Term One

Unit 1: Trusting the Dimensions of Change and Growth

What do we mean when we say that a person has ‘changed’ or ‘grown’? If what we are referring to is a genuine and lasting phenomenon, then we mean that the person has altered his or her functioning, for the better, across a number of significant human dimensions. This unit looks at some of these dimensions and seeks to elucidate the difference between healthy and unhealthy functioning in each.

Unit 2: The Role of Relationships in Change and Growth

All change and growth of any kind requires a ‘facilitative environment’ for that change to take place. Often the degree or extent of possible change is determined by the limits and resources of that environment. When we are talking about emotional and psychological change in a person, then the ‘facilitative environment’ is the network of that person’s inter-personal relationships, ranging from the most significant to the least. This unit will examine some of the more important features that characterise ‘facilitative’ and growth oriented relationships.

February 2, 9, 16, 23 March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29

Unit 3: The Importance of Insight in Change and Growth

In the past, the importance of ‘insight’ in provoking and promoting health oriented processes was probably overrated. In the present however, the value of ‘insight’ as a change and growth facilitator is frequently underrated. This unit takes a serious look at what is meant by ‘insight’ and the vital role that it can play in precipitating and sustaining change and growth.

Unit 4: The Process of Change and Growth – Deconstruction

Personal change and growth implies two simultaneous and overlapping but distinct phases. The first phase involves gradual ‘giving way’ or ‘letting go’ of an ‘old’, outmoded, unworkable, and/or destructive pattern of living and relating.

The second phase involves the gradual adoption of a ‘new’ and more productive mode of existing. In focusing on the first, the deconstruction phase of change and growth, this unit attempts to spell out recognisably significant steps in the ‘letting go’.

April 19, 26, May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 June 7, 14, 21, 28

Unit 5: The Process of Change and Growth – Reconstruction

In the second, the ‘reconstruction’ phase of change and growth, the emphasis is on the gradual building-up of new patterns of experiencing oneself, other people, and the world in which one lives. This gradual building up takes place around a ‘new’ nucleus of experience that has been identified as distinct from the ‘old’, and is in the process of being incorporated. This unit explores the emergence, identification, and introduction of that nucleus and the consequent accrual of ‘new’ modes of experiencing.

Unit 6: Resistance to Change and Growth

‘Every force generates a counterforce’ seems to be a maxim that remains true in many different fields of endeavour. It is certainly no less true when we come to talk of personal change and growth. The reasons ‘why’ are more unique and more human than in other fields, but the maxim’s validity still holds: ‘Every movement towards establishing a new pattern of living and relating generates a counter-movement towards the old’. This unit seeks to uncover and understand some of the more ‘unique’ and human’ reasons that lie behind the observable facts of ‘resistance’ to growth and change.

July 19, 26, August 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 September 6, 13, 20

Unit 7: Essential Shifts of Change and Growth

With all the backward and forward movements, at what point can we say that a person has ‘changed’ or ‘grown’? The answer can only be, when the ‘new’ pattern has become dominant over the ‘old’, outmoded, unworkable, and/or destructive pattern; even though that ‘older’ pattern may live on, with decreasing frequency and intensity, for a considerable time. This unit aims at contrasting numerous specific modes of operations characteristic of ‘old’ and ‘new’ patterns. With the aid of such ‘criteria’, personal appraisal of the relative strength of both patterns becomes more feasible.

Unit 8: Maintenance of Change and Growth

It would be nice to think that once a ‘new’ and more constructive pattern of living and relating had become dominant, the ’old’ would eventually disappear without trace. Such, however, is not the case. The humbling fact is that the potential for our ‘old’ pattern of unique and personal malfunction always remains with us. Thus, we all need to learn the art of constant but relaxed vigilance. This unit gives a few important tips on how to help avoid unnecessary detours into ‘old’ patterns, and how to more readily regain a temporarily lost foothold in the ‘new’.

October 11, 18, 25, November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, December 6

December 13 – End of year break-up party