Friday, December 30, 2011

Healers Named Green(...)

I've been researching healers for Healers and Feelings.  My strategy is to print out a web page for people who are involved in the helping professions and/or who are doing research in this area.  It has helped me to sort out who is whom; there are a lot of us.  Here is a list of people whose last name is or starts with Green.  There are nearly fifty on the list, with links to information about them on the web.  There are some heavyweights.  Ross Greene and Joshua Greene are well known young researchers/practitioners.  Joanne Greenberg wrote a classic in the field.  Stanley Greenspan and Ralph Greenson were well known, during their time.  There is an intuitive counselor (Beth Green), a person who uses about ten descriptors for herself (Faith Green), a heavy duty schizophrenia researcher (Michael Green), and someone heavy into Positive Psychology (Suzy Green).  A few more corners of the fields represented are rapid resolution therapy (Tim Green), someone who directed the Minuchin Center (David Greenan), an object relations guy (Jan Greenberg), an Educational Psychologist (Jeffrey Greene), somebody at the University of Miami (Daryl Greenfield), and a school counselor (Felicsha Green).  It turns out to be a pretty good representation of the work being done.  Are you eligible for the list, or do you know of anyone who is?  If so, let me know.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Counselors/Therapists/Life Coaches

I've been tweeting the web page of a "randomly" selected counselor/therapist/life coach most days. A (the?) reader of my tweets responded with the idea that there are important differences between these types of people. So there are.  Here are some observations about that.  I'm rounding up information about people like these to decide who to include in my book which will be called Healers and Feelings.  Not all of the people who are counselors or therapists or life coaches would like being called healers.  There are plenty of healers who are not in any of those categories.  There is the category of helpers (as in Helping Professions), but I suppose most everyone wants to be thought of as a helper.  When I started out, everyone knew what a therapist was, but "counselor" and particularly "life coach" were less well known terms.  What we used to mean by, "you need therapy" is almost always said as. "you need counseling", now.  The issue of the difference between psychologist, psychiatrist, and social worker is also relevant, but somewhat dated.  I'd say that one important difference is the position of a helper on the dimension that has medical point of view on one end and a more varied end that includes humanistic, behavioral, pastoral, and cognitive points of view.  Another important difference is the amount of training and experience that the helper has, ranging from little training and a month of experience to an advanced degree and fifty years of experience.  Maybe you are best off in the middle of that bell shaped curve.  Beyond that, finding an interaction that will move you towards your goals is a function of your ability to judge the person you are interacting with, and probably some good luck.