I met Tom Gordon in a counsellors’ convention where he gave a demonstration of his teaching methods and explained his model of parent-child relationship. At that time I was studying for a master’s degree in human behavior at USIU. I a couple of hours he made sense of everything I was studying. He applied in real life what we were trying to understand in our theory course and apply in our internship.
He provided us with tools to combine to be our own self and to act as a professional, to remain centered while intervening to help others. He pointed how to help ourselves first by checking what we really accept and act accordingly.
I immediately registered for his Parent Effectiveness Training course, and then Instructor workshop and later became a member of his international network of master trainers. Teaching his courses involved an important part of my workload. An in all my other professional activities and personal endeavors I constantly used the model and skills he and his team taught me. I often concluded: when I succeed in any interpersonal contact I had been using his people skills and when I failed I could use his model to find out where I had missed a step and replay the situation when appropriate.
In one of our international Gordon Trainers meeting I was glad to hear him say «I thing Jacques is the one who understands most our model.» after I had argued to change the word «resistance» for «emotional reaction» in the confrontation process.
Many years ago I presented him in a psychologists’ convention in Montreal as «a popular educator» as he brought psychology and its implementation in everyday life to everyone. That why he will always remain with us.
