The Self-Connection Podcast: Episode six CONGRUENCE Part 1

On today's episode we explore Virginia Satir’s concept of congruence. Congruence is the harmony of the inside of the outside as well as the truthful expression of Self manifested with others and in one’s environment. It can be described as a state of wholeness, flowing energy and harmonious connection within, between and among. Congruence is a central teaching in Virginia Satir’s work and it highlights her emphasis on health, positive growth, and her overall life-affirming stance.

0:30 Meditation begins

7:21 The conversation begins. We first explore some of Virginia’s writings related to congruent living from her book “Peoplemaking” Sharon describes congruence as an energy space to be living and a place from which you manifest living as Virginia described.

Congruent living involves

Communicating clearly new line cooperating rather than competing

To empower rather than dominate

To enhance individual uniqueness rather than to categorize

use authority to God I've accomplished what it's it's rather than to force by line through the tyranny power

To love, value and respect themselves fully

To be personally and socially responsible

To use problems and challenges as opportunities for growth/creative solutions

11:30 We talk about wholeness and the free flow of energy as a way of thinking of congruence. Sharon describes her learning from Virginia Satir as she taught about congruence. “We are born whole and we are born holy” Virginia used to say “We are born with our holes open”

15:00 We talk about the free flow of energy as related to the transformation of rules. For example, having the freedom to see/hear, feel, say, ask and take risks.

18:00 You can’t always be open or free of the rule, but you develop a consciousness around the reactive survival patterns. Awareness creates the space and the energy to make new choices.

21:00 “There’s no cure, only evolution” Virginia had said. This was to say that we never lose our reactive patterns, but we evolve greater consciousness in relationship to those patterns.

22: 45: Tim makes the point that our Self, the ground of our being is always there, it’s a matter of whether we are there consciously. If we can have a healthy relationship between Self and the experience. To be connected to your Self and to look at your experience you are having and connecting your strength and wisdom is a way of describing congruent living.

25:45 Congruence is the alignment and harmony between the inside and outside (feelings/thoughts and behaviour). Congruence involves being connected to Self which includes deep yearnings and values/needs.

28:00 Congruence is the honouring and harmony of Self, others and context.

30:00 Congruent communication is speaking at two levels Role and Self. Where we are perceiving and upholding the Self-worth that underlies the role. There is always a connection and respect of the essence and dignity of the other person. Our words speak to the role, the function, and the tone, non-verbals, speak to the Self. Parenting without communication and honouring the Self is disconnected and unsustainable.

33:00 Our non-verbal communication gives messages about our attitude towards the other person and the relationship. For example, a tone of contempt communicates a sense of disrespect and also a lack of contained toxic emotions (anger).

34:50 Sharon talks about John Gottman’s concept of ‘bids for attention’. We can learn to recognize bids for attention/validation and how we can learn to better respond to them and increase intimacy and connection.

37:00 We need to be responsible for being connected to our Self-worth as separate from whether or not people are meeting our needs/bids. If we can learn to be connected to our Self, we are able to be resilient in the face of disappointment and hurt moments.

39:35 We talk about the importance of repair when bids are missed. We can learn and grow through the repair process. Tim shares the importance of people being in touch with their self-worth, the ground from which they can communicate, notice what they are feeling/needing. When we are too stuck in the rigidity of a role and specific function, we can become resentful and not be able to communicate congruently and to ask for what we want/need

42:00 Sharon shares about Virginia’s work with a couple and how challenging it was for the woman who tended to placate and ask for what she wanted. She wanted her husband to make the coffee in the morning and she broke the rule of asking and voicing her need. She had to step out of the role of being the ‘caretaker’ and that she had no right to ask for anything. This example illustrates the experience of the five freedoms: seeing/hearing, feeling free, saying what you want/need, and asking for it and the risking something.

