core conditions’.

* The person would be more then likely to be their real self, set goals and work towards fulfilling their potential.

You can see Carl putting some of these ideas into action via the video link below. He is interviewing a woman called Sylvia. She is extremely articulate and rational, but this is part of her challenge. She wants to live more fully without intellectualising experience.

During the interview, which took place in 1980, Carl is warm, fully present and creates an encouraging atmosphere. The approach he takes may shock some people.

At one point Sylvia asks him to hold her hands, which he does. The interview shows Carl’s ability to enable a person to feel at ease, share their feelings and move forward during a session.

The approach he uses obviously has both pluses and minuses, but the video provides a fine example of how he translates it into action. You can find it at the link below – then go down the page and click Sylvia – the struggle for self-acceptance.

Sylvia

Carl was one of the giants of humanistic psychology. Along with people such as Abraham Maslow, he laid the foundations for many ideas that we take for granted today.

Few would argue, for example, against the need for providing hospitals and other caring organisations that are ‘person-centred’. So let’s explore his background and contribution to the strengths philosophy.

———————-

You can discover much more about Carl by viewing The Carl Rogers Reader on Google. Edited by Howard Kirschenbaum and Valerie Land Henderson, it gives an insight into his world. You can find extracts from the book at:

Carl Rogers Reader

There are many fine sites that are devoted in part to Carl and his work. Here are four that provide excellent information:

Carl Rogers Site

Howard Kirschenbaum Site

Natalie Rogers Site

Person-Centered Site

Starting out

Carl was born in January 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, which is a short distance West of Chicago. He was the fourth of six children in a devout Protestant family. (Oak Park itself had a history of strict prohibition.)

Both his father – who was a civil engineer – and his mother emphasised the importance of hard work. Carl was quiet by nature, could read before he went to kindergarten and enjoyed study. He later wrote:

“My parents cared a great deal for us, and had our welfare almost constantly in mind. They were also, in many subtle and affectionate ways, quite controlling of our behaviour. It was assumed by them and accepted by me that we were different from other people – no alcoholic beverages, no dancing, cards, or theater, very little social life and much work.”

His parents wanted their growing children to be sheltered from the temptations of the metropolis, so they moved to a farm about 30 miles West of Chicago. Carl was 12 at the time. Working there led to him becoming interested in the patterns of nature.

His father also invited experts to the farm to explore scientific approaches to agriculture. Carl also read many books on the topic, including a thick tome called Feeds and Feeding. Many years later, he wrote in A Way of Being:

“The descriptions of all the scientific experiments on feeding, on milk and egg production, on the use of different fertilizers, different varieties of seed, of soil, and so forth, gave me a thoroughgoing feeling for the essential elements of science. The design of a suitable experiment … was unknowingly absorbed through my reading at the age of thirteen to sixteen.”

Going his own way

Carl went on to study agriculture at the University of Wisconsin. Enrolling in 1919, he eventually switched to studying religion, with the aim of joining the ministry. He then attended an event that made him question his beliefs.

He was amongst a small group of students chosen to visit Beijing for the ‘World Student Christian Conference’ in 1922. Whilst there, he reflected on life.

How could it be that people from different nationalities hated each other, even though as individuals they seemed likable? How could sincere and honest people believe in different religious doctrines? Such questions stretched his thinking and freed him from the beliefs of his parents. He later wrote:

“… This independence of thought caused great pain and stress in our relationship, but looking back on it, I believe that here, more than any other time, I became an independent person … Of course there was much revolt and rebellion in my attitude during that period, but the essential split was achieved during the six months I was on the trip to the Orient, and hence was thought through away from the influence of home.”

You can find out more about this transition at:

Google Reader

Returning to college, Carl completed degree. By this time he had also fallen in love with Helen Elliot, “a lovely girl” who he had known since childhood. They were then married “with the very reluctant consent of our parents” and went together to graduate school in New York.

Reflecting on his relationship with Helen, Carl wrote: “… her steady and sustaining love and companionship during all the years since has been a most important and enriching factor in my life.”

His religious views may have been shaken, but Carl still planned to study for the ministry. The college he attended in New York was the Union Theological Seminary, the most liberal in the country. He says that, while there, he attended a seminar called: ‘Why am I entering the ministry?’

Later he semi-jokingly advised students in a similar position to never participate in such a seminar, unless they wanted to change their careers. Carl continues:

“I felt that questions such as the meaning of life, and the possibility of the constructive improvement of life for individuals, would probably always interest me, but I could not work in a field where I would be required to believe in some specified religious doctrine.”

During his time at Union, Carl had also attended lectures in psychological and psychiatric work. These were held at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, across the street from the Union Seminary. Finding these subjects fascinating, he also studied the philosophy of education.

Eventually moving over to Columbia, he began doing practical clinical work with children. His supervisor was Leta Hollingworth, who he calls a “sensitive and practical person”, and began to feel he had found his calling. Carl writes:

“I found myself drawn to child guidance work, so that gradually, with very little painful readjustment, I shifted over into the field of child guidance, and began to think of myself as a clinical psychologist.”

Carl was about to embark on the next crucial step. (For anybody who wants to read an in-depth account of his life, the definitive biography is Howard Kirschenbaum’s The Life and Work of Carl Rogers. You can find it at the following link.)

http://www.rochester.edu/Warner/faculty/kirschenbaum/publications.html

Rochester

Approaching the end of his graduate work, Carl began wondering how he could provide for a growing family. His studies called for doing several working placements in child guidance clinics.

Eventually these led to him being offered a psychologist’s post at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, in Rochester, New York. His salary was $2,900 a year, which was low even for those days. Career development might also be limited, because it was psychiatrists – rather than psychologists – who performed ‘therapy’. He eventually spent 12 years at Rochester.

These formative years moved his thinking towards creating the right environment in which a person could grow. Many years later he would write in On Becoming A Person:

"In my early professionals years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?"

Carl was strongly influenced by Otto Rank, an estranged former colleague of Freud. Rank’s book Will Therapy, was published in 1936, the same year Rogers invited him to lecture in Rochester.

Rank believed that each person was born with a will to fulfil their potential. Expressing this freely enabled them to be healthy and, in the broadest sense, artistic. Suppressing it caused problems. The therapist could help the client by focusing on the ‘here-and-now’ as well as, when appropriate, exploring the past.

Rank also promoted a more ‘egalitarian’ relationship between the helper and the client, as opposed to the ‘expert’ being in charge. Rogers said that, whilst not completely agreeing with Rank’s theory, he loved the way Rank did therapy. He said: “I became infected by Rankian ideas.”

Carl’s approach contrasted sharply with the prevailing ‘interventionist treatments’ of the time. He was relatively informal, but was also ‘scientific’: he pioneered the use of analysing recordings of sessions to gather hard data.

Carl found the best results emerged when the counsellor behaved in a certain way. They created an encouraging environment, valued the person and showed empathy. Paradoxically, however, it was an unsuccessful set of sessions that provided the next breakthrough.

