Introduction
The current emphasis on cultural diversity and culturally competent practice has evolved out of societal, political and professional efforts to ameliorate social injustice toward people of color, new immigrants, women, the disabled, gays and lesbians, and other groups who tend to be excluded from full participation in the production and distribution of society's goods and resources. In the area of human services, concerns about how to effectively provide health, mental health, and general social services to culturally diverse groups in light of scarce resources has presented a major challenge to all helping professionals. The professional and ethical aspects of the mandate to develop competence in working with diverse populations is made more difficult because of the changing national demographics of new immigrants and the resurgence of violence and polarization between various racial and ethnic groups in American society.
In light of heightened racial tensions, as well as the inherent limitations of the ethnic sensitive model of training for cultural competence, this article proposes a model of diversity training not previously considered in the literature on multiculturalism and cultural diversity. These authors propose an emphasis which combines conceptualizations from Social Work and Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP®) Therapy. Social Work's literature (Imbrogno, 1996; Newman, 1996; Gould, 1995; Schiele, 1995; Proctor & Davis, 1994; McMahon & Allen-Meares, 1992) has increasingly drawn attention to the shortcomings of teaching cultural pluralism through the lens of western European values with its emphasis on dualism. Cultural dualism fosters a bifurcated thought process that places greater value on what one "knows" based on rational thinking, and tends to devalue intuition, emotions, and spirituality as valid sources of information. We offer an exercise which adapts "The Controlled Approach Exercise" (Pesso, 1988, pp.81-86) from Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor Therapy as a way to help practitioners understand the pitfalls of cultural dualism and to suggest use of the body as another dimension in one's preparation for work with clients of difference._
The Controlled Approach is an exercise in which two partners take turns controlling the approach of the other towards oneself in order to experience the body’s response to the other. While the mind may imagine the response it will have to the approach of another, the body will offer information to challenge and enlarge upon what one normally thinks. The Controlled Approach exercise provides clinicians with a vehicle to develop consciousness around the subtle information our bodies are constantly offering us if only we are tuned into that "frequency". This exercise is an experiential method that increases attention to how the body registers strong emotional reactions to stimuli (Pesso, 1988; Clarke, 1996). It is an essential part of the Psychomotor Therapy work of Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden Pesso, former dancers and choreographers, who in the early 1960s theorized that extraneous movement and variation in movement within a choreographed dance held emotional meaning. Through workshop discoveries and the development of specific exercises to control for variables (individual symbolic meaning and the source of stimuli) the Pessos found that individual movements held uniquely personal emotional meaning for each participant. Continued work with a focus on the body and its kinesthetic expressions led to the current PBSP® system of psychotherapy, wherein motoric responses of the body are attended to for information which the individual acts on, often unconsciously as encoded memory, constituting a unique symbol system by which each individual conducts him/herself behaviorally, affectively and cognitively in the world (Pesso, 1984, 1993). Through exercises developed by the Pessos, participants are given the opportunity to connect affect and cognition with their bodies in a way that is non-analytical and bypasses the defenses of intellectualization and rationalization.
The rationale guiding development of the cultural diversity training workshop in which the Controlled Approach Exercise is conducted evolved out of our experiences as both practitioners and educators. We have grappled with the schism referred to in the literature that makes a distinction between practitioners who intellectually appreciate a broad range of factors affecting their clients lives, yet question their ability to respond appropriately in the context of diversity. A particularly troublesome issue is the unconscious avoidance of the client of difference based on factors such as fears, ambivalence, or feelings of personal aversion (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1981).
To the extent that avoidance behavior is evident in the practitioners' work to engage with the client of difference, their behavior is consistent with Gaertner and Dovidio's (1981) definition of the well-intentioned racist. The well-intentioned racist is described as someone who genuinely professes egalitarianism, as well as the desire to ameliorate the consequences of racism and poverty. However, "Among the well-intentioned or aversive racist, there is a conflict between negative feelings toward Blacks or other minorities, which is not always conscious, and a conscience that seeks to disassociate these feelings from a non-prejudiced self-image. . . .It is avoidance of acting inappropriately that may lead the aversive to not consider more effective or appropriate alternatives once their primary motive is satisfied" (p. 254-255).
The Problem: Racism of the Well-Intentioned
Gaertner and Dovidio’s (1981) field experiments regarding the unconscious prejudicial attitudes and behaviors of well-intentioned individuals give us some general areas of focus for discovery of our own participation in subtle forms of prejudice when societal directives and norms are clear and when they are not (p.260). According to Gaertner and Dovidio's research findings, when societal rules were made clear through laws or mandates, liberal respondents manifested unconscious prejudicial attitudes by focusing on elements other than race. For example, liberals’ complaints regarding affirmative action focused on the lack of qualifications of persons of color. Likewise, liberals were able to "skirt" the issue of integration by focusing their attacks on bussing as an unacceptable means of achieving school desegregation (pp. 255-263).