The Self-Connection Podcast: Episode Five What is support? Part 3

Today we explore the kind of support that therapist provide and how that is different from personal relationships such as friends and family.  We also explore a unique exercise taught by Virginia Satir called “Do you mean?” that you can use within your close relationships to improve your listening skills and practice separating what is said from what is meant.

0:14 Meditation starts

5:17 The conversation begins.  We explore what do therapist do to prepare themselves for their work and Sharon shared that it is important that she does things outside of being a therapist that feeds her soul .  

7:00 We talk about the therapist’s maintaining a healthy boundary and respect for the others internal capacity for healing, their inner resources as a means of avoiding burnout.   

11:00 Sharon talks about her experience of connecting to her community through song as a way of grounding and healing and feeding her soul.  Allowing herself to be nurtured.

15:00 Sharon talks about Virginia’s metaphor of the candle representing the light that exists in each person.   We talk about support as being the genuine belief in the worth of another human being and the genuine look of awe that comes of that belief.   

18:15 We do the exercise of “Do you mean?” to demonstrate an activity which helps deepen ones understanding of the other by making the listener work hard to workout possible meanings. This facilitates a separation between what is said and what is meant and helps in building an individual ability to attune and validate another’s message.

We run through an example to demonstrate what the exercise looks like.

24:40  Sharon shares an activity called “With whom am I having the pleasure?” This is where you sit with a new person and allow yourself to look at the sense , explore memories, characteristics and explore feelings , stereotypes, reminders of someone else, third party information, thoughts and projections and to be aware of what comes up automatically without any direct experience. This exercise helped people separate reality from their perceptions/interpretations and also encouraged them to comment on these things openly.  

28:40 Sharon shares the longer the relationship the more intimate, the longer the database of projections are.

29:30 We explore the differences between support in a professional context compared to a personal one.  In personal role, people avoid getting stuck in a fixed and rigid role for example as caregiver, rescuer, scapegoat, victim, etc.

34:00 the development of supporting skills requires a constant negotiation of role, expectations, beliefs to ensure a mutual and health connection in personal relationship that remains distinct from a professional role.   

37:20 “The problem isn’t the problem; the problem is the coping with the problem” Virginia Satir. We engage in patterns of coping based on our negative experience. For example, we can cope with the situation with our reactive emotion of anger and behaving aggressively to try to get our needs met. The therapist offers a transcendent stance and energy of acceptance, compassion, growth, openness to cope with the problem.  

40:00  We can shift our identity from “I am depression” to “I am love” and begin to use the positive energy to be a container for holding the painful emotions/experiences.  When we are connected to someone in a supportive role, like a therapist, they facilitate that experience with us. Growth/healing/health is in the integration of rejected, toxic and pained parts of ourselves.

The Self Connection Podcast E4: What is Support ? (Part 2)

Today Sharon and Tim continue their conversation about “What is support”  They explore the nature of support particularly within an intimate relationship like marriage and the challenges that involves.  

Here is a note that Tim wrote in reflecting on their first conversation:

There are roles we go into when we are giving support or receiving it.

Whenever we are in the role of supporter or supported, we need clear expectations and boundaries to ensure the contact is safe, healthy and constructive.

There need to be certain parameters met by the one receiving the support that empowers them to receive supportive energy. The receiver is not just a passive recipient of support; mere passive reception of anything would disempower them.

Supporter and supported must engage in a dynamic dialogical process interweaving a sharing and turn-taking of giving and receiving of energy, attention, and goodwill.

While the supporter is clearly tasked with listening, attuning, validating, the supported must help the supporter, at various times, course correcting in their understanding by risking sharing something of themselves that corrects, adjusts, or shifts the narrative that is unfolding as it relates to the experience the supported is sharing.

The supported cannot remain absolutely distrustful of the person offering support and expect to receive anything. The best a supportive person can do is knock, and create a warm welcoming and hospitable context in themselves and in the space between with which to engage. There can be no forcing in the reception of support.

