This is part of the Working Together series from EATA / ITAA. The event is free, but ticketed:  OKness and the Paradox of Change tickets on Eventbrite.

Clients, learners, and organizations, in coming to TA professionals for help, often believe that they are “broken” or do not deserve to flourish. And as TA professionals, we can sometimes unwittingly send or reinforce that message—that yes, they are not OK, they are broken, that they are somehow getting things wrong.

It is hard to change when the starting point is that “there is something fundamentally wrong with me.” It is easier to change—if change is what is wanted and is something for which there is agreement and permission—when there is an underlying basis of self-acceptance.

Getting help can feel paradoxical when the starting point for it is, in some fundamental way as indicated in TA, that we are all OK as we are. However, being OK does not necessarily mean there is nothing I want to change and that I do not want professional assistance.

Matthew will discuss this tension and other ideas that are sometimes referred to as “the paradox of change,” illustrating it with examples and reflecting on how TA and other approaches can respond to it.