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Initial Post – Foundation Two Discussion Cohort 20
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24 Replies
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Looking at how a plant grows, one can easily see the plant will not go from seedling to full maturity overnight. We can readily understand time as a necessary element and contributing factor to the growth of any plant, mineral, or animal that belongs to the earth’s ecosystem. It must follow then, that the processes for change and growth occur at a rate negotiated within the confines of our given biology, as opposed to the artificial constraints and assumptions of a hurried and impatient society. Pervasive technology and production standards have created unrealistic expectations in unnatural environments, obfuscating our origins and need for intuitive rhythms of life. Despite the inherent wisdom and longing for these rhythms, the psychology of the larger masses urges us to exist within a maelstrom of intrusiveness by texts, notifications, and unyielding availability. Jenny Rogers writes that “the human brain and nervous system have not evolved to keep up with this barrage.” (Coaching Skills, 75) Creating a working model where we can walk closer to indiginous understandings of our place on the earth is an integral part of where ecopsychology and coaching can converge.
Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist’s article on Psyche and the Nature of Healing expresses an “inner deadening, and increasingly deployed defense against the stresses of living in an overbuilt industrialized civilization.” (19) In essence, the vehicle for production and being cocooned in our industrialized manner has done much to sever us from our own internal wisdom. While this separation occurs, people will naturally sek out that which brings life back to the inner self. As a society, this is where we become caught in a cyclical mechanism, as most of the solutions proffered to quench human longing is often a contributor to that sense of lifelessness. For example, activities such as shopping, socializing at a restaurant, or even watching a movie may give a temporary reprieve and distraction to loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Once those activities are over, the original emotions and disconnectedness still persists. Connecting ourselves back to internal wisdom and nature, however, can have much more far-reaching effects. Nature can open up the possibility for interrupting what Dr. John Miles calls the “emotional treadmill.” (Wilderness as a Healing Place, 48) Further, Dr. Miles speaks to how working within nature “can allow reflection that can lead to discovery of a different self, a self less conflicted, more integrated, and more desirable.” (46)
As a coach, bringing in nature to access that less conflicted and more integrated self can lead to great confidence and self awareness. Ecopsychologists persistently recommend new and indigenous methods that bring “reconnection with nature and one’s own body.” (Buzzell and Chalquist, 20) If we take nature as the original playground of self exploration and the model for deeper understanding, then nature simultaneously becomes a play mate and teacher. By introducing challenges to a coaching session, clients can meet these challenges in a place free of distraction and expectation. Dr. Miles points out that as people begin to surmount challenges in nature, they start to “experience an increase in self-confidence and a feeling of tranquility,” which leads to greater confidence in their abilities. (45) Confidence earned in nature’s classroom can translate to all areas of life, where the significant challenges a client faced on a mountain can surpass challenges in the day to day. Trusting ourselves in wilderness requires more survival skills, overcoming fears and perceived limitations. Excelling at a challenge in nature has a very different feel than scoring well on a test or giving a solid presentation to a group of peers.
As a coach, being a part of the process of connecting a client with themselves through the medium of nature feels like sacred work. While we are in and of ourselves sacred and part of the greater spirit of all things, our sacredness can be obscured by living in that overbuilt society that Buzzell and Chalquist speak of in their article. This is where I feel I can add value as a coach, and perhaps is a contributing factor to my vision – bringing people back to themselves. The limitations in working with nature in this manner are completely dependent on the degree of the interaction. A casual walk in the park requires both parties to be responsible to a relatively normal day to day set of safety expectations such as wearing proper gear, staying hydrated, and respecting individual limitations. Taking a client or group of clients on an extended journey requires specified training that I don’t have. I’m contemplating getting training for more rigorous outdoor experiences, as I feel like that training alone can help me gain confidence and meaningful connection to my place in the world. I see the wisdom of bringing ecopsychology and coaching together for the benefit of clients, as well as myself.
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Transpersonal experiences in nature can offer both peace and clarity, challenge and growth. Nature holds space for us, the questions nature raises and the invitation to integrate this new meaning and knowledge in our lives is always there, we just have to listen.
My personal story is reflected in this, at each career transition, over the past several years, has been prefaced with a profound experience in nature. Nature becoming the metaphor for what my reality was and inviting me to imagine a different outcome. These experiences prompted deep shifts in my own psychology, growth and life direction.
It is these experiences and my development as a coach that has led me here, to studying nature connected coaching and how I might integrate nature further into my coaching practice.
