Empowerment

Empowerment means, among other things, stimulating and strengthening self-esteem and self-image.

A new metastasis has been discovered, says the doctor. New treatment, immunotherapy, starts in a week’s time. I thought surgery and radiation would be enough. I´m falling. Despair like ants in the body. They're trying to make a anthill. They must not.

I call "my" nurse. I have known her for more than ten years, since I was first admitted to the hospital. Then there was scleroderma and breast cancer. Now it is malignant melanoma with spread. The ants make a coherent link in my head. I am calling the nurse. Hi, I say, hi, she replies. I cannot take any more, I say.

It's quiet for a while.

 I'm looking for my eternal optimism, I say, choked with tears. What should I do?

Put optimism on hold, she answers. These are tough times. Relate to what is. And do not lose the grip you have, it's your lucky draw.

 I sit on the sofa at home in the living room, take out the diary and write: and do not lose the grip you have, it is your lucky draw. What is she doing, this wise knowledgeable nurse? Maybe two things: she recognizes my effort to cope with all this and, not the least, point to my own strengths, an empowerment. Most things are beyond my control: surgeries, immunotherapy, radiation. The health service takes care of that. I trust them. But she revives the belief that I myself can contribute, with something. What is my grip, I write in my diary. And then I'm hooked again. The ants are not gone, but they can never build their hill, I'm sure of that.

Empowerment means making strong and mature, to have faith in the individual's ability to develop, grow and influence one’s own situation, stimulate and strengthen self-esteem and self-image.

I want to believe that this approach has been paramount for me in my work, not least when I helped introduce Family Group Conferences for the child welfare field in Norway. It was not an easy task; it was a new way of thinking and it was met with a lot of resistance.

 Even in this situation, where I am completely powerless from the outside, the nurse manages to stimulate my own forces. I am thinking of one of the professional expressions that has followed me ever since I took my master in social work - Å hekte seg på den annens bestrebelse[i] (to hook on to the other's endeavour).

[i] The Expression is taken from the work of Lars Uggerhøj, Aalborg University.