The best a supportive person can do is offer relief of unnecessary suffering. (Ex, the difference between anxiety and fear, or the belief “no one will ever love me” to “I didn’t receive the love I needed from my parents”.) The supported is left with moving through the realistic pain and tragedy of loss, grief, sadness, anguish that is there.  The supportive one offering a context of acceptance and compassion acts as a midwife for the transformation of painful experiences. These experiences give rise to new growth, insights, and personality transformations that the supported can begin to access and realize having been in a holding space, an interpersonal womb of sorts, that inspire reconnection to life in the face of despair.

Show notes:

0:47  When receiving support, it possible to experience resistance from receiving it for fear of taking up too much space or feeling shame about the challenges one is facing.  We talk about the legacies of barriers that get in the way of connection. These can be thought of as “family rules” like “always be strong and never show weakness” “Don’t show others your feelings”

1:50 We explore the question “How do we provide support with people in our family who we feel have hurt us or that we have hurt?”

3:15  Sharon talks about the analogy of hula-hoops and how this relates to how each individual is responsible for their own hula-hoop, their emotional pain. Sharon critics therapy models that focus on the importance of couples providing empathy for each other without the balance of self-support.   People can get stuck in their defences that they are not available to provide support. At least one individual in the couple needs to soften and transition from blame/defence to a more grounded state of congruence before support and connection can occur.

6:00 Sharon talks about the power of receiving support from the third party. The therapist with couples creates space to look and connect to deeper energies of compassion, empathy and patience.

7:25 We talk about congruence and how important it is in an intimate relationship to be able to say to your partner whether or not you are available to give support and why or why not. The challenge in intimate relationships is the necessity of simultaneously holding space for oneself while also holding some space for the other.

8:37 Sharon shares a story of self-support and her grandson demonstrating this. In his struggle with his cousin, he asked for “private time” to get grounded and settled before reconnecting.

Tim shares that the children also received the supportive, validating and attuned connection with Sharon which helped them navigate that situation. The supportive context provides a safe space for difficulties to come up openly and to be dealt with intelligently.

15:00 Sharon shares her wisdom that we can be more supportive if we can see underneath the reactivity (e.g., blaming stance) to the experience of pain the other is likely having.  “What’s the pain behind this defence?” that helps her move beyond the defensive mode and personalizing.

Sharon talks about some gender differences; namely, that women have a tendency to placate and men blame.

The challenge is...

For men, it’s helping them feel the sadness, scared, loss and hurt underneath the anger.

For women, it’s helping them feel their anger without going to blame and resentment.

The challenge is helping people communicate their experiences (feelings and thoughts) from a place of ownership, directness, specificity and clarity rather than of blame. Instead of “You make me feel.....”, to simply “I feel sad and angry because when I come home and the dishes are always piled up my expectations to receive help from you on this task isn’t being met.”  

17:00 Sharon talks about how distant our meaning can be from the words we use to express our feelings and needs.  She describes how important it is to ensure that your words communicate the depth of your experience rather than assuming that your words have made the message clear to your partner.  This empowers and places responsibility with the one needing support to be as clear as they can be instead of hoping that their partner can know and mindread without clarity of communication. The one providing support can be empowered by being able to ‘check out’ the message and asking questions to clarify.  “When you said X, did you mean Y?”, “Have I got this right?” The exploration and curiosity are all ways of expressing compassion, care and support.

18:24  Virginia helped people differentiate between what is said, that is the words and tone heard and seen and the meaning and the interpretations that are created by the receiver of the message and how words and tone don’t perfectly manifest the thoughts and feelings of the one initiating the message. When people function from their assumptions and interpretations, it is easy to lose connection and to fail to provide support because the two people are not working with a shared meaning.

20:15  Putting out energy of trust and goodwill (as opposed to making negative conclusions)  is an active choice that people in intimate relationships can make to transform the energy between them and to provide support in the face of difficulties including conflict. Tim describes this as “Wishing for the best in the other person.” That the best character possible that inside the potential of that person could come out.  Another way of describing it is how encouraging and motivating it can be when we have people who see us for who we really are and believe us.