At the completion of all the module readings in the Australian central desert I jotted some initial thoughts in response to each of the foundations assignments.
For this one, briefly mentioned in John Davis article on transpersonal dimensions of ecopsychology, the concept of ecofeminism stood out, the embracing and recognition of the interdependence and connection humans have with the earth. Perhaps this linked with my desire to embrace more of my own feminine in terms of heart centred over cognitive, analytical interpretation, for when recently reviewing this I can’t find the paragraph that is so clear in my mind.
It had me considering more deeply the role of awareness and presence in our practice as coaches and how the integration and interdependence with nature and earth invites the coach/client relationship to go deeper, to be present and aware from soul. The readings by Roszak and Buzzell et.al. brought more awareness to the level of spirituality that is embedded in ecopsychology, the meeting of our psyche and gaia.
Our destiny is dependent for what we do for Gaia as a whole.
Everything is interconnected, interdependent all over through nature. I’m inspired to bring more connection with nature into my coaching and understand how I can align this with some future goals around leadership coaching and organisational wellness. I believe that before 2020 a big challenge in the coaching space was how to integrate nature and have clients believe in its power from the outset. Now as the world endures a pandemic we are all asking ourselves some deeper questions. We have all paused to consider who we are, where we what are, while some people will carry on as they always have. I do believe there are many who have seen something more, who desire that connection and want to change the way they are living. I believe that coaches are needed now more than ever and we as nature connected coaches have a unique and powerful tool to guide us and assist us in our coaching practice.
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Jen, you have beautifully articulated the articles and highlighted so much richness and learning from within them. I find myself responding to these assignments in a completely different way than I usually would which is fun but sometimes has me wondering when I hit post if I have actually answered the questions.
I had not considered the challenge of safety when coaching in nature, I have in the past considered further guide training so I could utilise activities like abseiling as part of the threshold experience, stepping over the cliff/letting go/taking action. I had let it slip to the very back of my mind, more study/more money, but important to consider these aspects for the park/trail. I wonder what my obligations are here in Australia from a legal point. I digress. Your response prompted me to think about how I might integrate the rituals and activities from a remote space (zoom) while still maintaining the ceremony around this for the client and our work together. I have been inviting my clients to wander and using the sacred questions to reflect on but I’m intrigued to explore ways that would marry the technology and nature together for a more powerful experience simultaneously.
Thank you for providing me with some more to ponder.
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“Many therapy clients also don’t realize that the grief and fear they struggle with may be natural responses to the death of so many living beings and the ongoing distress of Earth, air, and ocean life all around us. Because we’re not being informed about links between mental health symptoms caused by the way we live and the accelerating inner and outer devastation, we remain mystified about why we feel so much pain.” (Pyche and Nature in a Circle of Healing,19, Buzzel and Chalquist)
Currently, I am listening to the audiobook of “Braiding Sweetgrass,” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Kimmerer is a Professor of Environmental Biology at SUNY. I wrote something down that she asked, “Where do you feel most nurtured?” Before I heard the rest of her story, I got to thinking about where I really felt nurtured. I couldn’t decide, and so I hit play and resumed, only to hear her mention that a good friend of hers had stated he felt most nurtured in his car, and later attempted suicide in that same vehicle. Later that day I re-read the quote above that I jotted down in my journal. The citizens on our planet are in turmoil and struggling daily whether they know it or not. I once read something, that I’ll summarize here, “When you’re feeling down and you don’t know why, tell those who ask that you’re sad for the people and animals that die without someone there for them. Tell them you just lost a friend, and when they ask who, respond with I don’t know, but they could have been.”
Ecopsychology is why I applied to this program. We are our planet, and what we do to ourselves is what we do to Earth. “The needs of the planet are the needs of the person, the rights of the person are the rights of the planet.” (Ecopsychology—The Principles, T. Roszac, 321) As a coach and guide in training, I feel slightly unprepared as I do not have any previous education in counseling, therapy, education, so all of the extra information I receive can only serve to help me and my clients. My preparedness, however, stems for my love of the Earth, my understanding of how she works, my patience in learning more about her, my experience as a human and the pain I’ve felt at the crisis she lay in, largely due to the way that my fellow humans have treated her. I understand as an activist that the Earth is in danger, and I understand as a human that the COVID-19 crisis has opened minds and eyes to the true consequences of our lifestyles. At our farmers market in the spring there was a small booth that sold vegan food- “meat”balls, sautéed and marinated mushrooms, soups and casseroles, by mid-summer they expanded their booth by one on each side. By the end of summer they had a separate booth in a different wing offering high protein, vitamin rich smoothies, and when I went to the market on Friday they had expanded that booth as well, and bought another blender. I talked to them and asked about their success, she tells me that a lot of their customers have told her they are interested in going vegan but don’t know where to start. Without an actual experiment, I can deduct that their success is directly related to the crisis our planet is in now.
