Know your purpose in life and how you make meaning.We help students understand their beliefs and values in terms of their Versions of Reality (VOR). Students need to reflect on their religious beliefs, their views regarding the nature of being human, and their political beliefs in terms of the role of the government and their social values. Craig Shealy is an expert in beliefs and values and he guides students regularly on deep conversations about what beliefs and values are, where they come from, how they are shaped, and how we respond when confronted with others who have very different beliefs and values (i.e., are we open or closed and defensive?). Understand your beliefs/values and worldview.We have also explored having students participate in a strength finder assessment, but have not done that. As part of their regular evaluation process, the student must narrate their experiences over the year and articulate both areas in which they have excelled and various “growth edges” where they want to improve. Understand your strengths and weaknesses.I often talk about the “Freudian Filter” and the Malan Triangle, which helps students see how impulses or images or feelings can trigger an anxiety signal and then activate a defense, often by shifting attention away from the image. Being aware of what makes you defensive and the kinds of defensive coping strategies you use is a key component. The defensive system gets activated when our identity is threatened or we are exposed to painful pieces of information about ourselves. Understand your defenses and how you handle criticism.Ken Critchfield is the co-director of our program and he helps folks understand their core attachment needs and how early patterns of attachment set the stage for current relating patterns. Attention to core motives and feeling states is crucial. But often we do not spend time deeply experiencing or observing these aspects of our mental process. We also have deep-seated feelings about ourselves and others and key events. Humans have intense social drives for things like intimacy and belonging and achievement and power. Understand your needs, motivations, and emotions.This involves the students creating a genogram and interviewing key players in the family drama (parents, siblings, grandparents) and writing it up in a detailed narrative, all to get a deeper understanding of the culture of the home in which they grew up and the way that impacted who they have become. Anne Stewart, our students complete a large family project in which they develop an autobiographical narrative of their place in their family. In a required family class, taught by core faculty member Dr. To know thyself one must understand one’s history, including the context in which one was raised and key life events or turning points. Know your family story and developmental history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |