> [!summary] Progressive Summary # Structured Notes ## Definitions ## Chapter Summaries ### Chapter 2 - Your Secret Power **Inner Questions:** > • Why do you think people come to you, or would come to you, as a therapist, coach, teacher, facilitator, helper, or whatever you identify as doing? What would they say? Or what have people already told you that they like about the way you work? > > • Imagine being your own client, student, etc. What would you like about yourself? Why would you come to see you ? Step over your shyness and say what is special or unique about yourself. > > • Now, imagine stepping outside of yourself. Imagine being the universe looking down at you and say what you see that is very individual and special about you. You, as the universe, will know. Trust your intuitions. ### Chapter 4 - The Importance of Following Your Unique Nature: A Brief Summary **Your secret power:** > Your most special qualities are often not quite known to you, even though you swim in them like the water surrounding a fish. So, your style is not something to learn, but something to remember. You continually grow into, forget, and then become aware of it again and again, throughout life. It is often others who can tell you about the special qualities of your style better than you can yourself. ### Chapter 6 - Learning Difficulties as Gifts > One of the reasons that people don’t learn something, even if they have tried many times and it would be reasonable that they could, is that there is a gift in the background that is blocking them from that learning. This gift wants to be known, and only when it is appreciated and used, will it open up to other ways of learning > For example, if you are someone who has a lot of inner visions and intuitions, you might have trouble seeing the outer signals of your clients at times, because your inner wisdom wants to be known, first. In other words, it might block your outer awareness, until you first go inside and follow your inner wisdom. > All of this follows a basic Process Work tenet: it is just in the disturbances or things that bother you in life that you can find the seeds of new information and resolutions! > Perhaps it would help to think of all of this in terms of another basic Process Work idea. That is, if you try three times to do or learn something and you are unable to do it, there is another pathway that is trying to reveal itself to you. > Each of us is in a perpetual negotiation with the outer world. The way we navigate the dance between our personal styles and outer educational and social structures is a constant and ongoing challenge. My hope is that we can deal with this tension in a more humane, fluid, and lifeaffirming way. > Focusing on the “flaws” that seem to get in our way is particularly important for those in the helping professions. It may be that it is just because of the most unusual part of you, or difficult experiences in life, that you were driven toward your chosen profession—that is, wanting to make the world a better place for others. C.G. Jung described this phenomenon as the “wounded healer.” He said the analyst is compelled to treat patients because she or he is wounded. This wound drives analysts to want to do something in the world, and at the same time, gives them the power to heal others. So, there is something dreadful about a wound, but it may also be the thing that gives you the resolve, passion, and feeling, to make a difference. > In a recent class, Arny spoke about the way in which our personal histories can bring great difficulties but also great powers, in the sense that just because of those difficulties, you know things that other don’t. And it is often those difficulties that make you want to help and contribute to our world to make it better for everyone. # Quotes