[Ivy Walker]

Hi Elizabeth,
I really appreciated your reflection on Brain 1, where you are with your client, and your growth as a coach. I hear you knowing your client and yourself better and how you will engage both in a different manner as you move forward. I get a sense of a deepened perspective (for yours and her process), trust, and newfound opportunities to be creative in the moment. It feels really expansive. Imagine how this expansive, creative space you bring will be a continued resource for your client. Your playful confidence partnered with Nature could really be modeling for her to journey into discovering her truth, as you hold space for her to move away from the edge, into the flow of her possibility.

Did Katie do the “pleasure walk” exercise with you all on the last days of the Trauma module? This ties into your thoughts for creativity, hanging out with a client in pre-contemplation (or like Megan’s in contemplation). In the pleasure walk, it’s a creative exercise to get a client to focus on what is pleasing, what they like in the environment. Another coach I know has framed it like, “what is perfect about this situation?”. I just thought it might be fun to, when you know it’s appropriate, to have a client be in touch with what they like/enjoy/ or what is working well…..as a way to lean into what they know about themselves or what they want. There could be some strong, somatic information to be found in what feels good and the desire to have more of it in one’s life. An idea that just came up….

Warmly,
Ivy

[Ivy Walker]

Hi Erica and Anna, I’ve enjoyed reading your thoughts. I appreciate your curiosity and nerding out! Such a great club! 😀 Anna, those are some good examples from the Mindsight book for noticing areas that have not been integrated, in response to Erica’s question. Also, another simple identification is noticing an opposition. From a Partswork perspective, there might be two (or more) parts that are arguing about a matter/idea/possibility, etc. Finding a way to honor and/or reassign those parts around an issue could be a way to help a client move into integration of that opposition/belief.

On the topic of integration, there is the opportunity to take a wider view. Certainly, we are all creatures living with trauma and disregulation, past into present, on multiple levels. This is a big part of coaching, and therapy, due to the challenges of our culture and being human. Also, I was thinking about integration from a systems perspective. It can also be developmental. Part of the normal course of the growth spiral. I mention this because I started to wonder about the mentioned state of being of ‘perfect integration’. Is this enlightenment or is it death? Is it both? It feels solid or all present. Whereas the possibility of growth and integration feels fluid. Growth, marked by the challenge and integration process, seems like what can make life juicy, if appropriate. Or life can be difficult or even suffering, if the challenge is “inappropriate” or heinous. Anyhow, I wanted to make a case for seeing the multiple levels of integration–as something we do to make sense of wounds or something we do because we are ready to grow into a new developmental stage.

[Ivy Walker]

Hi all, your posts and responses are spot on! It feels like the gestalt and NCC training is really soaking in. And each of you are bringing your unique qualities, insight, + skills to the forefront. I so appreciate how you are tracking your inner growth as coaches while you are also tracking your clients. I hear integration of gestalt in the various ways you’ve mentioned hanging out in severance with a willingness to see/be with whatever is coming up and being curious and aware about what is arising in yourself, client and nature. There is a deeper listening that comes from this type of connecting with/IN the present moment and it can require patience for the unknown to become known.

[Ivy Walker]

Elizabeth,

I appreciated your insight into your own process and how you worded your possible inquiry:

“Speaking up about what’s true for me, without judgment, is better than trying to come up with the right question. In hindsight, I could have said something like…”I need to pause for a moment here. I’m feeling a bit disoriented and I’d like to check in. Would you be willing to back up to the point where I noticed your energy shift? I think we might discover something there.”

This feels really honest, courageous and naturally curious. I imagine how this feeling could also encourage your client to get curious and hang out in the place they might be avoiding through deflection with you, or in everyday life.