[Sophie Turner]

Threshold, I have struggled a little in getting my head around threshold, it has required some reframing for it to click and to go “ahh” yes I know that space well. For me when I am in threshold I can only describe it as discombobulating, I feel on the edge of a precipice like something within me is about to shift in some way, I know there will be an insight and a shift, but knowing that doesn’t always make it easy to sit in that space, the earth feels like a water bed. I have to lean into the discomfort and trust the process. Some days I’m all for it, “F@#! Yeah give me your best” and other days it is really hard to sit in that place.

For me, as the coachee, in threshold the best thing the coach did was hold the space, allow me the time to process, sit with me through my discomfort.

Now as a coach, I hold space well, it is one of my strengths, I believe it has been well honed through nursing and looking after people at the most vulnerable. For people first experiencing threshold in a coaching setting, I normalise it for them and support them in this space, I encourage them to trust the process.

Nature as a guide in threshold is powerful, I find it to be calming, teaching me and nurturing while at the same time challenging old beliefs/patterns and empowering the change from within. Since starting this course I’ve been practicing deep listening in nature and with the sacred questions am in awe of how much I can learn from the different birds around me. I notice the bird song now wherever I am, it is no longer a background noise I have to focus on but wherever I am the bird song always seems to be the first I hear.

In terms of ICF competencies, I feel the two I would like to focus on is coaching presence and awareness. While I do believe holding space is a strength, I need to further build my muscles to engage in that level of presence and awareness for multiple periods of time. I need to work on building the rituals that allow me to reenergise so I can serve multiple clients in a day and week.

I also think this is essential when presenting and facilitating group sessions, maintaining that presence and awareness in order to engage the participants.

[Sophie Turner]

Jen, you have beautifully articulated the articles and highlighted so much richness and learning from within them. I find myself responding to these assignments in a completely different way than I usually would which is fun but sometimes has me wondering when I hit post if I have actually answered the questions.

I had not considered the challenge of safety when coaching in nature, I have in the past considered further guide training so I could utilise activities like abseiling as part of the threshold experience, stepping over the cliff/letting go/taking action. I had let it slip to the very back of my mind, more study/more money, but important to consider these aspects for the park/trail. I wonder what my obligations are here in Australia from a legal point. I digress. Your response prompted me to think about how I might integrate the rituals and activities from a remote space (zoom) while still maintaining the ceremony around this for the client and our work together. I have been inviting my clients to wander and using the sacred questions to reflect on but I’m intrigued to explore ways that would marry the technology and nature together for a more powerful experience simultaneously.

Thank you for providing me with some more to ponder.

[Sophie Turner]

Transpersonal experiences in nature can offer both peace and clarity, challenge and growth. Nature holds space for us, the questions nature raises and the invitation to integrate this new meaning and knowledge in our lives is always there, we just have to listen.

My personal story is reflected in this, at each career transition, over the past several years, has been prefaced with a profound experience in nature. Nature becoming the metaphor for what my reality was and inviting me to imagine a different outcome. These experiences prompted deep shifts in my own psychology, growth and life direction.

It is these experiences and my development as a coach that has led me here, to studying nature connected coaching and how I might integrate nature further into my coaching practice.

At the completion of all the module readings in the Australian central desert I jotted some initial thoughts in response to each of the foundations assignments.

For this one, briefly mentioned in John Davis article on transpersonal dimensions of ecopsychology, the concept of ecofeminism stood out, the embracing and recognition of the interdependence and connection humans have with the earth. Perhaps this linked with my desire to embrace more of my own feminine in terms of heart centred over cognitive, analytical interpretation, for when recently reviewing this I can’t find the paragraph that is so clear in my mind.

It had me considering more deeply the role of awareness and presence in our practice as coaches and how the integration and interdependence with nature and earth invites the coach/client relationship to go deeper, to be present and aware from soul. The readings by Roszak and Buzzell et.al. brought more awareness to the level of spirituality that is embedded in ecopsychology, the meeting of our psyche and gaia.

Our destiny is dependent for what we do for Gaia as a whole.

Everything is interconnected, interdependent all over through nature. I’m inspired to bring more connection with nature into my coaching and understand how I can align this with some future goals around leadership coaching and organisational wellness. I believe that before 2020 a big challenge in the coaching space was how to integrate nature and have clients believe in its power from the outset. Now as the world endures a pandemic we are all asking ourselves some deeper questions. We have all paused to consider who we are, where we what are, while some people will carry on as they always have. I do believe there are many who have seen something more, who desire that connection and want to change the way they are living. I believe that coaches are needed now more than ever and we as nature connected coaches have a unique and powerful tool to guide us and assist us in our coaching practice.

