Since co-counselling is founded on basic human abilities and potentials it is not surprising that both in principle and practice it overlaps with other forms of growth and therapy. Most of the principles and techniques which are typically co-counselling are eminently exportable. Thus working in pairs with the time shared equally can be applied both to other growth systems, and to educational settings for all sorts of learning purposes, as can Attention Switching and Celebration. Encouragement of Discharge can be done in any setting, though ingenuity may be needed when flouting the cultural norms. John Heron, using the label of 'cathartic interventions' has popularized this amongst helping professionals as a legitimate type of intervention.
What about importing techniques from other methods into co-counselling? We say fine, as long as they are operated within the basic co-counselling contract, and are not contradictory to co-counselling principles. The clear statements of principles and methods set out in co-counselling enable you to work out which principles and practices are contradictory. Indeed we have found that the clarity of the four main strategies, and of the conditions needed for encouraging Discharge, enables us to analyze the principles that other growth methods are working on, even when they themselves are unclear.
You may well like elements of other methods which are contradictory to co-counselling. Again we say fine, use them, but we suggest you keep them distinct from your co-counselling. This is said as a practical consideration; contradictory elements make any system weaker and less effective. If you however wish to assemble your personal eclectic system from elements of co-counselling and other systems, we wish you every success, but note that it will be misleading to describe this as co-counselling.
We ourselves have sampled many other growth methods over the time we have been doing co-counselling, often fruitfully for ourselves. We find the parallels and contradictions between co-counselling and other methods a fascinating topic. Here we would like to mention those issues which crop up repeatedly, particularly with beginning co-counsellors, and which we consider are contradictory to co-counselling to a greater or lesser extent.
- That going with your feelings is always good. This denies the existence of Patterned, inappropriate, feelings; and leads to techniques which are contradictory.
- Interpersonal confrontation: this is outside the co-co contract for pairs and groups during counselling time. Thus feelings about others present (positive or negative) are treated as material for counselling on, not for directly expressing. This does not apply to the whole of life and co-counselling communities need to decide on forms of interpersonal conflict resolution and about the sponsoring of social events.
- Offering or asking for interpretations: this is not a co-counselling technique. It can easily arise with people previously trained in an analytic tradition, as are many helping professionals. It can also arise in connection with celebration posters when people are used to art therapy approaches.
- Committing yourself to obey or depend on a guru of any kind conflicts with the co-counselling position of the client being in charge, and being encouraged to take charge of their own Distresses.
- Reflecting. Its most likely effect is to encourage talking about feelings. If skillfully used reflection may move people in the direction of Discharge, but much less effectively than the usual co-counselling techniques.
- Questions of the kind: "What are you feeling?" or "What are you doing with your hands/feet etc.?" These tend to put people into their heads, rather than directly moving towards discharging their feelings. Co-counselling techniques directly suggest actions to intensify feelings and move towards Discharge.
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