Writing in The Carl Rogers Reader, he explains how he was trying to help a mother and son to improve their relationship. Nothing seemed to work. Carl said:

“The problem was clearly her rejection of the boy, but over many interviews I could not help her to this insight. I drew her out, I gently pulled together the evidence she had given, trying to help her see the pattern. But we got nowhere.

"Finally I gave up. I told her that it seemed we had both tried, but we had failed, and that we might as well give up our contacts. She agreed. So we concluded the interview, shook hands, and she walked to the door of the office.”

“Then she turned and asked, ‘Do you ever take adults for counselling her?’ When I replied in the affirmative, she said, ‘Well then, I would like some help.’

"She came to the chair she had left, and began to pour out her despair about her marriage, her troubled relationship with her husband, her sense of failure and confusion, all very different from the sterile ‘case history’ she had given before. Real therapy began then, and ultimately it was very successful.”

Carl and his Rochester colleagues began to build their practice for both children and adults. They called it ‘counselling’, however, rather than ‘therapy’, which remained the province of psychiatrists.

He then wrote his first book The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child. Published in 1939, it led to him being offered a full professorship at The Ohio State University. Three years later he published Counseling and Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts in Practice.

Reaching a wider audience, this book led to invitations to speak at conferences. His presentations were often met by ‘furrowed brows’ from the traditional practitioners. Carl felt confident about the principles he proposed, however, because he ‘had the data’ to back up the facts.

Fame

The concept of counselling took off as veterans returned from the Second World War. People accepted the need for traumatised soldiers to clarify their feelings and, if possible, move-on. During this period Carl opened a clinic based at the University of Chicago and in 1951 published Client Centered Therapy.

Despite resistance from some quarters, Rogers’ ideas gained wide acceptance and, in 1956, he was elected the first President of the American Academy of Psychotherapists. One year later he moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but became disillusioned with the academic in-fighting.

During this time, however, he wrote On Becoming A Person. Published in 1961, it attracted a world-wide audience. The following year he collaborated with people such as Abraham Maslow, Virginia Satir, Rollo May and Charlotte Buhler to set up the Association for Humanistic Psychology.

In 1964 Carl left Academia to join the staff of the Western Behavioral Studies Institute in La Jolla, Southern California. Four years later he and several colleagues moved on to set-up The Center for Studies of The Person, also based in La Jolla.

Carl spent the next 20 years expanding the key principles he had established into other fields. During this time he published many books, including Person to Person (with Barry Steven) and Freedom To Learn: A View of What Education Might Become. The latter book showed how the ‘core conditions’ for creating a good helping relationship could be applied to education.

Becoming involved with the encounter group movement, he saw how elements of that approach could help people to make real contact. From the 1970s onwards he facilitated person-centered workshops in Europe, South America and Japan. Helen, his wife, died in 1979 after a long illness. He continued working, often with his daughter Natalie. (See link to her web site below.)

Natalie Rogers' Site

Carl moved into new territory by facilitating a workshop for 50 leading figures – leaders, politicians, academics and others – from 17 nations. The session was held in Rust, Austria, and the topic was The Central American Challenge. Called The Rust Peace Workshop, it was held in 1985.

The four-day session was facilitated using person-centered principles. Carl saw the main aim as being for the participants to see each other as ‘persons’, rather than as roles or political foes.

Much of the reaction was favourable, though there were some dissenters. Carl went on to facilitate similar sessions in other troubled areas, such as Northern Island and South Africa. This work contributed to him being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He also fulfilled a long-held dream and ran workshops in Russia. You can read about the Rust event and his visit to Russia at the link below.

Rust Workshop

Carl continued to work but, in early 1987, he fell and suffered a fractured pelvis. The operation to repair his pelvis was successful, but his heart began to fail. He died several days later on February 4. Carl’s remarkable legacy remains, so let’s explore some of his beliefs.

2) Principles.

Carl is known as ‘the father of modern counselling’. He also gave birth to the ‘people-centered’ approach in many areas of life. During his career he focused on following certain key principles. So let’s consider some of these themes.

* People have an organic drive towards self-actualisation.

Carl believed that all human beings had a natural drive towards fulfilment. His view of actualisation was slightly different from Abraham Maslow’s emphasis on people having peak experiences.

Carl’s view of actualisation was somebody becoming a ‘fully functioning person’ who lived ‘the good life’. This was characterised by several factors, which included the following.

* They were open to experience. They were open to the reality of the feeling, views and ideas of both themselves and other people.

* They trusted their own organism. They trusted their feelings, drives and experiences. This meant that, whilst still very much open to learning, they became more accepting of themselves.

* They were able to live in the ‘here and now’. They experienced ‘existential living’ and were fully present in the moment. They coupled this with being able to plan and shape their future.

* They had an internal locus of control and evaluation. They lived in a way that was true to their values and kept asking: “Am I living in a way which is deeply satisfying for me, and which truly expresses me?”

* They were willing to see life as a process – rather than as a destination. This meant appreciating the adventure of living, learning and loving. Life is a process of ‘becoming’ and enjoying the journey towards fulfilment.

* They were willing to take responsibility and use their creativity to help future generations. Carl equated ‘creativity’ with the term ‘generativity’, as used by Erik Erikson. This is: ‘the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation’.

Carl believed that all living things had a drive toward actualisation. Many of his beliefs were formed from watching the processes in nature. As a scientist, he saw how organisms stretched to fulfil their potential. His books contain examples of how plants, trees and other living things related to their environment.

The organisms that succeeded, he believed, were those that channelled their natural strength and yet also embraced complexity. This enabled them to develop the resources to deal with challenges. Those that remained narrow did not have the variety to overcome adversity.

He believed that, to be fully human, a person must be true to themselves – yet also be willing to learn from experience.

* People who pursue this drive successfully are more likely to become psychologically healthy. Those who don’t may experience ‘problems of living’.

People who are able to pursue their true nature are more likely to find fulfilment. Life is full of setbacks, however, and some forces can throw a person off-course. They may encounter severe criticism, pressure to conform or other disturbing challenges.

Certainly we must all take charge of our lives, but pressures sometimes mean we forget to be our true selves. Alternatively, we may choose to live in what the existentialists call ‘bad faith’.

We know what ‘we can become’, but find the risk too great to take. We later discover it is even riskier not to follow our calling.

Carl explained that, during in his counselling career, he met people who displayed many different symptoms. These were responses to what he called ‘problems of living’. Considering his troubled clients, he said:

“(Everybody) has the same problem, in a sense – the problem of finding the right path, of acting according to one's better inner nature.

"It seems to me that at bottom each person is asking: ‘Who am I, really? How can I get in touch with this real self, underlying all my surface behavior? How can I become myself?’"

Carl expanded this philosophy of ‘being real’ when venturing into other areas. His work with conflict resolution, for example, encouraged the participants to get to know each other ‘person-to-person’.

Recognising who the other person was – somebody similar to you with a family, needs and hopes – was the precursor to building long-term solutions. The key lay in daring to be real, work with others and find ‘win-win’ solutions.

(One accusation laid at Carl’s door was that some people interpreted his philosophy as a license to ‘just do their own thing’ – regardless of the consequences. He repeatedly emphasised the need to help others to fulfil their potential, however, because this was the only way to build a fair and creative society.)