[Sophie Turner]

I can’t see my original post that I uploaded today so in brief. The wander was pivotal to the clients initial coaching session, both for deeper understanding and integrating the first session. I’m looking forward to seeing how things begin to shift for my client.

[Sophie Turner]

I have been working on three to five session packages to give the client time to really dive in and gain from our time together.

My most recent client that I am integrating EBI learnings with looks like this
– five sessions
– three sessions weekly with homework between
– final two sessions, timing guided by client, either fortnightly or monthly depending client objectives
– support available from myself between sessions.

[Sophie Turner]

I’m very late to completing this but here goes…

I recently guided someone remotely, the wander was an outcome from an initial coaching session and we discussed and set the intention for the wander.

I asked the client to reflect on the sacred questions at the end and during if they remembered to do so.

The process was a very powerful and important process for the client to go through, it was something they had never done before and while unsure about the wander initially was willing to trust the process and see what happened.

It was a beneficial and enlightening process for the client between sessions and has allowed them to build on their awareness, desires and openness to diving deeper in our upcoming sessions.

[Sophie Turner]

My key takeaways from this module
– having some coaching experience, both as coach and coachee, makes understanding the concepts in the readings easy and I am keen to dive further into the nature connection aspect.
– I feel ready to challenge myself to go deeper in my own reflection and coaching, I’m intrigued to learn more of the feminine in nature and how I can sit more consistently from a heart space rather than my science based, analytical cognitive space.

Looking forward to the next module.

[Sophie Turner]

Definitely not failure at all Allyson, poetry is a beautiful creative outlet for the darkness and light we all experience throughout our lives. I’ve never written poems or explored them widely but I do find that it always poetry that shows up in my life and teaches me something unexpected.

I look forward to seeing how we both grow and learn in this journey together with the permissions we have granted outselves.

[Sophie Turner]

Allyson and Vanessa, thank you for sharing your reflections, I have so many questions and love that Vanessa, you are also curious about the noise of a bear breathing and whether animals can taste the moisture on the log. Allyson what a beautiful way to bring presence in that moment, I have no doubt it was a powerful wander to do together.

What has come up for me while reading your posts, and I’d like to acknowledge it, is the way in which you both write of your experiences from the heart. Having a big academic background I don’t often write in a way that invokes deep flow and reflection, and when I do I rarely share it. I am closely connected to myself as intellectual and analytical, expressing myself more openly, with more rawness, and reflection is going to take some practice, you will note my attempt to half-heartedly disown my response in the last paragraph above. Connecting and communicating from the heart centre is a work in progress and I am very grateful to you both as your responses have given me permission. Permission I didn’t realise I needed.

Thank you.

[Sophie Turner]

What does it mean to be connected to Nature, and how can that relationship support my coaching?

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.

So like children, we begin again…

to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke

I first came across this poem while reading Soulcraft by Bill Plotkin. It was the beginning of March, as Australia began to deal with COVID-19, I found myself deeply disappointed in the book that I was so looking forward to reading. On reflection, I had to move through a process, surrender to circumstance, while reading it. Circumstances where the world, my world, as I knew it had stopped, my plans were all paused, I was told I needed to stay home, stay indoors. It all seemed at odds with what I was finding on the pages and what I hungered for, that feeling of space and freedom offered in nature. The freedom to dive into dark spaces to uncover myself, to learn, to grow, to energetically expand. Only the first stanza is presented in the book, I noted it down, while everything else felt so intangible the desire to surrender to the earths intelligence and rise up rooted like trees stayed with me.

The book it seems, so apparent today, is still with me, echoed through the readings and learnings of these past months. That constant in my enquiry into nature connectedness, my role as a coach and how I shall best serve the communities surrounding me. That enquiry into acknowledgement and freedom in raw self-expression. Witnessed so freely and powerfully in nature (Young, Haas & McGown) while not enough in society, as we find safety and restriction in societal ideals.

We are nature. As potent and accurate as this is, I am still growing, still learning and understanding how to embody this and the responsibility that comes with it. The responsibility attached to nature intrinsically and extrinsically.

