Brain 1 Discussion

[Hannah]

My first session after the face to face, I met with a new client. It turns out, this person was the closest to my ideal client I have worked with! It felt amazing to be working with just the client I have imagined. I could hear her “irreconcilable opposites” and we built the energy around them to the point where the myth just jumped out of her. And it was even cooler because I knew what was happening in her brain as she was experiencing all of this!

My client had come into the session with some issues around lots of transitions coming up in her life. She is finishing grad school and is unsure of where she’ll be living, what job she’ll have, if she’ll continue in her current relationship etc. As we worked our way through severance she talked about her deep desire to connect humans and nature in order to heal themselves. (By the way, she sounds like a great fit for EBI….). But she shared that she is feeling disillusioned with her graduate degree and feeling like it isn’t the right path for her to help connect humans and nature in order to heal the world!

She discovered that she is holding a big mistrust of the universe because she took a leap of faith going to grad school. She put in a lot of time, energy, and money but now feels like the universe dropped her because it turned out not to be the right path. She expressed feeling a huge release as she spoke this. She also recognized a grieving process that needs to take place because of this. So, she had uncovered a previous myth that is now stopping her from reaching her goals. The assumption was “I did what I thought was right, took a leap of faith, and it didn’t work out for me and now things are falling apart. So this means I cannot trust the universe to hold me when I leap this time.” The new myth that emerged is “I need to trust that the universe will hold me.”

My client created a powerful threshold where she practiced with this idea of the universe holding her. She made an analogy to a romantic relationship when trust has been broken. She said there needs to be a re-building of that trust through experimenting. So she is working on rebuilding her trust of the universe by asking, testing and experimenting in smaller ways. Her threshold was the first of what she plans will be many experiences of asking if the universe will hold and support her…then receiving an answer.

My client has a really strong experience of the mythic image. She can see herself as someone who trusts the universe again and is able to step into her role as a connector of humans and nature in order for healing to occur. But she also very strongly feels mistrust and fear because of what happened with her graduate school experience. I am hoping that the strong experience of the mythic image and her threshold experience of feeling held and supported by the universe will help her deepen the trusting neural pathway so she can jump into the work she really wants to be doing in the world.

[Anna Switzer]

Hey Hannah! This sounds like an amazing session. Your client is in a difficult spot, and I love how you describe the mythic image just popping as the tension of the opposites got stronger. Well done! Do you have any ideas of how you would work with her as a long-term client? How could you help her really practice this new neural pathway (I guess that makes me wonder if she created a ritual for herself…?). Thanks for sharing!!

[Erica Wrona]

Hannah, it sounds like you really grasped the Brain 1 concept of the Myth and ran with it! Nice job quickly identifying your client’s “irreconcilable opposites” and building energy around it in order for the Myth to pop out. I want to honor the scope of the issue your client had presented, leading to “I need to trust that the universe will hold me.” That’s immense! Your description of this coaching session really exemplifies the importance of identifying the “irreconcilable opposites” which is seeing the differentiated parts and allows the intention to form. Knowing that the brain is trying to “reconcile the irreconcilable” by believing in the Myth is really powerful and beautiful to see how it played out in your session. The end of your post intrigued me because it reminded me of a session I had with a client where she needed to trust something, and then she went out and trusted it, and received untrustworthy results, thus further cementing her distrust in her particular issue. You wrote,
“But she also very strongly feels mistrust and fear because of what happened with her graduate school experience. I am hoping that the strong experience of the mythic image and her threshold experience of feeling held and supported by the universe will help her deepen the trusting neural pathway so she can jump into the work she really wants to be doing in the world.”
(And earlier): “Her threshold was the first of what she plans will be many experiences of asking if the universe will hold and support her…then receiving an answer.”
I pose this question to anyone on this forum, how do you address snapback when a client goes out into the world to experiment with the Myth and comes up against more of the former story rather than the more desirable Myth?
Food for thought 🙂

[Anna Switzer]

