Evento

Defiance, Resistance and Oppositionality: Making Sense of Counterwill

This course includes 4 hours of video material by Dr. Gordon Neufeld, which students will watch independently, access to the Neufeld Institute Virtual campus and supplemental material, as well as 5 group support sessions with Amy Prestia, Ph.D. The support sessions focus on deepening the understanding of theory and gaining insight into how it applies within your own family. The support session meetings will start on Wednesday, May 14 (7:00-8:30 PM) and will run for 5 consecutive weeks.

Counterwill is a name for the instinctive reaction of a child to resist being controlled. This resistance can take many forms: opposition, negativism, laziness, noncompliance, disrespect, lack of motivation, belligerence, incorrigibility and even antisocial attitudes and actions. It can also express itself in resistance to learning. Despite the multitude of manifestations, the underlying dynamic is deceptively simple - a defensive reaction to perceived control or coercion.

Counterwill is undoubtedly the most misunderstood and misinterpreted dynamic in adult-child relations. The simplicity of the dynamic is in sharp contrast to the trouble it creates - for parents, for teachers, and for anyone dealing with children. It creates a perplexing dilemma in that what is most demanded or expected from a child can become the least likely to be realized.

Understanding the role of counterwill in the development process is the key to knowing how to handle it. A three-pronged approach to safely defusing counterwill and to handling the resistant child or adolescent will be discussed.