How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | страница 112

1.6.2 Beyond Encouragement.

Validating Self-Worth and Character Through the Use
of “Directed Reflections”
Introduction
Encouragement is a basic element in our work as coachs and
therapists. Through the use of a new strategy, “directed
reflections,” we can go beyond encouragement, focusing on the
36 core components of character, and truly validate self-worth
and character. The results of this technique are profound and all
coachs/therapists can benefit from its application. In this article,
the strategy of directed reflections is defined and demonstrated.
Suggestions for use, such as in debriefing “homework” and in
character education, are offered.
Although Alfred Adler, the creator of Individual Psychology, did
not focus directly on character education, he did offer one of the
more important concepts to be found in the counseling
literature.
For Adler, the single criterion for “success” in life was embodied
in the extent to which the individual possesses “social interest.”
It is this concept that describes the ideal state of the individual’s
mental health or what we might term today as “character.” Adler
described social interest as being an aptitude or innate
potentiality for living cooperatively and contributing to the good
of others. However, according to Adler, social interest or
character had to be 6