21:30 Around the theme of support, it is important to clarify roles and expectations. Who is the supporter and who is the supported?  What does the one being supported really need? Can the supportive give this?

Post Show notes:

We don’t cause the emotional states of others. We cause the event which leads to the pain. We can be responsible for the event and demonstrate understanding and support to the feelings the other is having but we can not take responsibility for creating emotions in someone else because to do so would be to disempower the other and to overstep our boundaries.

We can own our reactions and response to things including our emotions, for hypothetical example, while fear may be a reasonable response to a person perpetrating abuse, I never want the perpetrator to own my emotional response in the present. I want to take that back and even though I can’t change my emotional response of the past, I can have empathy and understanding towards it now. I can acknowledge the wisdom of such a response...and now in the present moment, I can clarify when I want that fear response or not and make conscious choices about how I behave.

Support of the third party and The importance of community.

The importance of family, support from friends, siblings, work colleagues, and parents and grandparents. To help us step outside of ourselves.

We put so much emphasis on our partners to be the be all end all, that it’s just too much. We need to enrich and expand our social connections so it is a community of support. And we can benefit from the wisdom of a larger group.

Sharon describes the children playing in fantasy for 2 hours after this incident. Play is the energy you transition into from supportive context.  Play is the optimal state of learning. Support first which means a respectful, accepting, safe context, which Sharon helped facilitate.

21:30 Around the theme of support, it is important to clarify roles and expectations. Who is the supporter and who is the supported?  What does the one being supported really need? Can the supportive give this?

Supporter:

Being grounded

Listening

Being present

Holding the space

Supported

Responsible for asking

Responsible for giving feedback

To be their own choicemaker

The Self-Connection Podcast: Episode Three What is support?

Sharon and Tim explore a large and important question, “What is support?” In the context of family, couples, and in relationships generally. People seem to have a deep longing to be seen and understood. When this is missing a tremendous pain and sense of loss can occur. We also explore the theme of forgiveness in intimate relationships.

We will continue to explore this questions over a series of conversation. This is part 1.

Show notes:

0:00 we introduce the topic as a question, “What is support?” and we will try to answer it based our understanding and learnings from the universal wisdom from Virginia Satir

0:58 the meditation starts

3:49 Our conversation begins. Sharon shares Jean McClendon’s phrase, “Everything is better with support”  Sharon shares that being support is offering an energy of awe and acceptance.

6:41 We talk about “holding the space” and what this means.

-Being truly grounded so you can be there for the other person, and trusting that there is a healing possibility.

-People coming into a healing space are often terrified of being stuck in a negative experience.

9:42 offering support can be acting as a guide. Encouraging someone to move through an experiential landscape. To go someplace they have never been before.

Sometimes it can be scary for the sake of the pain that might be faced and the loss of what is familiar.

A supportive can normalize the journey that a person is going through when they are in pain.

11:43  We discuss Sue Johnson’s idea that one of the things people long for most is that someone could be there for them.

“There is a difference between the pain of blame and the pain of recognition “ Virginia said. People can get stuck int he pain of blame.

13:00 we talk about parenting. Sharon talks about acknowledging shoulds with clients as a way of helping them experience acknowledgement. She shares a case of someone stuck in the pain of blame and giving her a supportive space to grieve and feel the loss, before moving her to acceptance.  Often helping people own their expectations and letting go of a should of the past and accepting what happened can be healing and freeing. In other words, helping people orient themselves positive and constructively between the past, present and future is a way of being supportive. This movement needs to include understanding, empathy, and realism.

17:00 we talk about acknowledge as a step in the process of change in being supportive. Support is reflecting back that you are understanding and seeing what the other person is experiencing.  “You need to feel that someone else feels you” Sharon eloquently summarizes.

