The Importance Of Meaning Systems In Person's Life
Meaning systems are general views of the world that people may hold that are their ways of interpreting the events of life. Some people find that the meaning of life is to have a career, get married, and raise a family. For me that has not been then case. I think that I have found meaning from my life’s journey and the feelings that have come along with those experiences. Feelings play a key role in my meaning systems. When I reflect on the experiences I have had in my life, an emotion is the first thing I notice. If it was a bad experience than there is either sadness, anger, disappointment or regret. If it was a good experience than there is either a feeling of joy, accomplishment or love.
I know that a lot of my meaning systems came from my early life. I grew up in a family of alcoholics and addicts and this gave me many skewed meaning systems. Such as avoidance, denial, and dishonesty. Also, that being an addict was a norm. All the people I knew were addicts, my parents, my grandparents, my friends, and my colleagues. So, this environment gave me the sense that addiction was a normal way of life. It was not until I met others who did not have that meaning system as a world view that I saw that life could be different. I was able to change my life with help from counselors, therapists and 12-step friends. They helped me see that my norm meaning system was skewed and that there was a different way to live and think.
I have changed some of my meaning systems as I began to heal from my early childhood experiences. The meaning systems that I have now are intertwined with some I held onto from my past. Some of the meaning systems that have stayed consistent in my life are to be kind to people, to respect my elders, and being in nature heals. One of the meaning systems that I have tweaked to fit my own life is respecting my elders. My grandmother used to tell me to find a good white man, get married, and have babies. This was not the path I wanted, so did not follow that system of thought. I wanted nothing to do with being a bride or mother and so I focused on a career, which in my family women did not do. Although I respected my grandmother, I chose to go my own way. I also had an issue with her racism. To me all people were equal. I did not acquire that meaning system. I believe that we should take into consideration the experiences of our elders. They have years of life experience that can help guide us in our lives, but do not buy into bigotry or racism.
Being kind is just a simple way of living. It does not take any effort to be kind and it is a meaning system that I hold in high regard. The last meaning system that I feel has shaped my life is that nature heals. Nature has always been my saving grace. I can go into nature whether in the city or to the mountains and get the peace I need. I get rejuvenated and a sense of serenity. Nature is my sanctuary.
I think the biggest influence on my view of the change process in counseling is my struggle with addiction. It has made me know that change is possible. Recovering from addiction is a long hard road, but it is worth traveling. I have seen many people make this heroic change and the change process has shown me hope; and that people are able to overcome some of the most horrible circumstances. It has made me believe in change and that anybody can change. I do think that there has to be effort put into this change process, it does not happen by itself. Change takes work, and clients have to at some point want change. It may not be in the beginning that a client wants change but at some point, a buy in process has to occur. People are resistant to change but when they have hope I have seen resistance fade away.
My view of the counseling relationship is that feelings about any given situation can lead to either homeostasis or dysregulation. If a client cannot regulate their feelings about a situation, they will become dysregulated. If they are able to regulate their feelings and articulate these feelings, they can achieve homeostasis. Helping a client with understanding how they are feeling in any given moment will help them with emotional literacy. Also, when you let a client know that is normal to feel however they are feeling, this will help the therapeutic relationship. In “Meaning Systems and Mental Health Culture” by James Hansen, he discusses the need to experience distress. If people only experience happiness and joy how will they learn to navigate pain and suffering. Without the pain and suffering there can be no growth. I believe this to be true.
The aspects of the human experience that pique my curiosity are, trauma related issues. I have seen, heard and experienced trauma in my life. It can be a devastating event or events, but I have also witnessed people heal from trauma. What interests me is why do some people heal from trauma and others do not? I know that there in complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that is more difficult to heal from but I also know that it is possible to heal from trauma. I think that the medical model keeps people sick. I have clients tell me that their last counselor told them that they would never heal from trauma. It has a way of influencing how people see themselves. I hear clients all the time say “Hi, I’m Jane. I have Bi-Polar.” They regard themselves as a diagnosis. This is a shame. Shame on the professional world for keeping people stuck in this model of sickness.
In the Hansen text, I was at AWW many times. There were many parts of this book that made me angry, and sad. First is the fact that the professional world of talk therapists and counselors are not up in arms about the disregard for meaning systems in today’s therapy world. Why are we allowing the scientific community to disregard our clients meaning systems? Person-in-environment theory states that we are a product of our environment. If we disregard this theory, we disregard our clients. Hanen states that” awareness is the antidote.” In this statement I see the solution. We need to have awareness of our clients meaning systems in order to even begin to help them. If we are unaware of their meaning systems how can we have a beneficial therapeutic relationship?
The other aspect of this book that got my attention was the topic of normal functioning. What exactly is that? For many people what they consider as normal would be very abnormal for others. Without looking at these clients meaning systems we cannot understand what is their normal functioning. For instance, think of client who come from a multigenerational family of addicts. Their normal functioning is going to be quite different from that of a client who’s family practices abstinence. Hansen goes on the say that “according to humanists, every client has a unique meaning system and perspective that needs to be understood and appreciated as an element of the helping process.” Without our attention to meaning systems we cannot truly understand our clients; and or help them.
In conclusion, meaning systems are underrated. The powers that be in the scientific community have broken down the therapeutic alliance into diagnoses. If we as practitioners continue to look at our clients as a diagnosis and a fee for service medical codes then we are causing harm. We are not seeing the reality of who our clients are and where they come from. It is imperative to understand their meaning systems in order to best serve them. If we take away the way clients see the world how can we help them, we can’t. More importantly how can they help themselves if they consider themselves their diagnosis. We have an ethical responsibility to our clients. I think that the way we are treating them as a set of symptoms is ethically wrong.
References
- Hansen, J. T. (2016). Meaning systems and mental health culture: Critical perspectives on contemporary counseling and psychotherapy. Rowman & Littlefield.
- Retrieved from on 4/20/2019: https://www.naswpress.org/publications/clinical/inside/pie-manual-intro.html
