When I walk on the beach to watch the sunset I do not call out, "A little more orange over to the right, please," or "Would you mind giving us less purple in the back?" No, I enjoy the always-different sunsets as they are. We do well to do the same with people we love.
In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?
In a person who is open to experience each stimulus is freely relayed through the nervous system, without being distorted by any process of defensiveness.
I believe that the testing of the student's achievements in order to see if he meets some criterion held by the teacher, is directly contrary to the implications of therapy for significant learning.
