[Anna Switzer]

Anna’s Final post:

I think I have been putting off writing this post for a couple of reasons: 1) I wanted to hear some more voices — so thank you to Hannah and Ivy for joining in 🙂 and 2) It will be my last official EBI post, which brings some bittersweet feelings with it.

The number one thing that is hanging out for me one month after our final face-to-face is the SNAG concept. (Stimulating neuronal activation and growth – had to go back and look up what it stood for 🙂 “Snagging” the brain is the key to everything we do in coaching sessions — helping people drop the surface-level story that brought them in and getting them to stimulate new ways of thinking/being. Super cool. And, the two ways I remember to SNAG are through novelty and/or importance. When the brain faces something new and/or something that is very important to the person then they are more likely to participate fully in the session and then eventually in the rituals that are created in the session. Ideally, in my mind, the “Power Snag” would include both novelty and importance. Two things come up for me personally around this:

First, I, too, have had some amazing rituals come into my life through the EBI program and the coaching sessions I’ve had with my peers. In particular, the very last session (in which Erica and Heber were my coaches), ended with a ritual that has lasted longer than any of the rest. I think the reason it has stuck with me is that it is simple, novel, and important to me. It really does put me in a joyous state and reminds me of who I am and who I am becoming. So, thank you both for that!!

Secondly, for those of you who have been following the saga of my relationship through these posts, David and I have had a massive breakthrough. In a different context than a coaching session, but in a novel way (for us) I was able to bring some things to his attention. These things (and our relationship) were important enough for him to really listen and act. I snagged his brain for sure, to the point, that he is now seeking some additional help in order to dive into some deeper layers for himself. I am really proud of him, and our relationship is better than ever. It feels like we are a team again. Nize!!

Lastly, I will share a new nature connection practice that I have adopted — and in two weeks since I learned of it I have only missed one day. The ritual is to lie face-down on the earth. Being face down is a way to have my heart closer to the earth’s “heart” and I find it to be an amazing experience. I usually lie like that for 15 minutes, outside (even in the snow!), for about 15 minutes and have whatever conversation I need to with “her”. Afterward, I usually sit up for another 5 to 10 minutes for a “sit-spot” experience. The whole thing leaves me feeling connected, calm, healthy and quite literally “grounded”. I invite anyone to try it!! And, I’d love to hear of your experiences….!

I have not had a coaching client since late December, but have printed post-cards and business cards and am getting my website out there a bit more. I am excited to keep working with people, learning a ton, and staying in touch with all the people I have gotten to know through EBI. I am truly grateful for all that I have gained through completing the program…

Thanks so much!!! Signing off for now~
Anna

[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.

[Anna Switzer]

Initial Post:

I have become a bit obsessed with the idea of Integration. After reading Mindsight by Daniel Siegel, I googled some other pieces by him. The 8 domains of integration are super interesting to me and I found another article that summarizes them. (In one article there are actually 9 domains.) I think that the reason I am so intrigued by this aspect of the NCC ceremony and by Daniel Siegel’s domains relates to a post in a different thread about some things going on with my partner and I. David was a Buddhist Monk for 18 years and part of the “teachings” that he was a student of during that time was about what they call “conditioning”. Conditioning can be from a family system or the larger culture and the idea is that it is what trips us up all of the time. It is (according to David) “the collection of unconscious processes that we gained in childhood that distract us from the present moment and cause us to suffer”. In my mind now, after learning from EBI and from Daniel Siegel, this “conditioning” is really a generic wrapping around the 8 (or 9) ways in which we can be not integrated.

I have come to accept that all of us walking around on the planet have ways in which we are not integrated. Because no childhood is perfect, and no parents are perfect, and no society is perfect we all have certain wounds to our integrative state. The good news is, however –because of neural plasticity — we can become integrated. We can use all different kinds of methods (including sit spot, nature connection, nature connected coaching, therapy, journaling, art, and many other things) to gain integration. Although we likely will never become fully or perfectly integrated, it seems a worthy cause (to me) to keep up the efforts.