Initial Post: Dec 7, 2017

I’ve been reading Mindsight by Daniel Siegel, and it is hitting home in so many ways. Part II (sor far) for me is all about Integration and all of the ways we humans can be NOT integrated. And, the most mind-blowing discovery has been chapter 6. The title of this chapter is “Half a Brain in Hiding: Balancing Left and Right”. This chapter is about Stuart – a 92 year old man who DS worked with to help him feel life more fully again after his wife’s illness. DS discovered lots of things about Stuart that led him to think that Stuart had, early on in life, cut himself off from his right brain. His autobiographical memory was lacking, he lacked awareness of his body, he was deeply intelligent but mostly in a linear/logical fashion. For reference, here is what DS says about the right brain: “our right hemisphere gives us a more direct sense of the whole body, our waves and tides of emotion, and the pictures of lived experience that make up our autobiographical memory. The right brain is the seat of our emotional and social selves.” (p. 107).

My eyes grew wider and wider as I read this chapter. I felt like I finally understood some of the difficulties that my partner and I sometimes have in connecting. My partner is a younger (and of course different in other ways) version of Stuart. I am 1000% convinced. I suddenly felt like I had something to work with in “diagnosing” our troubles. I think that over time, David has taken refuge from life deeper and deeper in his left brain and let his right brain atrophy (for lack of a better word). His left brain makes him feel in control and more comfortable. His right brain makes him feel less in control and less comfortable.

I realize, too, that we are not alone in this dynamic. Many males in our culture take refuge in their left brains. Our culture is left-brain oriented, and so normalizes left-brain thinking. Right brain orientations (mostly female, but we know that this is not a hard line) are discounted in many ways in our culture. I think that I am more balanced/integrated left-brain/right-brain, but that David is WAAAY left-brained.

So, what to do? I dream of David’s willingness to shift his orientation even slightly back toward his right-brain. I don’t need a wholesale shift from left-brain to right-brain; just a slight movement would do, I think. So, in the event of being able to be a Nature Connected Coach for David (or someone like him), I want to walk through my thinking about how to coach on this. I don’t know, yet, whether David would be interested so this is all hypothetical. And, likely I would not be HIS coach in particular, but I do think this is a good exercise for me to think through for actual future clients.

Using DS’s work with Stuart as a guide, I will attempt to outline below some things I would have in mind in working with David as a “client”, assuming he had as a goal making a slight shift from the left brain into the right brain.

LONG TERM COACHING MODEL: First, he would need to be at least in contemplation for any of this to work (currently, he is in pre-contemplation, for sure.)

I won’t repeat all of DS’s strategies in my description here, because I mostly want to highlight the things that are nature-connected. But, just to lay some foundational work and to SNAG David’s left-brain, I would try to help him understand the benefits of living a more left-right integrated life. David would need to have this as a goal FOR HIMSELF, not just because I want this for him/us. He would need to see the advantage of heightening his awareness of the world; see it is building his skills and expanding his potential.

So, first of all, I would definitely start every session with “feeling into the ground” a bit. Helping him sense the support of the chair/floor/earth. I might even ask him to describe the sensations he has in noticing that support. Where/how does he feel it? And, also taking some deep breaths so that new neural connections are more likely to be made (based on the new research Michael told us about).

Again, letting him guide the session(s) would be important, but in terms of creating a long-term plan I would include some of the following:

body scan exercises — maybe even while lying on the ground so that more of his body is in direct contact with the ground
Sensory awareness exercises -guiding him through all of the senses at first and then letting him take the lead
Having him describe what he is seeing in nature; getting him to be more and more deeply descriptive over time; asking him to make meaning from his experiences in nature
In between sessions, having him journal about sensations, memories, imagery, feelings, images/phrases he finds in nature when he is on his own

I don’t have any deep conclusions at this point, as David is a theoretical client for me at this point in time. But, it is fun to think about how to help someone make some aount of shift from left-brain to right-brain, using Nature as part of the process (unlike DS’s approach).

[Hannah]

Hi Anna!

