[Mandy Bishop]

Wow, what rich and beautiful discussions happening in these posts! It truly reinvigorates and inspires me to read what nature connection is meaning for all of you. I hear such sincerity, passion, care and dedication in the words of this cohort. Here are some words that stand out to me. I’m enjoying just leaving these as raw quotes from you all and seeing the threads that run throughout.

“I feel compelled to add that being nature connected is a state of surrender. It is a trust that all is as it should be and that I have everything I need to navigate my life.” – Brian

“When we create a practice of entering into Nature with this open intention and awareness, we approach our connection with Wilderness as a “life-time of engagement and discovery” (Harper, pg 185) in which Nature is the teacher and healer. Harper continues, “Our relationship with Nature is is more one of being than having. We are nature, we do not have nature.”
Nature connection supports my work as a coach by creating within me a disposition to see my client as Nature–a whole, integrated being whose inner wisdom knows what they need for their own wellbeing and healing.” -Maria

“Our work is really about us showing up fully and doing our 10% and then surrendering to the process and letting nature do its work. I love knowing that the process of “discovering” is ongoing… and there will never be an arrival, but many opportunities to continue to grow. Life is a journey, not a destination.” -Susan

“When in that other world, I’ve always felt more connected and at peace with myself, more authentically who I am and want to be. In nature I have felt wholly me, attuned to my truest desires and deepest needs. I feel imbued with a sense of well-being that is difficult to achieve in any other way.” -Leslie

“The more I can embody and express the 8 attributes of connection, I believe the more impact my presence will have on my clients and the world.” -James

“Nature is an invitation to play and experience a sense of freedom and play. Explore the familiar and the unknown. Nature pushes me forward or halts me in my tracks. Its a practice of surrender and trust. I trust that nature will always meet me where I am at and provide me exactly what I require at that time.” -Gina

“By default, it is like nature is separate from me and a place I need to go to…to experience. How can I disconnect from something that is me? Where am I when I’m not connected to nature? When connection is missing between “nature” and I…presence lacks and I become the storm (not the calm at the eye of the storm). When nature connection is alive…the spirit that moves in and through all things has a canvas to do the work of the greatest artist.” -Rollin

“For my coaching work, I am realizing the serious importance of cultivating and deepening my personal connection with nature and my life path. If I wish to coach and guide others on the nature and soul connection journey, I must actively be on the journey myself.” -Deanna

[Mandy Bishop]

“What do you do with your mind can change the structure of your brain“ -Dan Siegel

[Mandy Bishop]

Wow, Nadine, this sounds like such a transformative couple of sessions for your client. Great work!!

I’m really struck by how ready the Soul part of your client was ready to step up and take control once the insight and awareness were there of the parts. That is fantastic.

I’m also really struck by your deep and active listening. “During the conversation and at times answers came too quickly, I asked her what part was talking.” It sounds like you were listening between what was actually said and going with your gut to investigate what else might be happening here, allowing for even greater awareness for your client.

Awesome!

[Mandy Bishop]

YES!! Love these questions. How powerful to incorporate these into your partswork practice.

“Are all the parts in harmony/flexibility? Are some in chaos? Are some in rigidity? Is this the root of the inner conflict for our clients?”

[Mandy Bishop]

Such great comments, Ivy. And such a powerful work you are doing already with your client, Amber, even if you ran into the confines of time or the limits of where you were able to go to in a given timeframe of a session. Thank you so much, Ivy, for the reminder of the power of space that we are holding and that we can help our client to create for themselves in and around the issue they are grappling with. And for the reminder to stay curious.

Another thing that came to my mind while reading this is a memory of Michael stating that there is only ever one part speaking at a time. In light of this, I start to get curious about the fear that was perking up when the Healer was beginning to expand and express. Curious about what part it might be that is afraid or resistant in some way to the Healer taking up more space within the system. Something to build another cairn around in your mind: ah, when the Healer open up, another part steps in. What is the perceived risk here?

Also, I’m not answering with “what should you do” but just dropping in a few thoughts that pass through my mind in response to reading your session.

