Kegan Orders Of Consciousness Summary

What really stood out to me from the readings that were assigned this week was the chapter where Kegan discussed counseling and orders of consciousness. Specifically, he discussed how many counselors use theories and methods that often require the client’s to have a fourth order level of consciousness in order for the theories to be able to benefit them. Since I have begun reading Kegan’s book this semester, I have become obsessed with figuring out what order of consciousness I am at, which has been hard because it is hard to be objective when it comes to evaluating yourself. This particular chapter and the concepts Kegan discussed in it particularly intimidated me, because it sounds like one has to be at the fourth order of consciousness, perfectly understand the difference between the two, and understand how to bridge the gap in order to be an effective counselor. There are many examples that I can think of in my life that further reinforce the idea of how important it is for a counselor to have an understanding of the orders of consciousness, and how it can be harmful to the client if the counselor does not understand how to bridge this gap. One of these examples is when I was in high school and I briefly entered counseling. At the time, I was definitely operating completely at the third order of consciousness. I
For a long time I harbored a large amount of resentment and anger towards that therapist for “making me feel like everything was my fault.” In reality, there is a good chance she had very good intentions and was trying to use a confronting technique with me. This may have been taught to her in graduate school, and worked with some of her other older, adult clients. This teaches me that it is important to not make snap judgements about others, especially before you really consider how and why they may have completed an action the way they