When societal rules were not clear, liberals’ prejudicial behaviors and attitudes took the form of early disengagement from interracial interactions, and embedded beliefs. For example, to avoid emotional discomfort, aversives crossed the street when faced with a black individual claiming that he seemed unsavory. Liberals also harbored a sense of superiority in their belief that Whites were more ambitious and self motivated than Blacks (pp. 255-263).
The above examples illustrate the well-intentioned individual's need to protect his/her self-image on the one hand, and the way he/she expresses racism on the other. Gaertner and Dovidio posit that there may not be an actual quantitative difference between those who are aware of their prejudices and those who profess to be politically correct. The racism of the well-intentioned is only qualitatively different from those who are admittedly biased (p. 257). This is a staggering proposition for those of us who work diligently to be egalitarian, fair and effective in our clinical practices with clients who are different based on race, ethnicity or culture.
Many of the attitudes and defensive behaviors we have observed among student interns, practitioners, and at times in our own practice have made us acutely aware of the existence of aversive behavior among those within our own professional ranks who are well-intentioned, yet may find their clinical effectiveness undermined due to the unconscious projection of negative affect toward clients of difference.
Application of the Controlled Approach Exercise to the problem of racism of the well-intentioned practitioner represents an alternative method of self-discovery by providing an additional tool for practitioners to develop heightened self-awareness in their work with diverse client groups. By incorporating principles and techniques of Psychomotor Therapy, it is possible to tune into the information that can be learned from one's body reactions which can betray unconscious views that are counter-productive in the helping process. For example, in a recent workshop session, a participant shared a conversation she had with a professional colleague, a teacher in an inner city school in the mid-west. This white teacher recounted an interaction that she had with a six-year-old black girl whom the teacher had given a hug. The girl stated, " You are not like other white teachers". The teacher asked the girl, "Why?". The girl responded, "Because when they touch me, I can feel them shudder inside". This workshop participant was struck by the perceptiveness of a six-year-old child to pick up on the non-verbal expressions of her well-meaning teachers.
This example provides a point of departure for us to consider the merits of utilizing the Controlled Approach Exercise as a method of systematically preparing ourselves for work with clients who are different. Specifically, we wish to challenge practitioners to consider how they might be perceived by the child in the above example. Would they be like the teacher who hugs but shudders and is unaware of this tendency, or the teacher who hugs genuinely?
Adaptation of the Controlled Approach Exercise from Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP®) Therapy
As previously stated, the Controlled Approach exercise is an experiential method that increases attention to how the body registers strong emotional reactions to stimuli (Pesso, 1988; Clarke, 1996). The Controlled Approach exercise is one of several exercises developed by the Pessos to elicit responses that are uncensored by one’s defenses. In its’ original form, the exercise has been used with clients in a group setting to facilitate their awareness of internal kinesthetic responses to the incremental approaches of others. By tuning into information within the context of the exercise’s parameters, clients have the opportunity to experience that information in a new manner without the pressure of having to respond socially as family and work settings demand. Clients are given the time and space to be with "the truth" of their inner world and guidance in a manner that is different from the external orientation one experiences in everyday interactions. The Controlled Approach exercise controls variables to assure that one is working with one’s own projective system by giving the client control over the approach of the other, focusing on the client’s internal frame of reference without having to respond socially to the other nor be concerned with the partner’s response which typically will produce a "socially acceptable" accommodation in the client. The Controlled Approach helps participants to identify true responses (self), introjects and programmed responses, and assists clients in being able to track these states of consciousness through awareness of cognitions, bodily reactions and affective feeling states during the exercise.
Clinical psychologist and PBSP® trainer, Carl Clarke (1990), broadened the Controlled Approach exercise as developed by the Pessos by adding the element of enrolment of neutral, negative, and positive stimuli which involves the intentional use of projection. Clarke’s version of the exercise uses the enrolment of one’s partner on three different trial occasions as neutral, negative and positive stimuli, whereas the classic Controlled Approach exercise by the Pessos involves moving an individual toward oneself without the enrolment phase. Applied to diversity training, Clarke’s adaptation of the Controlled Approach exercise helps clinicians tune into specific affect and responses toward clients of difference because it is more difficult for them to deny their own projections when their partner has assumed a particular enrolment for the exercise.
The Controlled Approach exercise also introduces clinicians to the meaning of "kairos" time in the interface with clients of difference. "Kairos is a Greek (theological) word that is used to designate a special moment of time in which God visits his people to offer them a unique opportunity for. . .change and decisive action (Kairos Theologians, 1986, p. 33). Kairos time is a moment of opportunity demanding a response that one has to accept or decline (Brown, 1990, p. 2-3).
