[Shari]

Not having received a lot of coaching (yet), I have had two clear and very different experiences with threshold. The first is what I call “30 years to be an overnight success” the second was much closer to what was described in Gunnison, an “aha” moment that was a jumping off point to creating the transformation I am seeking.

The first, a letting go of story, was a realization of how tightly I was holding to a version of myself that no longer served me. I had told myself the story for sooo long that letting go of its familiarity was not comfortable…it was a normalized pathway in my nervous system. Simultaneously, over the years, I had been working hard to overcome my related fears. I still had them but they no longer controlled me in the same way. I stopped outwardly living my shyness and fear of rejection, though at times it was intense. Somewhere in my late 40s, much of the fear left and I came into myself but still the story hadn’t changed. I would slip into it when it was convenient or uncontrollably showed up like a boulder in the middle of the road. The coaching threshold happened when I heard myself say, “it’s time to give up the story” – a story I had previously been unwilling to admit I was living! As soon as I made the commitment, I felt a sense of freedom. It was as though I had been building a new neural pathway for years, and with the commitment, I switched highways! I was ready, the groundwork had been laid, I just needed a coach to help me see and in a sense give me permission, to be me, in front of everybody else!

Interestingly I found the second form of threshold experience to not only to be a jumping off point but it actually opened the door for other topics of coaching that are interrelated and supportive of the original topic. My desire to be more structured and organized is strong but the ability is not yet ingrained in my nervous system. I experience it as though my nervous system is seeking the inroads to creating this change. What the coaching did was upload a threshold that provided me permission to move forward. The “aha” moment was the sudden awareness of the story I had been telling myself that prevented any major degree of change. It also provided glimpses of what I need to do to make the change and who I would be once it made. The fear lessened but still I knew I need to move forward gently reassessing myself each step of the way to be sure the changes suit and serve me.

Having these two very different experiences with threshold helps me to not have expectations of how a client might react or behave when moving into threshold. It is important for me to deeply listen and assist a client in navigating their own experience in a way that best serves the client. I also realize that threshold can potentially be very emotional and/or a moment of awakening. Holding the space for this can be key. Allowing the client to move forward in his/her own time is something I need to be sensitive to and not impose my own perspective or inclinations.

Flow, change, and cycles are three aspects of nature that I consistently find helpful in understanding and moving through my own situations and now apply to my interactions with coaching clients. Water/Flow naturally seeks the path of least resistance…it reminds me to seek the simpler path, and not over-complicate life. I think this concept was at the forefront when I let go of the old story…and realized how needlessly difficult I had been making my life.
Changes abound in nature often following cyclical patterns. This assists me in how I perceive any situation, my own or a client’s. I try look at it in terms of the bigger picture. I look for particular patterns from a global perspective so that I can understand how my patterns of behavior serve me in my life. I hope to help clients do the same. I am very aware that I have to be careful not to lead my client from my perspective but assist her/him in discovering his/her own understandings. Coyote’s guide provides a very clear description of the Natural cycles. Knowing change in nature is consistent and constant brings me comfort in allowing for my own changes, planned and spontaneous. Being able to see these changes in the context of the Natural cycles, gives me a sense of trust in my own growth. The viewing of the micro/specific within the macro/global over time, offers the possibility of deeper understanding as well as direction for creating positive transformation.

Both threshold experiences happened when I was able to reconnect my specific behaviors (micro) with the larger context (global), being how they served me and why they developed, at the time they developed. Once I did I became aware that the old patterns did not fit with the new context (where I am now in my life). With this awareness came choice. With choice, commitment.

I am amused at how the submission of this post represents my commitment to change…and what a bumpy road it is. Here I am, having worked diligently to get this post in on time, while knowing I still have not completed all the work from the previous sections. The inroads to being organized (and caught up) are a work in progress. Still it’s good to be on a path to transformation and growth…with all of you. 🙂

[Shari]

Hi All,
Sorry I’m a late comer, it’s taken me awhile to figure out what all needs to be done and to find the time to do it. I’m working to catch up but focused on moving forward from here. Here’s my response. As soon as I read through your posts, I’ll be back. Thanks.

Ecopsychology and Nature-connected coaching share a common goal, one might even call it a vision, in that they seek to create a synergistic reconnection between people with nature. To heal the alienation that has progressed since the time of industrialization along with its accompanying stressors and discomforts. And to foster the creation of a paradigm shift that will bring balance between technology, humanity, and the natural environment (our planet) so that our global culture is grounded in, and behaves with, the awareness of the inter-dependence and layered complexities that exists between all the various aspects of nature including human-kind. This reconnection serves to facilitate both “personal and planetary wellbeing”.

