Is Visual Learning the Key to Therapeutic Confidence ?
The role of ' learning by absorption ' when gaining practical skills
" I forget what I was taught . I only remember what I have learnt ." Patrick White , Nobel Prize winning author
I looked on , transfixed . My tutor almost radiated gentle encouragement as his client , a solitary tear trailing mournfully down her face , described an aching memory from long ago that she just couldn ' t let go . My tutor wasn ' t just demonstrating therapy – he was helping change a life , right there and then . This wasn ' t some dry discourse , some ancient theory on how people are supposed to act . This was the beating heart of therapy . This was dynamic , red-blooded learning . And I loved it .
Little did I know that as I watched the woman ' s problem resolve before my eyes , I was absorbing a guiding principle that would stay with me for the rest of my career . But the mysterious wheels and cogs of life revolve . And fifteen years later , I ' m the tutor demonstrating therapy . After a recent session , a practising counsellor approached me and told me : " I need to learn like this , because my brain is an image processor , not a word processor ." Now , this concept wasn ' t new to me . Over the years I ' d heard many variations on that theme . But this struck me as a really neat way of describing the vital importance of actually seeing therapy done – the power of visual learning . She ' d perfectly put into words the principle I learned all those years ago . The principle I ' ve stood by ever since .