Finally get around to wrapping up some homework and am re-visiting this discussion board. Thanks for your thorough post! And the inspiration to start reading Mindsight! As I read your post a thought emerged about how personal and pervasive this work we do is. Of course you acknowledge that working in an official way with David might not be in the cards, and that you’re using this experience as a way to think through how one might work with a client in a similar place as David. However, this is still a real scenario happening in your life RIGHT NOW! So first, thank you for sharing about your personal experience integrating some of this brain stuff! I can imagine that the differences in how you and David perceive the world impact your daily life significantly (and I’m happy to do a session with you around this if it would be useful to you!) And second, I love how you’re using this personal life experience to deepen your inquiry into methods for coaching folks in similar situations. I’m realizing that it is often my personal challenges and learnings that inspire my coaching work too! It seems this is a common thing among coaches and other mental health professionals – that we dive into work that we’re specifically interested in based on our experiences in our own lives! As I write this I’m wondering if there is anything to be cautious of because of this. I think having dialed in self-awareness is important so we can catch ourselves if we begin to overlay our own experience onto our client’s experiences. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, Anna!

[Elizabeth Wangler]

Hi Anna. Not sure if you are still in this discussion since you GRADUATED (CONGRATS!!!) but thank you for posting this. It’s helpful for a practice client I’m working with. We can’t seem to get out of pre- or early contemplation because her thinking is so rigid that I can’t figure out how to ask the right questions. I’ve tried the body awareness and when I ask “What do you feel?” she jumps right into a logical explanation or changes the subject. You’ve highlighted the importance of continuing to get her out of the left brain for more balance. As I’m writing this, it’s occurring to me that, in this case, trauma my be an underlying culprit. She has had some major losses in her life that shifted her life course dramatically and her issue involves fear of being alone. Hmmmm. Your post is helping me connect dots. Mindsight is sitting on my table but I haven’t started it yet. I’ll move it to the top of my reading list. Thanks so much!

[Erica Wrona]

Anna,
Thanks for sharing such a thorough response about “Mindsight” and left brain/right brain integration. I was listening to a PESI seminar today with Dan Siegel and Bessel Van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score). They spoke at length about brain development and its implications in dis-integration (failure to integrate) of our left and right hemispheres, emphasizing there is a difference between childhood and adult traumatic experiences (to connect to Elizabeth’s insight that her client might be experiencing a trauma response). The major takeaway being that most adults do not have fully integrated brains, which I found fascinating! And I’m sure I’m in that category too, falling into “mental traps” that become our belief systems. You remarked on something important that I’ll highlight here. You said,
“David would need to have this as a goal FOR HIMSELF, not just because I want this for him/us. He would need to see the advantage of heightening his awareness of the world; see it is building his skills and expanding his potential.”
This statement is so important because it describes ourselves or clients in pre-contemplation if we or clients don’t have the awareness of the belief system being a “mental trap.” When I feel my own belief systems shift, that feels like an “aha!” moment, as my brain is literally forming a new neural pathway that I can choose to use over and over again to form a belief system that helps me reach optimal functionality.

[Anna Switzer]

Thanks, Elizabeth! I’m so glad that my musings were helpful to you. And, thank you for the congratulations! It feels great to have completed (still need to do a few homework assignments, though). If you would be interested in sharing more after you read Mindsight and/or work with this same client again, I would be willing to be a continuing thought partner with you. I really enjoyed when we connected over our “parts”!

[Elizabeth Wangler]

Yes, Anna, reconnecting will be great! Perhaps soon after the first of the year? I’ve started Mindsight and will be meeting with that practice client again soon. Or, I’d be open to more partswork too. So happy we’ll be staying in touch!

[Erica Wrona]