Pesso uses these conceptualizations in "kairos" or opportune time in PBSP® therapeutic and exercise work as the time when one experiences a ". . . certain suspension of interest in the chronological moment and {experiences} an increased capacity to respond to symbols, memories and emotions" (Pesso, 1975, p. 22). Similarly kairos time in daily living represents a crossroads moment where one has the choice to go with one’s old programming or to act from a place of his/her highest potential. In such a crossroads moment in everyday life, one can activate one’s "pilot" which in PBSP® refers to the ability to assess all of the conditions outside of oneself in the environment in a present moment reality-tested manner and coordinate this information with one’s own feelings, cognitions and bodily states (Pesso, 1995). Just as an airplane pilot would coordinate all of the information he/she is receiving from the control tower about the outer environment regarding weather and geography with the inner instrumentation that tells him/her how fast the vehicle is going and at what elevation before taking action, these authors are positing that the clinician must synthesize internal and external data before intervening. During "kairos" time in a clinical encounter, the therapist has the opportunity to be "piloted" rather than make an impulse response that may be driven by historical antecedents which can signal prejudicial attitudes or aversive behaviors. These kinds of transferences and introjects are seen as energies in PBSP® that need expression in an appropriate venue to ascertain their signal value to the therapist. It is optimal that these latent energies do not turn up in a session with a client of difference without first having been experienced and de-coded for their significance for the individual experiencing them. It is only when these impulses are understood in the context of their meaning that they are useful in the clinical encounter. Spending kairos time in the laboratory of diversity training with the Controlled Approach exercise thus enables participants to recognize the kairos moment clearly and succinctly when it occurs in the clinical encounter with a client of difference. The laboratory setting also helps clinicians to see that there is always a potential kairos moment in each therapeutic encounter and the therapist ultimately has the power to decide which direction or course the work with the client will take.
Roth (1990), psychiatrist and psychotherapist, also writes about the importance of having a laboratory setting for the purpose of developing ". . .one's own orienting countertransferential gyroscope". Having acquired an understanding of one's normal feeling state under stable and familiar conditions, it becomes possible to note when there is a "tilt" in reaction to a client. The ". . . tilt of the internal gyroscope" is a signal from the body that a particular process has been initiated in oneself (p.66). Because a portion of available feelings may lie outside of conscious awareness, the Controlled Approach exercise, which emphasizes attention to the body's various feeling states, can help practitioners begin to pinpoint areas where conscious intentions and unconscious attitudes/behaviors diverge. Armed with additional information about oneself in relation to countertransferential blindspots, a clinician is in a better position "to act" consciously and appropriately when working with clients of diverse backgrounds. The personal laboratory work identified by both Pesso and Roth is also similar to the preparation stage for healing described by Native American Medicine Men, folk healers and for those healers who embrace Eastern religious and spiritual practices (Mails, 1991; Clarke, 1996; Lewis, 1990; Lame Deer & Erdoes, 1972).
Practical Application of the Controlled Approach Exercise
To use the Controlled Approach exercise in diversity training, one must first approach the subject of possible resistance and rationalizations of participants to addressing areas of embedded prejudice. In a workshop setting, facilitators are encouraged to be creative and use their respective disciplines to help participants deal with the impasses they may encounter before embarking on the exercise. These authors have found the questions regarding race, ethnicity, and power outlined by Pinderhughes (1989), and the historical surround of a time line most helpful to lead into the Controlled Approach exercise. However, one might consider other kinds of experiential or sensitivity exercises that assist participants in readying themselves to begin the Controlled Approach exercise of tuning into body feelings and affective states.
To begin, ask participants to pair themselves in dyads, having them work with someone they do not know well if possible. This form of pairing will assist a clearer assignment of the meanings of neutral, negative and positive to partners in the dyad. With all three enrolments, we are referring to archetypes of neutral, negative and positive. In working with such archetypes, neutral generally connotes a person to which one does not attach strong associations either positively or negatively. The positive enrolment represents a person who would respond favorably towards oneself. Lastly, the negative enrolment involves a person who represents a threat. We recommend starting the process of enrolment with the neutral person first in order to establish a baseline from which to begin. The neutral person also helps participants explore to what degree it is possible for oneself to be neutral or to perceive another as neutral. The reactions that one experiences in the body will inform participants of the subtle personal meanings of neutral before working with the negative and positive enrolments.
One can work with whatever racial/ethnic/gender/gender preference demographics appear in the group, asking participants to chose a partner who is most dissimilar from themselves for an optimal experience. With a person of difference from oneself, one can substitute the neutral approach with the original Pesso exercise using no enrolment. In this case, the exercise below would proceed as follows: no enrolment, negative enrolment, positive enrolment. This gives the experiencer the opportunity to react to the placement and personal perception of one’s partner within the context of gender, race, ethnicity, and size differentials.
