dysfunction junction

I was asked to provide a continuing education workshop series exploring the topic "Dysfunction" for a group of lay church leaders and for weeks I could not get the School House Rock 'Conjunction Junction' song out of my head, especially the, 

what's your function? 

Speaking with anyone on the topic of dysfunction is daunting, not just because it is a huge topic with few boundaries but also, despite my profession and training, I am unable to escape 

a deep and abiding relationship with   

dysfunction.  

And so that is where we started.  

With some self-reflection about our own thoughts and relationship with dysfunction - what it is, what it isn't, and what role it plays in our lives.   Recognizing that dysfunction plays a large role in making us feel stuck or helpless or hopeless.

Admittedly, it is easy to think of dysfunction in absolute terms, to think of something as broken beyond repair.  However, I shimmy out on a limb to say, what if dysfunction isn't necessarily highlighting a malfunction, something that is broken?  What if dysfunction is more of an implication that a part of something - a dynamic, a relationship, a pattern - is not at optimal function?  Furthermore, what if dysfunction exists because it is actually serving a function?  

I often find this to be true when working with clients - of all ages, with a range of presenting concerns - that an evaluation of the issues they bring to our work together and the identification of where they feel stuck, often illuminates a "both-and" realization.  

The sticky issue is both a problem and some sort of a solution.

At first glance this might seem infuriating but what I love about this framework is: if we are able to identify the both-and, there is some room to think about the situation in shades of gray rather than in absolutes.  Within this framework, it is possible to restore function and hope to that which we previously thought beyond repair, to that about which we felt hopeless.

think about it.