Pete Saunders

My son turns four in September and my wife and I were pleasantly surprised at one of his biggest discoveries of his toddler years – the power of the “why?” This is one of our recent conversations. I say, “Son, daddy will be right back.” He says, “Why daddy?” I say, “Because daddy has to go get something from the store.” And my little boy says, “Why daddy?” Realizing I’m being setup for an endless “Why” session, I ask, “Would you like daddy to bring you back something nice?” To which he excitedly replies “Yeah!” One for daddy!

In my last post, I wrote about the importance and benefits of loving our clients. I proposed that in order to know our clients, we have to truly love them. In this post, I will continue my argument on the benefits of loving and where it can take us. I believe that through really loving others, we will experience a growth so powerful that it will encompass all areas of both our lives and our clients’.

How well do you know your clients? Can you provide support to them without a personal knowledge of them? If no, then how in-depth does this knowledge need to be in order to serve them adequately? And finally, how do you acquire this knowledge? Renowned psychoanalyst and social theorist Erich Fromm in his book The Art of Loving said, “Love is the only way to knowledge.” Fromm further suggests that we have to know the other person and ourselves objectively, in order to be able to see his reality, or rather, to overcome the illusions, the irrationally distorted picture we have of him.

What percentage of your clients are males? What type of conclusion if any have you drawn from this statistic? Very often, I read articles and reports on the disparity between male and female numbers in universities, managerial positions and even church membership. Recently, while browsing the magazine section in a book store, I came across the July 2010 issue of The Atlantic with the theme The End of Men. In the feature article, Hanna Rosin shared that “Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same.”

Have you had the privilege of meeting and/or interacting with a special needs child on a professional or personal level? How did you find the experience? What did you learn? My wife and I are the proud and sometimes ‘confused’ parents of a soon-to-be four year-old boy. Our son was officially diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP aka Mr. Palsy) shortly after birth. This means he has difficulty walking, talking, and performing ’simple’ everyday activities. Sometimes it is extremely challenging especially when communicating. He still communicates by crying (not so much anymore), pointing and babbling. This can be quite frustrating for all of us especially for him. We certainly understand some of his basic messages and requests but most of the times we just have to pretend as though we understand exactly what he is saying. We find that he is still very clever and independent despite these setbacks.