Learner therapist (7) …Listening for talent
Torrey Orton
April 29, 2011
This is only a taster for a longer trip. Hopefully there's enough indications of the trip purpose and process to warm others up for a later journey.
Not everyone speaks well. They have to struggle for words or thoughts. Things just seem to come to others. Here's one words don't come to in his first session:
By 40 minutes into it I didn't think that we had anything to work on. He was a litany of falteringly expressed sadness, aimlessness and hopelessness, presented almost as if they were a state, not a need. There was nothing for me to hold – that was his state, until I heard his language. I was listening for the strength (agency) which brought him into therapy. For someone claiming no discernible talent his presentation was peppered lightly with very particular vocabulary – not at all that of the truck driver he claimed truly to be. I had noted the words as he rambled around his self-described misfit history, but not noticed them for the talent they exposed. I confirmed my notice by pointing out that he had such language and he both recoiled at the idea he had anything and brightened up with the notice in one move. It wasn't clear to me that he had verbal talent. He had capability, and so maybe talent not just training.
It has turned out that he has quite a verbal talent. Everyone has some talent, some quite a lot and some quite a few – the Renaissancers among us. They often, especially those showing up for therapy, do not know or trust their talent. It may have been a cause, or collateral effect, of the injuries which brought them to therapy. Sometimes they show up as a loss of talent, as here:
At a social event I met a lifelong male painter, now 63, who was visibly flat and poured it out smoothly. He had lost his painting muse or mojo or animus and so was wandering around for the first time in his life with nothing to do. For a talented person whose gift was clear and commanded what to do, every day was given by the gift. He literally had lost his way, his inner light which showed him the path. That light had shown brightly since early primary school when a teacher recognised it by saying, "You should be a painter."Now he was lightless for the first time. I saw him again a few weeks later and he was still befuddled by his self-abandonment (it must have been himself, he thought; no one else stole his light from him).all that of the truck driver he claimed to be.h ng to grab for me until I heard his language. For someone presenbting tent ho
Whether he was a good painter or not is irrelevant to the matter of his talent. That 'good' is for discussion another time under the heading of competences or capabilities. The world is full of possible painters, fishers, writers, fixers, fighters, builders…. Few are great, but many are satisfied if they know and live their talent(s). There's room for many levels of the many talents.
Finding ones talent(s) can be a grounding experience, providing for the first time in our lives a source of truth which is reliably ours. It is no guarantee that a way will be made for our talents to enter the world, but knowing that they come from within is heartening and self-defining. Basic life standards are self-sourced and the associated motivation is self-validating. Just exercising the talent(s) creates further motivation.
There may be many ways to bring the talent into the world, allowing exploration and exercise of it even under conditions of low potential success – where a person's existing life commitments to partners, children, parents, siblings prohibit a fulltime engagement with the emerging talent. Equally restricting may be the low wattage of the talent – visible, palpable but not powerful to be a life on its own, yet still providing inner based illumination. We all have a complete suite of the talents necessary for life, just differently arrayed and enabled. The array and enabling are congenital; their growth and enactment are circumstantial (the domain of nurture and effort).
What the range of talents is can be taken from one or another of the emerging systems of well-being, all of which depend on defining the domains, directions and intensities of action which create well-being. Getting the items and their mixes right is essential, since well-being is specific. I like the "Elements of well-being" because they were created by the authors in an effort to provide a new approach to treatment of sex offenders, a notoriously difficult group.
Elements of well-being (basic human needs) *From: The Treatment of Sex Offenders: Risk Management and Good Lives. Tony Ward, University of Melbourne, Claire A Stewart, Deakin University 1) Life (including healthy living and functioning) 2) Knowledge 3) Excellence in play and work (including mastery experiences) 4) Excellence in agency (i.e., autonomy and self-directedness) 5) Inner peace (i.e., freedom from emotional turmoil and stress) 6) Friendship (including intimate, romantic and family relationships) 7) Community 8) Spirituality (in the broad sense of finding meaning & purpose in life) 9) Happiness 10) Creativity |
And, by the way, if you want to think about what the generic therapeutic task is from a biopsychosocial (cultural) viewpoint – this is it: a multidimensional well-being one. Elaborating that perspective is a task for another day. Well-being constructs like that above are starters. They are also the basis for work on things like vocation (below), since the kinds of vocations there are must reflect the needs we strive to fulfil through work.
This set of archetypal vocations was built with Hamid Homayouni 5 years ago in the birthing phase of a 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' company which never grew up. However, many patients have found the constructs helpful for their efforts to build a picture of their vocational potential. The archetypes are described in ordinary language and everyday behaviours.
- Helper
Are you…compassionate, attentive to others' needs, a 'fixer'?
Do you like to…offer help, give suggestions, 'fix' things for others?
Are you good at… listening to others, putting your own thoughts in their terms, seeing how others really are, suggesting options for action…?
- Builder
Do you like to…complete a piece of work, have something to show for your efforts?
Are you good at…making things with your hands, planning steps of development, using tools?
- Protector
Do you like to…be in dangerous situations, test your strength against others, use weapons, wear uniforms?
Are you good at…containing conflicts, dealing with anger, checking threats, using your body as an instrument?
- Entertainer /artist
Do you like to…tell stories, draw pictures, make videos?
Are you good at…performing, working under public pressure, taking on different roles and styles?
- Maintainer
Do you like to…keep things in order, clean things, know how things work, take them apart to see how they tick?
Are you good at…keeping things running, making repairs, figuring out what's wrong with things?
- Believer / visionary
Do you like to… wonder about 'the meaning of life, engage others in questions of meaning?
Are you good at…seeing the larger picture, talking about 'the meaning of life'…?
- Thinker / investigator
Do you like to… get things clear, understand rather than act, find your way through confusion and unclarity, put the truth first …?
Are you good at…seeing patterns in things, making systematic pictures of things, making sense of puzzles / dilemmas ….?
- Creator / entrepreneur
Do you like to…be the first to do things, be recognised for innovation?
Are you good at…expressing, creating visual / musical works, starting up from nothing?
- Coordinator / leader
Do you like to…negotiate shared tasks and resources, talk to people about what they want / need?
Are you good at…keeping a group together around shared tasks?
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