August 17, 2018
Some people are just talkers. According to my mother, I came out telling the gang in Labor and Delivery a few jokes with my first breath. I’m pretty sure she was delirious, but it had an impact. My mother called me a “little talking machine” for my entire childhood. I have lived that lifescript for my entire adulthood. It has served me well, mostly. (I won’t write about the billion times I have heard crude, inappropriate, nonsensical prattle and didn’t notice soon enough that it was my lips that were moving.)
About Life Scripts:
If you think about it, you are probably living out a life script as well, based upon messages you received as a child. According to Claude Steiner, author of “Scripts People Live,” some people live out a counterscript. So, if you were called lazy, you could become an overachiever – a better outcome, perhaps, but still using those childhood messages as a point of reference. Either way, script or counterscript, how you process messages from your childhood can be the secret of your success or grist for the therapy mill.
Nanceisms
Here is an exchange I have had in many classes.
Student: “Can you please say that again?”
Me: “What was it?”
Student: “It was really good. I want to use it.”
Me: “If I can remember it, you are welcome to it.”
Different Student: “I think I got most of it,” (followed by a phrase or two)
Me: “It sounds like something I would say…”
Over time, my random thoughts and phrases have been chronicled by my students. When I had a thriving counseling practice, my clients did the same. I was always happy if a client shared the words that that had been helpful. The client feedback loop informed my work with future clients. That was rewarding, but there is a different kind of joy I get from knowing that my students have some of my better utterances in safekeeping.
If you have any thoughts about what should be included in that list or in this blog, please post so I can have a reader feedback loop to treasure.
Nicki
Dr. Nance,
I enjoyed reading that with humor and intellectual information. I think that is why you are so good at what you do. You can guide and advise people on suggestions and explanations that even you don’t know how it may be understood or make sense to you “sometimes” due to it being so flowing for you. I think it’s a gift to have the “Nanceisms”. I look forward to more blog posts that you are inspired to write and blog about on here.
You continue to be extremely busy, I see! Always inspirational and I would certainly read your book (love the title)! I miss our time together, but as with all others who have had the pleasure of knowing you, your messages, sense of humor, and presence have changed us all for the better.
Love you…
Dr. Dianne Albright
Love this! ♡