www.transitions-counseling.com :

Where Your Help Begins Online^SM

The Web As A Personal Growth Medium

AN INTRODUCTION TO TRANSITIONS COUNSELING ONLINE RESOURCES

TRANSITIONS Personal & Family Counseling Services exists to serve the people on the World Wide Web and Western North Carolina in assisting us to successfully manage the transitions in our lives. This part of my web page is extra-special to me because it represents my small contribution to a vast and pioneering world-wide effort in communicating to all of us everywhere at once! We live in overwhelming times and it is no longer enough for counselors and other helping persons to limit our efforts to helping one person, or one family, at a time. The Web offers exciting possibilities for creative contributions to a troubled and rapidly changing world. Now, more than ever, it is essential for those of us who can help (and can't we all?) to make service our primary consideration over material gain.

This Online Resources section is dedicated to assisting in bringing help and relief, recovery and growth, through the communications and cyber-media. Beyond my conventional private practice, the contributions here will join other pioneering efforts on the Web. We cannot cross uncharted territory without facing risks. Humanity has advanced, thus far, by being courageous enough to face the unknown...and the unknown is probably most frightening where it is discovered to be within and amongst ourselves.

No technology recently invented has greater potential to illuminate that unknown within and amongst us than the Internet. For, in terms of interactive potential, it exists among us more profoundly than any other electronic medium, and it draws from us what we most need to share. It is at once both impersonal and intimate as we make our way across cyberspace; drawing lost relatives, distant friends and intimate strangers across the boundaries of our lives.

Stripped of our physical bodies and the physical social conventions that define our boundaries, those of us who go out on the Internet have unique opportunities. We are free to experiment more openly with who we are from the inside and who we would like to be in relation to others who are doing the same.

The result is, the Internet exposes us to humanity at its best and its worst. How do we like us? We cannot rely on competing media, like television, for objective opinions — where the tendency is to emphasize the worst. We must immerse ourselves in this medium in order to begin to understand it. I invite us to ignore those of us who need to experiment with the baser sides of our possible interests over the WWW in favor of focusing upon those things which uplift and unify us.

Every time we log on, we should revel in the heady potential for almost infinite connective possibilities to a sharing of wisdom and experience and spirit! We truly are one world, and here on the net, we truly can speak to each other as kindred spirits if we choose to do so. For we speak to an audience in which everyone was invited and came of their own free will. All may participate to the degree of their choice and all may move on when they are ready to move on.

Because we share the power, we are challenged here more than any other medium of communication to see ourselves as we are and to take responsibility for that. What are we willing to see as we put something of ourselves on the Web? In a self-aware state, we only need have the courage to entertain the questions that naturally arise in us as we see ourselves interact in this medium. In doing so, we greatly expand our potential for self-awareness and personal growth.

Do we see ourselves as fellow voyagers on a great human adventure? Do we hide in our anonymity as voyeurs? Is our excitement over what we can get over the Net balanced with what we can give? What pent-up emotions do we find ourselves finally being able to express in our contribution to the Internet? Do we find ourselves gaining new levels of courage in expressing ourselves and then bring that courage to the everyday "off-Net" world? Or, do we find we are retreating from the "real" world to take refuge in the "safety" of the Net?

Upon entering a world in which we can have equal say with authorities, what things do we most feel need to be said — and do we feel we are responsible in saying what we need to say? Are our methods for discerning truth at the same level as our methods for sharing truth? In a medium where accountability for honesty is shared, does the importance of being honest with ourselves take on more significance where we can more openly share our truths with others? Do we taste the price of tea in China as we take a sip from that cup by our keyboard? What parts of ourselves do we feel safe to invest in this medium and what parts do we hold back — and how is that different from our involvement in the "extra-cyber" world?

 

 

As we attempt to answer those and other questions, we do ourselves and others best by attempting to see ourselves in an understanding, rather than judgmental, light. Only through self-acceptance can we open the door to our true potential. Tolerance of ourselves and tolerance of others are the hinges to that door of self-acceptance. Courage is the key and the spirit of creativity is the latch. These are essential elements for development — for us as individuals and for social structures like the Internet.

I invite your tolerance, your courage and your spirit of creativity as you explore my Online Resources at transitions-counseling.com and I hope you find something useful for your life. Since this part of the site is experimental and developmental, you may prepare yourself for the unexpected — as modifications are in process. ALSO, KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS PAGE IS ALWAYS UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!! If you don't connect to the URL for a particular feature, it means that feature is still under construction. Just hit the "backward" arrow on your browser to return to your previous location.

Your e-mail feedback is welcome. . . or you can call me at (704) 276-1164.

Call TRANSITIONS/SoulMentors: (704) 276-1164