Have participants decide who will work first as experiencer and who as the stimulus person. This process of choosing may bring up some issues for people regarding resistance to the exercise which is designed to elicit information in oneself about embedded prejudice. Participants can be directed to watch subtle changes in both their consciousness and body's feeling states as they proceed with each step of the exercise. After participants have decided who will first be the experiencer and who will be the stimulus person, explain that the stimulus person is to remain as neutral as possible through all three enrolments. It is up to the experiencer to project his/her images onto the stimulus person, and not for the participant who is enrolled as the stimulus to decide what would look positive or negative. If, however, the experiencer has a need for the stimulus person to look more positive or negative, those directives can be given by the experiencer to the stimulus person. Some guidelines should be given to participants when in the role of the stimulus person as they will be having their own reactions to being in that role, but for the purposes of this exercise they are in service to the experiencing partner. They should be advised by the facilitator to register their own reactions in the role of stimulus person while remaining a consistent presence for the experiencer, and that they will have the opportunity to explore and share the richness of their experience in the stimulus role at the end of the exercise.
The exercise begins when the experiencer instructs the stimulus person to stand at a distance in front of him/her and asks the partner (stimulus person) to formally "enrollee". The enrolling partner simply says, "I enrollee as a neutral person". The experiencer takes a few moments to tune into (register internally) the impact of the neutral person who is standing at a specified distance from the experiencer. Inform participants to take all the time necessary with the enrolling statement to begin effectively for themselves. The experiencer might request to hear the enrolling statement again so as to focus awareness on specific body cues since the enrolling statement itself starts to trigger these body cues. The ability and readiness of the experiencer to respond to the enrolling statement of their partner facilitates entry into kairos time where the slightest shifts in consciousness, feelings and bodily senses can be registered in a meaningful way. In this vein, the incremental approach of the stimulus person toward the experiencer one physical step at a time is essential to the efficacy of the exercise. The incremental pacing allows the experiencer to assess subtle cues and stay with those cues by having the partner remain in each placement for as long as the experiencer needs. It is important to highlight to participants that each step of the approach has a stimulus value and power for the experiencer to explore. Stimulus partners can be instructed to back away and approach again so that experiencers can register any reduction and increases in sensations which assists them in sensitizing themselves to the bodily cues that they have not been aware of before and can find to be very informative (Clarke, 1996).
To summarize up to this point, after the enrolling statement with attendant time to the shift in awareness that it facilitates, the experiencer motions to the stimulus person to approach while controlling the rate of that approach with simple hand gestures to indicate approach, stop, and/or back up and re-approach. As the stimulus person moves, the experiencer takes the time referred to above to tune into bodily reactions, feeling states, affects and cognitions that flash across "the body/mind screen" (Pesso, 1984, p.3) as the partner comes closer. For example, the experiencer will need to observe whether the body is hot, cold, sweaty, trembling, tense or relaxed; as well as noting affective states.
After registering various body reactions to the stimulus person in front of the experiencer, the stimulus person is asked to slowly move to the left and right sides, behind, and finally lower than (stimulus person kneels) and higher than the experiencer (experiencer kneels). At each placement of the stimulus person, the experiencer is taking "kairos" time to tune into his/her own body's reactions. When the experiencer feels she/he has finished, this is indicated to the stimulus person who is instructed to derole by saying, "I derole as a neutral person, I'm Bob" (or whatever the real name may be).
The ritual of enrolment and derolement is crucial in establishing kairos time in preparation of the mind and body for work with a conscious projection. The process of enrolment and derolement also provides clear and safe communication boundaries for participants that establish when the exercise has begun and finished (Clarke, 1990).
Participants proceed as above for the negative enrolment and finally the positive enrolment. For those participants who may have trouble relating to a global archetype of a positive person, defining more precisely the type of positive person in terms of basic needs is an option that can be taken at the beginning of the exercise. The positive qualities of support, nurturance, protection, and validation are seen in PBSP® as basic needs to which clients will respond in their affective and bodily felt senses. This is similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, beginning with physical needs and moving into needs for psychological well-being in order for a person to be self actualized (Maddi, 1989, p.114). Before beginning the enrolment phase of the exercise, participants can consider the type of positive enrolment that feels most applicable to them (for example, a support person, a permission giving person, a validating person or a protective person, etc.). When it is their turn as experiencer, they can then enrollee their partner as the specific type of positive person they have identified. By taking the time to add this specificity regarding the positive enrolment, a range of reactions will be generated that lend themselves more specifically to enhancing the experiencer’s "pilot" referred to earlier in this paper. Pilot is enhanced by first being aware of the information from the body and then coordinating this inner information with the external conditions that are perceived in the moment. The awareness of one’s personal interpretation of "reality" is the power of the Controlled Approach exercise. Experiencers consistently report that while the partner’s true personal identity never changed, when the partner shifted from a negative to a positive enrolment they were perceived as having "changed". The experiencer has distinctly different reactions to the partner based on his/her projection onto that partner. This phenomenon of projection occurs unconsciously all the time as we encounter individuals in our interpersonal relations. In the exercise, we are utilizing a conscious and purposeful projection which is brought to the pilot’s awareness in the kairos experience of the participants. They have the opportunity in the exercise to learn about the kinds of energies in themselves that the body is calling their attention to that prepare them to then pay attention to those kinds of energies in other settings and situations (Clarke, 1996).
