RC Literature and Learning Re-evaluation Counseling
The discharge and re-evaluation process is innate in humans, and the basic ideas of Re-evaluation Counseling are not complicated. At the same time, we have much to learn as we work our way out of distress—in part because discharge has been suppressed in our societies.
Over the more than fifty years that we have been working, we have built up a large collection of information about RC—about the discharge process, distresses, oppressions, perspectives, techniques, and many other things. This collection has been built by a widely varied group of people. It is based on the experiences of many, many Co-Counselors.
The entire collection would be useful to anyone learning RC. However, many Co-Counselors have not yet found their way to most of it.
LEARNING FROM THOSE AROUND US
When we are with them, our teachers and other leaders can provide information, do demonstrations, and answer our questions right as we think of them. Because they can interact with us in the present, they are one of the RC resources we use most easily. We benefit from as many of these opportunities as we can get. Having ongoing access to such live sources of information is one of the reasons we build RC Communities, meet in classes and support groups, and attend workshops. We also learn a great deal about RC with those who are learning it with us—together we get to try out ideas and find our own thinking.
MORE IS NEEDED
It would be wonderful if each of us had continual access to very experienced Co-Counselors who had the time to help us learn everything that has been developed in RC. However, none of us has that opportunity, and even if we did, it wouldn’t be enough. To gain a deep and broad understanding of RC we need access to the ideas and practice of RC as they’ve been developed by many people over the last half century.
You will never have direct contact with many of the people whose writings are in the large collections of RC books, pamphlets, and journals. Many of them are a world away from you, and some of them have died. But their work has contributed significantly to our understanding of humans. It will benefit you to make use of it in the ongoing work of developing RC ideas.
A VALUABLE FOUNDATION
Those of us who have been in RC for several decades and have Co-Counseled and perhaps taught classes and led support groups or workshops have a valuable foundation of information and perspectives. Part of it we’ve gained from reading the thinking of other RCers—especially that of my father, Harvey Jackins. We have used what we’ve read in the RC literature to develop our own thinking and perspectives. That we’ve gained so much from this reading does not often show clearly. We rarely refer to the literature, but it has been vital to us. It would be useful to any RCer. Those of you who never got to see and listen to my father would find it particularly useful to read what he wrote.
DISCHARGE ABOUT READING
Please consider delving into some part of the printed RC literature. Find out how useful it can be. Many of us need sessions first—to discharge the distresses that have been put on us about reading and learning. Working on these distresses may feel unpleasant, difficult, or even hopeless, but it is well worth working on them. They will dissolve with discharge, and we will again be able to enjoy learning by reading.
NEWER FORMS OF INFORMATION
As technology has developed, we have been able to provide additional access to RC thought. Audio and videocassettes have been available for many years. More recently, RC presentations have become available on CDs and DVDs. Many of these presentations are by Harvey Jackins, and they are an excellent way for newer RCers to begin to get a sense of who he was.
USE THE RC LITERATURE
These newer forms of information are very useful. However, the older written material remains vital and will not soon be available in any other form. We can support and encourage each other to learn all that has been developed in RC. We can counsel each other through any distresses that slow us down. Let’s use the RC literature to move more quickly through our own distresses, help others do the same, and more effectively develop our ideas and build our RC Communities.
Tim Jackins
Reprinted from the October 2008 Present Time