One of my favorite reads this year was a book called Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman. He wrote it discussing two books concerning what the future would look like-one proposing over control by governmental bodies and another where people are so distracted there's no need for control. He wrote it around the time the television was first introduced and observed the impact it was having on the culture at large. This set up is getting away from me, but I just really loved the book. 

The much smaller point I'm intending to make is he had a chapter titled "Now This..." and described the nature of the news reporting something terrible and simply moving on to what was next-at times cheerful or entertaining news. He made some really interesting points at the impact of this type of presentation. This type of exposure left people feeling helpless to really take any kind of action in bad situations. Bad things happen. Ignore it. Move on. We have, unfortunately, taken this strategy in life and smaller day to day things. Life seems to just happen at us and we bear down and try to make the best of it. 

If this is you, what if you take some time to reflect on your year in these last few days of the year. Really reflect. What has worked? What hasn't worked? What do you value but don't put enough time into? What do you waste time on? What do you put time into out of habit, but it doesn't fit your life right now? Don't let life throw you around. Take the time to reflect, consider, and plan. See what happens.

Also, check out Amusing Ourselves to Death. It's really good.

In 1965, there was a case study done to look at the effectiveness in styles of therapy. Two incredibly influential clinicians had a session with a woman named Gloria and she provided feedback on her experiences. She reported one of them being far more helpful, but not really enjoying her conversation with him. He had a more direct analytical style and was certainly a more sharp personality. She reported her experience with the other clinician as not being very helpful, but liking him a lot more. This man was named Carl Rogers and his primary view of counseling is if you understand people well they can change on their own. Gloria left feeling understood by Carl, but just as lost as she was when she first met him. 

Carl was coming from the post modern philosophical era that began around the 1950s and is considered to have ended by the turn of the millennium, but still has a significant impact on our world and our thinking. Some key ideas of this era is a skepticism towards truth, or the idea of truth being relevant to the individual. The result of this is clinicians used to have helpful viewpoints and their education equipped them to help you see and change things about your life. But many clinicians have been influenced by this era of thinking. So they can see you drowning but think the way to help you is not help you understand you're drowning. Because if you don't feel like you're drowning, that could be harmful. Any guesses what the result of trusting a drowning person when they say they're fine?

At Fowler Family Therapy, we believe truth exists. We believe clinicians are trained and equipped to help people improve their lives. This is probably why we have a really high percentage of clients that 1) finish therapy faster than normal 2) report a significant reduction of symptoms if not complete removal of them and 3) other parts of their lives improving where they didn't expect therapy to have an influence. 

Post-modernism is stupid. It has a distorted view of love, wellness, and humanity. Expertise still exists and real help still exists. Contact us today for real help.