After Brain 1, I had a session with a client who began in her story, describing her current career situation and getting into all the different things she loves to do but having no idea which ONE path to choose for her next big step in life. She explored each potential path a bit and as we wove our way to her want/goal, her belief system kicked in and tried to stop her. It was AMAZING to witness! She said her want/goal was, “The hope of combining all of it [her passions] into one thing.” The next thing out of her mouth was, “Is it possible? Is that even possible?” She was up against the story and entrenched belief system. When we explored what it could look like to live in the Myth (I didn’t call it the Myth to her), she kept getting swept up in which ONE path to choose, and whether she was trained enough, and grappling with what she felt was the impossible feeling of the impossible Myth. It was truly fascinating to see how firmly a belief system takes hold. At the end of the session she landed on her want statement that I feel was 94% there. So for homework she would get clear on her statement and report back to me. She emailed me the next day and said, “I have been able to work on my statement, and while it feels quite general, it is also clear and simple, which I find really satisfying. I’ve been dreaming into more possibilities for how my path might look and allowing myself to feel more excited! It became very clear in working with you that I’ve been holding some conflicting beliefs around my work that have been holding me back. Coming face to face with this was really helpful, as it made the way for an energetic and emotional shift in how I’ve been relating to my work overall…”
What I love about her email was her clarity in describing “conflicting beliefs” without us needing to name what was happening in the session. And the fact that now her brain is doing the work for her, making shifts and connections based off what we uncovered in just one session. Although this session was supposed to be a one-time trade for services, we are planning on continuing to work together. It’s always so exciting to think about working with clients over the long term as they experience doubt, snapback, and the ongoing practice of forging new pathways of how they want their life to look like and embody the Mythic image of how it could be.

[Hannah]

Hey Erica! How cool to see the conflicting beliefs come into awareness so clearly for your client! It must have felt so good to receive that email! It shows how well you guided her that she was able to continue the work after the session and get clearer on her want statement. Go you! I love hearing these powerful examples of how the conflicting beliefs, when brought into awareness, can begin to resolve themselves and so much of the “stuckness” our clients (and ourselves) experience!

[Heber Howard]

Hey Erica, what a great experience. I’m impressed with your ability to really pick up on your clients limiting beliefs so quickly and being able to point out to her these conflicting beliefs. I think it can be easy to get caught up in the clients’ story especially when they have a really strong belief system. I imagine I may have gone down the route of saying, “Well, I don’t know, what do you think?” and could have gotten lost in her story. I find it especially interesting how the myth of combining all of her passions being impossible became a ritual for her. Seeking more training, asking herself the question again and deciding it wasn’t possible yet. Telling others about her dream then imagining it’s impossible. I also wonder if there is something she gains from talking about her dream or fantasizing about it and then saying that it’s impossible. It could be an easy way to stay safe or even to get attention from others. Anyway… I got a little sidetracked there… I love that you were able to work with her so naturally that she was able to really see the opposing beliefs without you having to name what was happening.

[Erica Wrona]

Brain 1 Summary Post:
I love this framework of the Mythic Image. It gives a whole new understanding to Severance and why we are uncovering the Deeper Need with questions like, “What behaviors/attitudes/beliefs do you need to adopt for you to achieve this Goal/Vision?” “Who do you know that exhibits what is needed to achieve this Goal/Vision?” “Is there anyone in your life who has resolved this issue?” “How did they do it?” “What does resolving it look like?” We are inviting our clients to step into the possibility of a different future by asking them to feel, visualize, experience what it would look like, feel like, sound like, to LIVE the Mythic Image.
The depth of understanding I now have is profound. Seeing the issue as a conflict between left brain & right brain, or between logical & emotional. From our weekend, I learned we want the conflict to be extremely apparent in order to energize the system and allow the brain to start solving the issue. I love knowing that identifying the issue is seeing the differentiated parts, which begins to form the Intention. Setting the Intention is setting up the neural pathways to pave the way for the Myth to blossom into reality. I still feel like it’s a lot to process, but it really does feel like everything is coming together. Thank you neuroscience!

[Anna Switzer]

Hi Erica,

I am right there with you regarding how cool the “mythic Image” is. And, now that I look back at various sessions, I feel like a lot of time the awakening a client has into the mythic image is often accompanied by tears. The resolution of the tension that comes with finding that image is so powerful and visceral that tears seem to readily flow. When we are just in the tension, it is so hard!! But, with a resolution via the mythic image, there is a release of pent-up energy. Of course, not everyone will cry, but I think there will always be a shift that is noticeable in the client when that image appears. What relief!!!!