* People can be helped to grow by participating in an encouraging relationship that enables them to pursue their drive towards actualisation.

Carl believed in creating a sanctuary where a person felt valued and free of judgement. They were then able to be their real self, express their feelings and develop their inner strength. He wrote in his 1942 book Counselling and Psychotherapy:

“Therapy is not a matter of doing something to the individual, or of inducing him to do something about himself. It is instead a matter of freeing him for normal growth and development.”

“But is that enough?” somebody might ask. Carl felt it was, but others believed he overlooked a key factor.

He was a gifted teacher. He knew how to ask the right questions at the right time – and he had great wisdom. No matter how objective Carl may have been in the session, his gifts contributed to the experience. Put on the spot, however, he reiterated his basic beliefs.

The key was to provide the right environment. People could then develop their inner strength and pursue their chosen path. Counselling was one vehicle for enabling people to become what they wanted to become.

And finally: “The facts are friendly.”

Carl said: "The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true."

We should welcome information, he said, even if the new evidence shows that our previous views were mistaken. Such learning can be painful, but it provides a more accurate way of seeing life.

He also said: “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”

Accepting who one is depends on knowing one’s strengths and limitations. That calls for taking reality checks and believing that ‘the facts are friendly’.

(The link below leads to a video of Carl in conversation with a small group. Scroll down the page and click on Conversations with Carl Rogers 1983.)

Conversation with Carl

3) Practice.

So what have been the effects of Carl’s work? His approach has had ramifications far beyond the scope of his original work. Carl’s achievements include:

* He was the ‘father’ of modern counselling.

* He was the first person to use the word ‘client’ – rather than patient.

* He developed the concept of ‘client-centered’ therapy – later to become the ‘person-centered’ approach.

* He clarified the ‘core conditions’ for building a helping relationship. This included genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard. Some of these concepts have passed into daily use in approaches to therapy, education and management.

* He was one of the first therapists to record sessions, analyse what happened and clarify what worked.

* He co-founded the Association for Humanistic Psychology.

* He ran pioneering conflict resolution workshops focusing on Central America, Northern Ireland and South Africa.

Carl remained optimistic throughout his life. Speaking in his late 70s, he reflected on the past few years being among the best he had experienced. He also saw the possibility of a new kind of world. Explaining this in A Way of Being, he wrote:

“This new world will be more human and humane. It will explore and develop the richness and capacities of the human mind and spirit. It will produce individuals who are more integrated and whole. It will be a world that prizes the individual person – the greatest of our resources.”

You can find more excelling insights about Carl at the following link:

Notes

Contribution to the strengths approach

Carl’s approach gave birth to many elements of the strengths philosophy. For example:

* He showed how to create a ‘stimulating sanctuary’ – an encouraging relationship in which a person felt able to grow.

This enabled the person to develop their inner strength and work towards fulfilling their potential.

* He wrote inspiring books that spread the message about these ‘core conditions’ for growth.

His books inspired practitioners to develop ‘person-centered’ services in counselling, education and many other fields.

This enabled their clients to feel valued. They were then more likely to develop their inner strength and fulfil their potential. His books reached millions of people across the world.

* He encouraged people to believe in their individual uniqueness and also help others to fulfil their potential.

He emphasised the importance of ‘creativity’, in its widest sense. For him this meant practising ‘generativity’ – giving one’s best to encourage future generations. Such an approach is the true embodiment of the strengths philosophy.

Carl’s influence has spread across many fields – putting the phrase ‘person-centered’ into our vocabulary. His pioneering work reached millions of people: quite a legacy for such a ‘quiet revolutionary’.

Posted in Philosophers, The Strengths Blog | 4 Comments »

Tags: Carl Rogers, Strengths

January 15th, 2009

Virginia Satir’s work on strengths

Virginia Satir was a remarkable family therapist who enabled many people to grow. She believed in encouraging them to express their essence. People who met her felt at ease, affirmed and stronger.

Virginia was a marvellous educator. Generating enormous warmth, she employed her intuition, yet underpinned it with a formidable intellect. For example, she pioneered a ‘systems’ approach to family therapy.

She recognised that some families had ‘rules’ – spoken or unspoken – that prevented growth. People got the messages: “It is not okay to see what’s going on; to feel what you feel; to express what you feel; to ask for what you want or to take risks.”

Virginia helped people to communicate clearly and create healthy rules that enabled everybody to grow. Her approach has had influence far beyond family therapy.

* She encouraged people to be their true selves, mobilise their internal strengths – which may have come from overcoming difficulties – and express their essence as people.

* She enabled people to build enriching relationships in which individuals were encouraged to develop their uniqueness – their ‘differentness’ – and continue to grow.

* She provided the inspiration for enabling people to build healthy systems – families, teams and organisations – that were based on ‘similarity of spirit’ and ‘diversity of strengths’.

Virginia is recognised as a pioneer in family therapy. When growing up, she saw herself as a ‘detective’. Looking back on her life, Virginia said she was five-years-old when she decided to be a "children's detective on parents".

She explained: "I didn't quite know what I would look for, but I realized a lot went on in families that didn't meet the eye." She went on to provide a philosophy and practical tools that have benefited thousands of people.

The Virginia Satir Global Network offers an in-depth view of her approach. They explain that: “Her entire work was done under the umbrella of ‘Becoming More Fully Human’.” You can discover more about her legacy at their site:

http://www.satirglobal.org

1) Philosophy and Background.

Virginia was born in Wisconsin in 1916. She was the eldest of five children born to Oscar and Minnie Pagenkopf, whose ancestors came from Germany. Virginia had several medical setbacks early in life.

She contracted Mastoiditis when aged 5 and lost her hearing for two years. Seven years later she suffered a life-threatening illness.

Minnie was a Christian Scientist and at first resisted calling medical help. Oscar eventually stepped in and insisted that Virginia get treatment. She had a ruptured appendix and spent five months in hospital.

Looking back, Virginia felt she learned positive things from both her parents. Despite the hospital episode, Minnie was ambitious for her eldest daughter, who showed great ability to learn.

For example, Virginia taught herself to read by the age of three. Minnie later insisted the family move from their farm to Milwaukee so that her daughter could attend High School.

Virginia said that Minnie taught her how to fix things; while Oscar taught her the value of honesty. Both embodied strong ethics.

They also taught her to focus on possibilities– and solutions – rather than get dragged down by problems. She would later say: “Problems are not the problem; coping is the problem.”

Virginia studied hard at High School. Money was scarce – America was going through the Depression – so she took jobs to fund her studies. She then went on to the Milwaukee State Teachers College.

Whilst studying to be a teacher, she worked in a department store and with children at weekends. She also worked at an African-American Community Centre called Abraham Lincoln House. This opened her eyes to racism – people being discriminated against because they were different.

Managing and rejoicing in ‘differences’ became a key theme in her later work with families and organisations. Whilst extremely practical, she also encouraged people to explore their possibilities. Many years later she would describe the importance of weaving dreams.

