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Participate in the Online Discussion 9/2 – 9/13/19
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*Initial Post*
• What steps did you take to establish the Coaching Relationship and focus the session?
• How did or could the concepts learned this last weekend fit into your nature-connected coaching session?
• How did or could you collaborate with Nature and combine the concepts learned this last weekend with Coaching principles?
• What challenges did you face? How did you adapt?
• What flowed and how did you build off it?
• What did you learn about yourself and nature-connected coaching?
• How do the readings relate and interact with the face to face material and your work with your practice clients?
• What ideas do you have for how you might use the concepts learned this last weekend and nature-connected coaching in the future with your client?
• How did the concepts learned this last weekend effect or enhance your Coaching Presence and approach?
• How does Nature-Connected Practices, and Body-Centered Therapy interface?
The woman I worked with has an extensive history of family and sexual abuse and was caretaking for her elderly father/abuser. She agreed to work with me but under the agreement that she was also seeing a psychotherapist as well. She also receives manual therapy for gastrointestinal and liver issues as well and sometimes when she is getting treatment, she goes into physical shaking discharges. At first, these episodes were frightening to her and so I would let her know that she was ok and was just experiencing some release. Her goal for the session was to alleviate her massive anxiety around crowds.
I would use pendulation when I noticed her agitation. We used nature, a tree in her childhood, to create the idea “safe area” where she would experience feeling of more peace and calm. We would pendulate from that to the agitating situation. The anxiety was very intense to begin with but she reported that she was improving.
The challenges were that she had many negative memories outweighing the good ones, so we had to transcend to more of a spiritual perspective to help create more positive feelings.
I learned that human kindness and empathy can go a long way and incredible change is possible. -
*Summary Post*
I have had the opportunity to learn about trauma in my current profession, working on the body. There are many situations where people don’t “sequence” through a trauma and are left with the unfinished circuit which is designed for survival. What I am glad for in the course, is the somatic tools we were presented to help to calm clients down during a triggering event and the understanding that nature can provide a good outlet for that energy. I think trauma work will be increasingly important in the future since there is more mediums for trauma to transfer with the development of technology, not to mention the damage to our planet. -
When working with trauma I have found that coaching presence and creating a safe space is one of the most important pieces. Working with a client that feels safe can really allow them to process without the worry of judgement. I find there are certain parts of me that want to “fix” the situation or change it because of my own internal process when faced with a client in trauma. I constantly need to check in with myself and make sure I’m not bringing my own process into my clients experience. Allowing a client to move through and experience trauma, while holding a space for it has proven to be fairly challenging for me as a coach. Practicing deep listening and staying focused on holding space for my client are two of the important tools I use in these types of sessions. I find that I need to take breathes sit back and let my client guide the direction of the session while keeping a watchful eye on whether the trauma being experienced is productive or detrimental.
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MJ,
What I find interesting about this is that despite having no self-worth, she knew deep within her that she needed help, which is how she sought out a life coach. To me, that small act is powerful. That says that she recognizes there is trauma and needs help to move past it. I would count that as a win.Offering the 7 breaths as an exercise when she wakes up is a good idea. It should help to re-ground her and help her fall back to sleep. I think it is really encouraging that she wanted to show you her homework. It sounds like she was proud of her work. That is showing self-worth and confidence in herself. It’s amazing what some good coaching and breath work can accomplish.
I hope that in the time since you originally met with your client, you have been able to help her process the trauma of her past relationship and have brought calm to her life.
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SUMMARY
From re-reading all of these posts and reflecting back on the intensive, I am reminded that trauma takes on many forms. For some, it is in response to a tragic accident, for others a devastating end to a relationship, and for some, it is generational. Whatever the root cause, trauma can affect anyone and everyone.
It is appropriate that Trauma is paired with Brain Change in this intensive. So much of one’s response to trauma is learned behaviors and coping techniques. If we are able to help re-route those neural pathways and offer an alternative to trauma, the client might be able to come to terms with their past and move on to a healthier outlook.
