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Summary Post-Foundation 2-Cohort 19
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9 Replies
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One of my greatest takeaways from this module is that Ecopsychology asks us to embrace what goes against the current status quo. Of course any new(er) philosophy does, even when at one point long ago Ecopsychology in its original iteration was the status quo. But the collective well-being of humankind as we continue to change and evolve requires that we consistently be able to question and push through the status quo as we look forward towards a better way of being. This takes a particular mindset and set of skills- at the very least the ability to reflect and develop internal and external awareness; a reliance on intuition; and a steadfast, unshakeable belief in the authenticity of the path one has chosen for themselves.
Ecopyschology is the integration of ancient and modern on humanity’s path forward. It’s the perfect arena for a coach to operate in, as coaches should consistently be learning and growing in new ways, pushing through our own status quo of understanding around human behavior. We should always be exploring new and differenet ways of being, integrating what we learn into our toolbox in order to meet each individual client where they are on their journey. With the idea that Ecopsychology attempts to heal the foundational relationship between humans and the Earth, and the ripple effect that healing this relationship can have on other connections in life, I see Ecotherapy and Ecopsycology interventions as being an important pillar in the foundation of a coach’s toolbox. Not the only way to coach, but a consistent and important part of the way we coach.
A great takeaway that comes from this module for me personally, is the importance of trusting myself and my experiences. I have often wondered, am I crazy for thinking I can talk to trees? And hearing that others have felt the same is validating. But validation from others doesn’t cut it. It takes work to build that connection with nature, with consistent experimentation, iteration, and reflection. It takes coaching oneself in nature to have the trust and faith that I can do so with others. Only with that effort to do the work myself will I build confidence as my experiences also validate what I am truly able to do.
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Reviewing the material in Foundation 2 takes me back to Star House and sparks memories of working in the severance phase with partners. There were times when it felt really successful and others when it felt like we just rode on a mary-go-round for 30 mins, complete with the dizziness and confusion of a ride coming to a stop, haha! I found myself trying to remember all the ways to actively listen and engage them all and, in turn, found that consciously thinking about doing those things led to me not listening well. There’s a state of surrender we can be in where active listening happens subconsciously, if we can get out of our own way. Once I let go of trying to control my listening, I found I was able to pick up on the shifts in baseline. I was able to sense power words. I was feeling into where the conversation was flowing and reflecting back to my client, either for confirmation that we were on the right track or for further clarity. All of these things led to powerful questioning that made the client pause before answering. We were able to get beyond story and move into the deeper need. One big take away I have that relates to working in severance is that there’s sometimes a need to pause the session and regroup or just simply ask where we’re going with it. This didn’t feel natural to me at first. It felt like I should be able to get them through severance no matter what was thrown at me. But by giving myself permission to put the brakes on for a minute when needed, we were able to see where we currently stood. That in itself can bring clarity to the client and I found that when we got started again, we had a more successful exchange. I learned and am still learning that working in severance isn’t easy and it’s not always going to be hashed out in time to move into the threshold and incorporation phases within one session. Being okay with this is also a challenge for me.
As I’ve gotten into a few practice sessions back home, I’ve realized how it can be pretty easy to sense level of interest vs. level of need in the client. It’s interesting to see this playing out in the interaction with them. It also inspires some creativity for how you can move someone into a more desired place, if you feel you have someone who is on the lower end of interest and/or need. I find myself, as I’m listening to a client throughout the sessions, picking up on important little gems they share that I store away and can circle back on to heighten interest or raise the energy level when needed. Tuning into things they enjoy, things they’re good at, or things that challenge them are all useful in getting them into a more balanced state of interest/need. I enjoy incorporating connection and awareness exercises into the sessions that build onto the experience they have with me and it seems to be successful in rousing more curiosity into what else they don’t know about their own connection to the earth. As we discussed in our cohort forum, ecopsychology has an important role to play in coaching for us. We can be a midwife of sorts in our clients re-connection to the environment. Ultimately, they have the resources within them to cultivate this connection, we only help to create the awareness.