Qualifying from college, Virginia then spent several years working as a schoolteacher. Wanting to broaden her experience, she worked in different cities, including Ann Arbor, St. Louis and Miami, Florida. Deciding to focus on social work, she began doing graduate work at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1937.

Virginia studied on a part-time basis for the first few years – university in the summer, whilst doing her teaching work during the other months. She then switched to full-time study, finishing her coursework by 1943 and her thesis by 1948. (She also got married in 1941 – and divorced in 1949. More of which later.)

Virginia initially found the academic side tough – but she excelled at the practice. The university culture was, to say the least, not conducive to married women who wanted to pursue a career.

Alongside the academic work, she was given a potentially nerve-wracking placement at the Chicago Home for Girls. She flourished in the environment, even without the benefit of ongoing supervision.

Virginia’s approach was considered ‘unconventional’ – but it produced fine results. She would follow this path for the rest of her life. The University of Chicago did finally recognise her gifts. In 1975 it awarded her a ‘Gold Medal’ for service to humankind.

Marriages and a family

Virginia was married twice. The first marriage was to Gordon Rodgers. He was young soldier on leave when they met at a train station. The couple lived together for a few months, but then he was dispatched to do other wartime duties. Early in their marriage, she had an entopic pregnancy, which led to an hysterectomy.

Returning after the war, both she and he felt they had grown apart. They divorced in 1949. She married her second husband, Norman Satir, in 1951 and they divorced in 1957. Interviewed by Carol Blitzer in 1980, Virginia wondered if there had been somebody like her – a family therapist – to help, then maybe things could have worked out. On the other hand, she wanted to roam the globe. She explained:

“… I don’t see how I could have done what I’ve done in the world had I been married … It wouldn’t be fair to me, it wouldn’t be fair to the other people … I really feel it was a kind of destiny because I’ve been able to get to places. There are some people in the world who have other jobs to do.”

She did, however, have a family. During the time of her marriage to Gordon she started working with two young women, Mary and Ruth. During her second marriage she formally adopted them. When publishing her book The New People Making, she dedicated it to them, writing:

"To my daughters, Mary & Ruth and their children Tina, Barry, Angela, Scott, Julie, John, and Michael, who helped to texture me."

Virginia’s pioneering work -
some of her ideas and innovations

Virginia completed the Masters dissertation and set-up her own practice. Looking back on her first therapy session with a whole family in 1951, she realised then the value of seeing the whole picture.

This was, of course, a time when ‘systems theory’ was coming to prominence. Previously the ‘problem child’ was taken away, treated and then put back in the family. Frequently the ‘problem child’ relapsed into their old behaviour.

Certainly the person must take responsibility. But there was also something in the system – such as ‘family pain’ or unresolved issues – that was shifted onto the family scapegoat.

Virginia believed it was vital to help the whole family to grow. During the next decade she pioneered work on family therapy and used many innovative techniques. (See slide below.)

Virginia taught people how to see the family as a system which had certain ‘rules’. Some rules were open, but some might be hidden; some were helpful, others might cause confusion.

The family might, for example, have ‘rules’ about how people got attention. They might get it by giving clear messages, falling sick, creating problems or whatever.

She helped them to identify the ‘rules’ around many topics – such as showing affection, expressing anger and managing differences. People were then able:

* To see the rules.

* To see the consequences.

* To practice the rules they wanted in the future.

Virginia also helped people to identify different communication and behavioural styles. These included:

* The Leveller.

Somebody who took responsibility and gave clear messages; (Later in her career Virginia used the term ‘Congruent’ – rather than ‘Leveller’ – to symbolise such clear communication.)

* The Placater.

Somebody who pleased others and put themselves last. For example, somebody who took the role of ‘perfect child’, later to grow-up to be a martyr;

* The Blamer.

Somebody who blamed others and created arguments;

* The Computer.

Somebody who was scared of expressing feelings and intellectualised emotions;

* The Distracter.

Somebody who distracted, often by behaving in a problematic way. They might do this to get attention or, for example, create a diversion to stop family conversations that were entering difficult territory.

Virginia got family members to play the different roles. This helped them to understand how each role felt and how such a person could be reached.

“People often have good intentions, but poor communication,” said Virginia. So she enabled the family members to practice giving ‘clear messages’, rather than ‘confused messages’ or ‘conflicting messages’.

‘Clear messages’ called for the person clearly expressing what they wanted to communicate. Their words, body and actions must all give the same message.

‘Conflicting messages’ – sometimes known as ‘double messages’ – created difficulties. Parents might urge their 17 year-old-drug addict son to take responsibility, for example, whilst also providing pocket money the son used to buy drugs.

‘Confused messages’ were just that. There was so much uncertainty and camouflaging about the communication that nobody could untangle the message.

Virginia’s used her warmth and insight to educate people about such dynamics. Many were receptive. They felt that, at last, somebody understood their role in the family. She enabled them to create a healthier future.

——————————–

Virginia spent almost four decades practicing therapy, teaching and running workshops across the world. She started implemented the family approach by herself, then co-operated with Dr. Calmest Gyros at the Illinois Psychiatric Institute.

Moving to California, she worked with Don Jackson and Jules Riskin, founding the Mental Health Research Institute in Menlo Park. Backed by the US National Institute for Mental Health, she led the first formal training in family therapy in 1962.

The books and workshops

Virginia published her first book Conjoint Family Therapy in 1964. This was addressed to professionals and written in the form of a ‘manual’.

Therapists found it extremely useful because it contained specific guidelines, for example, on how to ‘take a family chronology’ – interviewing the couple about the history of their families.

Virginia saw this as in important part of the first session, particularly when the therapist asked the couple:

“When did you first meet? Who saw who first? What did you feel then? Who made the first approach? What happened next?”

There were several aims with such questions.

* To tell the story of the family’s history, especially with the children listening.

* To help the couple remember – and maybe rekindle – the magic they felt when first meeting.

* To then go back further into each parent’s family and understand the parental models they had when growing up.

This information provided clues about the parent’s behaviour and helped them to understand their own communication styles.

Conjoint Family Therapy was a great book for therapists. (My colleagues and I used it on the two-month long family therapy training programmes we ran in London in the early 1970s.)

Virginia was a magical teacher – something that was hard to transfer to the ‘manual-type’ book. She put her heart and soul into her next book, however, which was called Peoplemaking.

This was published in 1972. (It was followed later by a re-written version, called The New Peoplemaking.) This book helped Virginia to reach a much wider audience. Full of drawings and written in a personal style, it reached people’s hearts as well as their heads.

Speaking directly to the reader, she explained the different communication styles – the Leveller, Placater, Blamer, Computer and Distracter.

She also introduced the idea of ‘Pot’ – ‘high pot’ or ‘low pot’ – to indicate a person’s level of self-worth. (We will explore this concept later.) Peoplemaking presented a great leap forward. Many more people became aware of her work.

Virginia was now travelling far and wide. She ran workshops in America, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe and Asia.

Her students were also spreading the word. This led to an increased demand for training and for many years she held month-long workshops in Crested Butte, Colorado.

Family sculpture

Virginia was able to move from the ‘concept’ to the ‘concrete’, often bringing ideas to life in a physical way. When running workshops for therapists, she would invite a volunteer to do a ‘family sculpture’.

