Medical versus Educational Growth Models

What's the Difference Between Therapy and Personal Growth?                                                 -Frank DeDominicis/January 26, 2014

               Coaching isn't a substitute for counseling but both may augment each other.  Counseling provides coping skills. Coaching provides thriving, self-actualization skills.  For the right individual a combination of both approaches may work well.

               From the medical community first came the deficiency model of health illustrated by the discovery of the source of scurvy proving to be merely a vitamin C deficiency.  Many psychotherapists and psychiatrists tend to use the medical model of human health.  Therapy provides awareness and definition of core problems, or "deficiencies' and provides apropos coping skills, with the responsibility for change and growth resting on the practitioner, the helper, not the patient.

               The medical model of health acknowledges that for those repairing from losses, therapy or "talking" counseling may help the 'deficient' patient acquire coping skills.  However, the educational model is often preferred by those whose lifestyles are positively proactive and who tend to invest in lifelong learning and experiencing new things.  A recent mental health study reveals that a blend of medical (counseling) and educational (coaching) approaches is preferred by and works well for some individuals, but not for everybody.

               In the 70's the medical community spawned biofeedback, proof of self-regulation.  The physiological evidence served as a no-brainer metaphor for simultaneous and interdependent processes: the rewiring of neuronal pathways affected by self-regulation.  Significant frontal lobe rewired personality changes are observed in the adolescent brain as it deletes old, minimally used applications and reinforces new behaviors and their associated attitudes, especially during what Dr. Michael Bradley refers to in his book Yes! Your Teen is Crazy as "the four years of hell."

               "Epigenetics" is the buzzword for adjusting the brain's hard-wiring and consequential behavior patterns. Behavior and rewiring are simultaneously cause and effect of each other. Behavioral psychology studies show that significant, positive peak experiences can change us at depth, at a gut level that transforms core values.  Hence, I urge others to create guilt-free "eustressors" in their life, powerfully positive events, in part to offset negative events.  Biochemically five positive events are required to offset one negative event and balance one's amygdala chemistry.  The amygdala is like your computer processor which instructs your frontal lobe hard drive.

               Martial arts teaches that breath calms oneself, conserves and focuses energy.  The superior warrior is not upset but instead calmly executing an intentional strategy which relies upon forcing the opponent to respond to explosive and often extremely accurate acts of aggression, provoking and using the opponent's energy, as it were; ultimately forcing compliance.  

               It's no small wonder that personal change processes involve deep relaxation processes such as guided meditation, breathwork, yoga, mindfulness and other holistic modalities. Through self-regulation, a concept espoused by military theorist and general Sun Tzu in 440 BC, one can change oneself; i.e., can choose the best attitudes and enforced behaviors for responding to specific challenges for optimal results.  Sun Tzu cautioned soldiers to imprint into their memories the fact that "the difference between the defeated warrior and the victorious warrior is that the defeated warrior goes to battle and tries to win. The victorious warrior wins first, then goes to battle."

               United States Army Captain Timothy A. Boone at Fort Ord, California, a leadership development laboratory facilitator and organization consultant, has taught personal growth skills which equipped United States Navy Seal Team 6 to maintain mental calmness and focus while executing precarious, "surgical"  missions in Kenya and Iraq.  Personal growth processes and real transformation are aimed at self-actualization, not at relieving or resolving past issues and pain. 

               Remember too that human nature's six common fears and complaining are self-reinforcing (potentially, and not immediately obvious, locked into a vicious cycle of negative self-talk and low or no positive expectations).  Do you know anybody who lives down to the expectations of others or, even worse, down to their own bad expectations?

               The educational model of health is ancient and based on the premise that the locus of personal responsibility lies ultimately and totally with the individual for their own life, a position favored by Will Schutz and Fritz Perls.  The humanistic personal growth leader does not "do something" to the client but merely makes available generally accepted best practices and processes which guide individuals through experiential, affective learning experiences; and encourages interdisciplinary exploration and noncritical experimentation with one's values, attitudes and personal codes.

               Many psychotherapists employ the "personal strengths" focused wellness model of health as well as  personal growth facilitators.  So what really is the difference between psychotherapy and personal growth?  Remember, it lies within the definition of the locus of control and responsibility for change. Catherine Ponder,  in the closing chapter of her book The Dynamic Laws of Healing, suggests that the activator for positive healing is accepting one's sense of personal responsibility in the right spirit.

               *(FD&A services offered are not for everyone. If you seek treatment, call a therapist.  If transformation you desire, contact me for a private, confidential, personal needs assessment dialogue.)