The various practitioners and researchers in eco-related fields approach this goal in varied ways, from the hard-core scientific methodologies of classical psychology to the softer more holistic approaches of transpersonal psychology to the experiential, physical, get outside, approaches of ecotherapy. Really, it is the practitioner, not the modality, that determines the methods to be used in assisting an individual in finding their connection with nature and the planet, and her/him self.

My interpretation of the readings was that ecopsychology and ecotherapy were focused on bringing healing to the planet by curing pathologies that have occurred because of our disconnect with nature and our failure to recognize our place in the universe. The disconnect itself, is considered a pathology in need of healing. Theodore Roszak pointed out the use of guilt and fear tactics by environmentalist to try and shame people into behaving in more ecologically and sustainably sound ways. This served environmentally cognizant psychologists to seek methods to incorporate environmental awareness into psychogical healing.
Craig Chalquist and Linda Buzzel discussed ecotherapy as a modality for “repairing the damage created by the long and self-destructive war between human-kind and the Earth”. And consider Ecotherapy to be “applied psychology”, using “earth-based approaches for both physical and psychological healing”

I found the readings to be enormously insightful and offered me deeper understanding and perspective of the related fields. It affirmed my choice to study coaching, specifically nature-based coaching. “Coaches honor the client as the expert in his or her life”. Coaching is oriented toward salutogenesis Roszak discussed EO Wilsons’s concept of biolphilia as being an “innately emotional affiliation to other living organisms”. The term actually originated with Erich Fromm a psychologist who in the mid 1960’s defined it as “the passionate love of life and of all that is alive.” I interpret this to mean people are innately connected with nature and what manifests as disconnection is a symptom of something deeper.

During the years of work I have done as a massage therapist, and a health educator and coordinator at a Graduate School, my observations have suggested that peoples’ seeming disconnect with nature is a symptom of their disconnection with self. And while people are often not aware of this disconnect they are aware of a sense of discomfort with their life in general and often seek ways and means to feel better…as evidenced by the development of the self-help industry which generates billions of dollars and the burgeoning field of coaching.

Coaching contributes to the solutions. It is growing in popularity by people seeking guidance to overcome blocks, meet challenges or to rise to their potential and live fulfilling and happy lives. This is often done by the coach “encouraging client self-discovery”, and creating a safe space for self-awareness to emerge so that it can inform the individual in making or discovering deeply meaningful life choices. Coaching that encourages self-exploration and discovery facilitates a deep and intuitive self-awareness, self-care, personal growth, conscious evolution, and a desire to keep on learning and growing. It reawakens the biophilia that we inherently carry deep inside ourselves and brings it to consciousness so that it can be lived and shared in daily life.

A coach must live the ideals he is encouraging and be a model both to her/his clients and for a world that is crying out for change and balance. To this end numerous skills are useful:
• Deep listening that allows the client to know he is heard and feel safe to open up.
• Deep questioning that fosters a clients ability to hear know, and discover him/her self.
Coyote’s guide for questioning works equally well for mentoring children and coaching adults.
• Honest communication sets a foundation for trust.
• Caring non-attachment in which the coach deeply cares but allows the client space to find and walk her/his own path…and potentially make his/her own mistakes.
• Collaboration in which client and coach work together to set and meet the goals of the client.
• Both global and focused awareness so that ideas and plans can be perceived mindfully while considering the potential long term affects.
• Self-reflection as a means to self-awareness. The objective observer allows one to observe one’s self without judgement so that one can become the person he/she truly wants to be.
Feel your emotions and hear the messages they offer.
• Facing one’s fear, or at least being aware of how fear is directly affecting one’s life.
• Many of the Core routines offered in Coyote’s Guide: These foster connection with nature and deepen connection with self.
• Be accepting, recognizing everyone is at a different stage of both personal development and spiritual maturity. You can’t expect the same from all, when people are at different developmental stages.
• Become your own best friend…we often accept our best friends much more readily than ourself. By becoming your own bff you are accepting yourself, your mistakes, your imperfections and your beauty and gifts, and you will joyfully encourage yourself to become more; in so doing those around you will feel safe to accept themselves fully, and free to become the person they truly want to be.
• Be a lifelong learner.
• LIVE LOVE
♥

[Shari]

For me the interconnectedness fuels the vision. The “awe” is constant and all around me, as long as I remember to open to it with wide-angle senses, all six (and more of them). Nature is the language of the soul and spirit, it allows people to safely connect and experience the depths without the apprehension that can arise with the lingo of religion and spirituality…once there they can choose the language that describes their personal “noticing”…maybe with some help from a coach! It is my hope and dream that the conscious connecting will fuel the individual desire to be the stewards to this planet and care for it as it has cared for us.
I’ve been listening to The Nature Fix on audio…great read/listen if you are looking to balance the intuitive with the science. It’s a joy and an honor to be journeying with you all.

