Working With People New to RC
This past year I was one of two to three assistants in a fundamentals class and the only assistant in an ongoing class.
Because the teacher had to have surgery, I was given an opportunity to lead the fundamentals class in her absence. What I learned was that people in the beginning class could think just as well about each other as the more experienced people could.
Sometimes people new to Co-Counseling are scared and feel inadequate but aren't inadequate at all. Many times new Co-Counselors may be more in touch with basics than those who have done Co-Counseling for so long that they "forget" or get into counseling ruts.
Harvey Jackins' insistence on using fresh, new thinking is imperative. I've learned how easy it can become to keep using what worked in the past and get into a counseling or clienting rut. What feels comfortable sometimes seems more attractive than taking a risk to do things differently.
It's as gratifying to do a Co-Counseling session with a fundamentals student as it is to counsel with a more experienced Co-Counselor. I can see that teaching a fundamentals class can be rewarding in many ways-so much so that I have decided to teach a class in the fall of this year.
Marsha Branik
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, USA
excerpted from the September 1995 issue of Zest Quest,
the newsletter of the RC Community of Bucks-Mont. N.E. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA