Gentle Teaching
Gentle teaching is a teaching process for the special friend as well as for the caregiver. It is also a reciprocal process. The special friend learns from the caregiver and the caregiver learns from the special friend. In this reciprocity they both grow in their relationship.
Every human being is unique and calls for a unique connection with others. During their education, caregivers can learn knowledge about syndromes and practical skills without being in direct contact with individual clients. But to learn to recognize and deal with the feelings a special friend calls in you, and to learn to transform feelings of irritation, anger, etc into loving feelings, can only be done in real and direct contact. With every special friend, this will be different and you will have to start from the beginning. This is the process the caregiver will go through with every special friend and it should be part of every ‘client centered’ gentle teaching support plan. In turn, the special friend must learn to feel safe, loved, loving and connected with every different caregiver separately.
Every human being is unique and calls for a unique connection with others. During their education, caregivers can learn knowledge about syndromes and practical skills without being in direct contact with individual clients. But to learn to recognize and deal with the feelings a special friend calls in you, and to learn to transform feelings of irritation, anger, etc into loving feelings, can only be done in real and direct contact. With every special friend, this will be different and you will have to start from the beginning. This is the process the caregiver will go through with every special friend and it should be part of every ‘client centered’ gentle teaching support plan. In turn, the special friend must learn to feel safe, loved, loving and connected with every different caregiver separately.
In the methodology of gentle teaching we can distinguish four aspects:
- the goals
- the tools
- the techniques
- the process
The methodology
The complete article on the methodology can be downloaded