Let’s imagine, for example, that the volunteer had grown up as the eldest sister in a family where:

- The parents were far apart;

- The mother pushed herself down;

- The father turned his back to the family;

- The eldest sister (the volunteer who was sculpting her own family) acted as ‘mother’ to the family, whilst neglecting her own needs;

- The youngest sister took the role of ‘sick child’, which was maybe the only way of getting attention;

- The brother sat in his room, but occasionally made contact with the eldest sister.

Choosing people from the workshop, the volunteer made a physical representation – a sculpture – of her family. While arranging the people in their appropriate positions, she ‘talked through’ what was actually happening in the family. She explained the relationships, the communications and the roles played by the parents and siblings.

After explaining ‘how the family was’, the volunteer might then sculpt ‘how she wanted it to be’.

Completing the two sculptures, she would then step back and ask the ‘actors’ to move from: a) how it was, to; b) how she wanted it to be. This showed the actual ‘movements’ people would have needed to take to make this happen.

The family sculpture exercise could obviously be quite emotional: but it was vital for therapists to understand their own family backgrounds. They could then use this exercise with real-life families in the future.

I have seen it work superbly, for example, with troubled families. Each person – the mother, father and each child – sculpted how they saw the family at the moment. They followed by showing how they wanted it to be.

The ‘physical movements’ between the two scenarios showed the possible changes people could make to create their ideal family. Virtually every family found the exercise to be helpful.

Virginia’s ongoing legacy

Virginia spent the rest of her life travelling the world, running workshops and laying the foundations for another book. She also set up several networks. She founded The Avanta Network in 1977, which is now known as The Virginia Satir Global Network. As mentioned earlier, this is the main site covering her work, but also provides links to many other sites around the world. You can find it at:

http://www.satirglobal.org

Virginia was a remarkable teacher. It is hard to capture her warmth in wisdom in words. There are few videos of her available in the public domain, though some can be obtained from the various sites dedicated to her work.

One short video is available on YouTube. Virginia herself does not speak at length until near the end, but it is well worth waiting for.

She gives a glimpse of the warmth and knowledge that she generated. You can find it at:

Virginia

During her final years Virginia began work on another book, called The Third Birth. She saw the first birth as when the ovum and sperm unite. The second birth was actually coming into the world. The third birth was: “When we become our own decision-makers.”

She saw this as when we take charge of our lives, develop our uniqueness and give what we can to the planet. Sounds simple and obvious; but there are many implications to truly making it happen. The Third Birth was not published in finished form, but the manuscript can be found The Virginia Satir Global Network.

Bookstore

Virginia kept teaching but, in May 1988, experienced severe stomach pains. She continued work and began her annual workshop at Crested Butte. One of the participants was a physician and he recommended she get medical treatment immediately as her colouring was yellow.

She agreed to see someone in Gunnison and was flown then to Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto. She was diagnosed as having pancreatic cancer which had also spread to her liver.

Virginia chose to spend her remaining months at home. She chose to pursue a nutritional approach to healing, rather than chemotherapy. By August, however, she was feel extremely ill, and chose to rest. Margareta Suarez quotes Virginia writing the following note:

"To all my friends, colleagues and family: I send you love. Please support me in my passage to a new life. I have no other way to thank you than this.

"You have all played a significant part in my development of loving. As a result, my life has been rich and full, so I leave feeling very grateful.”

Virginia died on September 10, 1988. Following her request, she was cremated and her grave is in Mounts of Crested Butte, Colorado.

Her legacy continues to live, however, in her books, networks and the many students who practice her philosophy around the world. Here a site that continues her great work.

http://satirnetwork.ning.com

2) Principles.

Virginia pursued certain beliefs to help people grow. Today some of these seem obvious, but it is important to consider the time – and the context – within which she was working.

Bearing this in mind, let’s explore some of the key principles she followed to help people pursue their chosen paths in life.

* People can be true to themselves and grow.

“Sounds obvious, of course you have to be true to yourself,” somebody may say. Agreed, but try saying that in 1975 to, for example:

- The 44-year-old mother who cares for everybody else in the family, denies her own feelings and is suffering from illnesses as two of her children prepare to leave home;

- The 45-year-old father who gave up his dreams to take a steady job in the steelworks to feed the family, but now the factory is closing;

- The 17-year-old daughter who wants to please her parents. She has studied hard and is going to university to study Law, but she is unsure this is the right thing. Maybe she can return to her first love, music, later in life;

- The 18-year-old son who fights with his father. They were closest when he played for the College football team, but have since drifted apart. He has opted to go into the army. Maybe that will bring him what he needs;

- The 8-year-old-daughter who feels lonely. Always shy and in her own world, she has recently felt ill, but nobody will believe her. How can she attract people’s attention?

Virginia believed in helping people to fulfil their potential. Although she saw her job as to help relieve the ‘family pain’, she did this in a positive way.

She often began by asking the couple to relive the magic of when they first met – and then ask each family member about the best times in the family. Most of all, however, she conveyed to each person the message:

“I understand. You want the best for your loved ones – and you are doing your best. Sometimes it is confusing that things don’t work out how you intended. Let’s look at how to make them better.”

She provided a sense of affirmation in two ways, starting with: ‘How things are.’ She recognised the realness of people’s feelings. ‘Madness’ can result from initially believing in your own feelings, but these being ignored or, even worse, disqualified by others.

This causes panic for individuals suffering from, for example, sexual or other abuse. The person wants to cry out:

“See, I am hurting. Now you tell me I’m not. Please help.”

Virginia encouraged people to speak about their real feelings and then moved on to their aspirations: ‘How things could be.’ She helped people to build on their strengths – the life-experience they had built up, especially from the tough times – and stretch to achieve their goals.

Reaching them was not a given, however, because people had to work hard. Lynne Namka, one of Virginia’s students, came from a family where people hid their feelings. She recalls asking her:

"Virginia, do you mean you can really ask for what you want?” She slapped her knee and said, "Honey, you can always ask for what you want!” She added: “Say what you mean and mean what you say. Ask for what you want but know you will not always get it.”

You can read more about Lynne’s view of Virginia at:

Lynne

Virginia encouraged people to be their true selves, but some found this difficult. So she helped them to express what she called The Five Freedoms. (See below.)

Virginia had the ability: a) To accept and affirm what somebody was feeling; b) To enable them to take responsibility for shaping their future.

This meant acknowledging their experience, but drawing strength from it to help themselves and others, rather than dwell on it. She had both:

* The first empathy.

This is empathising with the person’s actual situation. You are able to see, feel and experience the world from the person’s point of view.

* The second empathy.

This is empathising with the person’s aspirations. You are able to connect with the person and give voice to their aspirations – maybe some they haven’t even thought of yet – then enable them to achieve these goals.

Virginia encouraged people to take charge of their futures. When asked by an angry fifteen-year-old girl about how she could live a fulfilling life, Virginia wrote and sent her a poem called I Am Me. The poem is now well-known and here is an excerpt. You can find the full text at:

Bookstore

Virginia wanted people to have self-knowledge, but not to be self-indulgent. How to make this happen?