It is suggested that partners finish with the positive enrolment since reactions can be powerful. Finishing with a negative enrolment can leave participants, who may be in a three hour workshop format, without enough time for closure even though the ritual of derolement is observed. We have found that finishing with the positive person helps to facilitate appropriate closure for issues that may surface in the work with a negative stimulus person.
Following the first round of enrolments (neutral, negative and positive, with one person as experiencer and the other as the stimulus person), facilitators should allow at least ten minutes for pairs in the dyad to process their experiences. The experiencer should share his/her feelings or observations first, followed by the person in the role of stimulus person. Following this period of sharing, partners in the dyad switch roles.
When each partner in the dyad has had a turn, the larger group can be asked to come together to share their experiences of the exercise. Creating a safe environment, where participants' rights to confidentiality and respect are of primary importance is essential in conducting this kind of exercise. Workshop leaders should be able to model the exercise first so as to normalize the fact that very sensitive and perhaps painful feelings may be elicited around some of the discoveries participants will make in the session. Participants should be encouraged to draw parallels to various clinical encounters they have had with clients, as the therapists in our case examples are encouraged to do. In order to block any natural tendencies toward intellectualization, rationalization, denial and avoidance, participants are asked to speak from their own experience and not comment on or interpret the experiences of others except as such observations directly relate to one’s own experiences.
Clinical Examples
The following case examples point out different ways in which practicing the Controlled Approach exercise challenges and assists clinicians in confronting their own defenses of denial and avoidance in exploring issues of difference with clients and colleagues. Although initially uncomfortable with the feelings of confusion, hurt and anger that emerged, feedback from these practitioners supports the contentions of this paper that positive benefits can be derived from using this exercise as an additional tool in diversity training. In the second case example, it is important to note that this clinician (referred to as the Caucasian woman) had participated in a workshop with these authors a year ago. This case vignette reflects her feedback about the applicability of the Controlled Approach exercise at two points in time -- immediately following the workshop and the carry over in learning one year later.
Case Example #1
During a workshop session, a white therapist reported about leading psychodrama groups in which two black women patients participated in an inpatient hospital setting. The therapist’s participation in the Controlled Approach exercise, during the workshop format, helped her recognize deeper countertransferential feelings that she had towards the two women patients at the hospital. The therapist related the following clinical experiences to her discoveries in the Controlled Approach exercise. She recalled how her role as group leader was challenged when the second black woman, Elaine, joined the psychodrama group and came late to her first session. When it was pointed out by the therapist that no one would be admitted after missing ten minutes of a given session, Elaine became angry and stated, "I do not want to be in this group anyway".
Elaine was described by this clinician as physically large, missing some front teeth and very dark in color. The therapist acknowledged that the combination of Elaine's physical appearance and intimidating manner evoked feelings of fear and shaking in the legs, as well as feelings of aversion. She experienced shame due to her aversive feelings. Even so, the therapist responded to Elaine by reminding her of her right to choose whether she would participate in group or not, and of the importance of being on time for sessions in the future.
The therapist felt that she handled both the client's and her own feelings well, setting limits, yet being flexible by recognizing that this was Elaine's first group experience. Elaine continued to attend the psychodrama group, had a positive experience, and in time formed a positive transference to the therapist. Supervision provided the therapist a place to address her feelings toward the black women in the group. She was able to discuss initial feelings of aversion towards Elaine, her desire for all group members to experience her as helpful to them, and her discomfort with angry outbursts. The therapist did not believe that she ignored the issue of race.
However, when doing the Controlled Approach exercise during a cultural diversity training workshop, this therapist reported the following experiences. With her partner enrolled as a negative person, the therapist felt her legs begin to shake as the partner approached. This reaction enabled her to tune into particular feelings of fear that led to memories of being in elementary school in the 1960s when black children were first bussed to the school she attended. She had befriended two black girls, but became frightened one day when the two girls fought each
other on the playground. Although they never fought again, the therapist was left wondering if one of them would someday pick a fight with her. Her feelings of anxiety grew more intense after she and the two girls competed for the one remaining spot on the school team for "field day", which the therapist won, in effect, with the strength of her legs. By winning, the increased attention she received from the black boys, who were the two girls' neighborhood chums, contributed to her fear of a possible attack by the girls.
Through the Controlled Approach exercise at this workshop, the therapist became more aware of the meaning of the "shaking in her legs", and began to realize that her discomfort at the hospital with Elaine and the other black woman stemmed from her elementary school days and the perceived threat that she experienced with the two black girls. Her ambivalence of really liking the two girls, while simultaneously fearing them was similar to her feelings in the group wherein she consciously wished to be professionally appropriate and helpful, yet she was fearful of the potential threat that the two black women together (unconsciously) represented to her.
