power score is determined on each of the four sub-
scales: awareness, choices, freedom to act intention-
ally, and involvement in creating changes. The
scores are documented as part of the client’s pat-
tern profile and shared with the client during vol-
untary mutual patterning. Scores are considered
as a tentative and relative measure of the ever-
changing nature of one’s field pattern in relation to
power.
Instead of focusing on issues of control, the
nurse helps the client identify the changes and the
direction of change the client desires to make.
Using open-ended questions, the nurse and the
client mutually explore choices and options and
identify barriers preventing change, strategies, and
resources to overcome barriers; the nurse facilitates
the client’s active involvement in creating the
changes. For example, asking the questions, “What
do you want?” “What choices are open to you
now?” “How free do you feel to do what you want
to do?” and “How will you involve yourself in cre-
ating the changes you want?” can enhance the
client’s awareness, choice-making, freedom to act
intentionally, and his or her involvement in creat-
ing change (Barrett, 1998).
A wide range of voluntary mutual patterning
strategies may be used to enhance knowing par-
ticipation in change, including meaningful dia-
logue, dance/movement/motion, sound, light,
color, music, rest/activity, imagery, humor, thera-
peutic touch, bibliotherapy, journaling, drawing,
and nutrition (Barrett, 1998). The PKPCT can be
used at intervals to evaluate the client’s relative
changes in power.
Theory of Kaleidoscoping
in Life’s Turbulence
Butcher’s (1993) Theory of Kaleidoscoping in Life’s
Turbulence was derived from Rogers’ Science of
Unitary Human Beings, chaos theory (Briggs &
Peat, 1989; Peat, 1991), and Csikszentmihalyi’s
(1990) Theory of Flow. It focuses on facilitating
well-being and harmony amid turbulent life events.
Turbulence is a dissonant commotion in the
human/environmental field characterized by
chaotic and unpredictable change. Any crisis may
be viewed as a turbulent event in the life process.
Nurses often work closely with clients who are in a
“crisis.” The turbulent life event may be an illness,
the uncertainty of a medical diagnosis, marital dis-
cord, or loss of a loved one. Turbulent life events are
often chaotic in nature, unpredictable, and always
transformative.
Kaleidoscoping is a way of engaging in a mutual
process with clients who are in the midst of expe-
riencing a turbulent life event by mutually flow-
ing with turbulent manifestations of patterning
(Butcher, 1993).Flowis an intense harmonious in-
volvement in the human/environment mutual field
process. The term “kaleidoscoping” was used be-
cause it evolves directly from Rogers’ writings and
conveys the unpredictable continuous flow of pat-
terns, sometimes turbulent, that one experiences
when looking through a kaleidoscope. Rogers
(1970) explained that the “organization of the liv-
ing system is maintained amidst kaleidoscopic al-
terations in the patterning of system” (p. 62).
The Theory of Kaleidoscoping with Turbulent
Life Events is used in conjunction with the
pattern manifestation knowing and appreciation
and voluntary mutual patterning processes. In ad-
dition to engaging in the processes already de-
scribed in pattern manifestation knowing and
appreciation, the nurse identifies manifestations of
patterning and mutually explores the meaning of
the turbulent situation with the client. A pattern
profile describing the essence of the client’s experi-
ences, perceptions, and expressions related to the
turbulent life event is constructed and shared with
the client.
In the theory of kaleidoscoping, voluntary mu-
tual patterning also incorporates the processes of
transforming turbulent events by cultivating pur-
pose, forging resolve, and recovering harmony
(Butcher, 1993).Cultivating purposeinvolves assist-
ing clients in identifying goals and developing an
action system. The action system is comprised of
patterning strategies designed to promote harmony
amid adversity and facilitate the actualization of
the potential for well-being.
In moments of turbulence, clients may want to
increase their awareness of the complexity of the
situation. Creative suspension is a technique that
may be used to facilitate comprehension of the sit-
uation’s complexity (Peat, 1991). Guided imagery is
a useful strategy for facilitating creative suspension
because it potentially enhances the client’s ability to
enter a timeless suspension directed toward visual-
izing the whole situation and facilitating the cre-
ation of new strategies and solutions.Forging
resolveis assisting the clients in becoming involved
and immersed in their action system. Because174 SECTION III Nursing Theory in Nursing Practice, Education, Research, and Administration