[James Huntley]

My client is a 39 year old woman who has been feeling called to travel to a particular place in Utah where she first experienced a “spiritual awakening” 20 years ago. When I arrived back from our intensive, things had fallen into place for her to make this journey, and she asked me if I could help her plan ritual and ceremony for her time alone in the desert.
I felt that I had a much deeper understanding of the importance and role that ritual play in creating lasting change, and am better able to use language that bridges between the worlds of modern neural science and ancient ecospirituality. Instead of ending a powerful session with goals, benchmarks, targets, etc., I can now continue to hold the sacredness of the session through the ritual creation and to the end.
My client is now currently in the desert, and will return next week, where I look forward to supporting her in creating the rituals she wants to anchor the experiences she is having now.

[James Huntley]

Reflect on all I’ve learned in this module…
That feels like a daunting cue. I feel like maybe sharing the vision I had while participating in Ivy’s guided meditation:

I was standing in the forest, part wild-man, part shaman, wholly myself. There was a line of downtrodden people who looked so wounded, hurt and exhausted coming towards me from civilization. As they passed by me, I took out a piece of my heart and gave it to them, returning a little bit of life and hope to them.

I don’t know what to share besides that, right now. I definitely feel that I am in the same liminal space as the collective, as well as my own. Perhaps once I’m through this threshold I will better be able to reflect on what I’ve learnt.

[James Huntley]

Thanks for you question, Maria.
None of the names I mentioned are actual classes yet. So far, I am holding vision without a clear path to see it manifest. Thank you for your support!

David, You are definitely on the list head Chef, though I think you have many other talents that will be needed;)

Thank you Susan, for your support and reflection as well. I must admit I am quite intimidated by middle-school/high-school age youth (how ironic that I would be intimidated by them…), but I am being guided towards working with that population to some extent as well. Hearing your reflection helps me feel a little more confident in exploring this work.

Leslie, I hope you’re beginning to feel better. I always appreciate hearing your experienced and academic perspective on our topics.
I love you all!

[James Huntley]

Sorry for showing up late to the discussion.
As many of you have already spoken to, I want to serve those who have a similar struggle and experience as I have had. People who have been beat up by the modern world/culture and are looking for guidance on how to do/be/live differently.
The population that most excites me is younger adults, and perhaps older teens who are deep thinkers/feelers and already have a bent towards alternative ways of being. I am excited about spending extended periods (24hrs, 72hrs,5-7 days) of time in the forest or other natural environments and doing some real deep dives into healing and embracing the gifts that our shadow hold.
I am excited to merge the “hard” skills of earth-based living like Shelter, Fire, Water, Food with the relational “soft” skills we are practicing.
The goals I would like to work on most with clients are: Becoming Whole, Clarifying Vision, Engaging the World in their Purpose and Power, Living a Soul Directed Life, Becoming a Jedi 😉
I see having a camp where folks can come and eat wild and cultivated foods, move their bodies in natural environments (climb trees, swim in rivers, throw stones, jump over logs…), meditate and connect with Nature and potentially Tribe.

Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School:
This school is open to everyone who can afford it’s classes. I’m not sure how many students pass through in any given year, but I believe it is a few hundred. This is a skills dominant school, but it is based on a strong philosophical foundation. Many students are new to the skills world and come here for a introduction, as Tom Brown’s books have given him some fame.
Though there is an opportunity for personal connection and deeper learning, most of the students don’t have that desire or opportunity. Most, if not all of the classes have a curriculum that they follow as opposed to being student led. (Rollin, feel free to correct me if you have a different experience. I’ve tried to be stricktly objective here.)

Anake program @ W.A.S.:
This is a pretty cool program, and I feel the need to tread lightly as this is Michaels lineage. One of the problems I see with this program is the expense. I continually wonder how we can find ways to fund our endeavors and have a reciprocal relationship with clients/students that is a bit more organic or less conventional. It seems like graduates of this program remain in a loose community, which I have found doesn’t exist in many other programs I’ve seen. I’m also not sure how much of the curriculum is hard skill based.

Lynx Vilden’s Living Wild:
Hard skill based deep immersions. They seem to be based on a nature connected philosophy, but I’m not sure how deep that goes. Really intense and legit courses.

Possibility Alliance:
Here is a petroleum free homestead that allows folks to volunteer and live for very organic lengths of time on a by donation basis. I understand the opinions of the founders to be quite dogmatic, but they do share what they know freely.