Nature has played a significant role in bringing me to this present moment, it is where I feel the most grounded, free, creative and connected. It is where I can feel my authentic self begin to radiate from within, a vast and knowing soul space. It is a pulsing energy for endless opportunities, it provides the doorway to self, opening the deep chasm for self-exploration and growth.

Being in nature brings me completely into the present, offering moments for insights so profound I would not have seen or heard them elsewhere. We have talked about deep listening with clients and as I reflect on this in the context of what I have written here, nature offers me the space to listen deeply to nature itself. For while my personal experiences have been transforming, I know I can go even deeper. While that excites me it also terrifies me, to stand on the precipice with what I know behind me and the unknown before me. While nature conjures an infinite space of opportunity with no boundaries, all encompassing, it is solid. It keeps me grounded and connected to a higher purpose and a mission that I’m yet to fully understand. Perhaps I never will, perhaps the only thing I need to do is to keep moving in a direction that is congruent with my authentic self and the earth’s wisdom.

“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn.”
– David Whyte

As a coach, I want to support clients in facing their darkness, utilising the power of nature, giving us permission to freely express who we are. Nature provides a stage for our fears and desires to be uncovered. Nature is supportive while at the same time opening up darkness and light for us to explore, to understand and to grow.

In brief summary, there was a flow that overcame me in reflecting on this question, it is not as poised or academic as I would usually present but in the faith that my presence in nature in this moment, this is exactly what I needed to put forward in response to the question.

[Sophie Turner]

So many great insights from the session and also with what everyone has shared. I had organised to do a wander with a client of mine together before I left, we were both really excited to be sharing this together, unfortunately the day came around and she had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances. I was very much looking forward to putting this into practice but we will try and connect soon to do it again.

In response to deep listening, I believe this to be a really important skill and one that I relied on heavily when nursing, it is a skill that has helped me care for my patients in a more holistic way. I get alot out of deep listening when in nature alone, there is so much to learn from within and the outer that can guide us in profound ways.

[Sophie Turner]

Thank you to everyone for sharing, each reflection has taught me something. I’m a bit late having been busy the past month finalising work, travel plans and the transition from a secure role to my coaching practice fulltime. There have been many wonderful lessons on transitions this past few weeks. There may also be some overlap as I answer these questions going forward as I have been trying to apply these new tools throughout the process.

I had while still in the city been for a couple of wanders that I just could not get into the space, I found there to be so many distractions with the pedestrian traffic along the river that I was being very hard on myself and not able to focus on the task at hand. I gave up, enjoyed a fast pace walk and returned home.

Last week was a different story (I will talk about this no doubt in the coming reflections too), I went with the intention of going for a hike up the forestry behind where I was staying just before departing on my travels. I moved rather breathlessly up this hill to a look out, paused and then made my way back down to locate the path to the gorge. When I found it I settled into my intention of practicing what I have learn through the last few APNC lessons. My intention was to find the inspiration to write my blog post that was well overdue. I took deep breaths and surrendered, beginning my walk. I let nature guide me and tried to stay heart centered, after about 30 minutes I had this pull to sit on this large rock looking back down the creek. I sat and noted through my senses what was happening around me, within me, what I was learning in that moment. I sat there for what felt like an age, it was about 25 minutes just being. Nature, the trees, the birds, the insects moved around me.

I never made it to the waterfall in the gorge but I did know what my blog post was going to be about. Transitions.

[Sophie Turner]

Objective awareness, something I am familiar with and this reflection is a reminder that while I have been astute at noticing in other people I am avoiding the inner objective awareness.

Last week I started some staff wellness presentations at the hospital in cancer care to address some key areas identified in a staff wellness survey. A big one was life balance and mindfulness.

In my fourth session I had three people in person (social distancing) and many others participating online. There was a great deal of resistance to the session and content from the three staff members present, all of whom had never participated in mindfulness. The resistance was palpable, it was in their body language and way they engaged with the content, it even led to some challenged questions around mindfulness and the challenges the world is currently facing.

