In healing the mind and spirit, it is very tempting for even the most well-meaning, open minded and generous of practitioners to think, when we observe people not managing their day to day lives, doing things that are destructive to themselves, their families and society in general that we (the practitioners) know better.
Our assumption is that such people need help. Some people know that they need help and they are constantly asking for it. Others don’t think that they need help but their destructive behaviour is a (usually unconscious) cry for help. After all, if they knew what was good for them they wouldn’t end up addicts, homeless, committing crimes and going to prison.
So, however benign the process is, we must make decisions for them and instruct them what to do, because we know better. We have made it in the world. We have education, jobs, houses, cars, normal lifestyles etc. And, (most of us feel), we got to where we are now by doing, by and large, what we were (and are) told!
Yes, the method of teaching and learning, where academics design courses and then roll them out in a classroom type environment with the power of decision making as to content, pace etc. within the institution rather than the participants, (i.e. knowledge flowing from the practitioner to the passive recipient) is so common that it is very challenging to think that there could be another way.
But of course, if the one-way knowledge-flow paradigm of learning did work for everyone – no one would be in prison!
This website will argue that there is another way – and that way can be uncovered by genuine encounter and inclusion, where knowledge flow is truly two-way.
While this can be very challenging for the practitioner (as will be evident from the arguments and general discussions later on) it is exciting and invigorating for those willing to embrace it.