How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 279

The better that people come through each crisis, the better they will
tend to deal with what lies ahead, but this is not to say that all is lost
and never to be recovered if a person has had a negative experience
during any particular crisis stage. Lessons can be revisited successfully
when they recur, if we recognise and welcome them.
Everyone can change and grow, no matter what has gone before. And as
ever, understanding why we are like we are - gaining meaningful selfawareness - is always a useful and important step forward. Erikson's
theory, along with many other concepts featured on this website, helps
to enable this meaningful understanding and personal growth.
Erikson's psychosocial theory should be taught to everyone - especially
to school children, teachers and parents - it's certainly accessible
enough, and would greatly assist all people of all ages to understand the
connections between life experiences and human behaviour - and
particularly how grown-ups can help rather than hinder children's
development into rounded emotionally mature people.
Erikson was keen to improve the way children and young people are
taught and nurtured, and it would be appropriate for his ideas to be
more widely known and used in day-to-day life, beyond the clinical and
counselling professions.
Hopefully this page explains Erikson's psychosocial theory in
reasonable simple terms. I'm always open to suggestions of
improvements, especially for a challenging and potent area like this
one.
I recommend for more detail you see the wonderful materials created
by Professor George Boeree of the Shippensburg (Pennsylvania)
University Psychology Department, and specifically George Boeree's
Erikson theory explanation.
Or read any of Erikson's books - they are very accessible and rich in
ideas, and they do have a strong resonance with much of what we face
in modern life.
Sources:
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