Nature guidance, for me and my future career, revolves around the practice of engaging my clients with their natural world; working through their real life issues by helping Earth deal with her real life issues such as clearing trash and planting gardens. When quarantine hit, many people chose to go hiking and camping, exploring their natural world around them. When quarantine hit, highways weren’t so crowded but parks and trails were, which resulted in trash, food wrappers, plastic bottles and other single use items, fishing line tangled and left in submerged branches, being left behind. How can we give back to nature by FINALLY embracing her, spending time with her, basking in her glory and appreciating what she had to offer while also decimating her and choking her out? How can we do the same to us, ruminating on the negative attitudes of those around us, eating junk and living a dehydrated and dizzy life, cluttering our soul with the pain that doesn’t belong? Linking nature and our mind/body/soul is a goal I wish to achieve with all of my clients using my experiences and limited but vastly growing knowledge of self, soul and Earth.
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I am feeling this one deeply this year. It is not just a coincidence that anxiety and depression are on the rise. The sadness and confusion we feel is held in a greater context. I don’t think we were taught about our deep connection to nature as our ancestors were. Modern life can give us the illusion that we are separate from nature but our souls feel the earth and grieve for the imbalance that surrounds us.
A gift we have as nature connected coaches is to be able to help people find context for their lives and a deeper understanding of the connection between their feelings and the environment. Thanks again Ally for inspiring me.
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@jenniferlecompte Your post is so eloquently written. I appreciate your metaphor about plant growth and our growth as a human, understanding that time is necessary for everything to change. I believe that a lot of therapy, counseling, coaching clients fail for the same reason that a lot of new year’s resolutions fail: because they expect change at a rapid pace. Crying in one session and expecting to achieve ultimate nirvana afterwards is an asinine assumption, as you’ve only found the building. Next session could be locating the key under the rock to gain you access, next would be unlocking the door, and after that could be finally seeing inside the building, inside the soul. Change, growth, opening yourself and trusting the process, takes time. Thank you for such an insightful post.
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@sophieturner I very much agree with you statement of people seeing something more here, struggling with the effects of this crisis, and discovering that maybe it isn’t a one off type of deal. I also believe that there are some that will continue living life per usual, because I know many of them. The current state of our Earth has left many that are privy to this information feeling vulnerable and unsafe, struggling to find open minds to express themselves to, and lost in a world that is on fire but they know how to help.
I also felt a pull at the feminism mention. “Ecofeminism is an activist and academic movement that sees critical connections between the domination of nature and the exploitation of women” (www.WLOE.org)
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This is in response t the summary post, but for some reason it is showing up as the initial post.
Our foundations intensive was just that—intense. When I applied to this program I didn’t know what I was getting into, and I read the words ‘Nature-Connected Coach’ and thought “Hmm… So I can hang out in nature and help people feel more connected to it?” The hippy in me was ENTHRALLED, and the knowledge pursuer tagged along. When we started the intensive back in August I finally realized what we were training to do. I shared this with my friends and coworkers and received a lot of negative feedback along the lines of ‘scam’, ‘you aren’t the person for that’, ‘you’re paying money for that?’ and I felt, for the first time in my life, that I had found my tribe, my school, my cohort. Life doesn’t need to be surrounded by the negativity that I have lived in, like a sand pit, and I can easily and happily walk on land. Now I have a lot of people asking about my training, people who I never thought would have flipped their script, interested in my books and the techniques that I am being trained to use. I think that a lot of people thought this would be some stupid simple program, but when I need to take a week off work, and I need to take a long break to do a class, leave early for class, they understand. I have told them that the program is intense, and called intensives, because they want to send people that are well equipped and properly trained into the world to help.
I couldn’t be happier to be here. I’m struggling staying on task, I’m getting disappointed in the lack of clients that I have found, but I am working less hours at a negative swamp and I am learning, so I am happy. I love the little family that we have all formed, the connections that have been forged through the internet and the education that we are all learning together. I love that through each other we are also learning things not directly related to the program.
