Offering others 'Unconditional Positive Regard' through Intensive Interaction

Continuing on from the theme of my last blog (02/07/18) I thought that I might, as a non-psychologist, attempt to quietly purloin (well, point you the reader to) one of their psycho-therapeutic concepts, that of offering people 'Unconditional Positive Regard' (UPR).

This UPR concept is taken from the work of the American psychologist Carl Rogers and his ideas on Client or Person Centred Therapy. This is a well established form of structured psychological therapy that is designed to promote improved psychological well-being for people by helping them develop their self-knowledge and self-awareness. Such a UPR therapeutic process aims to both nurture a person's psychological growth, whilst also reducing their levels of emotional distress.

So just 'being with' someone with 'unconditional positive regard' (as Rogers would say), which is surely exactly what we aim to do when we do Intensive Interaction, should be seen as a legitimate psychologically therapeutic intervention that can help challenged and challenging people to more positively socially engage (also see blog of 28/12/17) ... and through such positive social engagement come to know themselves as potentially socially active, and potentially socially attractive people worthy of the positive regard of others. 

Below I have again purloined (with the best of intent) part of an illuminating blog on Roger's UPR concept by Dr Stephen Jones (an actual professor of psychology, health, and social care from the University of Nottingham):

First, Rogers’ theory was that human beings have an innate urge towards socially constructive behaviour which is always present and always functioning at some level. Second, Rogers’ believed that each person had a need for self-determination; and the more a person’s need for self-determination is respected, the more likely their innate urge to be socially constructive will take hold. For Rogers this provided insight into the best way to create nurturing environments at home, school, workplace and the therapy room.

Unconditional positive regard therefore means valuing the person as doing their best to move forward in their lives constructively and respecting the person’s right to self-determination no matter what they choose to do ... UPR can be misunderstood as being nice to people, smiling at them and nodding. But it’s not about what you do. UPR is an attitude. Get the attitude and the behaviour that expresses that attitude will follow.

So surely through the principles and practices of Intensive Interaction that we as practitioners embody and enact, we can tap into, open up and collectively explore a person's 'innate urge towards socially constructive behaviour' and their 'need for self-determination' ... and thus nurture their positive psychological growth!