The 5 coping Stances

Today's lesson is on personal issues...yup, personal issues which we as counselors are grappling with which might hinder us in our sessions with a client. How comfortable are we in facing these issue and in facing discomfort. I will not elaborate on the sharings due to confidentiality. However, I will still share one thing I learnt about. The lecturer asked a question which is not easy to answer: " How do we deal with discomfort?"

According to Virginia Satir, humans have 5 coping stances:

(1) Blaming (focus on self & context)

(2) Placating (focus on others & context)

(3) Super-reasonable/ rational (focus on context)

(4) Irrelevant (focus on neither)

(5) Congruent (Balancing self, others and context)