Agency and Health

Undoing the ties that bind

I’ve come to be very interested in the concept of agency recently. I think it’s one of those terms that means different things depending on the context. But in relation to health and healing, I take it to mean something about having the realisation that we are in fact capable of and responsible for, making the decisions that can move us into that place of healing.

Becoming initially aware of ones agency might be a little like suddenly ‘coming to your senses’ - or a sudden realisation that the ties that bind you can be undone, and you are the one to do it. Or the sudden discovery that you no longer have to be the victim of circumstance, but YOU can be the agent of change in your own life.

Agency as the catalyst for change

One of the important things I try to do in the clinic is to bring about the circumstances for that catalyst to occur, because once it does, then everything starts to change. Agency allows us to see the bigger picture, maybe a bit like a virtual map, so you not only see where you are but you can see where you would like to go.

According to the neuro affective relational model (NARM) of psychotherapy, the ideas of child consciousness and adult consciousness are strongly related to our sense of agency. We all move in and out of child and adult consciousness all the time.

How we feel is a sign

When we feel calm, centered, rational and able to understand the world from multiple perspectives – not just our own, we are most likely in adult consciousness. In this state, as you might imagine, we have access to a lot of agency and we have a wide choice of responses to a given situation – we can see clearly where to go.

Conversely when we feel like a victim and when we want to judge and blame – others or ourselves, we are most likely in a reactive child consciousness state. In this case we find we have very little agency and very little choice - the world appears tight and restrictive and we feel lost.

Get in touch if you’re feeling stuck or lost

The work I do in the clinic and in the finding health workshops is all about finding, developing and sustaining that sense of agency. So if you’re feeling stuck, or lost, get in touch.