Leonardo da Vinci is credited with saying, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." I don't know if he was referring to art, architecture, literature, cuisine, or how to make people laugh, but it is definitely true for counselling.
I work with children and adolescents, so I always strive to explain a complex psychological principle in a way that is understandable to all ages and learning abilities. It's not always easy to whittle down a theory about human behavior into a one-liner, but I try. Albert Einstein said, "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."
Young people appreciate the simplicity, adults don't always. Adults have a tendency to complicate things more than necessary and sometimes when I share the simple solution to a difficult problem, they look at me with an 'I paid you how much an hour to tell me that?' expression.
Okay, so let me simplify the counselling process.
All problems that bring people into counselling fall under four main areas: emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and physiological. My goal is to determine what the core problem is and then come up with possible solutions. We always try the easiest solution first and only if that doesn't work do we move to the next level.
Working on the correct problem is imperative. It's similar to what a building contractor does. If you have a leak around your living room window that is causing black mold in the floors, a contractor can repair the damage. But if the core problem is a tiny hole in your roof, all those fixes are a waste of time.
I once worked with a client who was your classic rebellious teenager - flunking school, risk-taking, defiance, substance abuse.
There were so many emotional and behavioural problems it was difficult to know what to focus on first. While talking to him, I noticed that he was incredibly bright and also that he couldn't read certain things.
Long story short, he needed glasses. He was acting out because he was frustrated with feeling not good enough. Once he got glasses, his grades turned around and all of the other angry frustrated behaviours faded away.
Sure, he still needed some therapy to address his esteem issues that resulted from thinking he was stupid all those years, but getting glasses was ultimately the simplest of fixes.
Sometimes it is a complicated journey of trial and error to figure out what the core problem is, especially if there is more than one contributing problem, or if the clients have learning disabilities that make it difficult for them to process or express their thoughts and feelings. However, once the core problem is discovered, the fix is always simple.
But simple doesn't mean easy. In fact, the simplist solution, yet hardest one to execute, is often accepting there is no solution.
Understanding that some situations and people can't be changed is simple, but being able to separate from their effect on you, let go, and move on is challenging to do.
In summary, keep it simple; don't get distracted by the wrong problems and inadvertently leave the core issue unaddressed.
Danielle Aldcorn is a registered clinical counsellor at the Satori Integrative Health
