Relational aspects of controls from within: developing controls from within requires the helper to be a person of influence able to create conditions of safety in relationship. In order to do so, a focus on the characteristics of adults' relationships with youth is essential. Relational practice offers such a focus.(Report)

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One needs to look no further than the title Controls from Within to know that Redl and Wineman (1952) were concerned with many of the same issues which concern relational child and youth care practice today--for, as has been said many times, ultimately it all begins with a concern for the inner world of the person. True and lasting change starts from the inside out (Fewster, 2003). In their focus on controls from within, Redl and Wineman acknowledge that internal self-control is preferable to external controls imposed by a distant and disconnected staff.

Controls from Within is thus more than simply the name of a fine book. It is a reference to a way of thinking about what is helpful to children and youth struggling with the internal demons that face everyone at one point or another. It speaks to the ways in which both helpers and youth interact in the world.

Relational Practice as a Connection of Selves

Frances Ricks said that "without the self, there is no other" (2001). Simple as it sounds, it is a profound statement: other only exists through one's experience of the other. The world exists because of the manner in which one creates or constructs it (Peterson, 1988; Watzlawick, 1990). Effective helping relationships involve the connection of self with self, what Austin and Halpin (1987) called the "I to I" relationship--two people connecting in the moment.

If I am to enter into a meaningful relationship with another, then I need to be centered in self, and from that place reach out to the other. It is only from this place of "being with me" that I might "be with the other." The young people with whom we engage often are not secure with self. Instead, their inner world is one of turmoil, confusion, and insecurity. It is only when the self of the helper becomes accessible to the self of the hurting that the process of healing might begin (Fewster, 2003). And if I am to do as Redl (1966, p. 306) suggests--"rely a little more on yourself, your 'person'" in being with the other--I must in some manner be in control of my own self, exercising controls from within so as to ensure that the actions I take are for the benefit of the young person, not myself. Thus attend not only to the relationship but to self in the context of that relationship.

Caring and Belonging