The Controlled Approach exercise framework within the context of diversity training also allowed this clinician to reflect on the tensions surrounding the bussing of black children into predominately white neighborhood schools in the 1960s. She recalled her efforts of trying to make friends with black children whom she only saw at school, the fact that no one helped to prepare either the black or white students in her school to deal with forced school integration, and the differential treatment of black students by one of the white teachers. Through the Controlled Approach exercise within the setting of diversity training, this therapist began to better understand the more personal meaning of the ambivalence she felt toward the two black women in her inpatient group. She was also able to reflect further on her own unresolved issues about race, her fears in growing up, and her trembling legs, which impacted her work with these women of color. The learning from this exercise provided useful information that this therapist reports she will now be able to apply in situations involving clients of difference.
Case Example #2
A Caucasian female creative arts therapist attended a half-day diversity training and embedded prejudice workshop co-led by the authors. This clinician provided the following feedback about the experience of the Controlled Approach exercise immediately after the workshop. At the time of the workshop, she worked with an African American woman as her partner who declined to be in the role of experiencer but agreed to take the role of the stimulus figure. (For the sake of clarity, and to highlight the experiences of the two women, we will refer to them from this point forward as the Caucasian woman and the African American woman.)
The Caucasian woman working as the experiencer felt more comfortable verbalizing her responses during the various enrolment phases and the African American woman indicated her comfort with her partner’s choice. (It should be noted that participants are encouraged to participate at their own level of comfort. However, certain guidelines should be maintained to preserve an environment in which the experiencer’s responses can flow in a spontaneous and uninterrupted manner which is key to facilitating the uncensored information that the body of the experiencer holds. In this case, the experiencer took some license with the exercise directions herself, yet the role of the stimulus person remained according to the original instructions with the African American woman’s responses held until the partners processed the experience following the exercise.)
The Caucasian woman had very strong responses to three of the placements. The first two occurred during the positive enrolments. With the African American woman behind her, the Caucasian woman reported feeling support as she connected with her perception of the African American woman’s suffering of oppression from the patriarchy. She verbalized that she felt support by the African American woman who was there for her to fall back on, to counsel her when she felt weakened. During a side placement of her partner within the positive enrollment, the Caucasian woman felt a survival "sister" kinship, identifying with the African American woman as having suffered hardships.
The most powerful effect came during the negative enrolment when the Caucasian woman felt uncomfortable and decided not to place the African American woman in the kneeling position in front of her. (It was in the following context that the Caucasian woman subsequently placed herself in the kneeling position in front of the African American woman.) She reported, "I recalled a recent experience at my job which occurred the day the O.J. Simpson verdict was delivered. On that day, I thought that batterers would now think they can kill any woman and get away with it. A hush descend among the European Americans. At the same time I heard cheering from African Americans. In that moment, I felt how truly divided we were as a staff along racial lines. My first reaction to the cheering was shock, as I knew at least one of the cheering women had been a victim of physical violence by an African American man. During the Controlled Approach exercise, my naiveté cleared as I reflected on a broader range of meanings that a white woman’s murder might have for African Americans." The Caucasian woman, therefore, decided not to work with the kneeling position of her partner in front of her, but to experiment with putting herself in the "lower" position. The Caucasian woman describes transferring hatred and anger onto her partner and voiced, "I feel like you’re thinking, ‘Just another white honky bitch. She thinks she’s better than I am. She wants all our men. Why doesn’t she stay with her own kind. If she doesn’t, she deserves just what Nicole got’ ".
When the exercise was over and these two participants processed their experiences in the exercise, the Caucasian woman reported that she felt devastated with what her partner shared. During the above negative enrolment, the African American woman, in fact, had the angry, hateful thoughts verbalized by the Caucasian woman. Even more devastating for the Caucasian woman was that instead of having at least a neutral response to the positive soliloquies, the African American woman responded, "Why is it that Miss_________ can’t do it for herself? You always need our help, you can’t even tie your own shoes without our help". After a moment of silence between them that the Caucasian woman described ". . . as if we were caught up in something over which we had no control", the African American woman asked, "When is this going to end?". In this experience, the Caucasian woman reported coming to a level of truth that she had not experienced previously. She describes ". . .a ripping away of any pretense that I could co-exist with this pain and suffering while pretending that I didn’t know about it". Throughout the remainder of the conference, these two participants took time to check in with one another. The Caucasian woman stated that instead of pulling them apart, the exercise, with its’ painfulness, facilitated increased authenticity in their ability to relate to each other.
A year later, as a follow up to having participated in the Controlled Approach exercise, the Caucasian woman reported long term benefits which she experienced as a positive difference in her ability to take risks and confront denial when issues of diversity arose. For example, she described a faculty seminar on cultural diversity in which she and colleagues were addressing ways to incorporate diversity content into the curriculum of their academic program. She states, "The European American staff outnumbered those of color, and the conversation was focusing around English, Scottish and Irish heritage". The Caucasian woman took her five minutes of individual time to say the following, "I’m going to take a bit of a risk here, but my stomach is really turning. We brought cultural diversity training into our curriculum not to explore our Euro-centric backgrounds but because of our inability to work with oppressed people. I don’t suggest that I know what I’m doing any better than you. I called up__________ (refers to her African American colleague sitting next to her), and told her that despite all the articles I am reading, I feel clueless".
