A consultant learns emotionally. He wants to empathize and experience how something happens and works. Truths and meanings are revealed in joint discussions. Factual information needs a human, emotional context to be understood. Therefore, stories or metaphors in which the consultant can empathize (imagination, intuition) as well as group work and personal conversations (dialogues) are helpful.

Each basic need has a particular way of learning.

The need to belong says: My advantage is that I can remember well what was said. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, I listen. Then when I discuss it with others, it quickly becomes clear if I’m off base or if what I’ve understood is true. Yes, I think I learn best when I try to teach it to others. Take a paper, for example. When I prepare it, I talk to people internally and listen in my imagination to see if it resonates with them. It may sound strange, but I can talk to them about it in my mind and usually find an example that is coherent for everyone.

For learning, the empathy need means: I like to make myself comfortable. I like to incorporate the content to be learned into my experienced or invented stories. Sometimes I use quiet, meditative music to relax. Suggestopedia uses similar ways, I think. In any case, my learning thus becomes an inner event in which all feelings participate. I leave it to my unconscious, that is, to the personality parts or dream instances, to internalize new knowledge. I enter a situation inwardly, experience what happens or could happen and intuitively find the answers. I learn most easily through stories that I can make come alive within me.