Ug. Well that wasn’t it either.

With cross country being over now I’m looking forward to having more time for my internship sites. With Contact especially, I need more time there to be able to meet with people. The evenings have started to feel a bit wearisome, in that I don’t like so often having some place to go. But at the same time, it is a season, and just like every season they eventually change.

For my presentation we are supposed to present on a theory. I like learning about the different counseling theories but question sometimes how practical they are when meeting in person. The point is to find something that lines up with your worldview. There were absolutely none that stood out to me as glowing, comprehensive, all-encompassing theories.

But over the summer I found one that I actually liked and made me excited. It’s called Relational-Cultural Theory and is based on the idea that individual happiness and well-being is tied to a person’s amount of involvement in growth-fostering relationships. It was developed by a woman who felt like the conventional ways of treating women were majorly missing the mark.

The theories developed by men of the day placed too much emphasis on the self (an exception to this is John Bowlby and his pioneering research studying mother-infant bonds). Carl Rogers’ person-centered therapy was great, however, for giving therapists the words for what fosters growth in others 1) empathy, 2) genuineness, and 3) unconditional positive regard.

That was the first one I loved.