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Forum Replies Created
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summary
“What ideas do you have for how you might use PartsWork and nature-connected coaching in the future with your client?”
The artist part in me and the inner child part want to play with partwork out on the land. From the start of the NCC journey I have wanted to bridge my artistic expressions with innocence and play. As a dancer and seeker of embodiment practices I see using my eye for doors of possible movement to express parts out on the land or sea. I actually have a water movement practice that I envision using. I simply cannot sit and room for partswork and make it all intellectual and heady. I see the body wants movement in everyone. I have a language that sets a frame for exploring movement and partswork. I also see inviting the elements into a partswork session. For example having the client move through their partswork session and inviting the experimenting with how playing in water can show them something about their parts. Or scrying into the fire for guidance. One movement practice I have is “forest breathing” which invites you to imagine what a whole forest breathing feels and looks like. It involves movement in the spine and breath and music which takes you on a journey. There really are endless possibilities I can take partswork in. I think the only challenge is framing this approach in the beginning. The client has to be open to embodiment in partswork so I’m sitting with the communication portion of my visionary endeavors. Which part is going to help me with that I wonder?
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Initial
Prior to partswork 2 I felt confused about what I was learning. Now I have way more of a grasp on this concept and am excited to go deeper into learning how it changes and adapts. I see this as a core practice for my coaching which the artist in me is excited to use creatively for myself and clients.
In My Stroke of Insight by Taylor I found some useful passages that make sense to how I understand my coaching practice at this time. I started out the NCC learning with my guiding phrase and desire “I want a brave new adventure story”. I think the people I work with want this too. Learning about how the brain functions is key but bringing that into a partswork coaching session is as Taylor describes it “tending carefully to the garden of the mind, carefully managing what goes on inside our brain.” (152).
After reading this I realized in a partswork session as a coach I need to be aware of left and right brain hemispheres and learn how that exists for the individual. What lives there? What stories are in the brain and what do or how do the hemispheres govern or perceive or create that client’s reality. To what extent? This is totally sorcery in my opinion but back to the reading 😉
I’ll paraphrase a long quote I used here.
“One of the most prominent characteristics of our left brain is its ability to weave stories. Designed to make sense of the world outside of us based on minimal amounts of info functions by taking whatever details it has to work with . Makes stuff up, generates a story line, manufactures alternative scenarios and what if possibilities.
Draws conclusions based on minimal information. Left mind expects the brain to believe it’s stories. The need to be wary of my storyteller’s potential for stirring up drama and trauma had the ability to manufacture stories as truth loops.” (151-152).
What I’ve paraphrased here gives me a clue to remember the brain will function in specific ways as it is designed to do so but with knowledge of the parts of the brain and how it works we can “tend” to it or like Michael says “hack” into it with conscious choices. I see this playing out in the partswork session. For example my client had a part that wanted to tell a story. An inner child part. I had to discern how their brain was working or what part of their brain had stored the information the inner child was telling me about. What was the storyline generated by the left brain that was the story teller in that moment of expression? I noticed this part had a specific emotion that was stirred up. So in my assessment I kept wondering what this storyteller was using as information to make sense of things. We got to the place of empowering the inner child part as wanted by the client so I then shifted my assessment and approach to noticing how they were responding to the story they were communicating.
In the chapter Own your Power I found this articulation from Taylor to be helpful which I’ll paraphrase.
The Limbic system part of the brain programs responses and if we choose to let that neural circuitry run without consciousness of the “high road” vs the “low road” reactions will loop. Now I’m not a fan of high road or low road. I feel this is a limiting concept but I suppose the point here is bringing presence by training the mind to respond rather than react. Teaching the client to observe self to notice moments of impulse to react or strong emotions and to welcome and make space for the normalness of their humanity is key in these vulnerable moments.
Noticed in my partswork session an immediate physical shift while I taught them these concepts. Their shoulders relaxed and there was a lightness in voice and willingness between parts that had conflict to resolve things through the Soul. This I believe is where resourcing comes in.
Assessing that this client’s inner child part story/story teller had triggered their limic state with memories of challenging emotions I used what I found in this reading about conscious choice. This is where I had to hold the tension of being direct but gentle as their guide. In the reading I used this quote in my session to inspire my guidance.
What choices are my automatic circuitry making? Responsibility for own life conscious adjustments throughout life (159).
Leaning into empowering the brain to come into the prefrontal cortex takes establishing safety a core competency indeed! But Once safety is established and the brain is invited to shift pathways I believe the client is forging a new neural pathway. This sovereignty as I call it in my own practice is hard for some to look at. I as coach had to discern if the clients nervous system could stay regulated as they claimed all of their story/storytelling. What is like a magic question in this moment that I’ve used is What is true? Do you want a new story? At this moment I feel the energy shift. This is the “tending to the garden of the mind” my coaching supports.
