Brain and Change 2 (Oct 2019)

[Adriana McManus]

*Summary post*
My guided backpacking trip was a very positive experience for both my client and myself. We started in ceremony around the fire with intention and ended in reflection around the fire. I between, we had dialogue around the deeper need of “quieting the thought inside the head” and awareness in the change of thoughts as bodily challenges of discomfort arrived. I allowed myself to take the guide hat off at meal times and share thoughts. Being a guide over three days required a lot of focus but I felt like I rose to the occasion and created a memorable trip. I think in the future, I would create more structure throughout the day just to eliminate the awkwardness figuring out how to expend my energy as a guide. I have some fine tuning to do to make a guided intentional trip into an impactful and deep trip but for my first guided trip, it was good. As far as brain and change goes, an immersion trip like this is an impactful way as it is a long span of time and creates unexpected challenges and is fully sensory.

[Kevin Nichols]

Brain and Change 2. When a client is trying the change their brain and establish a new story for themselves, I’ve come to understand how important it is finding the true deeper need and creating a goal from that place of understanding. If the goal is not coming from a genuine place it seems to dissolve quickly. Changing the brain is hard and takes lots of perseverance and dedication. This makes it very easy to slip into old pathways when faced with the challenging part a client is trying to change. Having a clear and concrete goal, from a soul directed place, is proving to be extremely important. I kind of view it as a life line for their vision or direction of transformation. It’s something I as the coach and the client can routinely shift back to, use it as an anchor source. Without this direction to latch on to, changing the brain can seem aimless and difficult to stay consistent and connected with. After learning about the biology and psychology when faced with brain change, I’ve learned how to use this information as a tracking tool. For example when a client is faced with a challenging decision associated with their vision, it has helped me track whether a client is shifting into old story and behavior vs thinking from a soul directed place or thinking from the prefrontal cortex. I have also been contemplating when or if it is viable to teach clients about the biology behind brain change. A client could take this information and run with it, knowing that there will be set back because of pathways in the brain and learn to accept this and continue getting back on the horse. I also fear certain clients knowing they are changing their biology may be a daunting task and have an opposite effect. Either way this tool box module is one I have learned a lot from, for my own personal transformation as well as incorporating it into my coaching practice.