Following this statement, the Caucasian woman reported that the newly hired black woman began to speak of internal struggles that she was experiencing about sharing diversity materials that might not be well received in the current political environment. This black woman felt unhappy about being in a situation in which she felt she had to choose between acting or not based on concerns about being liked by the other faculty members. Next a German man began to speak while looking at a Jewish co-worker, voicing his fears of others feelings about him in light of the Holocaust. After his statement, a lesbian faculty member spoke of her feelings. The Caucasian woman reported, "By the end of the meeting we were all in a very different place. Some of our denial and pretense had been cleared away. I know for a fact that I never would have confronted this group had I not participated in the Controlled Approach exercise and had I not had the opportunity to confront my own denial with the African American female with whom I worked".
Recommendations
The adaptation of the Controlled Approach exercise described in this article can be used by therapists credentialed in their respective disciplines just as they might use an empty chair technique from Gestalt or a doubling intervention from psychodrama. It is advised that clinicians first participate in the exercise themselves before attempting to guide participants in the Controlled Approach exercise. Whether attending a cultural diversity training using this method, or going through the steps indicated in the body of this paper with appropriate colleagues, one’s own experiential understanding of the exercise within the context of diversity is key to being able to present and model it effectively.
These authors wish to point out the absolute importance of allowing adequate time in order to guide participants through the various phases of the exercise and to create a safe environment in which participants can process the full range of reactions and feelings that might emerge. An example of the need for time was clearly evident in case example number two in which the Caucasian woman was proactive in taking risks and processing the feedback from the African American participant, that may have been interpreted by some as negative. Clearly, the Caucasian woman confronted the kairos moment within the context of the exercise work in which she chose to work with the feelings evoked within herself to arrive at another level of understanding relating to the deep scars and schisms between people based on racial difference. It is therefore suggested, when conducting a workshop where several dyads are working, to allow a minimum of two-and-a-half to three hours of laboratory time.
Some specific considerations regarding utilization of the Controlled Approach exercise within the context of diversity training by therapists specializing in the respective disciplines of PBSP® therapy, creative arts therapies and verbal therapies follow below.
For PBSP® therapists we suggest the use of this adaptation of the Pessos’ exercise as it has not been previously presented in the literature as a tool for diversity training. We encourage PBSP® therapists, supervisors and trainers to include this as an element in their training settings and with clients, when appropriate, to broaden PBSP®’s applications.
Creative arts therapists might consider following the use of the Controlled Approach exercise with exercises, techniques or enactments from their own disciplines. Because PBSP® uses role in a different manner than drama therapy and psychodrama, which is beyond the scope of this paper, the body’s responses can be tapped during the Controlled Approach exercise to key drama therapists into what "roles" may be present in various responses to the stimulus figure. When the Controlled Approach exercise is concluded, an exploration of those roles through the various methods of drama therapy might be explored. Participants could note when the impulses they contacted during the Controlled Approach exercise surface again in the dramatization and what particular meanings become clearer to them due to further exploration. Likewise, music, art and dance therapists might utilize the discoveries of the Controlled Approach exercise as a point of departure for sessions employing their usual means of exploration once the areas of reactivity have been identified in relation to cultural difference.
For verbally oriented therapists, the Controlled Approach exercise offers a manageable way to access information that can be processed verbally according to one’s theoretical orientation adding the experience of the wisdom of the body to the current therapy process. The clearly defined steps outlined earlier in this paper can be utilized in a group setting with clients or with colleagues in peer supervision.
Summary
The primary objective of the Controlled Approach exercise is to discover the nature of one's own body response pattern to neutral, negative, and positive stimuli (Pesso, 1988; Clarke 1990). The objective of our workshop is to heighten participant awareness about body cues that may signal possible countertransferential reactions to clients of difference, despite clinicians efforts to be politically correct or objective in their work. In the laboratory setting of the workshop, practitioners begin to develop a tool for monitoring and utilizing information from the body (not just the mind) to track the countertransferential stream for minimization of the possibility of acting out surreptitiously with a client of difference. We invite clinicians to try the Controlled Approach exercise and would be receptive to hearing your findings when using this exercise. This is a work in progress and while these authors propose this model, we are still gathering data to assess the efficacy of our approach.
PBSP® is a form of psychotherapy in which one can become certified and then move on to levels of supervision and training. Readers who are interested in more detail regarding PBSP® therapy can contact The Psychomotor Institute_ for information regarding trainings and available literature.
References
Brown, R. Mc. (1990). Kairos, Three Prophetic Challenges to the Church. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Clarke, C. (1990). PBSP® Personal Growth Weekend, January 19-21; Montclair, NJ. Atlanta, GA: Telles Institute.
Clarke, C. (1996). Inner Guidance Training; January 8, February 5, April 28, September 13; Ledgewood, NJ. Atlanta, GA: Telles Institute.
