Switching between academic research and working with clients is an interesting experience. Words and language from one area keep leaking into the other. It’s like auto-correct on a whole different level!
I keep a list of academic definitions of words for my research work. Here is a selected version of that list in everyday language.
| Agency | The ability to actively direct your life and strive to maximise your potential. |
| Compassionately detached | A state of holding someone as worthy and worthwhile, being concerned about alleviating their distress, and helping them to find their own unique way through their distress. |
| Creative confidence | The knowledge that you can come up with novel responses to change. |
| Design Thinking | A creative problem-solving method that focuses on collaboration and human-centred solutions. |
| Integrative Psychotherapy | A flexible psychotherapy/counselling approach that adapts various techniques to suit each individual client. |
| Interpersonal | The stuff that happens between people, like communications and behaviours. |
| Intrapersonal | The psychological stuff that happens inside you, like thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. |
| Resilience | The ability to bounce back from set-backs in a healthy way. |
| Self-efficacy | The confidence that you are able to meet any challenge that may come your way. |
| Tame problems | Problems that have clear solution paths |
| Wicked problems | Dynamic, messy problems with practical and psychological aspects and no apparent solution paths. |