[James Huntley]

Wow.
Well said, David.

[James Huntley]

As I reflect on Foundations 3, I think about balance. The readings in the coaching handbook spoke to exercising specific skills and techniques while my experience around the threshold requires holding skills loosely and fluidly. I feel like this concept was repeatedly revealed to me in my practice with clients and in my daily life over the last couple of weeks as I’ve been trying to apply what I’ve learned.
I also learned that balance is a moving target, requiring an openness, suppleness, skill and humility adequate to dance with whatever may arise in any particular moment. I realize that I hold balance as a static target that can be hit every time using the same skills as the last time. This is a beautiful practice for me because it requires me to stop (or greatly reduce) analyzing the situation and really tune in.
I appreciate reading everyone’s description of threshold. It is really amazing to me how powerful threshold can be.
I have learned to value the wilderness of my psyche as a pure expression of Nature, and to surrender to the truth of that, even as I hold the intention of facilitating other humans deeper relationship with the external psyche.

[James Huntley]

Teddy,
In your post, I was reminded of psychedelic journeys and the research explaining what is going on in the human brain when these medicines are being ingested. Your quote, “In any case, threshold is a liminal state of being between who we are and who we are becoming – it’s a space where we begin to wire new neural connections that will better serve us in the lives we are manifesting.” sounded to me like it could have come out of a psilocybin research paper, and I’m curious if there is really something similar going on in the brain while in a “sober” threshold.
Thoughts?

[James Huntley]

Rollin,
thank you for your reflection and question, “how do you see the natural cycle of moods and learning (and the compass rose directions) playing a part in our internal and external “nature” (or do they play a part?)?

I think the key is that they are all a cycle, and we must learn to dance in every season, direction and mood, knowing that there is a gift in each, a shadow in each and that they are not permanent; they will shift.
I think having the compass wheel can help me to orient when I am getting spun-out and wishing things were different. It can help me to feel grounded and to remember everything is in flux.

I am aware that I don’t have as clear of an understanding yet of the pattern of my feelings as I do the seasons or directions, but I like the concept and feel like it is worth looking into for the same reason.

I am also aware that sometimes patterns shift unexpectedly, and I am learning that the key to mastery is not just holding vast amounts of knowledge, but knowing how to dance with life when our knowledge proves faulty.

With Love,
James

[James Huntley]

Thus far, my most powerful experiences in the threshold as a client have actually been very internal, taking place in my deep imagination or in person to person dialogue.

Alternatively, when I am alone and practicing a Nature connection technique, my experiences tend to be more impactful when I am in a natural environment.

I have been considering this a lot recently, as I explore what it is I am actually facilitating for others. I do believe that nature is a powerful mirror for us humans and our psyche, and I believe that relating to nature in a psycho-spiritual way will also encourage us to treat the natural world with care, respect and honor. However, I am finding that it is just as necessary to change our relationship to our internal nature/psyche as it is to change our relationship with the expression of Nature that exists outside of us. I am beginning to believe that lasting change cannot take place without both relationships changing and affecting each other as they evolve.

Many of my sessions as a coach have led to my client having internal thresholds, as take place in a partswork session, or not leaving severance at all. I am not sure whether this is my failing as a coach, or the “natural” progression of each client’s process. The answer to that may never be resolved for me, though I expect to become more comfortable in the process as I acquire more dirt-time. What is important for me to note, is that when I hold the intention of entering Threshold too rigidly or too loosely, it is clear that the session is strained and not as “powerful” as it could be.

As I receive feedback from clients about my coaching, one thing I hear consistently is that my clients would like to receive more “of me”, more of my compassion and wisdom, but not my wounding and “programing”. As I balance how much agenda to hold for format and experience, I am also finding it necessary to learn to balance my personal input and to have practices that help me to distill that which is true wisdom and helpful to share with that which isn’t.

This brings up the question for me, “Just because something is uncomfortable for a client to hear, does that make it unproductive or inappropriate to share?”
As I reflect on the Core Competencies that are spoken to above, I look forward to developing my: coaching Presence- specifically my confidence, Active Listening- specifically attending to the clients agenda and no getting caught up in their story, Direct Communication- specifically clearly stating coaching objectives, meeting agenda, purpose of techniques, Creating Awareness- is an amazingly deep and rich competency that I feel strong in in some ways, and novice in others, Managing Progress- I struggle with some clients to uncover long term goals for our work together.

I also feel strong in some of these Competencies, at least when I am truly grounded and centered. Finding ways to stay in my power and emotional and psycho-spiritual center is the competency I feel /I need to develop most!

[James Huntley]

In Summary,
I have found that my psyche is the wilderness that the forest reflects back to me. At the same time it is its own wonderful being that I am connected to. I choose to tend it with care and develop a relationship with it or to take it for granted, and each choice has its consequence. This is also true for my psyche.
Ecopsychology is an academic study and application of the above concept. It is using tools and information from many realms to develop a new understanding and way of being in the world. I consider this to be primarily a left-brained endeavor.
Nature is what binds us together, what created us and what will exist when we are gone. All that exists is an expression of Nature, thus we can study Nature through its expressions of Self and Other, but Nature simultaneously remains mysterious and cannot be fully understood. For me, this is a spiritual practice, and is primarily a right-brained endeavor.
I experience Nature Connected Coaching as an amazing blend of the analytical and spiritual, the left and right brain. It allows freedom for individual experience and variable format while equipping us with tools that have been studied for efficacy and are constantly being developed and refined.
I am also learning about the importance of embracing my own personal “madness”, my unique presence and flavor of being in the world that that is fearless, wild and free, yet considerate, supportive and present.

[James Huntley]

Deanna, Teddy and Leslie,
I feel called to jump into the conversation on “crazy” and “madness”. For as far back as I can remember, I have had a secret crush on a particular flavor of madness. the Madness of Tyler Durden in Fight Club, the Madness of Alice in Wonderland, the Madness of the popular comic book villains of Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey, (I am reminded of the concept the only thing separating Batman from the villains was his unwillingness to kill, while the villains would hurt others.) and maybe above all else, the Madness of Jesus, John the Baptist and St. Francis of Assisi.
What is it that draws many of us humans towards such characters, even some who smash through our moral boundaries?
For me, I think it lies in a willingness to shrug-off current conventions and pursue a different path. In the case of my heroes, it is easier to say that the path they lived is a Soul led path, a dedication to soul that naturally disallows a conventional lifestyle. As I consider what makes them different from villains, I remember that they all had enemies that considered my hero to be the villain. Does that mean that to live a soul led-life, one may require the Madness to become an outcast, and perhaps someone else’s villain?
Therefore, the Madness I think we are discussing is both a fearlessness around being cast out of society, and a courageous embracing a life on the fringes of society, being led by Soul as many Shaman are reported to have done/do.
I didn’t know where I was going to go with this when I first began writing, but I see now that this sums up 90% of what I’ve taken away from our lessons the last few weeks. I have been searching for what is blocking me from a more embodied pursuit of my dream, vision, purpose and Soul directed life, and I believe it is a certain madness that I am not embracing in myself. I can converse with a tree or a stone, but can I ask someone to pay me to connect them to their dream, vision, purpose and soul? I feel very connected to my “Mad” part when I hear the questions Michael asked: “What am I willing to do to make this work for me?” “How hungry am I?” “How important is it for me to change my life?” and How badly do I want to be connected to purpose and life a Soul directed life?”. These Questions were intended to be asked to a client, but are just as relevant for myself, as Deanna and others said during the Foundations 2 thread, We have to be steeped in our own practices in order to facilitate others.

[James Huntley]

If I hold the definition of ecopsychology as Buzzell and Cholquist state, “the study of the psychological processes that tie us to the world or separate us from it.”, then, for me, a definition of Nature-Connected Coaching would include the practice of experiencing and facilitating experiences of the… processes that tie us to the natural world or separate us from it.

I am reminded of a tee shirt idea I had a few years ago, adjusting a quote from Socrates to read on the front “…To heal our world…” and on the back, “…We must heal ourselves…” as a cyclical and repeating message that we can’t really heal one in isolation to the other, that both are interconnected and we as humans can’t heal the wounds to our planet, our bodies, or our spirits with the same wounded psyches that have led to such damage.

I love that there are academics who are devoted to the study ecophsychology. I believe they will help rediscover old practices that have been lost to nearly every primal culture as modernity has overcome them, and these practices and the scientific validation of them will be helpful in bringing the “mainstream” into nature connection. However, I also see the academic field possibly falling short by ignoring the importance of a “spiritual” or “mystical” relationship as well. If forest bathing alone is “prescribed” to someone for depression, they may experience the first level of Nature Connection (as Jon Young describes it) and their symptoms may be alleviated, but without forming a deeper relationship with a particular piece of land, we are really only using the land to serve us, thus continuing the cycle of caring for the land only as much as it serves our current desires.

Something that has been on my mind is the importance of imagination in our nature connection practices. If I believe it is beneficial for plants to be spoken to kindly, then I can speak kindly to a tree while receiving some of the benefits of forest bathing, and that’s the end of it. But if I allow myself to imagine that the tree can respond to me and has wisdom to share, then I have access to a new source of wisdom, and even if it is only coming from my subconscious, my relationship with that tree now has powerful psycho-spiritual and emotional bonds. Similarly, engaging with the same tree physically by climbing it will add depth to the relationship, as will learning how to care-take a particular tree and the ecosystem it lives within. These appear to elements that are weak within the ecopsychology school of thought, but can be accessed in Nature Connected Coaching.

When I first read this quote from Rozak in The Voice of the Earth, “The goal of ecopsychology is to awaken the inherent sense of environmental reciprocity that lies with the ecological unconscious. Other therapies seek to heal the alienation between person and person, person and family, person and society. Ecopsychology seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the person and the natural environment.”, I thought to myself, “Why would we need anything else? This sounds perfect!”. After writing down my stream of consciousness that was inspired by the kick-off questions, I am reflecting both on the many assumptions I have made in the above statement, and the excitement and gratitude I have both for ecopsychology as a school of thought and practice, and the freedom that being on the fringe of such a powerful movement can give us as NCCs. We have access to this gold mine of information that is being studied, and the freedom to apply it in a less mainstream and regulated way. We get to be ecopsychological artists! We must be responsible, of course, but we have the freedom to be creative nonetheless.

[James Huntley]

Thus far through our training, I have found:
-Community, support, soul-connections, family (that’s you all!).
-That the emotional pain I’ve spent my life avoiding/escaping is actually the source of my power.
-Validation and experience of an inner knowing that I can remember always having, but never having words for.
-What it means for me to drop my agenda and connect at the heart.
-A way of being in the world that feels more connected to soul.
-Inspiration and desire to put in the “dirt time”, without needing to “should” myself.
-A deeper level of awareness within myself.
-Helpful guidance in logistical business building.
-A wealth of knowledge in the required reading, and the intensive.
-Many new practices to help me stay grounded, centered, connected, and focused, and the realization of my sensitivity and need for those practices.
-A challenging new path that I feel devoted to, and from which there is no turning back.
-work that is challenging and deeply satisfying.

This can’t be a complete list. There is so much that I have found and learned already, it is difficult for me to put words to.
I love you all!

[James Huntley]

Deanna, I love your closing statement, “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. I realize this will require hard work and perseverance through the challenging times. I am also reminded of a quote by Bill Plotkin, “The world cannot be fully itself until you become fully yourself.” If we dream to guide others in becoming fully themselves, we must continue to offer that same guidance to ourselves. What a beautiful gift and journey to be on!”. What a call to action and pillar to lean on!

Gina, I cant help but think of the implications of your quote, “Most importantly for me, is to not be in a hurry to get to any destination. The client will discover their direction, I just get to guide, and witness them discover themself.” if I hold it in the context of Deanna’s above quote. Together, these statements ask me to move forward in a patient practice, with understanding that my practice is also a “wander”, a journey to be experienced, not to “have experienced” from some destination.

I am so blessed to be on this journey with all of you Nature Baked Earth Muffins!

[James Huntley]

David, I love that you quoted the Tao, and the chapter you quoted. I was thinking today how Jon Young’s Level of Deep Nature Connection may be synonymous with Tao, or closely related. I also love your question to Leslie and yourself (perhaps to all of us), “how do we maintain our feelings of being in nature when living our day to day lives, which are also nature?” My experience of the contrast between “our day to day lives” and nature connection is also a difference of living from the Heart or the Head. I am still unearthing this idea, but I feel inadequate at living within a harmony or balance of the two, and feel like the answer for myself lives somewhere there.

Susan and Leslie,
I love how you both mentioned living what we are teaching and being a conduit/mentor. I was reminded of Jon Young’s insistence that Deep Nature Connection can only be achieved through mentorship, and the reality by coaching we are also Coyote mentoring those we coach by being an example. This concept reminds me of the responsibility I feel to continue my practices for my sake and the sake of those I will interact with.