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Summary Forum- Foundation Four Cohort 19
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10 Replies
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Foundation 4 – The energy peak of threshold has just been reached and now it begins to sink in with the client that they have a job to do. They have something to take home with them that will be a big responsibility and a challenge to incorporate into their lives. I love the idea of offering some space at this moment in a session for the client to settle into this. I know in some of my experiences as a practice client, I immediately attempted to go into planning and listing out tasks that were coming to mind. Some of my practice clients did this as well. While that is an important piece of incorporation, there is a foundational discussion to have that will help the client see the big picture and remember what they might be up against when they go home. I’m seeing the importance of this transition of the session being carefully guided so that it can be as successful as possible for the client. This is one time where I feel like we can impose our plan a little more on the client and guide the ship through incorporation. Getting them to state any challenges they know they may have in taking this home is helpful in goal setting. I love the questions “who or what are you going home to?”, “what area(s) do you feel like you may struggle to incorporate this new way of being?”, “what have you tried in the past?”, “what do you have working in your favor?” I also like the idea of having a conversation about how challenging it can be in general to make a change in your life. And now, what goals can we set while keeping these factors in mind that are realistic, achievable and challenging? As I worked on establishing my goals or action items in each session as a practice client, it was so helpful to have that guidance and input to make them as specific as possible. The “when” was defined to a specific time of day, for how long, a specific amount of times per week, etc. Details of how and where were even discussed to give it shape and tangibility. It opens the door for them to even visualize themselves doing it because of the level of detail in the goal setting.
I’d love to say that I came home with the gifts and action items from each of those practice sessions at Star House and that I’m successfully in incorporation for all of them, but the reality is that I’m not. And we need to be prepared for this with our clients as well. In my limited practice sessions with other clients since being back home, I have really enjoyed touching base with them post-session to see how things are going. This reaching out feels good and I think it sends a powerful message to a client that we care, not that we wish to hound them about their goals. Secretly, we do want to hound them :). I can see a definite contributing factor as to why I didn’t incorporate on some things and that is that I didn’t establish the accountability person(s) that I committed to to hold me to the action items. If I let that slip as a practicing coach then I can be assured that this will happen with clients as well. In some cases, we might be the person holding the accountability for them and while that is something else to have to manage, I would prefer that over my client not having someone to do that for them. In the case of relapse to old ways or “snap back”, I would love to offer some education to help them understand the inner workings of human change. I can think of a worksheet I’ve worked with in the past around identifying competing commitments that would be extremely helpful. There are tons of articles that can be shared around brain programming. I think this is where we follow our gut and offer anything we think will empower their goals and make change not only possible but inevitable!
The discussion topic and visualization exercise we did with Ivy pertaining to ideal client really has my mind working in many directions. I think there is a tendency to want to coach a demographic that we’re familiar with. Maybe we have personal experience with that type of person or we ARE that type of person or we have been through what that person has gone through. I can’t help but try to tie this back to Bill Plotkin’s Wheel of Life and ask the question; is our desire to coach individuals that we closely relate to our way to revisit incomplete parts of the wheel that we still have tasks to complete and somehow work through those through coaching? By coaching others through issues we experienced but may not have handled so well, are we learning the intended lessons through the client/coach experience? Besides that deep and possibly nonsensical question, I do firmly believe that a coach, therapist, councilor, or anybody working with another individual can be highly effective if they’ve experienced a similar life, a similar event or challenge, a tragedy, ect. The saying “you can only understand it if you’ve been through it” comes to mind. I think it’s important as coaches to convey to our clients stories of any commonalities we may have to help build trust and rapport with them, but not in a way that comes across as “here’s what I did to get through it. We want them to find their answers but we can skillfully guide them tapping into our experience as a resource.
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Wow.
Well said, David. -
In Foundation 4, I am noticing that my vision is finally starting to become tangible and physical. In being asked the question, “Who are your ideal clients?” I have entered a journey of putting my vision into reality. I appreciate David’s summary post on relating this moment to the peak of the threshold, and entering incorporation. In a sense, vision is similar to the threshold phase, and the reality that is created out of vision reminds me of the incorporation phase.
We are definitely experiencing an interesting, and seemingly fit, time to be finishing up our Foundations. What do we want to offer to the world as a nature-connected coach? Who do we want to serve? What is our dream and vision? How can this work support our ideal clients right now, and in the unknown future? I am grateful to have the pause and space to sit with these questions and slowly begin to manifest my vision. Although I feel challenged with the fear, mystery, and unknown in our present time and future, I also see this challenge as an opportunity to dive even deeper into my true vision and dream. I am also very grateful for our EBI community in keeping us supported, inspired, and empowered. I see our time with EBI right now as very important and special, and I am excited and motivated for what is to come in our course together!