Gaertner, S. & Dovidio, J. (1981). Racism Among the Well-Intentioned. In Manuals of Readings
(1991-1993) Ethnocultural Issues in Social Work Practice, New York University School of Social Work. Needham Heights, MA: Ginn Press.
Gould, K. (1995).The Misconstruing of Multiculturalism: The Stanford Debate and Social Work.
Social Work. Vol. 40, no. 2, pp.198-205.
Imbrogno, S. (1996). A Syncretic Construct to a Multicultural Program. Journal of Multicultural Social Work. Vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 21-34.
Kairos Theologians (1987). The Kairos Document, Challenge to the Church. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Lame Deer, J. & Erodes, R. (1972). Lame Deer Seeker of Visions. New York: Washington
Square Press.
Lewis,T. (1990). The Medicine Men. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press.
Maddi, S. (1989). Personality Theories, A Comparative Analysis. (5th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Mails,T. E. (1991). Fools Crow Wisdom and Power. Tulsa: Council Oak Books.
McMahon, A. & Allen-Meares, P. (1992). Is Social Work Racist? A content analysis of recent literature. Social Work. Vol. 37, no. 6, pp.533-539.
Newman, F. & Goldberg, P. (1996). Performance of a Lifetime. New York: Castillo
International, Inc.
Pesso, A. (1975) About Psychomotor Therapy. Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy, A Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapies. Vol. II no. 1, pp. 21-23.
Pesso, A. (1984). Touch and Action, The Use of the Body in Psychotherapy. Sixth World Congress of Psychomotoricity, The Hague, Holland.
Pesso, A. (1988). Movement in Psychotherapy. Atlanta, GA: Telles Institute.
Pesso, A. (1993). New Jersey PBSP® Training Group. October 8; Paramus, NJ.
Pesso, A. (1995) "Crossroads/Group process & dynamics in Psychomotor Philosophical Parameters for Taking Psychomotor into the World", audio tape, #1/18/NJ95/TR. Atlanta, GA: Telles Institute.
Pinderhughes, E.B. (1989). Understanding Race, Ethnicity, and Power: The Key to Efficacy in Clinical Practice. New York: The Free Press.
Proctor, E. K. & Davis, L. E. (1994). The challenge of racial difference: skills for clinical practice. Social Work . Vol. 39, no. 3, pp.314-321.
Roth, S. (1990). Psychotherapy: The Art of Wooing Nature. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc.
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_ Consultant, Carl Clarke, Ph.D.
_ The Psychomotor Institute, Strolling Woods Farm, Lake Shore Drive, Franklin, NH, 03235.
2-cassette Audio book Set with 18 page Pet Loss Resource Booklet
YokoSpirit Publications
1999 Audie Awards Winner - Best New Publisher Category
email: petlossaudio@worldnet.att.net -- Website: www.petlossaudio.com
Deborah Antinori Loss – Audiotape2-cassette Audio book Set with 18 page Pet Loss Resource Booklet
YokoSpirit Publications
1999 Audie Awards Winner - Best New Publisher Category
email: petlossaudio@worldnet.att.net -- Website: www.petlossaudio.com
Deborah Antinori, MA, RDT, NCC, NBCCH
Registered Drama Therapist - National Certified Counselor
National Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist - EMDR Trained (Level II)
Davison Counseling Center, 97 Lyons Place, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
Phone: (908) 766-0110 -- Fax: (908) 766-2451
For Immediate Release
May 6, 1999
YokoSpirit Publications is named
1999 Audie Award Winner for Best New Publisher
Deborah Antinori’s audio book set
Journey Through Pet Loss cited for the award
YokoSpirit Publications, a company dedicated to the importance of the human-animal bond, was awarded the 1999 Audie by the Audio Publishers Association for Best New Publisher. The annual Audie Awards ceremony sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association was held on Friday, April 30, 1999 at the Regal Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Other winners included Christopher Reeve in two categories for Still Me.
Journey Through Pet Loss by author/publisher Deborah Antinori, was the audio book set judged by the awards committee. Antinori has been speaking nationally on talk radio and at conferences, as well as appearing on cable television and at local book signing events and lectures. Her blend of personal experiences as a pet owner and professional suggestions as a counselor lend support, education and compassionate understanding to listeners. A former actress, Antinori does her own voice-over work on the 3 ½ hour audio book which includes original poetry set to highlight the phases of grief and is set to the music of San Francisco composer, Marcos Estebez.
56 million households have pets whom they consider to be a special member of the family. When this precious companion animal dies, pet owners experience pain, isolation and even shame in our "grief-phobic" society. Pet loss will oftentimes open up memories of other losses, making animal bereavement an opportunity to resolve unfinished grieving. Special issues of dealing with children, concerns of the elderly, burial and cremation, the importance of reminiscence, grief phases and tasks, memorializing a pet and more is covered in Antinori’s audio book and in her speaking appearances.
Contact: Deborah Antinori
(908) 766-0110
