The Interactional Model is an eclectic theory that helps us to effectively work with our clients as it strives to understand how our clients interact with and are affected by, various systems and sub-systems. In any theory, there are underlying assumptions about people and their environment. Read Underlying Assumptions in the Interactional Model beginning on page 18. Put in writing short paragraph for each assumption explaining your understanding of the concept.

Interaction model

1. Assumption of Obstacles in the Engagement Thus far we have focused on the client’s interactions with important environmental systems. Both the individual and the systems are vitally linked through mutual need. Each is seen as reaching out to the other with all the strength available at the moment and with the capacity to reach out more effectively. The next logical question is: What goes wrong? The mutual dependence can be blocked or obscured by any number of obstacles. We now briefly examine three potential obstacles to interaction between the individual and the social system: changing social systems, conflicts between self-interest and mutual interest, and the dynamics of interpersonal communication

2. Assumption of Symbiosis Now that we have placed clients in interaction with the various systems that affect them, we need to examine the nature of this relationship. If we return to the example in the previous section of a depressed, middle-aged woman, our view of how to help this client will depend on our assumptions about the individual-social engagement. If we examine her interactions with her environment, we can perceive a certain amount of ambivalence. Some part of her will seem to be reaching out, however faintly, toward life and the people around her. On the other hand, her withdrawal, depression, and general communications appear to signal a retreat from life. She may have experienced life as too difficult, her feelings too painful to face, and the demands seemingly impossible to meet. A part of her seems to be giving up and saying that the very struggle seems useless. She can be observed placing barriers between herself and these systems, including that part of the system (the worker) that is reaching out to help her. She is simultaneously reaching out for life, growth, and the important systems around her and moving away from each.

3. Assumption of Strength for Change Belief in the existence of symbiotic striving is closely linked to another assumption about the individual-social engagement: that both the individual and the system contain within them the strength to implement this mutuality. This assumption depends on a view of people (and complex systems) as able to act in their own interest without being bound by their past experiences. From a philosophical perspective, this could be considered an “existential” model where individuals are as strong as they act.