She believed the key lay in connecting with other people and building relationships in which everybody developed. This leads to another principle she followed in her work.

* People can build enriching relationships that enable everybody to grow.

Being real was crucial – and so was building real relationships. Virginia saw the family as the crucible in which so much was formed.

She talked about the triad of mother, father and child. She said things like: “If we can heal families, we can heal the world.”

Much of her work was done in a time when the conventional ‘family unit’ was considered the norm – and she may well have developed her ideas as new forms of families evolved.

Virginia believed we all needed affection, acceptance and affirmation. This would give us the strength to adventure. Connection was the key. She said:

“I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen by them, heard by them, to be understood and touched by them …

"The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand and to touch another person … When this is done I feel contact has been made."

Communication was crucial, but relationships could still go wrong. Some would be rewarding, but others might be painful.

How to recognise which were helpful and which were hurtful? How to deal with these relationships in the future? Here is an exercise that Virginia inspired to help individuals understand their levels of self confidence.

The Self Confidence Pot

When the Pagenkopf family lived on a farm in Wisconsin, they had a giant pot in the kitchen. The pot had multiple uses, one of which was to make soup. (Virginia tells many stories about the uses of the pot, but we will explore this one in particular.)

Returning home from school, the children wanted to know how much soup was in the pot, asking: “Is the pot high or low?”

The terms ‘high pot’ and ‘low pot’ passed into their language, becoming short-hand for asking about other things. For example: “How is your pot today?” was a quick way of asking: “How are you feeling – high or low?”

Virginia built on this idea and created many different exercises on the theme. Here is one she inspired that develops the original idea. It invites you to go through three steps.

Step 1: You can clarify your level of self confidence.

How high is your self confidence? Sometimes in our lives we feel up, sometimes we feel down. There are many reasons for this – but here is one explanation. Start by drawing an imaginary pot. (See below.)

Looking at the pot, draw a line that corresponds with how high you feel your self confidence is today. If you have high confidence, draw it high up the pot. If your confidence is low, draw it at a lower point in the pot. The next step explores why it may be at this level.

Step 2: You can clarify your ‘pot fillers’ and ‘pot drillers’.

Write the names of your ‘pot fillers’. These are the people who give you encouragement and energy.

You look forward to seeing them and feel more alive after meeting them. Also, describe the things you do to give yourself energy – such as listening to music, reading, gardening or whatever.

If you have lots of things that give you positive energy, then your pot will be overflowing – and you will be more able to pass-on encouragement to other people.

But there may be complications, which brings us to the next part of the exercise.

Write the names of your ‘pot drillers’. These are people who sap energy. They leave you feeling drained and discouraged.

The more significant they are in your life, the nearer they will be to the base. You may also do things to drill holes in your own pot.

Some people may, of course, be both pot fillers and pot drillers. They may have a ‘pleasing – hurting’ pattern. Sometimes they are positive then, without warning, they lash out. Clarify the specific things these people do to encourage or drain you.

Step 3: You can clarify how you can raise your self confidence level

How can you raise your confidence and also encourage other people? Here are some suggestions you may wish to consider.

a) Spend more time with people who give you energy.

Start by spending time with your encouragers. If possible, only work with colleagues you find stimulating. People often find that, as they get older, they spend more time with personal and professional soul mates.

Encourage yourself. Do more of the things you love, for example, listening to music, skiing, visiting the theatre or whatever. Pursuing these activities will put more energy into your pot.

b) Spend less time – or no time – with people who drain energy.

Radical changes are difficult to make overnight but, unless the holes are filled, encouragement will simply flow out of the bottom. You can do two things with the stoppers.

- Stop seeing people who drain energy.

Why take such a drastic step? Energy is life. You need pure energy, rather than poisonous energy. This step may be difficult but, unless the holes are filled, encouragement will simply flow out of the bottom.

For example, two of the main reasons why people leave their jobs are: a) They are working for a manager who makes life difficult each day; b) They are doing work that no longer gives them a sense of fulfilment. So they begin searching for satisfying work with a manager whom they respect.

- Start making clear contracts with the people who both encourage and stop you.

Reward the positive. Give clear messages about the specific things you do like them doing. Explain how you would like to build on these parts of the relationship.

Give positive alternatives to the negative. Say: “In the future, is it possible for you to …” or “I would prefer it if you …”

Present suggestions, rather than label them as ‘bad’. Don’t expect people to respond immediately; everybody needs time to lick their wounds. Don’t argue or fall into the blame game.

What if the person refuses to respond? Then make the decision whether to stay or leave.

c) Be an encourager – a pot filler – for other people.

Encourage other people and they are more likely to support you. Give and give – but don’t become a victim. Do not stay around to have your pot drilled by people who choose to be miserable or ‘observer critics’.

Finally, when in doubt, ask yourself: “Is this activity giving me energy?” If not, switch to spending time with the people – and on the activities – that provide stimulation.

————————–

Virginia enabled many people to become ‘pot-fillers’ rather than ‘pot-drillers’ and, as a result, build more enriching relationships. Taking this step often involved respecting and encouraging differences.

This brings us to another principle she followed in her work.

* People can build healthy systems – families, teams and organisations – that enable people to grow.

She found that healthy families demonstrated certain characteristics. Let’s explore two of the main ones.

First, they shared common values.

Second, they respected and encouraged differences – obviously within certain parameters.

Sick families fought over their values and crushed differences.

Virginia here highlighted one of the key characteristics of healthy systems – be these marriages, families, teams or organisations. Such systems are based on common values. They only flourish, however, if on top of these they also encourage variety.

Managing differences can make or break
a relationship, family or other system

Virginia believed that the way people managed their differences determined whether their relationship flourished or died.

Here is an exercise that was inspired by her approach. Although it relates to couples, the principle of managing differences successfully has been applied to many other systems, such as teams and organisations.

Imagine you are working with a couple. You can invite them to go through the following steps.

Managing Differences Successfully
– an exercise for couples

Each person makes lists of the following things.

* Similarities: How my partner is similar to me.

This can cover every aspect of life. Such as values, attitudes, habits, behaviour, physical things, psychological things, philosophical things or whatever. So somebody might list the way their partner is similar to them by writing:

“They have two children – ours; they like walking in the countryside; they get angry about injustice; they like Italian food; they enjoy watching football; they enjoy having pets, etc.”

* Differences: How my partner is different from me.

This can also cover everything aspect of life. So somebody might list how their partner is different from them by writing:

“They are a morning person, while I am an evening person; they retreat into themselves, whilst I want to express my feelings; they have different standards of tidiness in the house; they drink quite a lot; they are a man, I am a woman, etc.”

* Similarities: How we can build on what we have in common.

Each partner then describes how they want to build on what they have in common. Providing these are ‘healthy similarities’ – things that benefit them both – it is good to build on this foundation. People may plan, for example, to share more adventures or projects in the future.

* Differences: How we can manage the differences.

This is the crunch part. Differences can make or break a relationship. They can add juiciness – or they can be a nightmare.

