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Welcome! This site provides information on a new conceptual framework for understanding human experience. Identity Renegotiation Counseling is a unique new approach to helping individuals, couples, and families. IRC concepts also have applications in workplaces, schools, and communities.
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A Helping Approach for Postmodern Times
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It is now over 100 years since professional counseling and psychotherapy were created. This “modern” field was created to fit the needs of the urban middle class in Europe and the U.S.:
- Marriage was considered mandatory.
- Divorce was not an option.
- People were universally assumed to be sexually repressed and frustrated.
- Problems were attributed to inner conflicts.
- Helping was defined as a process of getting in touch with repressed parts of the self.
In the present time, a period that has been called “postmodern,” communication technologies and ease of travel have increased cross-fertilization among cultures. The European ideal of the separate “self,” dating back to classical Greece, has been challenged. The ancient image of a Relational Self —a person who exists through interactions with others--fits better with contemporary experiences of global interdependence.
In a world where difference is a constant—difference of gender, race, social class, sexual orientation—people need understandings and skills for getting along with others. Identity Renegotiation Counseling is designed to address this need.
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Goals of IRC
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Identity Renegotiation Counseling offers a way of understanding people’s problems and a plan for organizing the helping process.
IRC works by helping people to:
(1) Accept the complexities of continuity and change in human life;
(2) Value differences, seeing the strengths in conflicting viewpoints;
(3) Appreciate the universal human need for validation and support;
(4) Recognize the universal process of influence, through which people try to coordinate thoughts, behavior, and feelings;
(5) Develop skills for working with influence--collaborating to achieve mutually desired changes
(6) Renegotiate identities with loved ones, colleagues, co-workers, and larger communities where differences are observed and reinforced.
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Structure of IRC
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The goals of Identity Renegotiation Counseling can be addressed individually, in groups, and as couples and families
Whether they are seen one at a time or together, people can be helped in traditional face-to-face settings or through online connections
Text-based (chat, IM, and e-mail) technologies are especially helpful
Readings and homework exercises are often helpful for clients as they begin to change their ways of thinking and acting
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This Site
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You are invited to browse the site for readings directed at clients and fellow professionals; handouts and worksheets related to IRC; reading lists; and information on scheduling in-person and online counseling, training, and supervision.
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