River
Active member
While reading in the forum today it occurred to me that sometimes people will offer or ask for advice when what might be of greater use is what might be called collaborative inquiry.
By collaborative inquiry, I mean exploring a topic or question together not so much in order to get to advice but in order to explore toward possible insights, epiphanies or discoveries of information.
As I considered sharing this idea, I also realized that sometimes advice is just what is needed. But sometimes what is really needed is this "collaborative inquiry" process.
Collaborative inquiry can sometimes look like assisting someone in exploring feelings which are as of yet not entirely formed or clear, maybe even a bit buried. Or not understood well. One does not have to be a licensed psychotherapist to help an acquaintance or a friend with such an exploration of feelings or emotions and their associated thoughts, beliefs, etc....
Collaborative inquiry can also be about helping someone think things through carefully, not just about "processing" or exploring feelings. Sometimes hashing things out in collaborative inquiry will facilitate breakthrough insights and epiphanies which we could not achieve so rapidly or readily without another, external, voice in the mix.
As I see it, oftentimes collaborative inquiry works best when it's more oriented to exploration than to problem solving, per se. Sometimes problem solving actually gets quite in the way of insight and epiphany, by creating tension instead of opening up internal space, or by being overly goal-oriented rather than process-oriented.
Your thoughts on this?
By collaborative inquiry, I mean exploring a topic or question together not so much in order to get to advice but in order to explore toward possible insights, epiphanies or discoveries of information.
As I considered sharing this idea, I also realized that sometimes advice is just what is needed. But sometimes what is really needed is this "collaborative inquiry" process.
Collaborative inquiry can sometimes look like assisting someone in exploring feelings which are as of yet not entirely formed or clear, maybe even a bit buried. Or not understood well. One does not have to be a licensed psychotherapist to help an acquaintance or a friend with such an exploration of feelings or emotions and their associated thoughts, beliefs, etc....
Collaborative inquiry can also be about helping someone think things through carefully, not just about "processing" or exploring feelings. Sometimes hashing things out in collaborative inquiry will facilitate breakthrough insights and epiphanies which we could not achieve so rapidly or readily without another, external, voice in the mix.
As I see it, oftentimes collaborative inquiry works best when it's more oriented to exploration than to problem solving, per se. Sometimes problem solving actually gets quite in the way of insight and epiphany, by creating tension instead of opening up internal space, or by being overly goal-oriented rather than process-oriented.
Your thoughts on this?
Last edited: