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Parents teach in the toughest school in the world - The School for Making People. You are the board of education, the principal, the classroom teacher, and the janitor.

Virginia Satir

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Virginia Satir
Age: 72 †
Born: 1916
Born: June 26
Died: 1988
Died: September 10
Author
Psychotherapist
Social And Health Care Assistant
Social Worker
Teacher
Writer
Virginia M. Satir
Parent
Janitor
Education
Toughest
Teach
Classroom
Making
Board
School
Principal
World
Boards
People
Parents
Teacher

More quotes by Virginia Satir

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We get together on the basis of our similarities we grow on the basis of our differences.
Virginia Satir
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What lingers from the parent's individual past, unresolved or incomplete, often becomes part of her or his irrational parenting.
Virginia Satir
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Many people are living in an emotional jail without realizing it.
Virginia Satir
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Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.
Virginia Satir
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I feel that adolescence has served its purpose when a person arrives at adulthood with a strong sense of self-esteem, the ability to relate intimately, to communicate congruently, to take responsibility, and to take risks. The end of adolescence is the beginning of adulthood. What hasn't been finished then will have to be finished later.
Virginia Satir
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As a therapist, I am a companion. I try to help people tune into their own wisdom.
Virginia Satir
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I want to love you without clutching, appreciate you without judging, join you without invading, invite you without demanding, leave you without guilt, criticize you without blaming, and help you without insulting. If I can have the same from you, then we can truly meet and enrich each other.
Virginia Satir
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I want you to get excited about who you are, what you are, what you have, and what can still be for you. I want to inspire you to see that you can go far beyond where you are right now.
Virginia Satir
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We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us.
Virginia Satir
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Once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication is the largest single factor determining what kinds of relationships he makes with others and what happens to him in the world about him.
Virginia Satir
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Negotiating the adolescent stage is neither quick nor easy. . . . I have often said to parents, If it isn't illegal, immoral, orfattening, give it your blessing. We do much better . . . if we find and support all the places we can appropriately say yes, and say only the no's that really matter.
Virginia Satir
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Our biggest problem as human beings is not knowing that we don't know.
Virginia Satir
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It is now clear to me that the family is a microcosm of the world. To understand the world, we can study the family: issues such as power, intimacy, autonomy, trust, and communication skills are vital parts underlying how we live in the world. To change the world is to change the family.
Virginia Satir
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Put together all the existing families and you have society. It is as simple as that. Whatever kind of training took place in the individual family will be reflected in the kind of society that these families create.
Virginia Satir
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I have talked about choosing rather than acting from compulsion. When you feel that you have to live according to someone else's direction or live so that you never disappoint or hurt anybody, then your life is a continual assessment of whether or not you please other people.
Virginia Satir
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There are five freedoms: The freedom to see and hear what is The freedom to say what you feel and think The freedom to feel what you actually feel The freedom to ask for what you want The freedom to take risks on your own behalf.
Virginia Satir
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The full life is filled with vulnerability, not defense. You face whatever feeling there is.
Virginia Satir
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We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.
Virginia Satir
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The symbol in Chinese for crisis is made up of two ideographs: one means danger, the other means opportunity. This symbol is a reminder that we can choose to turn a crisis into an opportunity or into a negative experience.
Virginia Satir
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People prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty
Virginia Satir