[Mandy Bishop]

Wow Sheri, awesome work!!!

This sounds like a really powerful and transformative session!! Its so cool to hear how you were able to incorporate the embodied partswork with your client by using the table settings even in an online session. So great!

What you say in your post, here, really struck me and can be so important for your clients. In this way you are acknowledging where they are and allowing them to move at their own natural pacing, maintaining focus on what is really important–noticing their parts. “Being aware through the day, as you have a thought to say “Who is thinking this?” “What part of me feels strongly about that?” And not worry so much about naming them, if that is difficult. Just get the general idea, noting the competing thoughts / beliefs will help and we would talk through more on our call. I have also realized through my own experience with PartsWork that some parts don’t want to be identified and felt that naming them may not be necessary at this point. She said that helped a lot and felt better about our upcoming call.”

Awesome job!!

[Mandy Bishop]

Oh my gosh, I hear you Nadine! Finding my way with incorporating nature in the online sessions has been a journey. Stay curious about how you might do this in little ways that work for you. Some ideas that might get the creative juices flowing:
– meet with clients outside (do a phone call from an outdoor place or put Zoom on your phone and encourage your clients to do the same)
– bring a little nature into your home office (sticks, rocks, a fountain, flowers)
– work with visualizations and imagination

What other ideas might you all have??

[Mandy Bishop]

Awesome Melody!

I’m so psyched to hear you are finding your way with partswork and that reading Mindsight is helping pull some of this together for you!

“I feel like this flowed well as learning about it is easiest done by experiencing it.” — YES! Learning is best done by doing, experiencing in the moment. This is really where the transformation happens! That said, many of us do well to experience in the moment and have that followed up by cognitive understanding of why our systems work the way they do. Being able to be in partswork as well as explain partswork is really impactful.

Great work!

[Mandy Bishop]

Kim,

Great work seizing the moment, asking for permission to coach and diving into partswork where you saw that it might be helpful! This is awesome!!

Yes, as most of you noted, it can be interesting to find your way into explaining partswork to clients. For many of us, the concept is natural–it’s not a stretch to understand that we have multiple parts inside of us wanting different things. This is something most of us can intuitively sense. And there can be a feeling of relief for a coach to acknowledge that situation that we already well know exists and is most likely causing some blockage.

So, since this is intuitive for many of us, think about what actually needs to be explained or communicated with your clients in order to do partswork with them.

In my experience, there are some clients that I can flow into partswork with them without giving a huge explanation or doing the mandala work, and some where we dive in deeper focusing a lot of our work using this tool. In these cases, I have found it helpful to send the client some homework to journal their parts and then when we come back together we will do the interview process creating a mandala.

See what you think the client might need to know about this way of working with themselves and how you can craft a little explanation (it’s really a teaching moment).

The point you made, Kim, about practicing guiding clients back to Soul is a really good one too! What do you know about your experience during the intensives that can be a guide for you to be able to guide others to Soul? What have been the most effective practices or experiences you’ve had that have helped you access Soul?

Awesome work!!!

[Mandy Bishop]

Kim, this is so awesome! I love the session on the water idea, particularly thinking about your unique gifts as a coach so connected to adventure and movement!

Nadine, wonderful point you bring up about the friend possibly needing to build trust in this new role of Kim as coach.

I would also add that it’s important to remember that whatever pattern or behavior our client is facing has established itself for a very good reason in their behaviors. There is likely a lot of fear deep down that is incredibly uncomfortable for the client to touch. Facing this and beginning to shift it can sometimes happen in one session, and it also makes perfect sense that it might take however long it takes for our clients to be able to “go there”. Change is a natural process and change can be totally scary.

Kim, this sounds like you did such an amazing job of guiding your client into an experiment that likely challenged her limiting beliefs. And she did it!! And you saw a shift in her as a result. This is wonderful! Even if you feel as though you did not land on a “deeper need”, this sounds like a very relevant and important experiment you had. This is where the incorporation phase of your session can be really important. After this kind of experience, everything has been shaken up for your client and is beginning to reorganize itself. This is where you can take some time at the end to inquire about how this experience can inform how they move through the rest of their day and week? What they might do differently? Is there a mantra or a phrase they can use to capture the shift that they are currently experiencing and bring that into their daily life?

