Pathways to Empowerment - Judith Wolf

1 Pathways to Empowerment

control have less perseverance in the face of setbacks, are less able to create environments in which they can perform well and flourish, are less able to set goals and to pursue them, and have less stamina to reach those goals (Baumeister et al., 2007). There can be many different causes for deficiencies in self-regulation (Wolf, 2002; Van der Stel, 2013). Some people have impairments from the outset, such as reduced intellectual capacity, a congenital brain defect, a mental health condition or a certain susceptibility to mental health issues. Other people have lived in disadvantaged situations all their lives (poverty, abuse, etc.), so that their executive functions have been less able to develop properly. In addition, there are people who are limited in their ability to self-regulate due to problems experienced in life (e.g. debt problems, inadequate support or ‘the wrong friends’). There is more about self-regulation in subsection 2.1.2. The overall objective of a counselling programme is an improved quality of daily life. The programme aims to create a life in which clients’ needs for participation and personal control are met as fully as possible. The model of social quality is important for a good understanding of people’s daily quality of life (Van der Maesen &Walker, 2005). The model explains this quality from the point of view of a larger whole or from a systemic perspective. If we unpack social quality, it concerns: • the extent to which citizens can participate in social, economic and cultural life • and in the development of their community • under conditions that are favourable to their well-being and self-realisation, • which in turn enables them to influence the conditions of their own lives. This model is based on the interaction between the individual as actor with a unique life story (micro level) and: • society and the societal structures and developments within it (macro level); • the informal relationships in the community (meso level); and • the formal relationships in institutions (meso level). 1.4.1 Managing yourself and your existence An essential prerequisite for participation and personal control is the proper functioning of the individual in their social and societal context(s). This functioning depends on a person’s ability to self-regulate. Pathways to Empowerment helps to strengthen this ability, principally by studying people’s intrinsicmotivations and by working on what is of value to them in their current and future existence. For a fair number of people, autonomous self-regulation will be too ambitious a goal. Pathways to Empowerment helps to provide these people with compensations, Improving the quality of daily life

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