Permaculture and Transformational Social Therapy

Hello Looby, welcome here!

Do you know the Transformational Social Therapy (TST)?
http://www.temple.edu/ideal/sss/IGD/LeadingDiverseGroups.html
(A french therapist going to Temple University in Philadelphia)

That is about collective intelligence to go from feeling powerless (thus blaming others!) to taking collective responsibility for the problem to be faced, by feeling sufficiently safe to say everything and dare go into non-violent conflict. It is a very permacultural approach, usually used when the situation is very bad and thought to be hopeless (including after war or violent suburbs).

Hi Xisca,
no I haven't come across Transformational Social Therapy before. From the weblink it looks to be a very interesting and valuable process. Have you got direct experience of it? - would love to hear an example of how it has worked.
thanks Looby

Yes I do.

It is not any more miracle than other techniques, but it has its specificity.
When you are in the specificity, it is great.

It was made for working in difficult French suburbs. You know, when even the postman do not want to deliver packets because of the danger.
Usually, people accept to try the process ONLY when they are in despair, and when they want to regain their own power.
Of course, it would work before that, but as long as we can manage, we prefer to do less efforts! Solving big problems is a big commitment.

It needs also that people cannot go away and HAVE TO go on living together though they do not want to.
Same in an enterprise, people HAVE TO work together.
After war life or racial issues are also a specificity for the TST.

Another specificity is that you must gather a group that will work on a specific topic, after a demand (by the commanditor who ask for the job), modified by the groups (the people in the conflict) and accepted by the commanditor, and accepted by the therapist, who helps to define it. This is very important, you have to agree on a goal that EVERYBODY want to reach. So, there is a first goal, so that people agree to work on something they believe can be done, though they think it is not possible BECAUSE of the others. When the first goal is reached, when people see a change can occur, then they might want to work on something else.

What I do not like is that I am now more aware of how our human relationship works, which make me feel more powerless in groups, because I do not know myself how to help. Actually, only the foundator is really efficiently working, and it is difficult to know if other people are efficient. Anyway, this type of work is too private to get the right to speak about it, which does not help to show the process.

When I was in it, the most difficult part was to get to REALLY understand how we can be responsible of something we are a victim of! And as long as you do not feel at least partly responsible, you cannot do anything -> powerless as long as "the others" do not do "something". Also, the beginning of the collective intelligence helps you to start, because you are in a process that makes you think that others will also do something.

So, it is great to solve problems that few people cannot deal with, and that a lot of people can deal with. You do not want to be first on the dance-floor? It makes people decide to go at the same time.

Another thing he was good at, was to make someone find out that he is NOT TOTALLY reacting to the actual situation, nor to the person he is in conflict with at the moment. The surprise was always to find out that the reaction was caused by a past event, usually from childhood. This type of insight is not part of his job in all groups, it depends on the context.

Oops, that was long... Hope I am readable...

If the subject interests, then I think I should tell about the link with permaculture.
Some author agree that the focus on self-sufficiency is too much emphasized, and that the goal is actually to relate to others.
And looks-alike usually meet easy!
But how can we "change the world" also with non permaculturist people? That would be in TST.

I absolutely love Paul's sentence
"making a better world through learning good things rather than being angry at bad guys"
That is also in TST.
More than learning, this would be doing.
More than doing, that would be doing with others.
Including those who do not want to!

That could also be this:
some people accuse the weather, drought, pests, deers...
and permaculture is "how responsible am I, and what can I do."
Ok, I have to sow earlier, later, give shade, put a fence, make HK etc.

Looby, do you deal with this in your book?
What can permies do when they are discouraged because it is too much (feel powerless), and especially when the reaction is to find all the reasons we are victims of? (of course I do not want to say that we are not victims at all! Sometimes yes we are, I mean to go further is the goal, in order to regain more power)

That could also be this:
I want to find a clean place to settle down, with good water and no conventional fields around me. And you go and find it.
That is part of permaculture to do this, but is it fully permaculture!?
I believe permaculture can also help, as TST, when you decide
"what can I do now and where I am now, without going away."

Whom of you permies cannot go away from your place?
(and think it is not the best place for a garden or edible forest!)

TST helped me, though I went away from France, to understand that I was going to find some unexpected bad sides anywhere, and thus, I chose my place very quickly. Some people change place all the time and "try", thinking that they have not yet found the right place and the right people, and that it will be better elsewhere, or with another partner. It can go on all life long.

Xisca Nicolas wrote:
"what can I do now and where I am now, without going away."

I think this is very important, because it causes us to take responsibility now, instead of putting it off for the magical day when we're "in the right place."

Yes, I am powerless because I am not in the right place with the right persons and so on....

I have found the French link with pages in English!
They will speak better than me...
http://www.institut-charlesrojzman.com/homepage_040.htm