1. Exploring Values and Beliefs Answering “Why” and “How”

2. Levels of Communication Explicit –Attending, questioning, encouraging, paraphrasing, summarizing Implicit –Discovering and reflecting meaning

3. Questions to Help Explore and Clarify Meaning What does this mean to you? What sense do you make of it? What values underlie your actions? Why is that important to you? What was your intention when you did that?

4. Reflection of Meaning Organizes life experiences and serves as metaphor for thoughts feelings and behaviors Complex life decisions may be made on basis of meaning, values, and reasons rather than on objective facts or feelings

5. Relation of Meaning to Behaviors, Thoughts, and Feelings

6. Understanding the Four Foci Behaviors – do, doing, acting Feelings – affective states occurring in people while they are behaving (emotion, affect, feelings) Thoughts – mental messages that occur simultaneously with behavior and feeling Meaning – a clustering or grouping of thoughts and feelings into a coherent whole (values, beliefs, unconscious motivators, making sense of things)

7. Understanding Meaning Concepts Four dimensions are operating simultaneously and constantly Change in any part of system affects total

8. Reflecting Clients’ Meaning “You mean..,” “Sounds like you value..,” “One of the underlying reasons for your actions was..” Use helpee’s own words that describe most important aspect of the meaning Use a paraphrase that operates from helpee’s frame of reference

9. What are your most significant life experiences and how have they influenced who you are? ____________________

10. To reflect meaning ask yourself: What does this mean to the helpee? How does what the helpee is doing reflect a value structure? Can we find presently existing values that become the instrument of positive change and development?