Coming in to the program I thought that my brain damage made me a bad listener and that I could/should use it as an excuse. Moving through the program I discovered that my TBI gave me an interesting way of listening that I had previously thought was a hindrance: I get fixated on a word or phrase and then I can’t get it out of my head. Now, I pick up on the words/phrases that the client seems to go back on and I can use that with them. EBI is helping me define and strengthen my attributes and strive to be the best that I can for my clients.
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Thanks for these posts, Ally!
You posted in the right place! Each module just has one long thread of conversation. The specific links to “initial post” and “summary post” are there more as reminders of each of the required posts, but they bring you back to the same forum.I appreciate how tuned in you are to the shifts in culture and attitude in your area, and the connections you make to larger global trends around the environment, Covid etc., and how these energies in the “field” can impact us and our clients in a very intense and personal way. What also stood out to me in your post was your expression of feeling prepared for this work because of your deep connection and commitment to the Earth. This rings so true to me. Because all the rest of those technical skills, tools and models can be trained. The passion and commitment you already bring with you is the powerful stuff! I wonder about leaning into this feeling of preparedness as part of your practice client search? And how powerful that you’re discovering your different way of listening after the TBI can be an asset in your coaching. Keep exploring this!
PS – Robin Wall Kimmerer and Braiding Sweetgrass quickly became favorites in my house! Don’t you love listening to her narration? I can hear the smile in her voice as she speaks! <3
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I have envisioned nature-connected coaching in the way that ecopsychology is described in “Psyche and Nature in a Circle of Healing” and “Ecopsychology-The Principles.” The emphasis “Psyche and Nature in a Healing Circle” puts on nature as a co-guide resonates strongly with how I envisioned coaching working in the context of nature. It is through this connection and symbiotic relationship with the land and ecosystem that awareness is amplified.
I appreciate how ecopsychology creates space for change and transformation without “intrusive interventions or other authority-driven impositions on the client’s life and process” (Psyche & Nature, p. 20). In coaching, we’re relying on the client’s inner resources and ultimate knowing. The beauty of acknowledging and inviting nature into our client’s process is that as they reach their inner answers, they are in communication with the entire circle of being in the world, and this consciousness can lead the individual and the collective to greater good. Coach and client are more resourced in this exchange, and it can be an immediate sensory experience of flow when the authoritarian grip over life is loosened.
The theme that jumped out at me from “Ecopsychology-The Principles” is the idea of reciprocity. It’s kind of like the quote from Heraclitius, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.” This also connects with the way change is highlighted in the coaching process. “Ecopsychology-The Principles” mentions “universal identity” (p.319). We are inherently connected and inseparable from earth and sky, even when we are not consciously thinking about it. Likewise, we are undeniably connected to the fellow humans we share this planet with. As individuals we are impacting the land and the broader world, daily. If individual life is so connected to these larger organisms moving outside of us, how much more-so are we capable of being connected within ourselves, able to impact our experiences through the choices we make and the growth we apply ourselves toward. Of course, this circles back around into our relationship with others, human and non-human, alike.
Gestalt and partswork feels at home here! -
Sorry, my initial response double posted!
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On one starry night hike bordering Jordan pond in Acadia National Park, Maine my sensory awareness heightened and was my guide for the several mile walk. I’m reminded of the article “Where Psyche Meets Gaia” by Theodore Roszack on page one it states “awareness of the nonhuman; companion creatures” The sound of the water playfully splashing the slick polished rocks and the smell of the sweet balsam fir brushing by me were teaching me to trust nature, to trust myself where my eyes could not see due to the lack of light. They were my “non-human companions”.In this decrease of familiar reliance on the sun there was an increase of trust in the mysterious unknown time of the new moon. What I could see as I imagined the landscape through the dark and as the star’s appearance bejeweled Acadia’s sky was that I could navigate through the dark.
I noticed my mind searching for answers as it was my curiosity to explore the external and internal landscape in the dark like why was I there? What drew me here at this point in my life? I held a very deep communion of silence within as I was also withdrawn in the dark moon phase – my menstrual cycle. Overthinking steeped into the heat I felt from my layers of clothing and I swirled into the trusting surrender of nature/myself through Sacred Questions. Darker and darker I walked till the milky way revealed itself, till Mars in its red tinge reflected on the pond I utilized my headlamp as I noticed discomfort in the darkness a shift in my baseline. I was walking with some fears. As I held the mystery in my womb and heart my breathing became longer and as I inhaled the clean air, the infusion of the elements I kept the inquiry: what am I noticing and what is this telling me.
