FUNDAMENTALS OUTLINE #5

I. GETTING STARTED

1. Ask your area reference person, if you have one, how to get certified to teach. This usually involves:

Assisting a fundamentals class. Ask your ARP to help you find one.
When you've finished assisting a class, your ARP will give you the necessary papers to fill out for certification if you both think that you're ready to teach.

2. Set dates for three or four introductory lectures, and begin to recruit people for your class.

Have lots of intro lectures (see below for intro lecture outline). Make them at different times to that people are able to rearrange their schedules to come. These intro lectures are important for them, even if they don't end up joining a co-counseling class.
Set up lunch dates or individual meeting times if people can't come to intro lectures (especially with the people you really want to have in the class).
People will come because of you - because you tell them you want them there. Co-counseling is based on relationships, and so is recruiting.
Discharge on recruiting. Often our feelings of selling things to people, or religion or cults, or thinking people won't like us, get in the way of our being able to share this incredible tool with people in our lives.
Notice who you feel comfortable asking to be in your class. Everyone is a natural at co-counseling. If we can figure out how to communicate it well, anyone would love to be involved. Push yourself to talk about RC to people who are "different" than you.
Try talking about co-counseling differently to different people. Think about which aspects of co-counseling would be most interesting to each individual. If you think people would be more interested in oppression theory, or the discharge process, or support, talk about it that way.
Emphasize the leadership aspect, and put less emphasis on the clienting aspect. RC is not about "feeling better" but about becoming more your real self. Emphasize listening skills and liberation when you talk about RC. You want people to understand that RC is about world liberation.
Think about the composition of your class. Here are some questions you should ask yourself when considering which people should be in class: Can I think about this person? An I committed to leading her? Can he give good attention to someone else? What liberation constituencies do I want to involve? Will someone be isolated if she is the only one from a particular constituency? What patterns may dominate the class?

3. Choosing your assistant
When you are choosing your assistant, you need to think about who you can work well with, and who can think about you well. Who will be able to think about the people in the class well with you? For instance, if you're not a young person, and you're teaching a class with mostly young people in it, it would be a good idea to have a young person assist you. You may also want to consider who could use a hand from you in taking on leadership.

4. Outline for an Introductory Lecture

A. Opening
- Name and something that is going well in your life. (Often we focus on the struggles. It's important to notice good things.)
- What brought you here?

B. The good news
    - Vast, flexible intelligence
    - Zest for life
    - Natural relationships (mutual affection, communication, cooperation)
    - Inherent power (expectation that universe will be responding to our wishes).
    - Complete and absolute freedom of decision (we can decide anything).
    - We have a genius-sized capacity to think and create new responses to new situations.

C. The same old news
    If that's human nature, why do we:
    - Make repetitive mistakes?
    - Feel terrible?
    - Have miserable relationships?

D. So, what goes wrong? We get hurt.
    - Accident
    - Contagion
    - Witness
    - Oppression

E. Effects of hurtful experiences
    -Temporary inability to think
    - Mis-storage of new, incoming information
    - We are not as intelligent as before
    - We are now booby-trapped...a walking juke-box

F. The better news
    Recovery process: We are equipped with damage repair facilities. Our lost intelligence is recoverable! The process of discharge:
    - Laughing
    - Crying
    - Shaking
    - Anger
    - Yawning
    - Interested, non-repetitive talking

G. We intuitively seek concern and ATTENTION from others, even though we are continually disappointed.

H. How it works:
    - Taking turns
    - Giving attention (notice the human being beneath the feelings and patterned behavior).
    - Active listening (not giving advice).
    - Thoughtful, delighted attention.
    - LET'S TRY IT!

I. Mini-session

J. Go around
- What was it like to be client?
- What was it like to be counselor?

K. Goals of Re-evaluation Counseling:
    - Total awareness
    - Complete functioning
    - Being the real you!
    - Working to eliminate all forms of oppression
    - Create a society free of irrationality.