Thanks for bringing this back up 🙂
Anna

[Kairon Yeng]

Yes! The Mythic Image. I think it is something that is not taken for granted. I definitely feel exactly like your client there. For some reason we held a belief that our path of destiny only has to be contained in one element and that we have to make a choice of choosing ONE path. I remembered how this came up in my childhood when the elders (parents and teachers and adults) are asking me what would I like to be when I grow up. This question felt like there is only one answer and that I had to be that answer no matter what. I felt that this question destroyed what we know about our potential, hence our own Mythic Image.

I think the Mythic Image is ever-discovering Image and that every now and then we get pieces of this beautiful puzzle. Like what Anna said, discovering this image brings up some state of arousal as well as the state of quiescent which is definitely a state we want our clients to be in threshold so that the Deeper Need can emerge. By allowing our clients to tap into that potential, RAS will then start programming new pathways that we can see to manifest that. I feel that the only thing holding us back is our old beliefs and stories that are rooted in fear. The tough and most challenging part will then be in the incorporation state which we need to ritualize our life towards the new programming.

[Elizabeth Wangler]

Initial post

Brain function helps me better understand what’s happening for the client in the stages of Severance, Threshold and Incorporation, and how to feel more comfortable guiding through them. Until this module, I found myself feeling somewhat anxious as I strove to facilitate outcomes. Now, with an understanding of the stages of change, and an awareness of the client’s tendencies toward chaos or rigidity, I feel more comfortable in slowing down, guiding differently, depending on which stage the client is in.

I have felt quite inadequate in working with one of my practice clients because, after three sessions, it seems she is stuck in story and fixed beliefs that prevent her from even clarifying what she wants. Her issue involves being in an unsatisfying relationship, yet she can’t leave for fear of being alone. She wants “clarity” without making any changes. Until this module, I worried that I wasn’t helping her, even though she keeps coming back for more.

As soon as I read Prochaska’s Stages of Change, I felt a huge “aha” that she’s in pre-contemplation. Knowing this, I can relax and understand that it could take quite some time before she is ready for action since she is still resisting change, clinging to the bank of rigidity

Fear based thinking has been evident (“There are no other good men out there. If I leave I’ll be alone forever. I know he’ll leave me eventually for not committing, but I’m better off waiting for that than addressing our differences.) I couldn’t figure out questions that would help her see from a different perspective. Reflections were met with “This is how it is. There’s no way around it.”

Viewing her process using the metaphor of the river that we learned, helps me understand that, for her, clinging to rigidity feels safer than chaos, which I now understand is due to trauma, evidenced by her background. Knowing that chaos and rigidity impair integration and that the river of harmony between the two helps them avoid getting stuck on either bank, allows me to see hope and possibility, even if takes some time for her to test the waters. Before this, I was feeling desperate to help her. Now, I can imagine ways to gently urge her to explore, rather than driving for a solution.

Remembering the acronym FACES (flexible, adaptable, coherent, energized and stable) will help me stay in the proper state with her while maintaining greater awareness of hers. It’s comforting for me to realize that “…complex systems have a natural drive toward integration” and my job is simply “…liberating the natural inclination of each individual to move toward well-being and health—to move toward integration.” (Pocket Guide 16-8) Knowing that integration is not a fixed state, eases my mind. As the author points out, it’s a verb not a noun and can be seen as a journey and not a destination. Until now, I was much too goal oriented with clients, wanting quick results. I see that this client is exactly what I need to test a new way of coaching. With her I’m experiencing that paths toward integration meander with forward and backward steps, especially when trauma is involved.

It’s helpful for me to keep in mind the two ways of processing: left and right brain functions. Also viewed, as Siegel points out, as top down (life filtered through past experiences) and bottom up (experiences perceived in a larger context). He describes that mindfulness practices and living creatively keep the top down function from dominating, yet this can be a life-long challenge for those who tend to feel like victims of outside circumstances. “We have a proclivity to observe and narrate, perhaps to gain a sense of control and certainty, instead of sensing and experiencing with a fresh and open mind. What we need to embrace is uncertainty. Learning to thrive with uncertainty is the root of creativity.”

