Healing Connections: The Wise Woman Story

Diana Coholic is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work,
Laurentian University.

The purpose of this book is to teach the reader about “Re-evaluation
counselling,” an approach that the writer has used in both her
personal life and professional experience as a psychotherapist. The
teaching occurs by way of a story that involves two families who live in
a village and an old woman who lives alone on the outskirts of the
village town. The old wise woman teaches the members of the families
(beginning with the children) the basic tenets of re-evaluation
counselling. As a result, the family members improve their own
relationships both at home and at work, and help other people to do the
same.

Underpinning this peer-counselling approach are two central ideas: (i)
people suffer emotional hurts as children and need to express their
feelings with supportive people in order to heal themselves; and (ii) we
need to recognize behavioural patterns in our adult lives that are
rooted in these childhood hurts in order to affect lasting change. In
re-evaluation counselling, the focus is on peer helping. For example, in
order to accomplish the above, the characters in the story meet in small
peer groups in which they take turns listening to each other communicate
their respective thoughts, ideas, and feelings regarding various life
events and situations. In the story, this process begins with the
children.

Healing Connections will appeal to helping professionals/students and
others who are interested in the process through which we support and
communicate with one another.