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I am taking away a great amount of learning and personal insight from the module and our training together this far. I’ve been reflecting a lot of the idea of ‘wholeness’ and how clients come to us whole and how the Earth is whole. By listening to the land and by embracing our gifts of self awareness, sensitivity, and connection, we as coaches are given incredible opportunities to help guide others through what can be very powerful experiences. Just yesterday I was thinking about the exercises we have practiced (i.e. I value you, and I value me) and how using intentional language is powerful. As we work with our clients, our goals are to deeply listen and to guide our clients through Severance, Threshold, and Incorporation. Our clients experience a change, gain perspective, and are invited to step in to living their lives in a new way. They have a rite of passage. The container that we create along with nature, is in my opinion where the magic happens! Intention is everything! Also, I’ve enjoyed learning more about ecopsychology and how we can help ourselves and clients live sustainable lives of wellness. Another thing I am loving is that the work and learning I’m doing with EBI is rippling into all areas of my life. As a coach, I will be working with a variety of people and will be continually assessing not only where my clients are but also where I am. And I know that my commitment to community and giving back are what drive me and light me on fire, and I hope that the clients I work with also experience soul-directed experiences that drive them to live their best lives as well. It is so inspiring to be on this journey with you all!
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When I look back at the entire learning experience of this module, I smile and feel complete. The reading material, the prompts and posts and the lessons picked up along the way over the past couple of weeks have played an important part of my decision making at work and at home. I’m completing this module knowing myself and my cohort on a deeper level.
As I reflect on the pieces of the dream that stay with me from this last module, I notice that I continue to recall the reading material. I really discovered who I am (nature connected coach) and who I am not (therapist, manager etc) through the reading. I have an understanding and a want for connecting people “back to” nature. I trust that miracles are possible on the “other side” of the human/nature connection.
This module is the source of a shift for me. I’m beginning to see and interact with people and the world as though…they are me. What I do to myself, I do to them. What I do to them (the planet), I do to myself. I can now see what I didn’t know I didn’t know. Thank you. -
I have loved the readings and reflections associated with this module. For me, the relationship between ecopsychology, wellbeing, and coaching is so relevant, especially during these times! Over the past few days I have been feeling uneasy–tightness in my chest and throat, heavinness on my shoulders, jumpiness in my eyes, tension in my face–I know the it’s my “lizzard brain” being activated to this unknown threat of the virus that is swmimming in our communities and consciousness.
It’s been interesting to shift myself from the feelilngs of threat to feelings of wonder and curiosity. Yesterday, I went on a wander to connect with my emotions and ask the Land for wisdom. Not only did I find answers and wisdom, but my whole self became more grounded, optimistic, and peaceful. This virus is part of Nature, part of the Earth’s way of rebalancing, it is a call to reconnection. Our disconnection from Nature and our past attempts to sanitize ourselves has made us much more vulnerable to disease. We are out of balance with the harmony of Nature–we no longer get dirty playing in the dirt and our immune system is suffering because of it.
While I was out in Nature, the trees spoke about resiliency and finding the resources they need for self-healting. Trees go through so much in the span of their life-times and find a way to grow strong and steady despite setbacks–fires, disease, parasites, animals, human activity, climate, nutrients, etc.–they adapt to their reality and grow to be hundreds of years old.
Our wellbeing is tied to Nature’s wellbeing. Ecopsychology is another word for this reality–for something we have forgotten. Again, I’d like to reference the poem read at the United Nations Environmental Sabbath Program:
We have forgotten who we are
We have alienated ourselves from
the unfolding of the cosmos
We have become estranged from the movements
Of the earthWe have turned our backs on the cycles of life
We have forgotten who we are.
Now the forests are dying
And the creatures are disappearing,
And humans are despairing
We have forgotten who we are.We ask forgiveness
We ask for the gift of remembering
We ask for strength to change
We have forgotten who we are._____________________
As Nature Connected Coaches, we are directly contributing to the wellbeing of all human and non-human beings on the Earth. We are participating and collaborating in the re-membering of who we are.
May we learn from our past and look forward to a future in which we live in harmony with the Earth and all its human and non-human beings!
“For all that has been,
Thank you.For all that is to come,
Yes!”
Dag Hammarskjold, UN Secretary General, 1953-1961 -
In Summary,
I have found that my psyche is the wilderness that the forest reflects back to me. At the same time it is its own wonderful being that I am connected to. I choose to tend it with care and develop a relationship with it or to take it for granted, and each choice has its consequence. This is also true for my psyche.
Ecopsychology is an academic study and application of the above concept. It is using tools and information from many realms to develop a new understanding and way of being in the world. I consider this to be primarily a left-brained endeavor.
Nature is what binds us together, what created us and what will exist when we are gone. All that exists is an expression of Nature, thus we can study Nature through its expressions of Self and Other, but Nature simultaneously remains mysterious and cannot be fully understood. For me, this is a spiritual practice, and is primarily a right-brained endeavor.
I experience Nature Connected Coaching as an amazing blend of the analytical and spiritual, the left and right brain. It allows freedom for individual experience and variable format while equipping us with tools that have been studied for efficacy and are constantly being developed and refined.