Part of the reason why I think so is named in this quote in another article by Daniel Siegel: “Beneath the layers of adaptation to survive in the world, remains a powerful mind vision that enables us to be receptive to whatever is. It is this presence that mindfulness recreates. This is a re-creation because children early on have this receptivity, this playfulness of being. Recreation, in its deepest sense, is a re-creation of a playful state of presence.” One of the things I have loved about EBI is my own recreation of a playful state of presence. In the sessions where I have been coached, this presence definitely occurs. It feels great!!

And, as a coach, in a recent session with a client I found it interesting (and new) to listen for specific ways that my client may not be integrated. I am not very good at it, yet, and part of my obsession with the 8 domains is that I hope to get to really “know” them in detail so that I can better listen for them in my future clients. My hope in this regard is to better my ability to “deeply listen” so that I can also better hone the questions that I ask and cut to the chase in “the story” so that we can move beyond it into the want and need more efficiently. And, so that the want and the need are true and deep, not just superficial.

Cheers!

[Anna Switzer]

Final post:

In my final fishbowl before graduation, I had the opportunity to work with someone from outside of EBI. It was so cool to start “from scratch” in that they had no idea what NCC is and so I got to do a bit of an intake process as well as to do the fishbowl. The client is a late 20’s male who had just arrived back from some travel and was settling back into life in the US again. He really wanted to get started on a writing project that had been brewing for a while but was having trouble sitting down to write. I recognized the tension and named it — eventually suggesting that we experiment with letting these parts speak to one another (I could have done a better job with transparency about that, which was a strong learning for me at the end of the session). So, we spent some time having him move back and forth (with chairs) from the “rational mind” to the “free spirit”. He was able to really get into these parts and name what was true for them; and all on his own he even brilliantly decommissioned his rational mind for the creation part of the project and recommissioned it for the later phases of publishing, etc.

Anyway, my big learning from this was that (had I had more time), I would have used the parts-work as a way to really animate the tension. This is the goal of “the issue” phase of the ceremony. Then, I could have gone back and asked him “Now, with all of that articulated between rational mind and free spirit, what do you really WANT?” This might have taken us into an entirely different territory (and a clearer/cleaner/more powerful deeper need) than the road we went. The road we went wasn’t bad and led him to connecting with a really powerful object and plan. However, I see from a distance, that there was a tension inside myself to follow a larger trajectory ceremony (by going back to the want) or a smaller trajectory ceremony (to finish out THIS session with a threshold and integration). I suppose this tension will be with me again….though I hope that with clients that will be longer-term, both trajectories will be able to be played out.

[Anna Switzer]

Final post:

I am finding the connection or disconnection between words and body language to be a relatively easy thing to track. When I don’t get sucked into the story, I stay more in “wide angle vision” and see the whole person in front of me. I am also really getting mileage out of the idea of introjections. I haven’t actually been able to use a specific question around that with a client, yet, but it is one of the things that has stuck with me the most from this module.

On another note, an interesting thing happened about a week ago. I was walking with my nephew and he was in a bit of a twist about something and was having a hard time letting it go. So, I suggested we stop walking for a minute. I asked if he would be willing to try an experiment to see if he could get his energy/attention to shift. He said yes, so right there on the sidewalk, I guided him through feeling where “the hard stuff” was located in his body. He located it, and I asked him to spend some time with it — identifying its shape, color and anything else he noticed about it. Then, he indicated that he could see it really clearly, so I invited him to see if he could shrink it and morph its shape into a ball. Once he said he had the ball, I encouraged him to move it from wherever it was down through his body and into one leg, then one foot. Once it was in his foot, I asked him to push it out through the bottom and into the sidewalk. He naturally kind of pushed and ground it on down…and then I asked him how he felt. He said, “Wow! that is so cool! I don’t really feel upset anymore!!”

He was really grateful for the experience, and also now to have a new tool in his tool-box. Although it wasn’t a full-on coaching session, I was grateful to have something at my disposal to help him work with his own energy/upset.

Lastly, I just want to say that the connection between Gestalt and Parts-work is a powerful one. In gestalt we look at the whole and in parts, we look at the parts. Both are important and powerful. Both are tools in our toolbox to utilize when the time is right. I love experimenting with when the time is right and (hopefully!) getting better at discerning this.

[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”!

[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).