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I also find myself grateful for this ‘pause’ and time to ‘breathe’ in the world right now. Not every breath I take is slow and steady. Some breaths are deep and others are shallow. What I do know is that I am filled with a deep awareness of how and what I am feeling amidst all that is happening. I hope that when I work with clients in nature I will help others feel a deeper awareness and connection to their inner nature and also to the natural world. When I reflect on my different experiences working in nature with people, I can now see how all I’ve done has led me to EBI. It feels like a golden thread has been woven between all of my personal and professional adventures. The times where I felt lost along my path now make sense- and I realize that the inner voice that was a quiet whisper is now a loud and vigorous “yes”. I hope to help those I work with also feel a desire to say “yes” to their lives as well. At EBI, we have all connected as a community of colleagues and have also connected as friends. Knowing that I have all of you to connect with during these wild times is so comforting. Thank you.
My mind has also been reflecting on my ideal client and I realize that I do not have an ideal client, but a desire to connect with all people really. There are many ideal clients out there! If I dig deep, I realize a gift I have is to bring people together in community. Daniel asked me to create a list of life changing events/experiences and I’ve realized that my experiences are vast. I am excited to work alongside nature to help my clients move towards and achieve their goals and their vision. One reason I am so called to working in circles is because of the diversity that comes with working in groups. There is always a collective goal and intention when people show up together and also when individual work is going on within the circles. It is empowering in many ways- for participants and guides- collectively and individually.
In June I am scheduled to be a part of a vision-fast support team in Colorado and have been really looking forward to supporting vision fasters and to weaving my new skills learned in EBI into with wilderness work. Unfortunately, I just learned that the fast may be cancelled due to the pandemic. I feel sadness at the thought of things changing on the calendar AND at the same time feel a trust in the Universe that things are unfolding exactly as they are meant to be.
Truth is, that we are living a rite of passage today. We have a huge opportunity for growth and humanity is perhaps in some ways more awake than ever before. We are being pushed to the edges of comfort in many ways (for some it’s financial, emotional, relational, etc.) What is absolutely clear to me is that our work is desperately needed right now, and I’m honored to be on this path with you all.
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Reflect on all I’ve learned in this module…
That feels like a daunting cue. I feel like maybe sharing the vision I had while participating in Ivy’s guided meditation:I was standing in the forest, part wild-man, part shaman, wholly myself. There was a line of downtrodden people who looked so wounded, hurt and exhausted coming towards me from civilization. As they passed by me, I took out a piece of my heart and gave it to them, returning a little bit of life and hope to them.
I don’t know what to share besides that, right now. I definitely feel that I am in the same liminal space as the collective, as well as my own. Perhaps once I’m through this threshold I will better be able to reflect on what I’ve learnt.
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I continue to learn vast amounts of new information through Foundations, but this module takes the cake for me. I’m getting a more vivid picture of my ideal client/s, as I communicate about my vision more. I’m discovering the services that I may and may not provide to people and where I may be providing these services. We/I am looking at how nature’s role plays a part in the clients journey. We discussed gap analysis in this module and the spiritual side of this work got to meet the professional side of this work, at the stage I’m currently at. Most of all, I’ve noticed the shift in my family at home. My consistent nature connection and the consistent fun exploration of the activities in the Coyote guide has transformed my family unit. It occurs to me, looking back over these last couple of months, that my family went from hurry, hurry to….HEY! check out the dark eyed Junco in the bush in the backyard! I’m forever grateful.
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My greatest takeaway from this module, and honestly from the entirety of foundations as a whole, is not what I initially expected it might be when I first started EBI. I started EBI thinking that I would dive into nature connected coaching right away, that I was ready to truly expand my coaching practice. I am finding now at the end of foundations that this is not the case. Don’t get me wrong, I know that I have the ability and experience to do it. I’m confident in my coaching skills, and in my ability to grow and become an even better coach. It’s that EBI, and some other variables, have been a significant catalyst for internal change and my spiritual growth, and right now coaching needs to take a back seat while I work on that and figure myself out. I’m still coaching, but I’m not ready to make any leaps forward because I really need to work on myself right now in a very deep way.
This is hard for me. I tend to be very achievement oriented. I need to keep doing, doing, doing, achieving, achieving, achieving. And as I work on myself, I’m forced to ask, “why”? I’ve answered this question before. I’ve done a lot of work on myself over the years with deep internal reflection. I’ve peeled back a lot of layers, and I thought I was done for a while. It turns out I’m not done, and I’m in the process of peeling back a layer that is incredibly deep, and tough to work through. I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to do this and for EBI as a catalyst, and am feeling a lot more settled now that I’ve decided to take this path rather than ignoring the signs and just continuing to “achieve.” I WILL engage with others as a nature connected coach in the future, but the present is not the time for me to think about that just yet. I need to continue learning and growing in my spirituality and my understanding of the universe.
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Ahh, how lovely it is to read all of your responses as I bring up the rear here, per usual. Not sure what that’s about, but it’s a pattern I’ll be shifting as we move into the next phase of EBI!
As I write this, my body aches (literally) to move and to be outside. The weather is gorgeous (70 degrees today – it will be high 80s before the end of the week), and I wish that we were all gathered at the Star House. That said, I am finding plenty of reason to be grateful for where we’ve all come from and where we are going. Truly one of the most energizing things about this program thus far has been to see everyone’s vision unfold and begin to take shape, in spite of navigating a global inversion. While many businesses shutter and individuals default on their loans and rent payments, Cohort 19 and EBI’s impressive leadership keep chugging along, adapting to the realities of the moment.
I find myself pulled by the work of the foundations and the ‘pause’ many of us have referred to into a spiritual center, grounded and rooted like never before in my working life. For me, it’s one thing to attend a 9-Day intensive 10 min from home with a bunch of awesome people doing what I love most; it’s wholly another to show up consistently in an online format to invest in my own personal growth and learning. If I were tasked with this in a silo, I would not be finishing strong the way I am. The fact that I’m here doing the work while juggling a bunch of work-related balls, building one business and visioning another, while getting my physical and mental health dialed back in, can surely be attributed to the strong leadership that you are all providing me with by posting such stimulating reflections, engaging in genuine conversations, and participating on calls. Nothing less would have wrangled my jet-setting chameleoning self to the fertile ground of consistent contribution and focus in which my roots are now planted.
The foundations in hindsight… – *pause*: As I was writing the previous sentence, my eyes somehow picked up on a black-billed magpie flying at full clip through the foot-wide opening behind my computer monitor; this level of noticing is unprecedented for me and a product of having just read the Coyote’s Guide section on birds for this foundation plus a quick google search of our Front Range avian friends. I’m awed that my brain can now pick up on the black and white of a bird as it jets by, and of course I’ll source some meaning for that here: I am present, here, open, grounded, noticing and aware thanks for the foundations and the personal growth they’ve catalyzed. While at times I felt the stretch from Coyote’s Guide, to the practicalities of coaching clients remotely, to academic papers on ecopsych, to ethical consideration offered by J Rodgers to be untenable. Yet, in wrapping up here, I suppose part of the definition of a nature connected coach within the EBI framework must include an extraordinary range and flexibility.
I conclude Foundation Four with deep appreciation for the process to get here and also a strong desire to up-level my coaching. Aside from my other endeavors, I want to be an exceptional, groundbreaking coach. It’s one thing to be able to co-facilitate pretty naturally with more-than-human beings while working with clients in nature; it’s another to be able to coach masterfully and powerfully over the phone or by zoom – to really push clients, to hold the agenda (especially when they don’t want to), and to be ‘ok’ at this point in time with failing to knock every session out of the park. So far, nobody’s fired me – so I guess I’m doin’ alright ;-).
Onwards and upwards!
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Hi Everyone, Again, sorry for this delay. I’ve been sitting with a swirl of emotions and ideas and have had a hard time coming back to finish this module. I am holding space for myself as I grapple with my vision…. When entering into Ivy’s guided visioning, I saw myself back in a previous vision. In this vision, I am deep in the Earth, cocooned as in a Mother womb. Roots begin to grow out of me and make their way both deeper into the earth and and also begin to reach upward to the surface. The roots bring me nutrients, and also take nutrients from me to feed other roots around me. During Ivy’s meditation, the poeple who were coming were immigrants and refugees/hispanic community members, who do not have access to this type of support. While I saw this vision distinctly, I also see myslef working with anyone who seeks to transform and connect with their life purpose. My ideal client is a seeker, desiring to connect to Spirit while seeking practical, grounding, forward moving, next steps in their life.
Another vision came to me while sitting in my sit spot. As birds were calling back and forth, I tuned into their various calls and songs. There are so many layers to listen through and so many distinctions to make–such endless variety! As I listened to a call and response pattern between two birds, I realized that my first step is to listen and identify the voices that are speaking to me right now and enter into a conversation….
I am sitting with these vision while also beginning to act by reaching out to the Spanish speaking community to understand if Nature-connected life coaching might be of service and how it might look.
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Foundations 4 – Summary:
While it has taken me a while to reach more clarity on my vision. I realize that creation is always in state of change. While I can create a vision, I am reminded that its meant to breathe, grow, reshape itself. Sometimes it’s necessary to start over, or move in another direction or just be still and listen for the baseline of the vision. Creating can be a threashold experience, and many ideas can come during this time, not every idea or concept is meant to be put into creation. I am reminded that It’s best just perhaps start with the loudest idea. Pay attention to how that idea feels in my body. How do I react to it, is there resistance, anxiety, what are those telling me. Or is excitement and scary to step into something new. Like diving of the high dive, it’s scary/exiciting, the hardest part is leeping off the edge, the rest is and falls into place, as I feel my body break the plane of water and submerge then I swim to the surface…” It becomes easier and easier each time to take the leap. As I step into this new phase of vision and calling forth an ideal client, I reminded, I have all the tools and experience within me to have a solid foundation to build from. The vision is an evolution of growth and requires steps to obtain the ultimate dream. The dream must unfold through the steps of the vision.
