Health and Education

Epictetus, the Greek Stoic philosopher is quoted as saying, “We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.” This idea is often repeated in therapeutic circles as a reminder of personal responsibility. When I say something along these lines, I’m usually thinking of Choice Theory, and one of the recurring group sessions I lead is on the concept of total behavior. This is the idea that, at any given time, we are experiencing emotions, physical sensations, thoughts and “doing” behaviors. These four categories make up our total behavior, and, while we can’t directly control emotions and physiology, we can make choices in how we think and what we do that will then lead to shifts in these other areas. Recently, I was leading one of these group therapy sessions in my adolescent boys' group, and I noticed one student, who had recently gotten some difficult news, was despondent. He hung his head throughout the group and barely re...