20:30 when we fixate on the should, we get caught up in toxic patterns of blame, contempt, stone walling (See Gottman’s 4 Horseman of the apocalypse)  In order to get out of stuck patterns, we need to be able to soften our shoulds and resentments. A supportive listener can help with this.

21:50 Sharon shares about the life of Alexander Wilson who had 4 marriages which were all a secret to each wife.  The wife through a process of forgivenss that includes first understanding which leads to compassion.

26:00 the importance of having a cohesive story for healing and health. Support is in helping people tell their stories and to make meaning of their experience.

27:30 Sharon shares her perspective that somethings are unforgiveable and that she never pressures people that they should forgive. Tim shares two levels of forgiveness with which he works with people. One is forgiveness for the individual and letting go and the second having to do with forgiving and healing and continuing a relationship.

The Self-Connection Podcast: Episode two

A fun and joyful conversation between Sharon and Tim as they continue exploring the richness of Virginia Satir’s work. We discuss the difference between Self-esteem and Self-connection.

0:00 We talk about what self-connection means and how this differs from self-esteem. We discuss what Satir meant by self-esteem. The Self is an energy that has intrinsic worth and this was the place that Virginia connected to and that helped healing and growth take place in individuals and families. Virginia would talk about ‘Wholeness’ and she would help people connect to that wholeness by letting go of feeling and thinking patterns that blocked connection.

4:37 Tim leads a self-connection meditation

9:12 We continue our conversation. We begin by reviewing Sharon’s personal experiences with Virginia’s work. Sharon talked about how powerful the experiences Satir facilitated that help her experience herself in new ways that changed her life. Sharon describes that for the first time she “had to look at herself in-depth” and the belief was that this inner work beyond conceptual knowledge was what made healing within and between possible.

Sharon shares that she continues to grow in her exploration of Virginia’s work.

12:00 We read an exerpt from Barbara Jo Brothers’ Book “Well Being Writ Large” which includes Virginia’s response to what she felt her main contribution to psychotherapy was. Virginia mentions hope (the ability to experience new possibilities), that a therapist needs to be a whole person, and humor/lightness.

13:30 Tim shares his appreciation for Virginia’s emphasis on being life-affirming and on focusing on growth. Virginia would reframe symptoms as part of life and help move and transform stuck experiences towards new possibilities.

15:46 Sharon emphases the challenge of transcending the stuck places of cognitions in order to connect with the worthiness of Self. The experiential parts of therapy are powerful because they help people come into contact with the life, the spirit, that resides inside of them.

17:30 Love as a verb and self-compassion can become shoulds. What could be healing and empowering is realizing our worthiness as a beginning and not trying to add to that to earn it or to become worthy.

20:40 Sharon talks about Virginia’s seed model and how seeds come with the essence of what the seed will become. Virginia worked with people with a sense of awe of that person and this connection at the level of Self and of worthiness creates the context of healing and growth.

23:00 “What is essential is invisible to the eye” Mr. Rogers talked and emphasized knowing and connecting to the core self.

24:00 Consciousness is the ability to become aware of self, other, context and then to begin to shape, influence and create your experience through the choices you can make. Virginia would often encourage becoming your own ‘choicemaker’ or ‘decisionmaker’.

25:30 When we are in touch with our Self, our life energy, our perceptual landscape expands. Sharon shares about how she was able to see the beautiful mountains that surrounded the training center on the last day of her training with Satir.

27:00 We discuss congruence as the free flow of energy/information within a person and between people and the environment.

27:37 Hope is the connection to positive emotions that we can shape things, face difficulties, and express what I am experiencing and we can learn together.

28:50 “Everyday is a choice to be open or rigid” Sharon shares. Tim shares the expression of that fluidity in his work with movement in our sedentary cultures.

29:45 The connection between Virginia’s work and attachment theory/research. The parent-child relationship becomes a mode of being with life and with the unknown.