During my next session with this client I may help her gain clarity using partswork exploration as a mini threshold experience within severance. I see the threshold as one way for clients to experience living creativity and open-mindedly as we guide them to explore without attachment to outcome. Intention opens doors to possibility without rigidity when framed as an “experiment.” Stepping across the threshold with a client can feel like chaos for both of us, but now I hold a deeper understanding of its value as a beneficial creative process. knowing that intention will organize the client’s experience (like Michael’s example of overhearing particular voices in a coffee shop) and, hopefully, provide her relief from the need for control.

Because this client tends toward rigidity and views life through the lens of traumatic memories, I also intend to experiment with mindfulness practices, testing Siegel’s hypothesis that doing so keeps the top down function from dominating. Knowing that Nature (natural process) supports integration and wholeness and even creates the pull toward it, I gain confidence in trusting the process and releasing my own need to be outcome driven while coaching her.

I intend to prescribe “Vitamin G” since we work via Zoom. Nature alone offers a myriad of healing benefits. When combined with mindful awareness (instruction to notice details for example) the positive effects are compounded. To quote Your Brain on Nature “We might consider mindful exercise in greenspace as vitamin G triple strength” (pg. 226)

Since time in Nature shifts our brain through entrainment, triggering an alpha state, this can lead to greater inner awareness, toward harmony and integration, more readily than through coaching without Nature’s participation. I want Nature to become an integral part of all the coaching that I do and this module opened my eyes to even more reasons why.

[Kairon Yeng]

Hi Elizabeth,

I share the same experience with you as a coach with wanting to deliver quick results to my clients as well as feeling inadequate and doubtful when my client is stuck and when I had nothing to offer my clients. I had asked this question a while ago, “How do I know if I was doing a good job as a coach and that I had given my clients all that I had in the process?”With this question, I realized that how ever much my client received out of what I give is not up to me completely. As a coach or a guide, I can’t make anyone change or direct the whole process by myself. I kept forgetting sometimes that this work is collaborative as much as living our own life is as well collaborative. This is the very fundamental reason why I even started writing my thesis on “Sacred Relationship”. I think as coaches we are powerful mid-wifes to deliver our clients’ soul. Despite that, we cannot be the one delivering for them.

I love the whole idea about Vitamin G. I think it is the best medicine one can give oneself. Just like you mention along the lines of “nature is a powerful collaborator in this process”, understanding how our brain processes mimics the process of nature helps us understand how we can change by being in nature itself. And for us coaches, we can definitely deepen our sensitivity to severance, threshold and incorporation!

[Anna Switzer]

Final Post:

The things that are resonating for me the most out of this module right now have to do with the “irreconcilable opposites” (the tension) and the “mythic image” that resolves the tension. Through learning about this I was reminded of a book I was given by a friend over 10 years ago called “The Marriage of Spirit: Enlightened Living in Today’s World” by Leslie Temple-Thurston. In one section of the book she describes a technique she calls “Triangles”. The idea is that you put the tension across the bottom of a triangle (she calls these “polarities”). Examples are power and powerlessness, self-esteem and worthlessness, victim and tyrant, etc. Through a process she outlines, each polarity has (for a given person/situation) an “ascended balance state” which resolves the polarity. This state becomes the third point on the triangle above and in between the two opposites. So, for power and powerlessness, the ascended balance state includes Surrender and Humility. Surrender and Humilty are required to relieve the tension between power and powerlessness. This process and idea echoes (for me) what we have learned about the tension that people feel and then the mythic image that provides resolution. And, then it makes me connect the ideas of mythic image and “ascended balance state”. I love those words, because I can see how the notion of an ascended (higher) balance (not in tension) state names what the “mythic image” is up to for us in a session. The mythic image gives the client a glimpse into what it would feel like to rise out of the tension to a higher place where they are not feeling pulled apart, where the tension is resolved, and where their view of everything changes because they are somehow “above” the irreconcilable opposites.

Knowing that this is what I need to strive for during the severance process is helpful because when that mythic image (or ascended balance state) is seen by the client….it is powerful, clear, obvious and everything else in the session flows. It can take work to get there, for sure, but knowing what I am looking for is SO helpful as it will encourage me to persevere to get to it and not settle for a hum-drum want/need combination. It needs to POP to be the real deal!!

Thanks for the great learning in this module. As other people have said, it really helps the steps in the ceremony to make sense, flow better, and result in stronger sessions.

