About this Episode Welcome to today’s episode of The Communication Solution podcast with Casey Jackson, John Gilbert and Danielle Cantin. We love talking about Motivational Interviewing, and about improving outcomes for individuals, organizations, and the communities that they serve. This episode offers an insightful and heartfelt exploration of the intricacies of helping others. The podcast stands as a testament to the power of empathy, strategic guidance, and the importance of respecting individual autonomy in the journey of helping professions. It invites listeners to consider their own motives and approaches in offering support, whether professionally or personally, emphasizing the profound impact genuine understanding can have on both the helper and those they assist. In this podcast, we discuss: Understanding the Motive to Help: The hosts discuss what drives them to be in helping positions, delving into personal motivations and the impact they hope to make. Casey's Reflection on Empathy: Casey shares a profound personal quote from his teenage years, emphasizing the importance of making people feel heard, seen, and understood. John's Perspective on Alleviating Suffering: John talks about his motivation to help others, particularly driven by his sensitivity to pain and suffering. Experiences in the Prison System: Casey shares his experiences working in prisons, highlighting the power of being present and making inmates feel heard and understood. Journey vs. Destination: The conversation explores the balance between enjoying the journey of helping others and focusing on the desired outcomes. Ethical Influence in Motivational Interviewing: They discuss the ethics of influencing people in motivational interviewing, emphasizing the need to maintain autonomy and provide informed choices. Compliance vs. Autonomy: The hosts tackle the complex issue of compliance in helping professions, contrasting it with the concept of respecting individual autonomy. Guiding with Empathy: Casey and John explore how guiding someone in motivational interviewing involves balancing empathy with strategic direction. Personal Growth Through Helping: They reflect on how their own journeys in helping others have led to personal growth and a deeper understanding of human behavior. Intrigue in Individual Stories: Casey expresses his fascination with individual narratives and the unique reasons people seek help or guidance. You don’t want to miss this one! Make sure to rate us or share this podcast. It would mean so much to us! Thank you for listening to the communication solution. This podcast is all about you. If you have questions, thoughts, topic suggestions, or ideas, please send them our way at casey@ifioc.com. For more resources, feel free to check out ifioc.com.  Transcribe Hello, and welcome to the communication solution podcast with Casey Jackson and John Gilbert. I'm your host, Danielle Canton here at the Institute for Individual and Organizational Change, otherwise known as IFIOC. We love to talk about communication. We love to talk about solutions, and we love to talk about providing measurable results for individuals, organizations, and the communities they serve. Welcome. To the communication solution that will change your world. Hello, everyone. Welcome back. We are the communication solution here to hopefully entertain and grow your brain and all the sorts of good things that you're tuning in for. If it's the first time,  listening, you got Casey Jackson here, our director that I will be. Interviewing Casey, this is John, one of his worker bees out in the world training on AI and other such things. And so we're here today to talk about a topic that. And we can veer in all sorts of directions here, Casey, but it's just something I've been thinking about from a conversation we were having recently. And what are we trying to do when we're trying to be in a helping position? Why does it matter to help people so much? Not just from a,  sense of that's what you ought to do, should do, you're supposed to do, but what is underlying our motives in helping Positions and why not go to banking as much? And some people might say, well, you could make more of an impact if you become a banker and become a philanthropist, then being a nonprofit, you know, director and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's lots of rabbit holes. We can go down, but the whole idea is what's the motivation behind what we behind trying to help people use? Am I all this stuff? So I'm kind of wondering for you, what would you say when you start to peel back those layers? What are you trying to do in helping people help people? You know, what struck me when you were talking, I can't even believe this popped in my brain, but it was a, it was a quote that I'd read when I was in high school and, and the fact that I can even remember parts of it is shocking to me, but it was so profound for me at that age with, you know, depression or thing, you know, just teenage angst, basically. And the quote was, there is no greater burden in this world than to think that no one cares or understands. Hmm.  And I just thought that for me was partially, you know, when I understood what, not that I could have a living trying to help other people, that was a catalyzing moment from that quote. I had that quote written down,  when I was reading all this book of quotes and that one just was like, Whoa, like what a burden. I felt that before, you know, and then as, you know, just as I. And as an adolescent of seeing other people experience that. And then as I got older, seeing people experience that, like to think that nobody cares or understands, like, is there any greater burden in the world? And,  and there's another one about how, you know, do you just want to operate in this world, basically like a bowl full of marbles, you know, where we touch, but we don't interface. And that was a really interesting concept to me too. And for me, that was the foundation of just going. I don't know if I'll be good at this profession, but what I do know is I want people to feel heard and seen and understood. And if I release some burden on another person, if somebody would have done that for me or people that did do that for me, and that's a way that I could actually pay my mortgage or, you know, pay rent. Like, why wouldn't you do that? Like that was. For me, what it's always been about. And I think, you know, we talk about authenticity and genuineness, but I've never lost that, like in my heart and in my, that pit inside of me and my solar plexus is just like, I, something resonates and harmonizes when I'm able to do that for another person.  You know, whether it's mentally, emotionally, spiritually, whatever it is, you know, and I think for you physically and spiritually and mentally and emotionally. When you can do that for other people, there's just, I love, you know, there's a there there,  with that. And so that's, that's what I'd launch it off from when you ask that it just coincided me that I just, I just, I want people to feel heard and seen and understood. So interesting because it's, it's, it's a way of you're, you're entering this compassionate way of being with people for the very intrinsic sake of that sort of. Outcome. And it's so interesting that we can both be wanting to help people, but have different salient outcomes that we especially resonate with, such as for you heard, seen, understood that sense. Yes, and and to bring something in that I'm curious about from your perspective, that is a motivated for me pain and suffering. And for whatever reason, it's my own probably mental blocks that Rumi would point to and all sorts of things that,  your resonance with that heard and understood piece is so core to so much. And yet, for me, I've, I've had to more emotionally resonate, learn how to resonate with that and that it's. Just the pain that people go through and working at a vet clinic like I did and seeing people in my personal life go through difficult things and have such good hearts, but just really break down crying or things like this that just it's heartbreaking. It's I can get emotional. It's so heartbreaking to and then start to think about all the people going through all the things it starts to become this bigger. Who, you know, and, and it's very motivating for me to alleviate some of those things, but it's so interesting that the way in might be similar, but I'm that initial part. That's probably, I don't know, it's, it's important to the way in that you found was being heard, seen and understood. So I'm wondering. As you've gone into seeing and hearing people, especially when you were in the prisons and some of these other things, what has that taught you? What has that been like to go in to hear and see and understand people's perspectives, whether you agree with them or not, and what has it, you know, garnered for you?  What has it taught you about your own motives to help people? I'm just curious. It's interesting because what I think about is I think getting the social work degree, you know, I wanted to get the psychology degree because I genuinely wanted therapy is all I wanted to do. I just wanted to help people. That was that was it. And then just because I was, you know,  as I was exposed to more than it was the reality that getting a master's in social work is going to give me a different level on a macro level. Like, I want to understand systems like that was fascinating to me as well to. But to me, it was just, I want people to feel heard and seen and understood. I think what, what pulled it together for me. And again, it's weird that these weird stories are coming to my brain, but, and this was emotional for me is I remember the starfish story and I'd never heard it before, and just to say it for people that have never heard it before,