I needed something clear to communicate to me that I was okay.
There were many bridges/ thresholds different paths made from dirt, wood planks and puddles but that confused me. It was when I saw a maple leaf with a perfectly cut out of a heart within it on the path that I knew nature was answering my request for clear communication. Something I could read in the land that resonated deeply with me. A few days prior to this deep nature connected experience I received the message while meditating on the representation of dark moon energies of the sky, land and the archetype of the old wise woman the crone in women’s menstrual cycles I heard: “Love comes from the darkness it is from the dark we have the impulse and learn to love it is in essence trust to love from this place”. One could say I’ve been guided lovingly by love to love more and that is my answer and that is my new inquiry. What does it mean to guide lovingly as a coach?
I believe what this means to me is reflected by the beliefs in ecopsychology that we live in an animistic world. In “Ecopsychology the Principles” by Roszack the first page 319 has a sentence that states “the person is anchored within a greater, universal identity.” I feel this kind of connection is reminiscent of old sayings like being “guided by the stars or by “destiny”. It makes me wonder how people of this belief have sought counsel from the universe, from nature. I have no other explanation other than this story I’ve written here was a message from the universe and that I am made of stars by going out on the land and seeing that and remembering.
In principle 4 “The crucial stage of development is the life of the child; the ecological unconscious is regenerated, as if it were a gift, in the newborn’s enchanted sense of the world. Eco-psychology seeks to recover the child’s innately animisitc quality of experience. To do this is turns to many sources, among them the traditional healing techniques of primary people, nature mysticism, experience of wilderness, insights of Deep Ecology.” p. 320-21. This passage clarifies how I view the world of nature-connected coaching. This adds a certain validation of a deep internal sense I’ve carried about nature since childhood. It gives permission to adopt some of eco-psychology’s philosophy into my personal philosophy of coaching. The way into deeper conscious connection is through the child spirit in each of us.
As a coach it is vital for me to practice what I am guiding others to do. Through consistent self study out in nature and deep connection I will have brave adventure stories to tell that become a foundation of real lived experience I can share with clients. Being out in the wilderness seeking nature’s council becomes a framework I can develop myself as a coach through. It is just as important as reading books and being in seminars.
I’m not sure how the blend of eco-psychology and coaching might fall short but maybe it could fall short if a client I am working with has very strong religious beliefs. Or if a client I am working with has big fears about nature. It isn’t the answer for everything but can provide insight and a potential approach to working as a nature-connected coach. If I were to work with clients like this then I will keep an open mind about the lenses they look through and remember when I was walking with fears around Jordan pond nature gave me a clear message: one of loving and being guided through the dark. -
Sul,
Thank you for sharing this story of your wander in the dark and the message you received! I appreciate your awareness of the importance of doing our own work and self study as coaches, in order to continue guiding others. And what a powerful question to be holding, “what does it mean to guide lovingly as a coach?” Keep us with you on that journey as your answer to that continues to evolve and grow!
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Heather,
Thanks for these thoughts! Wow, I love the idea you bring up that if inter-connection between all beings is a truth, then why not ease in connection within ourselves too?! I feel how this realization supports the knowing that we can connect deeply within ourselves, just as we can connect deeply to our universal identity and to “other”. Now that you’ve highlighted that, I’m reminded of how much easier I find it to connect deeply with myself when I start from a place of “universal identity” and connection to that larger sense of self. Cool!
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Hi Heather,
I like how you make the connection between the principles of eco-psychology and nature-connected coaching. I understand what you wrote points to the sense of self autonomy both fields empower the individual through. Having authority over one’s time spent in a session. That we can hold the container for the people we work with to claim what is true for them. I really like this about both fields and they blend nicely. I appreciate you mentioning “reciprocity” and relationship with the “non-human.” It always makes me feel good to acknowledge that connection for myself and I wonder if it feels good for the larger beings the earth and sky for instance, too.
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I am posting a reply here for Sul (who is experiencing difficulties with this forum):
Hi Heather, I like your reflections about connection and relationship with land and ecosystem is supported by ecopsychology and reinforces our path as nature-connected coaches. I agree with the principle you shared that creates the container for the individuals self autonomy. It is a great reminder for us as coaches to be in a client led coaching session. It seems both fields empower the person to claim their truest experience in and as nature without outside definition or authority. Thanks for reminding me this is such an interesting role to be stepping into as coach because it’s kind of like a very vulnerable place to hold while someone consciously connects to nature and seeks guidance and claims that without being told how to.
