We make sense of the world depending upon our experiences of it.

There are a great couple of posts over at the A Voice In The OT Wilderness blog.

Part one is here.

Part two is here.

The story revolves around a conflict arising from a client’s non-compliance with a specified art exercise.  When asked to create a collage, one user, instead, created a 3D model.

This was used by one observer as evidence of that client’s “defiance” – a chilling thought redolent of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.  There was a fascinating reason however for the deviation between the expectation of the observer and the interpretation and actions of the client.

The story reminds us that although we might be absolutely clear about communicating what we are asking clients to do, they, being the recipient of the message, receive the message and interpret it through their own filters.

Those filters are, in turn, shaped and coloured by their life experiences.

Go to Allie Hafez’ A Voice In The OT Wilderness blog now and read the story for yourself.