[Shari]

Hi All, I’m Shari from Northwest Connecticut. It’s great to connect and begin to get to know everyone. My Bachelors is in Natural Resource Conservation, but I’ve been a massage therapist for the last 30+ years and a health educator for 10+ years. I thought I was on a “path with heart”, assisting graduate students in becoming the change they wanted to see in the world as they discovered and followed their inner passion, while I simultaneously was building a program and community with a focus on positive and conscious evolution through the lens of integrative health and healing. When the leadership changed along with the vision and mission of the Institute I suddenly found myself with a direction, but no path. After much searching inwardly and outwardly, I decided to return to my roots, and I discovered EBI. The path feels right the goal is still fuzzy, though I know I want to work with children and families in developing self-awareness, self-responsibility and connection to source (nature). I trust the clarity will come as I continue to follow the path that beckons through the NCC program. In the meantime I am loving the learning and growth that is happening and I’m excited to being sharing the journey with all of you.

[Shari]

HI ALL, Sorry to be late jumping in here. I had to do some rearranging of my schedule to be fully on board. I’ve arrived and look forward to meeting you all at the next video session. Reading your posts, hearing your perspectives and the wisdom that you openly share, has been thought provoking and inspiring.
For me, throughout my life, soul direction has been deepening and evolving as my nature-connection strengthens through interaction and growing awareness. I experience soul as the formless part of self that is connected with something much greater (the unknowable whole). Because “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”, I invite “the whole” to inform self through meditation, observation and awareness. It brings depth and breadth of understanding to consciousness. Nature is universal wisdom/intelligence manifest, physically, energetically and probably in ways we have yet to fathom. Through mind and heart I access both.
To be soul directed is to go within. To listen, to learn to distinguish the voice of the soul from the many voices that are in my head. This voice is often wordless, a feeling, a sense, a knowing. Nature nourishes my soul. It brings the light of understanding, at the same time it provokes endless questions and curiosity. We are all “nature connected”, being soul directed is a reflection of me recognizing and responsibly acknowledging this connection.
The unconscious mind speaks in metaphors…the patterns of nature offer metaphors of understanding, the wind blowing through the trees, the flow of water creating its dynamic path (via the path of least resistance!?). As I immerse myself in nature, observing with all my senses, I am better able to live from my soul.

[Shari]

Hi All,
I purchased it through Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/
It can also be found at AbeBooks.com
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=Jenny+Rogers&tn=Coaching+skills&kn=&isbn=
The seller for both is Textbooks_Source (Columbia, MO, U.S.A.)
FYI, https://www.bookfinder.com/ is a good website for finding used and new books.
Happy Bookhunting

[Shari]

Hi Ivy,
The reading list has the 3rd edition of the Coaching Skills book . Is it okay that I purchased the 2016, 4th edition? It’s also the Southern Methodist University version, a whole lot cheaper ($7.00) and from what I can see there is no difference, except that they accidentally printed chapter 4 twice!!

[Shari]

Hi Amber, I’m scheduled to arrive at 8:46 am in Denver on the 20th. I’ll hang out and meet up with you when you arrive. I’m not familiar with the airport but you can call me when you land so we can find each other. Let’s connect before that and get comfortable with the details. My cell phone is: 203-530-3781
I’m looking forward to connecting and really appreciate your sharing the airbnb, etc….

[Shari]

Thanks Amber, Sounds like a great find. I haven’t booked my flight yet. What time are you landing? I’ll see if I can make the timing work for us to meet at the airport…we can travel to Boulder together?? I may be staying with a friend for the weekend after class ends. I need to confirm with her before I book my flights. Will get that done in the next couple of days and will confirm with you. I’ll probably fly Southwest

[Shari]

Hi Amber, It looks like I will be flying in on the 20th as well. I’m wondering if there is room at the airBnB for one more on the 20th – I’m happy to split it with you?. I’m not sure yet about the 28th. I should know by the end of the week. THANKS