[Anna Switzer]

I have not had the chance to work with a practice client since our face-to-face. However, I was able to have a really great discussion with my beau about an issue that we were having, and by identifying my own parts and views of each part as they related to the issue, that invited him to do the same thing. He found it really helpful to do so, and the issue seems to have lessened quite a bit. Recognizing our parts/circuitries I find is one of the most insightful ways to deal with my own “stuff”. I can clearly identify when/how a “part” was born, find out what it needs/wants, and then my adult self can stay out of the mix in order to make clear and grown-up decisions. And, I find it fascinating to see how many of my “parts” were “born” between the ages of 4 and 10. That really seems to be a critical age in terms of how we all develop. I really love the perspective “parts” brings so that I can move forward with awareness, compassion (for myself and others), and then also decide what is right through/for/by my authentic/soul Self.

I will post more if I get the chance to work with someone re: parts.

[Anna Switzer]

Hey again, Erica!

Yes, the RAS!!! I have been talking to David and Charlie about the RAS lately. Your post helps me understand why other coaches in EBI have asked questions of clients about “other times” or “other people” that represent what it is that they are wanting or needing. I have never really utilized that question in my own coaching because I didn’t really understand the purpose of it. Now, I think I get it more. When they tap into “other times” in their own life, or other lives that have demonstrated the qualities or experiences they are wanting/needing then this can help them tap into the mythic image. It may still take some honing to really nail the need and the want, but I see how this can activate the RAS to get closer to it.

Thanks for posting these thoughts 🙂
Anna

[Anna Switzer]

Hi Erica,

Thanks for responding to my post – I’m glad to know I’m not the only one “geeking out” over integration, as you say. 🙂

Well, according to Daniel Siegel, there are ways to tell someone is not integrated and the signs/signals vary depending on the type of integration. So, for example, (and this is likely MAJORLY simplified) someone who is not integrated horizontally (between left and right brain) is either going to show up in a very linear, logical, language-based way (left brain) or a very emotional, social, image-based way (right brain). Someone who is not integrated vertically (the way I think of this one is that body/brain connection is a bit off — so the PFC is not getting all the signals it needs to work properly) might show up really dis-regulated. There are others that have to do with autobriographical memory being “off”. Or with time being “off” (e.g. they start out talking about something in the present, but then switch tenses and bring in something from the past without realizing it or intending it). So, these are just a few examples from Mindsight….and they are likely really simplified here, but just a sample from what I remember reading. Good question!!

And, then I guess the next hard part is figuring out what that means in terms of good questions to ask or good experiences to encourage to help them become more integrated….through our coaching or even outside of it.

I would love to keep talking about this question as we both get more experience with clients 🙂

Cheers!
Anna

[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

[Anna Switzer]

Hi Megan,

I love that phrase “the sacred flip”. I get an image of various “parts” inside of me who are all different ages and with different clothes, talents, needs, etc. The sacred flip might be a way to get them all aligned toward what the soul is up to. And, maybe, part of getting to that point is (as we know) accepting them, letting them speak, and listening to them. Trusting that the soul knows where “we” are going is a great place to start, which is maybe part of what happens with the mirror exercise, too. Building trust with the soul… so excited to try this.

Thanks!
Anna

[Anna Switzer]

Hi Elizabeth,

What a great description of how powerful gestalt is. I want to comment on your statement, “I’ve also become more tuned into my own energy, noticing where I get pulled in, distracted and, especially, when I start to feel responsible for an outcome.” I think that I often struggle with feeling responsible for an outcome, too. I have noticed that in a lot of my practice coaching and in fishbowls. I think that my own work history to this point is part of the issue for me there. In my work in schools I am definitely in the hot-seat for outcomes. So, I think it is hard for me to turn that part of my brain off sometimes. I would love to hear from you (or others reading this) any ideas you have for how to NOT feel responsible for an outcome.

Thanks!
Anna

[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!!

[Anna Switzer]

Hi Carrie,

I love your idea of looking at the parts of a tree, flower, or garden to help a client get comfortable with the idea that we all have different parts! And, the cool aspect of this as a way “in” is that all of the parts of a tree, flower, etc. are important. Even if a part might need to be decommissioned and then recommissioned, the original role was important. I am curious if you have any intuition or insight into which parts of your client are in tension with one another, potentially creating the anxiety? Even if the next session doesn’t go there, maybe you could play with the specifics as a way to practice with parts….?

Thanks for posting!