[Hannah]

Summary Post:

After reading through this thread and looking back at my notes from the Brain and Change 1 weekend and reflecting on my sessions since that weekend, the biggest take away is a deeper understanding of what we’re actually doing as we guide clients through the ceremony. Not only do I have experience of the ceremony working, but now I fully understand why it works! Like Elizabeth said, this knowing allows me to guide in a much more intentional way – trusting the process and tracking carefully the energy flow of the session. For example, recognizing the energy shift in severance when the client lands on the want or the need and ONLY moving forward when that POP (as Anna called it) happens. With an understanding of the neurological functions that are taking place, I feel like I can almost sit back and allow the session to emerge. I feel like this module has allowed me to surrender to the process even more, and has helped me to relax into my role. I come away from Brain and Change feeling even more committed to my role as coach/guide being about creating awareness. The “irreconcilable opposites” being one of the most powerful things to bring into awareness with a client.

[Kairon Yeng]

Initial Post

Brain and Change 1 brings a whole new perspective towards the process that I will be having with my clients. One thing I wrote in my reflection is:

To facilitate change is first and foremost facilitating awareness. By having awareness to our current mode of actions that is influenced by our beliefs which are deeply rooted in the stories we tell ourselves, we can understand what needs to be done to bring a new pathway. By bringing awareness we demystify the stories that we believed to be true and have the potential to recreate a new narrative to provide fundamental change that is in alignment to the soul centric intention. We redirect our lives by redirecting our attention and awareness to the things that matter. Change has to come through the unconscious part of ourselves as it controls 90% of our motivation.

I sometimes see that the unconscious part of ourselves as the embodied part of ourselves. The unconscious is rooted in the many cells of our bodies. I found this correlation when I was reading Arnold Mindell’s concept of the dream body where images of the dreams have relationships with the body ailments. Dreams are messages communicated by our unconscious. It may seem inevitable when the unconscious is controlling 90% of our actions and motivations. However, a lot of programming can be done through the conscious mind and installed into the unconscious through the process of embodiment. This reminds me of developing a new path deep enough that is overtakes the old programming.

I can see how my clients will come to me troubled with their old patterns that stops them from getting where they want to get in life. Having to educate them about the brain can first and foremost alleviate them from beating themselves up and create self-judgment and shaming on their process of growth and transformation. Also, by offering the brain perspective, they can understand that the impossible is definitely possible to create. By reflecting the stages of change and the process of change itself, the clients can track where they are and carry necessary creative actions to create the change they want to see.

In short, Brain and Change 1 offers two very powerful tools of transformation. One of them is demystify the old stories so that the old destructive habitual pattern does not continue to be deepened and be applied. Usually the old patterns used to serve us once. By noticing that it does not serve us anymore we can then redirect our energy towards something more productive. Another one is to create new intentional mode of action to carve a new pathway of change. This pathway can sometimes be a substitute for the old pattern but nevertheless can be an independent pathway that serves a completely different purpose form the old programming. In correlation to Partswork, this is where the Sacred Flip of a part can happen.

[Heber Howard]

Hey Kairon, I’m curious what you mean when you write, “Change has to come through the unconscious part of ourselves as it controls 90% of our motivation.” This statement makes sense on its own, but the whole paragraph before this sentence is talking about how change needs to come through attention and awareness, which I take to mean the prefrontal cortex or the conscious controller. A little later you go on to say, “a lot of programming can be done through the conscious mind and installed into the unconscious through the process of embodiment” which I very much agree with but still seems in opposition to the first statement I mentioned. Maybe you are are saying that in order for real change to occur you must develop the new way of being until it becomes unconscious?

On another note, I love hearing how simply educating your clients a little bit about the processes happening in their brain and the process of change brings great relief and growth. That’s pretty inspirational.

[Kairon Yeng]

Summary Post

Brain and Change has definitely deepen my process of coaching and guiding as it opens a new language to what Gestalt and Partswork are on the brain perspective. This quickly encourage me to start experimenting on the get go during the severance stage. 1 hour with my client should be a life-transforming hour especially when they are completely clueless about their own authentic wisdom.

