'Natural Order'
March 2024
When I began training as an Integrative Art Psychotherapist in 2014, I was one of the youngest members of the cohort, age 24. At this point in my life I had faced traumas and had the propensity to self-destruct in quick and devastating succession. I had not integrated fully at the time, that there was a world in which I could design and assimilate my greatest hopes, dreams and aspirations. Instead, there were parts of me fixated on the pain, confusion, disablement and burden. Creativity was at the core of my self-development, I had held onto since childhood, the capacity to draw, paint, and sculpt the constructs that may have at times been wordless from inside my being.
To evolve from a place of pain and self-destruction I learnt how to mentalise my feelings and conceptualise dynamics, to observe my impulses and bring to my body to process what had been prohibited, disassociated or suppressed in the past. This method of mentalisation enabled me to move towards a place of acceptance of what had been and face the challenges I was avoiding in my present. There could have been no greater speed at which I got to this position, there was indeed a natural order to the pieces of this picture coming together, artificial force would have created further resistance, avoidance would have created stagnation. Through the support of therapy and coaching I managed to move through the past ten years to the age of 34, ready and accepting of the challenges life presents.
In the principle of ‘natural order’ I am inviting a coaching client to join me in observing through mindfulness, awareness of systemic dynamics running through our culture, families and community. To evolve and revolutionise their theory of growth, build upon confidence and enquire into their own neurobiologically impacted perspectives. Just as I have done over the past ten years. I integrate Systemic Coaching, which incorporates much of the ecological, holistic and universal interconnectedness that aided me in developing out of stuckness into action and engagement with life. This movement parallels in many ways the evolution of growth theory within quantum physics, shifting from mechanistic to ecological positions of growth and development (Capra, F. 2012). The aid of creativity and imaginal mind also supports the coachee to envisage ‘quantum systems’ that enable or disable their progression within the natural order of life.
In conclusion I hypothesise that the natural order surrounding growth, whether that be professional or personal is both based upon integrating pre-existing wisdom from the body and subconscious, and accepting guidance and interaction with the wider world. This in action is the pendulation between acceptance and challenge.
'Coaching for Change'
November 2023
"In the article ‘Coaching for Change’ (Boyatzis, Smith and Van Oosten, 2019), the authors observe that over recent decades the notable principles of growth and change are irrelevant until the following has been recognised, “When you’re considering whether to invest in coaching someone, you need to ask yourself: Is this individual open to change? Is he or she willing to engage in the reflection and experimentation necessary to make it happen?”. What I think defines the question is the answer. By reversing the question itself; I asked myself, “Am I open to being changed by this relationship, am I willing to engage in the reflection and experimentation necessary to facilitate this individual and their vision?”.
Answering, “Am I open to being changed by this relationship, am I willing to engage in the reflection and experimentation necessary to facilitate this individual and their vision?” as a coach. I considered that coaching change needs to engage with “coachable moments” (Boyatzis, Smith and Van Oosten, 2019) , that evoke a constellation of impact, meaning and momentum. This is not dissimilar to a therapeutic relationship, conclusively the client in both instances is dependent on a relational container, time and space to engage with their process. With a coach or therapist who is genuinely invested in their individuality in their personal and professional spheres.
Gestalt principles determine as practitioners we need to, “recognise the vast field of intra-psychic phenom-ena… and focus heavily on concepts that account for the inter – relationship between the person and the environment”, (Stuart, 2009). Essentially context is key and as a coach the context is a rich ground to build understanding and trust. Acknowledging context at the start will lead to more interconnectedness and a sense of being understood. Once the initial relationship is created via contracting, context and familiarity, the coaching can begin tending to aspects of change, resistance and growth. In the ICF (International Coaching Federation), Section Four, ‘Cultivates Trust and Safety’, they describe, “4.1 Seeks to understand the client within their context which may include their identity, environment, experiences, values and beliefs”, (ICF, 2019). Further highlighting I would need to equally understand my own context to best support a coachee."
'Move The Mountain'
September 2023
"At times I feel like I am working at the very edges of a cliff face. This cliff face is in constant expansion, capturing our consciousness before we fall as we move closer to the edge it jumps back out into the shoreline, expanding its line. As the tide of time has moved back and forth over the past few years lapping against this edge, reality itself has had to grasp space, breath, breadth and expand. Deeper, broader, higher to make room for the rolling waves of data coming into our minds and bodies. This movement of change and truth can for some feel seismic, and I believe this is what has brought about the ‘health and wellbeing’ movement to become more mainstream and to have built such momentum in recent years.
I can’t help but want to get underneath all the wellbeing directives and sense the landscape underneath and this moving shoreline, what happened to us? Who was impacted? Are they ok? The vaccine injured, in their masses have been ostracised, gaslit and silenced. How was it able to happen? Could it happen again? Finding balance between ‘moving on’ and not leaving behind the temporal disintegration, that occurred on a collective level due to the laws and mandates that dictated the past three years. And the numbed dissociation that has permeated into the generations proceeding us as we take steps forward on mass back into the land, back into the meeting places that we were restricted to meet within. I sense the heaviness in others, their confusion and disillusionment. This displacement I believe can be soothed in naming the constructs that oppress us, the power is not all in ‘their’ hands but instead in ours with the ability to move that shoreline with our mind. I invite you to take that space for yourself, expand outside of the small constricted space of fear and allow yourself to question and ponder what will support you to move the mountain?"