Psychological Approaches for Overturning an Immunity to Change

In this article, Deborah Helsing shows how practitioners in the helping professions—whether they be coaches, facilitators, educators, or counselors—can increase their own capacity to be effective by employing the Immunity to Change (ITC) process, a methodology for growth and change that allows practitioners to incorporate insights from a variety of psychological theories into one instrument and process. Helsing highlights the theory that underpins ITC, illustrating how it operates as a meta-theory that draws from different psychological traditions. She then goes on to show how even a rudimentary knowledge of these traditions provides possibilities for exploring what might be at the heart of a psychological immune system, thus increasing the chances that users will arrive at an accurate and perceptive diagnosis that leads to a transformational result. In her essay she argues that ITC practitioners who can integrate multiple theoretical approaches can more flexibly and powerfully address the learning needs of those they seek to help.