[Brooke Nelson]

Comments:

I’ve just read through all your posts and I’m grateful for several points that were made that are resonating with me:
– Lisa helped remind me to stay empathetic to clients’ varied levels of comfort in nature. I take being comfortable in nature for granted and forget that everyone is on a spectrum.
– Ben F reminded me how vulnerable it can feel to be coached. Being sensitive to this can help me go at a pace that best serves my client.
– Sandy put my feelings into words with his paragraph about his internal compass. I often feel mildly ill at ease because my internal compass is hard to read when I’m in the city and surrounded by people. It’s a constant battle to find the time and space to allow my internal compass to steer me.
– I’m definitely feeling Taylor on finding questioning to be more layered and challenging than I realized.
– Lisa brought up the two different coaching styles of her sessions and it makes me a) appreciate all of our unique coaching styles, and b) reminds me to stretch my coaching style, maybe even emulating others, to be able to draw on a wealth of techniques that can benefit my clients.
– Ben M, I think that what you described with being able to go deeper when you have attachment to place is something that I’m struggling with. I’ve experienced the same thing. I really feel like I need my own, private land to develop a relationship with to be my best self. The 50/50 partnership works incredibly well on that that I know intimately.

[Brooke Nelson]

*Initial post*

My experience as a client in severance and threshold was most powerful when I identified a genuine and urgent deeper need. During the course I’d struggled to present coach-able issues that weren’t long-standing explorations of self that I hadn’t already thought about extensively. When I came up with an urgent and uncomfortable issue that I’d been procrastinating on, I found the most benefit. It sounds trite, but I simply needed to admit I was stuck and ask for accountability. MJ checked in later per my request and kept nudging me until I’d completed my task, which was a huge relief. In this instance, my experience was less of an a-ha threshold moment, and more of a practical process. MJ supported me by continuing to ask open ended questions, and also asking how she could support my intentions. It worked! And it makes me remember that all kinds of coaching strategies and paths are valuable.

I usually find self-awareness, growth, and peace – threshold experiences – when I’m alone in nature. Recalling these experiences gives me a lot of faith in the 50/50 agreement, especially on land that I resonate with. Putting that agreement into words during our first training really helped me explain what can feel like a mysterious process, and it greatly informs my sense of confidence and my strategy as a coach.

[Brooke Nelson]

*Foundation Four: Initial Post
My ideal clients, in terms of demographics, are twenty-somethings, middle aged women, and veterans. I’ve worked with a lot of people who are a few years out of high school, and it’s such an intense time for them. Spreading their wings, honing in on their passions and what they want to do career-wise, processing their youth and their relationships. It’s easier to relate when you’ve been there, which makes me an unlikely candidate to focus on veterans. That said, I’ve seen how nature + community can move veterans a long way on their healing journeys. I have great compassion for them.

More importantly, the type of person I’d like to identify and work with is someone who has heard nature’s whisperings but doesn’t exactly know how to connect on a deeper level. Someone who feels the sentience of nature but who doesn’t have the tools or support to access it. Someone, like me, who grew up fascinated by stories of nature connected pioneers, researchers, trackers, indigenous peoples, and wanted to know if their stories were true. So many people are inclined towards nature, people for whom it resonates as a place of healing and inspiration, but who aren’t connecting for a lack of something: experience, time, proximity to nature outside of the city, or maybe structure. With people like these, my goals would be to help them find practices that deepen their connection to nature in the hopes that they could begin to fill the holes that need filling.

I’m noodling ways of engaging with people and I have lots of ideas floating around. One would be marketing to the city-dwelling nature-bugs, like myself. A majority of people in Seattle interact with nature in some way, from recreating in the backcountry, to stand-up paddle boarding, to gardening. Lots of them also practice yoga and mindfulness. It’s kind of easy to find people that recognize that the stress, anxiety, detachment and disconnection of modern living is ameliorated by going outside. I want to help those people take it deeper.

I’m also interested in using my wilderness leadership/coaching skills to cultivate community by meeting regularly as a small group over a long stretch of time. I’m envisioning a mix of intentional group work and wilderness skills education/rewilding/immersive experiences.

Then again, I think it’s really fun to be a bit of a dilettante and jump into other people’s coursework and retreats to offer everything from supplemental coaching to mindful outdoor activities to trail runs for naturalists. I’d like to work in partnership with other practitioners and this might be a way to do that.

Lindsey Huettman is a woman in my area who I admire. She’s a psychotherapist who draws on her deep nature connection and Wise Woman teachings in her many ventures. I love that she has a wealth of varied experience to draw on in creating a diverse set of skills and areas of focus. She’s a good role model for shaping a life around my passions.

Waymarkers is another small, local organization that interests me. It’s in an urban setting and among other things they lead retreats connecting people to wilderness, place and heritage but from a Celtic, mystical, and spiritual background. I haven’t personally been drawn to Soulcraft, mythology, etc. but I think our connection-oriented goals are similar. I’d like to connect with them as they’re in my neighborhood.

I’ve seen a lot of nature based programs for veterans, but I haven’t found any that use our style of nature connection, except for wilderness schools that take the GI bill and have a high percentage of veterans in their student body. There’s a Life Mapping coach certification that is tailored for veterans and people that work with them. It seems to focus on transitioning vets to the civilian sector, using traditional coaching techniques and some training on veterans’ needs. Valuable, practical, important, but probably with a heavy emphasis on career development instead of whole-life development.

[Brooke Nelson]

*Initial post*
Being connected to nature suggests both an intimate relationship and a daily practice. I marvel that millions of years of evolution have shaped us to live in attunement with the subtle signs of nature, while we’ve only had a few decades to adapt (not particularly successfully) to our modern existence replete with distractions, consumer addictions, and rapidly changing ways of relating to one another. Nature-connectedness helps us dream the words to long-forgotten songs* as we develop a sense of being a part of nature instead of apart from it. We’ve been given a learning platform to help us reconnect to foundational human truths that modern culture has obfuscated.
In practice, nature connection means attempting to maintain a high state of awareness of the natural world, and by extension, to ourselves. Our sit spots help us form a deep connection to place. By paying close attention to the blossoming of the plants, the hummingbirds that defend those blossoms, the insects that pollinate them, and the soil that roots us all, we form an appreciation for things that often escape our notice. One beneficial result is truly honoring elements of nature for their intrinsic value, and not simply for their usefulness to ourselves. Additionally, engaging our sense of smell, touch, and hearing drops us deeply into our own bodies when we’re often distracted from them. Ultimately, we are shown that we are part of a bigger whole which can provide comfort and a good deal of perspective. With practice, we can carry these lessons with us beyond our sit spots and throughout our busy days.
Staying in close contact with nature can also help keep strong, calming boundaries with my clients. Nature connection and mindfulness have an leveling effect on my emotions, giving me just enough of a sense of non-attachment to watch clients with curiosity instead of anticipating how I want our session to unfold. It’s centering. Learning to trust the magic of the 50/50 partnership with nature lifts much of the burden from my shoulders and reminds me that I’m not in true control of what my clients receive from their sessions.
I find great solace in these practices, and believe that sharing them with coaching clients – either overtly or subtly – can help them reclaim a missing piece of their animal history, provide a safe surround into which they can toss their problems to see what insights are returned, or provide them an enduring, beloved resource for their own well-being.
*From Sometimes a Wild God, by Tom Hirons

[Brooke Nelson]

Hi all, my name’s Brooke and I’m new to the cohort. Happy New Year! I’ll be flying in from Seattle on the afternoon of the 24th and would be interested in sharing an AirBNB or rental car with any of you. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone!