Adriana McManus
Forum Replies Created
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Ben,
I had a very similar threshold experience personally. At first, I could not find the energy to do anything about my anger but I found a tree and the open space allowed room for that anger energy to come out and I felt better after. It is very disjointing though to go from talking about something, to feeling it. It is much easier if the feelings can be present through out the whole severance faze. -
*Summary Post*
I have had the opportunity to learn about trauma in my current profession, working on the body. There are many situations where people don’t “sequence” through a trauma and are left with the unfinished circuit which is designed for survival. What I am glad for in the course, is the somatic tools we were presented to help to calm clients down during a triggering event and the understanding that nature can provide a good outlet for that energy. I think trauma work will be increasingly important in the future since there is more mediums for trauma to transfer with the development of technology, not to mention the damage to our planet. -
*Initial Post*
• What steps did you take to establish the Coaching Relationship and focus the session?
• How did or could the concepts learned this last weekend fit into your nature-connected coaching session?
• How did or could you collaborate with Nature and combine the concepts learned this last weekend with Coaching principles?
• What challenges did you face? How did you adapt?
• What flowed and how did you build off it?
• What did you learn about yourself and nature-connected coaching?
• How do the readings relate and interact with the face to face material and your work with your practice clients?
• What ideas do you have for how you might use the concepts learned this last weekend and nature-connected coaching in the future with your client?
• How did the concepts learned this last weekend effect or enhance your Coaching Presence and approach?
• How does Nature-Connected Practices, and Body-Centered Therapy interface?
The woman I worked with has an extensive history of family and sexual abuse and was caretaking for her elderly father/abuser. She agreed to work with me but under the agreement that she was also seeing a psychotherapist as well. She also receives manual therapy for gastrointestinal and liver issues as well and sometimes when she is getting treatment, she goes into physical shaking discharges. At first, these episodes were frightening to her and so I would let her know that she was ok and was just experiencing some release. Her goal for the session was to alleviate her massive anxiety around crowds.
I would use pendulation when I noticed her agitation. We used nature, a tree in her childhood, to create the idea “safe area” where she would experience feeling of more peace and calm. We would pendulate from that to the agitating situation. The anxiety was very intense to begin with but she reported that she was improving.
The challenges were that she had many negative memories outweighing the good ones, so we had to transcend to more of a spiritual perspective to help create more positive feelings.
I learned that human kindness and empathy can go a long way and incredible change is possible. -
Cory,
Great use of all your tools including resourcing and pendulation. You were even able to tap into his core issue which was anger toward his father. I would imagine too that giving him permission to feel was very important. There could be a present stereotype of having to bury feelings as a man. You might have been his first safe space to share! Sounds like you are doing great work with this client. -
Hi Ben,
Using the bottle to turn on her frontal cortex was a good way to alleviate her symptoms of anxiety. It definitely seems like she could have some shock and secondary trauma. She is dealing with people and their lives are in her hands. That is an incredible amount of pressure. I wonder if you could help her find resources that are meaningful to her to help her cope? She may contemplate the future of her career with you. -
*Summary Post*
After learning so much about the brain, how the amygdala tries to find familiarity in its surroundings, how neuropathways are formed, it is easy to see how change can be difficult.Humans are creatures of habits, so as guides, we must help the client see how to disrupt the old habit and create a new one. It has to be very clear to the client why it is important for them to pursue and sometimes they will just give up. Our jobs as coaches isn’t to make them do something, but to help them remember why they created this goal. I will keep the stages of change chart handy so that clients realize the it is possible and sometimes failing is part of the process.
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*Initial Post*
I have been working with an older client who has been struggling with wanting to retire. She had agreed to have me coach her on the subject.
S is a physical therapist who has been working for at least 40 years and started feeling burn out. After asking “what does it mean to be burn out?” We discovered that she feels like she doesn’t have the passion for what she is doing anymore and that she is tired. That was an important awareness. Her goal was to cut down to working 2 days a week.
Then next time we met, she told me that she had cut back and had all this free time, but then work started to creep in again. I suppose that was the bounce back.
I asked her if she still wanted to retire, and she did. This has gone on a few sessions with little bits of success, but some relapse. Using the deep questioning, she realized that working is tied into her self-worth. Each time we go deeper but we are not to the bottom of the issue yet. We’ve talked about the stages of change so that she was able to let go of judgement toward herself which could further hinder someone’s process toward change. I think this is where the tools of brain and change, the stages come in handy. It is helpful for the guide to understand where they are and not give up hope, as well as the client. -
Hi Cory,
I think almost all clients but up against the want for results but not for the change. Sometimes they are ready to contemplate change again sometime later when they are faced with the issue that nagging issue. Change is uncomfortable because of that lack of familiarity that keeps us on the same hamster wheel as humans. I commend you for letting go despite wanting to help your client. Sometimes letting them go to face the same problem is helping as they will eventually figure out what they want. -
Hi Ben,
It seems like your clients pattern of self negation was habitual and you were using the tools that you now know to disrupt her pattern. I am curious about the patter, where did it come from? How could trauma be involved? Your client had some relief from the discomfort of those patterns it seems so your technique worked! I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceburg. -
*Summary Post*
I think as coaches, we are trying to deal with or help create whole clients. This means allowing the full range of human emotions to come forth and not be blocked. These can be uncomfortable feelings for some, so these people might tend to avoid or to console but these are natural processes and they are safe to experience. This is just another instance where coaches can benefit from knowing how to move through their own emotional processes. -
*Initial Post*
I don’t think there is anyone out there who hasn’t experienced grief, and that goes for our clients as well. I can think of one particular client that I have who went through a period of expressing delayed grief. She was so traumatized and disassociated from her experience of loss, that she didn’t get to go through the motions of crying for this loss. We had several sessions where she would just cry the entire time and I would just be there to hold the space. She told me that it felt so good to be able to let it all out. I didn’t have that much experience with grief at the time and I felt a little unsure but I made sure she was safe and she expressed how therapeutic it was for her to be able to grieve. This is one of many situations I have been with grieving clients. Sometimes there doesn’t need to be words or actions, but just a witness. -
My last comment was meant for Cory. Wonderful that you shared this Cory.
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You really created a safe space of trust to be open and honest. I think your own comfort with openness and honesty could have really helped. It sounded like you were a presence to her own grief process which had its own forward momentum. I want to say that you showed bravery in being present with what could be a very intense situation but it seems like you really are in an accepting place, not allowing fear to enter.
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*Summary post*
My guided backpacking trip was a very positive experience for both my client and myself. We started in ceremony around the fire with intention and ended in reflection around the fire. I between, we had dialogue around the deeper need of “quieting the thought inside the head” and awareness in the change of thoughts as bodily challenges of discomfort arrived. I allowed myself to take the guide hat off at meal times and share thoughts. Being a guide over three days required a lot of focus but I felt like I rose to the occasion and created a memorable trip. I think in the future, I would create more structure throughout the day just to eliminate the awkwardness figuring out how to expend my energy as a guide. I have some fine tuning to do to make a guided intentional trip into an impactful and deep trip but for my first guided trip, it was good. As far as brain and change goes, an immersion trip like this is an impactful way as it is a long span of time and creates unexpected challenges and is fully sensory. -
Hi Sandy,
The facebook reponses seem like very common one. Many people want to “make it all better” or make the pain go away but the feeling need to be acknowledged and accepted. It’s ok to cry, to fall apart, to realize something has been lost. How will we become whole again otherwise?