I really truly believe this is some kind of magic. I resonated with the quote becoming present involves consciously slowing down our minds (170). How do we do this as a nature connected coach? With nature as the co-guide I saw the connection to how the author in this reading used the sensory experience to drop into the here and now. Nature is the placeholder. Literally the air we are in is the invisible boundary that holds our skin in our transformation. All I had to do was invite the client to notice what that made them aware of. Magic I tell you pure magic.
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Typo: *nature as “space-holder” not place-holder
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Summary
I have an urge to take incorporation a little further. With the modern disease of isolation, incorporation may feel incomplete without acknowledgement from others. When we work with clients there are stages or rites of passage that come into perspective. When someone goes off on a journey of transformation what they discover and what the coach discovers with them doesn’t necessarily set the client up for integration within their family or community or society. I have formed this question for client’s “How do you want to be acknowledged back into community?”
How can we support rituals that make conscious contact with nature something tangible for body and soul direction? What “ground” or “season” is the client in what land sea or sky scape or other is the context of their becoming?
What about the boundary of threshold. How do you know if you are meeting someone in an epic threshold? How much of that is collective based?
What am I choosing to communicate that will not mislead or mean well but harm how can I lead and serve in a client’s process of ongoing discovery by coaching and guiding them toward tangible practical becoming or goal achievement ?
In my notes I found Michael saying this process or journey is a spiral or zig zag. I also found in one of the toolboxes this idea of nature as you and as the coaching is fluid and not to fixate. That this is a growth mind approach not a fixated mind.
the invitation to be coached requires courage and the archetype of the seer. There is so much a client may not want to see but the courage needed will help them through.
This was inspired by a chat between my cohort and I. Thanks for reading.
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Love to learn of your surprise to yourself in your creative work! Your share reminds me of content I have created that didn’t actually sell but was the response to a potential sale/need.
It is all useful and can be reworked reformatted for future clients! Great stuff. 🙂
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Yes the longer term is key. This is why in business coaching selling 3 month, 6 month and 12 month packages are more beneficial to clients. The challenge is trying to understand perceptions and limiting beleifs especially distortions of time for example the mindset (which I have experienced) of “I want it yesterday” Ai! This is where the clever coaching skills come in handy for me. Assesing just how long “I want it yesterday” has been the story is a clue.
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Yes, Sarah. Thanks for your share here. The competencies are more and more helpful. They hold the structure.
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Thanks Ally. Your share evokes the new story being woven by the blazing forging trail makers we are.
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Sarah, yes just revisiting this thread and finding it true still.
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Hi Jen,
I agree with your share here. It does happen most of the time and I find I’m a little more aware of it after each session. Sometimes I’m aware of it during session and feel all kinds of vibes!
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Jen,
I appreciate your reflection. Yes I observe a lot of resonance and attunement in my interactions with clients. I feel as though often they state things I am learning or experiencing or desiring to discover more of personally. It is funny when I notice these moments I have to pause and make a note for my path and self-severence process. It is a real thing. Great awareness, Jen!
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Sophie,
I relate to your experience of a little unsure how to move through partswork at first. But I see this second time around got you askign some powerful questions as I discovered in my experience as well. It’s good to know I’m not alone in learning this new tool for coaching. I love the question “which part do I default to?” I will use that in a session and for my own reflection. thanks for that one! and “what would it be like to live from soul” gave me a big sigh of relief as I read it. I see your deeper process in partswork through your post and I’m grateful for your insights and discoveries which help us all.
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Jen,
I loved reading your post. What a transformation you’ve experienced! Amazing story <3 But your point about the grief of not identifying with a part of your life anymore is very insightful for us. Yes, clients may experience this as so much of the way one identifies is attached to what they want to change sometimes. Death tied to an introject is powerful! I am reminded of the cylces of grief and wonder how that applies to what you shared? When you wrote the process of rearranging and growing past the introject, do you see a connection to re-organization? Your post makes me wonder if transformation is a “part” of us all.
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Response 2 @jenniferlecompte
I wonder if certain parts are more prone to certain stages of change. For example is my artist part more often in a pre-contemplation stage and my student part in an action stage?
I agree with your point of the misleading coaching world. Every now and then I read on my facebook (which has a lot of life coaches on my friends list) that a coach hurt or dissapointed them. For awhile I resisted calling myself a coach due to these kinds of marketing messages and lack of real understanding of time and commitment to change. It’s like this trendy thing now to have a life coach but not so trendy to figure one’s shit out in a real way which can take time.
I wonder if you learned of any parts in different stages of change with this client?
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Response 1 @ Sophie
Hi Sophie,
I am resonating with your sentence “start being able to communicate what I offer”. I’m struggling with this as I am trying to conjure what part of me will communicate my professional services.
I love the frame from the podcast you offer about opening a relationship. Although I believe that it is both. If you don’t know how to sell there is confusion there too. But tempering sales with an open relationship is fantastic!
I’m going to lean into this advice and try to get excited about my offering first then decide what part is the excited one who will offer it then rehearse my sales and sincere invitation to journey with someone.