Techniques for Regulation of Needs
In the context of regulation of needs, the basic technique consists of working on the perception of needs and the perception of their inhibition. This is closely linked to the techniques for personal responsibility, because the perception of needs is always an active (=influential) inner process. The inhibiting inner representations, though, are often projected onto the outside (this cannot work because of the circumstances or because of the other people!), is justified by rules (“You are not allowed to do this!”) or because expectation patterns make this difficult (“This will not end well!”). All this must be processed, should a dysfunctional regulation of needs come back into flow. A number of guiding processes are concentrated here. Accordingly, a wide field of intervention possibilities opens up, but also a multitude of mistakes and traps in the technical handling of frequently occurring consultancy situations: separating needs from substitute needs, keeping needs and satisfaction apart, watching for the inner exploitation of needs for the purpose of avoiding fear, seeing need and contact as correlated and much more. All this plays an important role in the appropriate management of counselling techniques. There is a particularly great danger, in the context of regulation of needs, that one works correctly, but on the wrong focus.