Tag: Integral Coaching
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Layers of Listening
Many of us spend the majority of our days in conversations of one kind or another. This is particularly true for coaches, therapists, and other practitioners who spend their time supporting others’ development. Bringing greater mindfulness to how we approach conversations with anyone—our clients, colleagues, partners, children, friends, and others—holds the potential to make these…
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Making Room for Integration
This article first appeared on the Mindful Leader blog in September 2021. “Along with all the growth and healing, remember to give yourself time for integration, which is a fancy word for ‘allowing sh*t to settle.’ It looks like doing nothing. This nothing is necessary.” – Emily McDowell Has it ever happened to you? You’ve been…
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Self-unification in a divided world
“In order to truly change, we have to let go of who we think we are. Early in life we had to form the ego, or the ‘little self,’ in order to protect our true self. Later in life, the way we originally protected ourselves begins to endanger the presence of our Self. What protected…
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Replenishment, Starting Close In
This article was originally published on the Mindful Leader blog in August 2022 “I have nothing left.” It’s a sentiment that’s been in our shared consciousness for a long time, and recently I’ve started to hear folks actually name it. Maybe you have too. World events have taken their toll, and many of us find…
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Changing and Staying the Same are the Exact Same Process
Cyd is the person in the office who is always fixing everything: the broken printer, the scheduling snafu, the delivery gone awry. They see things that are invisible to most: the bump in the ceiling that could become a leak; the fact that you’re halfway through the second-to-last jug of water and haven’t placed the…
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I Am Not Me Without You
This post was originally published on the Mindful Leader blog in January 2022. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of witnessing the certification of a new group of Integral Coaches: a powerful rite of passage that is the culmination of a year of hard work, dedicated practice, and profound growth. At the close…
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The space we need to grow
This article was originally published on the Mindful Leader blog in July 2020. When folks are considering Integral Coach training, they often bring very reasonable questions like: These are all perfectly understandable scenarios, which is why it can be surprising to learn that our answer to each of these questions is “no.” We require students…
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The Necessity and Challenge of Being ‘Onto Ourselves’
This article was originally published on the Mindful Leader blog in June of 2020. A couple of weeks ago I participated in the certification process for a cohort of students finishing the Professional Coaching Course. A phrase I heard used in celebration again and again was, “you are onto yourself.” It’s a concept that comes…
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Beauty and Wonder: An Invitation into Experience
Do this, if you would: Google “René Magritte, Clairvoyance.” Bring up an image of the painting.* Sit with it for 30 seconds, one minute, two minutes. Five. Receive it through your heart. Notice its effects on your body. Analyze it with your mind (you probably started doing that the second you saw it. We can’t…
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Coregulation: the Heart of Skillful Response
This article first appeared in the Mindful Leader blog in December 2020. “If you want to improve the world, start by helping people feel safer.” —Stephen Porges Can you recall a moment in your life when you felt truly supported? Perhaps it was a session with a therapist, bodyworker, coach, or teacher. Maybe it was…
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Staying with the Questions
I’m a little obsessed with getting to the very bottom of a question, and then filling up the hole with all the resources I can find. Tell me more. What’s it about? How does it feel? What is the problem you want to solve? Curious, always. But then I do have trouble staying with the…
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Body-Centered Speaking and Listening
This article was original published on the Mindful Leader Blog in June 2021. In Integral Coaching we often talk about the three centers of intelligence: head, heart, and body. Useful across all areas of coaching, they are particularly interesting to explore in the realm of speaking and listening. Recently, I had the opportunity to spend…
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Beauty and Kindness: Doorways to a Truer Place
This article first appeared in the Autumn 2007 issue of the Distinctions newsletter. Beauty is not decorative. It touches us deeply, dissolves our conscious control, and connects us to levels of our being well beyond our day-to-day concerns. Beauty pierces open a sharp clear space in which we directly encounter the immediacy of our experience.…
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Aligning Thoughts and Actions: a 2-Part Exercise
This article was originally published on the Mindful Leader blog in October 2020. The “Integral” in Integral Coaching has a few different meanings. It points to the multiple traditions and disciplines that weave together to form the method itself. It indicates the ways that coaches synthesize all they know and are learning to support their…
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Shaping Our Presence to Be More Supportive
This article was originally published on the Mindful Leader Blog in June of 2020. In these days of heightened anxiety and insecurity, many of us are drawn to be a safe and reassuring space for those who are in crisis and afraid. And, when we’re in that often unavoidable place ourselves, we’re grateful to the…
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Balancing Ourselves Using the Six Streams of Competence
This post was originally published on the Mindful Leader blog in April 2020. In these times of massive change and disruption, many of us are looking inward to see how we can be of greater support to our communities and the world. Integral Coaching, which is a sustainable, self-generating framework for developing ourselves and others,…
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Our Commitment to Anti-Racism
Dear friends, We live in a society plagued by injustice. The past several days have shone a bright spotlight on just how insidious, systemic, historical, evil and dehumanizing many of these injustices are for the black community. As an organization whose purpose is the flourishing of life, we stand for the flourishing of black lives.…
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Self-Leadership in Unprecedented Times
In the last months, our worlds as we knew them have shifted and changed, and we are all making sense in our own way. To quote a friend: “The challenge is to find a balance between being pollyanna-ish and alarmist”. As I participate in conversations with different groups – coaching community, executives, leaders, global and…
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Coaching Certification: Are Shorter Programs Better?
As the Director of Enrollment at New Ventures West, I enjoy hearing about the different metrics that potential students use to compare our coaching certification program to other coaching certification programs. The length of coaching certification programs sometimes comes under scrutiny. There are coaching certification programs that offer “certifications” after just a day, or a…
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Beyond Good Questions: How the Integral Coaching Method is Different
The Integral Coaching method asks questions, of course. We start with a lengthy intake conversation intended to give us a picture of our client’s world. We ask the client their thoughts and feelings about the issue they’ve brought and what they have tried by way of resolving it. We also make sure to inquire into…