Each person is to take the following steps. Looking at how their partner is different from them, they are to highlight three areas:

a) The differences they want to encourage – because this makes the other person special.

b) The differences they are prepared to accept – because their partner probably won’t change certain habits. Bearing in mind the ‘whole package’ involved in living with their partner, they may be prepared to accept some of the differences.

c) The differences they would like their partner to change – and how. It is vital for them to give a positive alternative.

This final point is crucial. For example: Partner A may be upset because Partner B behaves in a certain way – such as suppressing their feelings, drinking lots of alcohol, fighting dirty during arguments or whatever.

Bearing this in mind, Partner A has several options. Each option has consequences.

* They can simply put up with the behaviour.

* They can harangue the other person, hoping they will change.

* They can give the other person a positive alternative – explaining how they would like them to behave in the future.

Let’s imagine Partner A give the alternative, but Partner B says: “I am not prepared to change.”

Then Partner A can ask themselves: “Am I prepared to stay in the relationship? Is it worth the whole package?” If so, fine. If not, then Partner A has a decision to make.

Virginia opened people’s eyes to the importance of managing differences successfully. This idea was picked up and used by many other people. Looking at my own work, for example, I apply it to building super teams.

Such teams are based on ‘similarity of spirit’ and ‘diversity of strengths’. (Diversity of spirit is a recipe for disaster.) Other people have applied such ideas to explore how to build healthy systems – whether these are families, teams or organisations. This was a life-giving principle that Virginia gave us through her work.

3) Practice.

So what has been the effect of Virginia Satir’s work? She has obviously encouraged many people – it is estimated around 30,000 people attended her workshops.

But her influence stretched much wider. Her books, such as Conjoint Family Therapy and Peoplemaking, reached a much huge audience.

Many educators and consultants embraced Virginia’s ideas – sometimes without ever knowing she had originated some of the concepts. She also helped to found the Avanta Network, the name of which was later changed to The Virginia Satir Global Network, which embraces the following principles.

Guiding Principles:

Built upon the foundation of Virginia Satir’s theory and practice, Virginia Satir Global Network's work begins from the following assumptions:

* Each of us can live in congruence with our unique selves and in harmony with others.

* The potential for growth and change is inherent.

* Positive evolution personally and globally is not only possible but also essential.

Virginia Satir Global Network

Virginia’s ideas continue to spread. John Banmen brought together many papers to provide an overview of her work and Sharon Loeschen wrote an excellent book called Systematic Training in the Skills of Virginia Satir. You can also learn more about Sharon’s work at:

www.enrichingskills.net

Contribution to the strengths approach

Virginia made many contributions to the strengths philosophy. For example:

* She encouraged people to be their true selves, mobilise their internal strengths – which may have come from overcoming difficulties – and express their essence as people.

* She enabled people to build enriching relationships in which individuals were encouraged to develop their uniqueness – their strengths and their ‘differentness’ – and continue to grow.

* She provided the inspiration for enabling people to build healthy systems – families, teams and organisations – that were based on ‘similarity of spirit’ and ‘diversity of strengths’.

Virginia said she wanted to be a ‘detective’ that helped to solve the puzzles within families. She was much more. She rightly earned her accolade as a pioneer of family therapy. Virginia helped thousands of people to discover new and enriching worlds.

Posted in Philosophers, The Strengths Blog | 8 Comments »

Tags: becoming more fully human, family therapy, Strengths, Virginia Satir

January 14th, 2009

Bernard Haldane’s work on strengths

Bernard and Jean Haldane

Bernard Haldane is recognised as one of the giants of the strengths philosophy – an approach he was already using in the 1940s. His legacy lives on through his thought leadership, his protégés and the continuing work with ‘Dependable Strengths’.

The following pages give a brief overview of Bernard’s approach, which was enriched and supported by his wife, Jean. You can discover more at the definitive site regarding his work:

http://www.dependablestrengths.org

1) Philosophy and Background.

Bernard was born in 1911, grew up in England and trained to be a doctor. He moved to New York in 1946, but found that his medical qualifications did not meet US standards. Choosing to go another route, he became an editor at the New York Journal of Commerce.

While the job market was being flooded by veterans returning from the war, it became apparent that organisations did not know how to employ people’s talents. Veterans were used to ‘war jobs’, many of which did not exist in the labour market. Fascinated by the field, Bernard did three things to help veterans:

* He asked them to recall their best achievements and, in the process, clarified what they enjoyed doing and what they did well;

* He clarified their individual strengths and transferable skills that would be useful to an organisation;

* He helped people to market and present their offering in a way that showed the benefits to a potential employer.

Bernard’s ‘inside-out’ out approach was extremely radical for the time. Most people who assisted job seekers adopted an ‘outside-in’ approach. Beginning from the ‘job box’, they tried to fit people into this definition.

Richard Knowdell, a highly respected figure in career development and a friend of Haldane, said that:

“Bernard believed that he could reveal ‘the excellence in each person’ by analysing the skills that individuals had used in performing past accomplishments.”

People then needed help in marketing their strengths and conducting interviews. Bernard was highly skilled at helping individuals, but this approach was highly labour intensive. Richard Knowdell explains how Haldane tackled this challenge.

* He asked the job seeker to enlist a small group of friends. The individual would relate past accomplishments and the group members would record the skills on a skills analysis checklist.

* He trained interested people to practice this approach with job seekers. Many went on to develop Bernard’s ideas. (See Richard Knowdell’s example of ‘sort cards’ in the next section.)

* He continued to expand his network of career counsellors. The demand became so great that he set-up Bernard Haldane Associates (BHA) in New York and Washington.

Bernard published Career Satisfaction and Success in 1974. Eight years earlier he had married Jean, who added her skills to enriching the strengths approach.

BHA grew in size, spread across America and he sold the company in the 70s. With it he sold the rights to use the name and the methodology to work with people in the commercial sector. The company bore his name, but he had no connection to it. Bernard and Jean then focused on the ‘not-for-profit sector’, continuing to do superb work into the 21st Century.

2) Principles.

Bernard developed many of the ideas that are now common practice in personal and professional development. Here are some of those principles.

* People can explore their strengths by recalling their good experiences.

Peter Drucker called Bernard a "pathfinder in finding human strength and making it productive."

Jean Haldane said that Bernard’s methods stayed the same throughout his life, even though he refined the methodology. He would “help people look at their experiences” and find “things you feel you do well, enjoy doing and are proud of.”

This approach was developed by many of his protégés. Richard Knowdell, for example, created a ‘card sort’ where people created a matrix that revealed their ‘motivated skills’. These were activities that:

a) They loved doing.

b) They did brilliantly.

He writes: “One of the major insights that I received from Bernard’s work on skill identification was that there were two dimensions of skills – competency (how good we are at the skill) … and motivation (how motivated we are to use the skill). The skills in the upper left of the matrix are ‘Motivated Skills’ that the client loves using and is highly proficient in using.

"These are skills the client would like to use even if she is not paid to do so. It is this concept and category of ‘Motivated Skills’ that is based upon the ideas and writings of Bernard Haldane.”

* People can clarify their dependable strengths and transferable skills by exploring these good experiences with other people.