It was a moment in which I noticed their reactions but was more curious about how I may have been participating in the exchange of dialogue. The session prior I had been late, there was a mix up in the times and I had to dive straight into the content with twenty people waiting online. I wasn’t grounded and raced through the content. I would have benefited from taking a few breaths to centre myself before commencing. To me this illustrated the importance of practicing mindfulness in my own life, I haven’t been as consistent as I would like to be and that was evident in the energy I brought to the session. While that session received really positive feedback and engagement around participants personal stories and experiences the second was wrought with resistance. One thing I said in response to their many questions embedded in the resistance was that understanding or knowing the full effectiveness of our practice is not known until we are in a saturation where we are triggered or challenged and have the awareness to choose a different direction or behaviour in response. That has been with me ever since and a constant reminder I need to be prioritising my own practice in these busy and uncertain times.

I find myself putting off really utilising my alley nature as I am heading off around Australia, camping and hiking for a few months and know that I will be immersed in it 24/7. Aware that this is a great excuse.

Yesterday, I headed down the coast with my sister, we were headed for my Dad’s a quiet block on the edge of a national park, with a small creek. The conversation in the car was around how my sister might address a work problem she was having. Her mannerisms and language are very direct bordering on aggressive. I had to become even more aware of my own energy to ensure I didn’t disengage from the energy all together. It was lovely to arrive at my fathers and step out into the garden where the birds were singing and everything seemed to recalibrate. I spent a few hours wandering around the garden before we had a camp oven dinner. It reminded me how grounded I feel in nature and that I was experiencing some levels of anxiety myself and not all of this was absorbed from my sister.

Between work, planning and having a very limited income I have been experiencing a different kind of anxiety. When I have sat to practice mindfulness and some other techniques we have covered this past few weeks I find myself finding excuses and getting even more anxious. All very clear indicators I need to stay where I am, more frequently. I am prioritising my practice this week. So hopefully I can provide some more insightful reflections in the coming weeks.

[Sophie Turner]

I feel a deep sense of gratitude to each of you, all sharing so openly and honestly, your stories and connection to nature. You have each inspired a deeper curiosity about what nature connection means to me.

I grew up in outback Australia on a quarter of a million acres, so there was no shortage of space to wander. I did school by distance education until I went to boarding school at the age of eleven. I have wonderful memories of exploring and learning to be resourceful with what you had. We were given a great deal of freedom as children that fostered an appreciation for nature, our own abilities and problem solving. Nothing like getting bogged 40km from home when you are ten, you had to work out how to pull the car out or walk home, we learnt to drive early. My early connection to nature was one of great fondness but one that was unbalanced, leaning towards how nature could work for me. It wasn’t until I returned to the bush as a young adult that the sheer beauty and vastness of such a country could take your breath away. Nature has had me pausing in awe ever since, I often find myself pausing unable to articulate the sheer volume of feeling and curiosity it stirs within. It is in nature that I feel completely grounded and centred, an energy flow that really lets me be at one with what I think, know and feel. I feel very open and present in the world when among nature. A few years ago I experienced a profound moment in nature that made me find courage to face the fear, the experience itself was like a calling and had me redirecting my life. I recently spent some time climbing in Argentina, it was a few weeks where every day I was so completely present and aware of my surroundings, it was a transforming energy and one that I crave now.

Wayne, I’m also fascinated by the moon cycles and the constellations, in Polynesia the islanders navigate the pacific by the stars, with extreme precision, they say you can’t look up at the stars and no where you are, you need to know where you came from to know where you are going. They remember each and every star and constellation which then informs their next ‘star’ bearing. The knowledge and intuition attached to this amazes me, we are so reliant on technology in our lives we have lost the connection and ways in which nature can inform us. There are many other aspects like the swell and speed of the boat that these navigators calculate and commit to memory for 22 hours per day, it is a very holistic process.

I think it is so important in our own growth and personal journeys to be aware of where we came from. For me my evolving connection with nature will guide my understanding of those more existential questions that comes with growth.

I relate to many of the challenges you have all mentioned. I’m most guilty of inconsistency I have a desire to create rituals that keep me grounded and connected during periods of busyness but I will often find that the pressure to be busy wins and I’ll let the practice slide one day and that turns into weeks. I’m guilty of doing things quickly so it is important for me to slow down and be comfortable with stillness.

[Sophie Turner]

Hi All,

I’m Sophie from Australia, I’m a nurse and have a very new coaching practice. I finished a transformative coaching course last year focusing on leadership. I have a love for adventure and the outdoors that led me to EBI. I found EBI late last year and I’m diving into the NCC program over the next year or so. I’m so looking forward to meeting you all tomorrow. I have got my timezones sorted now.

Sophie 🙂