L. About class:
    - 16 weeks (every week plus one session a week outside of class)
    - Cost
    - Books
    - Schedule
    - No socializing policy
    - No drugs
    - Confidentiality

M. Go around
- Something you learned
- Something you're looking forward to.

5. Individual meetings with potential class members.
After two intro lectures and before the first class, you should meet with people individually. Make sure people understand:
    - No-socializing policy
    - No drugs or alcohol for 24 hours before the class. No caffeine for 4 hours before class or during class.
    - Weekly commitment to sessions.
    - You expect them to complete full 16 week course.
If after talking to them, your judgement is that you aren't going to be able to handle their particular distress patterns or that they are not going to be able to participate well in the class or counsel others, you don't have to have them in the class.

II. WORKING WITH YOUR ASSISTANT(S)
What you are teaching your assistants to be able to do with you is not just put out good counseling theory, but you are training them to think about the group as a whole, as well as re-emergence of the individual members of the group. Spend time before and after classes thinking with your assistants about each person. What is wonderful about the people in the class? What oppressions affect their lives? What would be some good ways to counsel each person? Your focus is assisting the assistants to become strong counselors for the class. Try to model for your assistants the process of discharging on what gets in the way of thinking well about people in the group. For example, if your racism is stopping you from being able to push a person of color in the class, model taking your distress on so that you can think better about him.

It is also important to tell your assistants regularly what they did well, ways that you noticed them getting in there with people.

Roles of Teacher and Assistant:

Teacher:

Communicate counseling theory and practice
Build close relationships with each participant
Model using counseling yourself
Help to move people along in their re-emergence
Help to move people into being active members of the wider co-counseling community
Put eliminating racism as a key goal of the international communities
Develop the leadership of assistant(s) teacher(s)
Be a resource and assist people to build effective counseling relationships with each other
Have sessions with people outside of class
Help people through discouragement that may come up and assist them to have perspective about any feelings that may attach to co-counseling
Introduce people to RC literature and model using counseling to help them tackle distresses that may get in their way of making full use of it

Assistant:

Could lead opening and closing circle and small groups
Practice teaching and leading
Have sessions with people outside of class
Build close relationships with each participant
Model using counseling
Support the teacher

III. READING LISTS

A. Reading list for teachers

You need to have a subscription to Present Time
Postulates of Co-Counseling
The Human Side of Human Beings
Fundamentals Manual
The Human Situation
Counseling on Early Sexual Memories
Guidelines for the RC Communities
The List (This is a great resource. You don't need to read the whole thing, but before teaching a class on a specific topic, you should look it up in The List.)
A New Kind of Communicator (a booklet for co-counseling teachers)
The Enjoyment of Leadership (a pamphlet)
Read articles on community membership and the gay policy

B. Reading List for Students:

The Human Side of Human Beings
Fundamentals Manual
Guidelines for the RC Communities
The Human Situation
Encourage them to subscribe to Present Time

IV. TEACHING THE CLASS

A. Each week sit down and think specifically about:

Where is the group at?
Where does each individual need to move?
What information or counseling will get them there?
What constituencies are represented?
What's in my way of getting close to and caring effectively for each person?
What piece of theory am I scared to talk about? What material won't I go near?
What piece of the literature does it make sense to point them toward?

B. Format (A possible format that has worked well. Remember to explain why you are doing each piece).

News and goods - or something to get people's attention focused on thinking positively. Often we forget that lots of good things happen even on our worst day.
Mini-session: to get a chance to work on the little upsets of the week that would get in the way of having good attention in the class.
Report back on counseling sessions.
Some pieces of new information and demonstrations. Demos explain a lot - why you counseled people in a certain way; what was the contradiction and why did you use it?
Discussion and questions: get people to say what they think. Draw them out if they say that they don't know.
Smaller discharge groups: to process information and see how it affects people.
Check-in about how people are doing reading the literature. Use counseling here to help with difficulties.
Closing circle: good-byes are important.
Save time at the end of class for people to get out calendars and set up sessions.