The Center for Dependable Strengths is an organisation that applies Bernard’s approach. The Center’s mission is:

“to enhance individual potential through use of the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process with the widest variety of people and organizations – resulting in increased employability, self-esteem, teamwork, productivity, motivation, and greater career and life satisfaction.”

People often work in groups to make this happen. Here is an introduction to how it works in practice.

* People can be proactive and develop their skills for finding roles in which they can use their strengths.

Bernard did more than help people to find their strengths – he encouraged them to go out and find their perfect role. He also helped them to do what would now be called ‘networking’.

In an article titled Bernard Haldane Was Ahead Of His Time, Jerald Forster starts by giving some overall background, before explaining the ‘job magnet’ approach:

“In his 1960 book, How to Make a Habit of Success, Bernard Haldane made the case for focusing on successes rather than mistakes … He then described a series of activities wherein the person ‘mines the gold’ in his key achievements, searching for success factors.

"As early as 1962, Bernard wrote: ‘Seventy percent of all beginning jobs today are obtained through personal contacts with an employer or through friends.’”

One method Bernard taught was initially called the ‘Job Magnet’. This approach is quite common today, but then it was revolutionary.

The person wrote letters outlining how their strengths might benefit a potential employer. They then sent the letters to specific business leaders.

Contrary to the prevailing approach, they did not ask for a job. The person asked leaders to consider where such talents might benefit an organisation. If appropriate, leaders were asked if they might consider sending on the letter to other contacts. The letters acted like magnets and attracted potential employers.

Bernard also provided many other tools that people could use to widen their networks, perform well during interviews and find satisfying work.

3) Practice.

So what have been the effects of Bernard’s work? Perhaps one of his greatest legacies has been the number of people who have followed the trail he blazed.

Virtually all the grandees in the field of Career Development acknowledge the debt they owe to Bernard. Jerald Forster writes:

“Bernard Haldane deserves the title of ‘pioneer’ in the optimization of behavior and the application of positive psychology. Bernard started to articulate methods of optimization in the 1950s and he continued to develop these methods into the 1990s.

"However, it was not until the 1990s that the theories and rationales for positive psychology and optimization through wellness became key concepts in the literatures of psychology and counselling.”

The Centre for Dependable Strengths continues to apply his ideas in practice. You can view some of the results here:

Dependable Strengths Results

Contribution to the strengths approach

Bernard has made an enormous contribution to the strengths philosophy. For example:

* He pioneered thought leadership in the area of building on people’s strengths. This was at a time when most people thought that development called for continually focusing on weaknesses.

* He developed practical approaches to focusing on ‘the excellence in each person’ and enabling them to find their strengths and transferable skills.

* His influence has contributed to millions of people finding and enjoying satisfying work.

Jerald Forster says: “While the first part of Bernard’s career was almost totally focused on the goal of facilitating job and career satisfaction, the latter part had a broader focus on what might be called life satisfaction.”

Summarising Bernard’s later work, The Center for Dependable Strengths says:

“Through a culmination of experiences, and with the assistance of his wife, Dr. Jean Haldane, Dr. Haldane evolved the idea of marketing one's strengths and potential in everyday life with a focus on helping children and the poor build their self-esteem.

"This idea was the seed that blossomed into the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process, a process that has since spread worldwide.”

Peter Drucker, the renowned management writer, wrote the following in the Foreword to Career Satisfaction and Success.

“Bernie Haldane has, for twenty-five years or more, pioneered in finding human strength and in making it productive. Long before it became fashionable, Mr. Haldane realised that placing people is the most important help one can give them, whether they work in an organisation or for themselves. And understanding what one is good for and what one therefore should try to strengthen and develop is the key to self-development.

“But, from the beginning, Bernie Haldane has gone beyond philosophy, has been the practical guide, the helping hand, the pathfinder. This book distills his experience, his achievements, his knowledge and his wisdom. It is more than a ‘guide to the perplexed’ – it is a guide to achievement and self-fulfillment, especially in the modern organisation.”

You can find more information at:

http://www.dependablestrengths.org/

Posted in Philosophers, The Strengths Blog | No Comments »

Tags: Bernard Haldane

The StrengthsBlog

Read more ...

Linked in

What's new ...

Sylvia Ashton-Warner’s work on strengths

1)Philosophy and background.

Bringing learning to life

"Reaching out for a book must become an organic action."

Growing up

Teacher Training and Marriage

Sanctuaries and The Development of Her Teaching

Spinster

Teacher

The Return Home

2) Principles.

* Learning must be real.

"The learner learns what the learner wants to learn."

* Learning must be relevant.

* Learning must be rewarding.

3) Practice.

Contribution to the strengths approach

* She enabled children to ‘own’ their learning.

* She employed organic learning to help people read and write by building on their key vocabulary.

* She provided a practical model – through her work with Māoris – that made learning real, relevant and rewarding.

Links

Abraham Maslow’s work on strengths

1) Philosophy and Background.

The beginnings

Publishing his theories

The birth of humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology goes to work

——————–

2) Principles.

* People can grow in the right environment.

Reservations

* People can explore the further reaches of human nature.

* People can work well together to create synergy.

3) Practice.

Contribution to the strengths approach

* He pioneered the strategy of studying health – rather than sickness – and identified the principles people followed to become psychologically healthy.

* He showed that people are more likely to grow if they are provided with an encouraging environment in the family, school, work and society.

* He described how people could combine their strengths to produce synergy.

Carl Rogers’ work on strengths

1) Philosophy and Background.

* To be ‘congruent’: to be genuine and honest with the client;

* To show ‘empathy’: to understand and experience the world from the client’s point of view;

* To have ‘unconditional positive regard’: to show respect and accept the person as they are, rather than be judgemental.

Starting out

Going his own way

Rochester

Fame

2) Principles.

* People have an organic drive towards self-actualisation.

* People who pursue this drive successfully are more likely to become psychologically healthy. Those who don’t may experience ‘problems of living’.

* People can be helped to grow by participating in an encouraging relationship that enables them to pursue their drive towards actualisation.

And finally: “The facts are friendly.”

3) Practice.

Contribution to the strengths approach

* He showed how to create a ‘stimulating sanctuary’ – an encouraging relationship in which a person felt able to grow.

* He wrote inspiring books that spread the message about these ‘core conditions’ for growth.

* He encouraged people to believe in their individual uniqueness and also help others to fulfil their potential.

Virginia Satir’s work on strengths

1) Philosophy and Background.

Marriages and a family

Virginia’s pioneering work - some of her ideas and innovations

* The Leveller.

* The Placater.

* The Blamer.

* The Computer.

* The Distracter.

The books and workshops

Family sculpture

Virginia’s ongoing legacy

2) Principles.

* People can be true to themselves and grow.

* The first empathy.

* The second empathy.

* People can build enriching relationships that enable everybody to grow.

The Self Confidence Pot

Sanctuaries and The
Development of Her Teaching

Virginia’s pioneering work -
some of her ideas and innovations

Managing differences can make or break
a relationship, family or other system

Managing Differences Successfully
– an exercise for couples