I am also learning about the importance of embracing my own personal “madness”, my unique presence and flavor of being in the world that that is fearless, wild and free, yet considerate, supportive and present. -
In diving deeper into the philosophies behind Ecopsychology and Coaching, and the connection between the two schools of thought and practice, I am brought to one word: wholeness. We are each whole beings, and we are all connected together as a whole Earth and Universe. From my experience and knowledge, it seems that Ecospychology and Nature-connected Coaching both invite and guide clients to remember the wholeness with themselves, others, Earth, and the Universe.
With that said, there is a reason we forgot our wholeness and interconnectedness in the first place, and I believe that if we are to evolve as a species, we will learn a vital lesson from this great forgetting. I am reminded of a client being faced with a major life challenge, and coming out of the challenge with a greater wisdom into themselves and life. Challenge allows for evolution to occur. Perhaps Ecopsychology and Nature-connected coaching are not only about guiding people into a remembering that they are whole, but also into a sort of future consciousness of wholeness that is different from what we have ever experienced, and lasting (not possible to “forget”). It is possible that we are being called into a greater consciousness of wholeness, beyond what we have previously conceived.
A major part of our conscious evolution is a knowing that nature is our greatest teacher. It is vital that Nature-connected Coaching views non-human beings as the co-guide/coach. We must choose to deeply listen and trust our intuition and nature.
In combining Coaching and Ecopsychology philosophies into Nature-Connected Coaching, I am reminded of combining masculine and feminine forces. Coaching seems more masculine- goal oriented, structured, and tangible. Ecospychology and ecotherapy, on the other hand, is much more feminine- imaginative, tender, and ethereal. In combining coaching and ecospychology into nature-connected coaching, we are combining both masculine and feminine forces, which is also essential for the evolution of our species.
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This module has served as a reminder of the potent framing of ecopsychology. As fundamentally self interested beings, humans in general need to understand how something effects us in order to change our behaviors; the genius of the ecopsychological perspective is that it frames human psychology within its broader environmentally connected context and forces a critical social bond between personal suffering/wellbeing and the health of the Earth. Through the lens of ecopsychology, we come to understand our feelings, moods, and mental health as (inter)dependent participles of the Earth. I would love to imagine a world in which physical health, mental health, and the health of the planet are all seen as different organs of a shared body – without taking care of one, the others cannot function.
Although I don’t hold much hope for the world waking up tomorrow with eyes that see more connections than distinctions, I at least have enjoyed rediscovering and clarifying the connection between my own body/mind and the condition of other living beings and the planet. Yet I am seeking a more granular understanding of ecopsych, as I have many questions about how one might cultivate a more intimate connection with the psychology of the earth; for if we are earth and we have a psyche, then earth must have a ‘mind’ as well. What that looks like I will hold in exploration.
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Foundations 2 Module Recap 3/13/20
As I reflect on Foundations 2 Module and associated readings. I am reminded that it’s beautiful how shamanism and science eventual meet. The human connection to Nature is innately within in us, and finds another language to be taught and remembered through. In this case Eco Psychology. As I read the Eco Psyche, articles, immediately, I a light bulb went off in my mind, this is shamanism, why are they just calling it that. Later in the readings shaman’s, earthing, nature therapy, etc. were referenced. It reminds me how important it is to discover a client’s a “language”. For me to discovery a client’s language, that requires me to also learn multiple languages and bridge the translation of “language” so I can hold a coaching presence with more depth and confidence, not just for the client, but for myself as well. It will also assist me in better meeting a client where he/she is at in terms of themselves and where he/she is within the coach ability graph The skill of mastering the Art of Questioning and to have child’s curiosity, that sat with me. How can I be curious and excited like a child and still breath into my body, pause, and pay attention to what I am experiencing in addition to what the client is experiencing and not let my excitement get ahead of the client’s process. Really allowing the process of severance and use of sacred questions, and attuning to create space for the deeper need of the client to rise to the surface. Just allow the ceremony to happen. Allow the client to come to the remembrance that he/she is connected to and has already has a relationship to Earth, they are just remember it’s “language” and that they are connecting with it and themselves in every moment. It’s up to the client how they want that relationship to change/grow. As a coach/guide I can observe, hold a presence, bring awareness, and just allow the ceremony to unfold, learn to pay attention to the shifts, and changes, and know when and when not to bring a client to an edge. I am getting used to experiencing this Ceremony and Nature Connected Coaching from a different perspective, through the language of the client.