Topics for a sixteen (or so) week class (articles listed are references for the teacher):

Class #1:

Re-do intro lecture
Introduce discharge process
Ask them what they thought
Do intros. Give each person 5 to 10 minutes to tell his/her life story. Don't worry about discharge - explain it if it happens. After each person is done with the intro, ask 2 or 3 people to appreciate him/her.
Review the rules of confidentiality, no drugs and alcohol, and no socializing (Fundamentals Manual, p.35).
Suggest that people tell their life stories in their first sessions, focussing especially on their early lives

Class #2

Our whole lives we've been told not to discharge. Talk about:
    - Times you've seen discharge with different people
    - Get them to share times they've cried or shaken, etc.
    - Let them know that it works (Show the discharge chart)
Do demos with the 4 step technique:
0. Review the counselor's goal as seeing to it that the client re-emerges decisively. Remember that the client is inherently a person of great intelligence, value, decisiveness, and power as well as needing assistance with emergence from distess. And, in particular, notice and remember where this particular client is capable, treasurable, and already functioning, or close to functioning, elegantly and well.
1. Pay enough attention to the client to see clearly what the distresses are.
2. Think of all possible ways to contradict the distresses.
3. Contradict the distress sufficiently. The client will discharge. (Talk demos through).
Demonstrate hugs. Explain that people do not have to be touched if they don't want to be.
Articles to read:
    Re-emerging techniques (Fundamentals Manual, p.17).
    Clarifying and summarizing (The Longer View, pp. 7-25).
    Meaning of a contradiction (The Longer View,. pp. 85).

Class #3

Difference between the person and the distresses (Fundamentals Manual, p.44).
- Get people talking about what different distresses look like and about the real humans they see under them
- Talk about human nature - flexible intelligence
More on how to counsel (Fundamentals Manual, pp. 7-8).
Do a demo that you stop after two minutes of counseling, go around and ask each person:
1. What they think the distresses are
2. What they think the contradictions are
There is no right or wrong answer, but explain why some will work better. Ask the client what s/he thinks. Then continue. Stop and ask again.
Explain restimulation.
Reports on co-counseling sessions

Class #4

The source of human irrationality, humans harming humans, and oppression
    - How we get hurt; contagion, oppression, accident
    - The installation of distress recordings/patterns
    - Types of patterns: latent, intermittent, chronic
    - Person vs. pattern
    - How we deal with hurts
    - Discharge
    - Re-evaluation, re-emergence and recovery; reclaiming the real you and your ability to think
Reports on co-counseling sessions

Class #5

The counseling relationship. Picking a regular counselor (they should be having regular sessions by now)

What is possible - closeness, etc.
Work with people on feelings around picking a co-counselor, feelings about teams ("Will they want me?" or "I might get the nerd.")
Stress how important regular sessions are.
The "no socializing" policy
Consideration and caring: make and keep appointments, be thoughtful, cherish each other
Counseling reports and training your counselor
Articles:
"The Co-Counseling Relationship," (The Upward Trend, p.264)
"Who's in Charge of a Session?" (The Longer View, p. 39)
"What Counseling Consists Of," (Fundamentals Manual, p.1)

Class #6

How to counsel.

The 4 steps
Cherish the human and don't respect the patterns
Contradiction and persistence
The voice from outside the pattern - directions and contradictions
Who's in charge of the session
How to counsel people on fear
Commitments
Attention away from distress; The Understatement
Coached counseling - explain it and use it throughout

Reports on co-counseling sessions

Class #7

Closeness as a key contradiction

Article by Gwen Brown (Present Time No. 69, p. 25)

Reading RC literature

What have they liked about it? Where are they struggling?
Brief preview of oppression around learning, especially in school
Demonstration with someone who's struggling

Reports on co-counseling sessions

Class #8

Liberation, power, oppression and internalized oppression

Racism
Oppression of young people
Class oppression, "pseudo-power", attacks and confidence
"Mental health" oppression
Other key oppressions, particularly for the class you are teaching
No one would ever oppress without being hit with it first

Reports on co-counseling sessions

Class #9

Choosing and deciding

Recordings of the past distresses have no power of their own at all. They only have the appearance of power and influence to the extent that I slavishly submit to letting them use my power and my influence. (The Longer View, p.202).
We all have the freedom to choose whether or not to act on past distresses. It is understandable that we act on the distress. It feels real. As we discharge, the choice becomes more clear.
Not feeling bad about yourself
Articles:
- Commitments. The Longer View, p. 201
- The Longer View, pp. 81 & 89.