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Welcome! This site is the primary source of information on an evolving conceptual framework for understanding human experience. Identity Renegotiation is a unique approach to counseling with individuals, couples, and families. IR concepts have been recognized for their transformative potential in workplaces, schools, and communities.
A Helping Approach for Postmodern Times
It is now over 100 years since professional counseling and psychotherapy were created. This “modern” field, designed for the urban middle class in Europe and the U.S., reflected dominant trends of that time:
- Economies were growing and the new "nuclear family" was highly valued.
- Marriage was considered mandatory.
- Divorce was not an option.
- People were universally assumed to be sexually repressed and frustrated.
- Individuals were considered to be self-directed.
- Individual problems were attributed to inner conflicts.
- Helping was defined as a process of uncovering repressed parts of the self.
In the present time, a period that has been called “postmodern,” conditions have changed. Electronic media and ease of travel have increased cross-fertilization among cultures. Many economies are shrinking. At the same time, the Euro-Western ideal of the separate “self,” dating back to classical Greece, has been challenged. An ancient image of a Relational Self--a person whose life is intertwined with others, who is responsible not only for self but for the social group--fits better with contemporary experiences of global interdependence.
In a world where difference is a constant—-difference of gender, race, culture, class, ability, age, sexual orientation—-understandings and skills for collaborating with others are the most basic needs. In counseling, education, and other human service fields, the concepts of Identity Renegotiation are intended to address these needs.
Goals of Identity Renegotiation Counseling
Identity Renegotiation offers a supportive framework for understanding people’s problems and a plan for organizing the helping process.
Identity Renegotiation Counseling (IRC) works by helping people to:
(1) Recognize the universal themes of complexity, continuity and change in human life;
(2) Value difference, seeing the strengths in conflicting viewpoints;
(3) Appreciate the universal human need for validation and support;
(4) Become sensitive to processes of influence, through which people coordinate thoughts, behavior, and feelings;
(5) Develop skills for collaborating to achieve mutually desired changes; and
(6) Renegotiate identities with loved ones, colleagues, co-workers, and larger communities where differences are observed and reinforced.
Structure of Identity Renegotiation Counseling
The goals of Identity Renegotiation Counseling can be addressed individually, in groups, and as couples and families.
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.
This Site
This site provides readings for clients and professionals; handouts and worksheets related to IRC; records of audio and visual presentations; and information on scheduling counseling, training, and supervision either face-to-face or online.
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