True personal empowerment is not just about individuals

Empowerment is often regarded as feeling good about ourselves. But authentic personal empowerment is our ability to have an impact on our relationships and social surroundings.

The feeling of empowerment is a great one, but then what?

When we apply how we feel to the real world, we are likely to get results which end up with a feeling of belonging and achievement. In therapy, I encourage clients to read self-help books which give tips on how to be more confident with others.  

Yet unless we are able to enter a meaningful dialogue with other people in our everyday lives which led to improvement in our relationships we are no further forward.

So what is personal empowerment?

To me it is a process in which a person who is feeling powerless sets a doable and meaningful goal to increase their own sense of power. The person takes action to achieving those goals, then observes and reflects on the impact on this action. This involves reflecting on how they have done this.

The key part to achieving personal empowerment is the relationship between what we put in and the results our efforts have provided. Sometimes we are successful, sometimes we are not. Taking action is not enough in itself.  

If we only focus on taking action we are likely only to see our setbacks as failures. This can lead us to feeling disempowered, not good enough and many other negative feelings.

Being able to attain the necessary skills to achieve this goal can make a huge difference in how quickly and successfully the empowerment process proceeds.

Therapy can be a good place to learn how to set goals and work towards achieving these in a supportive and safe environment.