[Mandy Bishop]

Nadine, this is awesome and such a wonderful job from your write up of the experience. I want to address what you wrote in your last paragraph. I think Gestalt in the way we are learning to incorporate it with coaching is like a pair of x-ray vision glasses we can put on. I would say yes, it is an awareness tool super focused on what is arising in the moment. I really noticed how you used what was happening in the moment with your client’s reaction to your interruption as what actually had the most juice to it — the new issue at hand, versus the story that she had started talking about. This is a huge growth in your tracking skills from foundations where you likely would have continued to track the story and look for the want. You were listening on a much deeper level (body language, tone of voice, energetic shifts, what was NOT being said, where your client was NOT able to go) and highlighting that.

I would say Gestalt is also a tool to track contact with our clients. We can check out if our client is in contact with us or not. Where as a coach are you breaking contact with your client? And when and how are they breaking it with you? Looking for introjection, retroflection, deflection, confluence, projection and creating awareness around these.

Awesome job!

[Mandy Bishop]

This specific visualization experiment is not something I’ve led a client through before. It was just an inspiration and idea that came to me in the moment based on the content of what we were working with. I find that when I am coaching and I am truly present (setting down my own parts that try to plan out the next move or know what to say) then I enter into this very curious and creative space. It’s like diving into the unknown and exploring in there. When I am in this state sometimes ideas for experiments just pop up into my mind. I always check out the ideas that arise with my client to see if they resonate and if my client would be willing to experiment. In this case she was! So into uncharted territory we go. What I anchor to in these experiments is the deeper need. When I know these ideas are not coming from my agenda but rather arising out of deep presence, listening and contact with my client, I view them as part of nature and part of the gestalt (the larger picture of everything that is going on) and in that light, an important part of the whole. But, like I said, I like to check it out by sharing what came up for me with my client and asking if they would be willing to experiment, or if this idea lands for them.

[Mandy Bishop]

Sheri, these are great reflections on your work with your client. And yes, practicing with a Gestalt-y approach might be a bit different via phone. In this case you are not looking at body language so much as reading tone of voice, tapping into baseline shifts and other energetic shifts that you can perceive as you tune into voice (which you noted). You might also experiment with setting the intention to really tune into contact with your client, focusing throughout the session on when you and your client are in contact and tracking when contact is broken (either by you or your client). You would be tracking this through noticing energetic shifts, deflection, introjection, projection, confluence, retroflection. I find these helpful to track and create awareness around if possible. They are like possible doorways into understanding more of the issue your client is dealing with. I also find these way helpful to track especially in my client notes because they can potentially point to patterns that inform me of how my client is moving through the world. Awesome job!

[Mandy Bishop]

Awesome observations Amber! I think filling in the space with talking is something we can all relate to!! One of my mentors had me do an experiment once, to time myself in a session and give at least 20 seconds of silence and see what happened. It was so eye opening. First of all, it felt like a loooong time but in actuality it was only 20 seconds. But more importantly, it really opened up so much more possibility for my client to sink deeper into their experience and their internal inquiry, without my need to fill in all the empty spaces.

I also LOVE that you are finding ways to incorporate nature into your online sessions. This is amazing! Great work!

[Mandy Bishop]

Yes, such a good point to be highly aware of eye contact, when and how it helps and how it can potentially serve to allow someone to go a bit deeper at times. This reminds me of a session I had with a client where she was very triggered but not yet fully verbalizing what was going on for her. We had been sitting on the ground face to face and I asked her if she’d like to sit back to back for some support. As soon as we turned to sit back to back, she opened up completely. Perhaps this was partly due to feeling the physical support of another but maybe it also has something to do with the ability to really go inwards with that lack of eye contact. Interesting inquiry!

Melody, sounds like you were tracking really closely body language and contact disturbances. Awesome! And how powerful for you to see the effect this particular type of landscape has on YOU, such that in that type of environment you are able to really trust and go with the flow.