Control Therapy is based on the belief that all of us want to have a positive sense of control about our lives and that we feel happier and healthier when we do. Yet, each of us—client, student, teacher—also knows from first-hand experience that we receive assaults to our sense of control as we go through life. Some of these are the result of inevitable existential suffering inherent in being alive. Others are what we might call “unnecessary suffering” brought about by poor choices, lack of skillful responses to events, and/or not having learned appropriate cognitive, emotional and behavioural self-regulation strategies.
Based on an educational model, CT is a short term therapeutic approach that provides a systematic way of helping individuals learn about their own unique “Control Profile”, examine their control stories and dynamics and assaults to their sense of control, and then determine when to use which types of control enhancing strategies to address their concerns and develop a positive sense of control in their lives.
This site is intended to be used by licensed health care professionals or those under the supervision of a licensed professional; researchers who have obtained, or plan to obtain human subject institutional review from their educational organizations; and teachers and students as part of a class, clinical training seminar, or continuing education program.
Clinicians, researchers, and educators can direct clients and students to this site to take the SCI Control Inventory.
The purpose of the Control Research Foundation Fund is to "promote education and further research and understanding regarding the positive and healthy uses of human control and self-control for individuals, families, societies and planetary health and well-being."
The main goals of the fund are both psychotherapeutic and educational. It is based on the belief that control issues are intimately intertwined in all of our lives, and that to reflect on these issues can be healthy no matter what the setting: psychotherapy, education, or daily life. Through awarding specific targeted grants, this fund is intended to facilitate further research and teaching focused on the principles and practice of control theory and Control Therapy -- to help individuals gain a positive sense of control in their lives -- clients and students in particular and the world around us in general.
The SCI (Shapiro Control Inventory) is a way for individuals to learn about their own unique Control Profile. It is a valid and reliable psychological tool designed to assess a person's current sense of control, mode of control, motivation for control, and agency of control.
For more information on reliability and validity studies, including different clinical populations, PET scan results, etc please click here.
To take the test (if student or client) or to set up an account (if researcher, teacher, educator), please click here.