Brain and Change also offers a language on the work that we do. We are doing neuro surgery – only on the outside and also not by me, but collaboratively with my client. By having the brain perspective, it allows me to create experiments that are more intentional especially when I know which part of the brain light up during the coaching process. I can also understand how to push different buttons of the brain to stimulate new patterns in the process of change. With that, I can gauge how far I can go to disorient my client and how I could bring them back to equilibrium especially in the severance and threshold process. The strategy used will then be very specific rather than just going through every options of trial and error.

[Heber Howard]

Initial Post

This module was so interesting and I learned so much. I haven’t had many practice clients yet so I haven’t really used the lessons I learned I learned in this module with anyone outside of EBI yes. During the module, I got to do some practice with Hannah which was really interesting. During the module, we had been talking about highlighting logical and emotional statements that the client makes so that their brain to hear itself. This made me think of Motivational Interviewing (a system I learned a while ago that emphasizes complex reflections and open questions) so I decided to try focusing on these skills during our session to see what happened and try to gain a better understanding of it. I ended up feeling like the session went really well.

After reviewing my notes and handout I have some ideas of what made it a good session. The first thing I noticed is a note I took that says, “loving awareness is a gateway to the soul.” It seems to me like giving accurate complex reflections, asking open questions based out of a genuine desire to have a deeper understanding of the clients’ experience, and giving the client a few genuine affirmations is a very strong way to express loving awareness to someone you are speaking with. Of course, as the client feels this loving awareness they become more and more open, allowing their soul to the surface. Secondly, I was able to reflect on some of those logical and emotional points so she was able to hear herself a little more consciously. This seemed to really have some power because it would cause her to stop and think about it a little more. Something else that really seemed to get her to stop and think that we learned was to highlight the opposite elements (which might be the conflict) of the story. This seemed to give her a clearer picture of what kind of what she was up against and the decision that needed to be made. I also am realizing that this method of working with someone is powerful because it is really holding them in the contemplation stage of change. The more you stay in the contemplation stage of change the more you strengthen the myelin sheath of the pathway to figure out how to change. If you do not continue to work with the contemplation stage, the neuroconnection for the idea may die, putting you back into precontemplation.

[Heber Howard]

Summary

From this module, I learned many lessons. I had done some study of the brain while I was in school, so some of this module was a review but so much of it was connecting things that I had never thought about before. One of the most interesting things about this module for me was learning about the importance of story, myth-making, and ritual for blending with the brains natural processes and creating change.

Generally, when someone is craving change there are challenging impulses and questions that are flying around. To answer these questions the brain needs to figure out a coherent scenario in which the brain can judge the scenario and react effectively. For example, during the module, we were given a story about a hunter that is walking through the woods and upon hearing a twig snap instantly runs out of fear that the sound was coming from a leopard stalking him. Even though he had no idea what made the noise, he created a myth that explained an unexplained event in a way that allowed him to take effective and possibly life-saving action in a very short amount of time. In any place of deciding on making a change, the uncertainty causes anxiety which feels very important to resolve and if the answer is not obvious it can be very helpful to create a myth in order to move forward with the process. This myth-making is our minds way of making sense of some aspect or question about one’s life that evokes more energy within us yet feels too big to resolve through a simplistic story.

Next comes creating a ritual using the framework that created the myth. In the example used earlier, this would look something like the hunter running every time he was in the woods and heard a twig snap. It is basically the amygdala creating an emotional memory tied to something in the external environment which will intern cause a change in state of being. This kind of ritual can cause a lot of issues if it becomes something unconscious, for example, if every time the person heard a twig break they became scared and ran away, that could possibly cause a lot of problems for them. Although, the same process can be used to create a ritual in which a positive state of being is created by a trigger. The trigger can be a way of moving the body or becoming aware of something in the environment.

These are natural processes that, as coaches, we are able to collaborate with in order to change patterns and beliefs. In order for change to occur in someone’s life, their brain must change. Body is included in the definition of brain so the experience must include the whole body. By creating a myth and a ritual, powerfully tied to an emotional memory, the amygdala will change the emotional world of the person.