I have just spent a marvellous week in Barcelona, coaching our senior students in an intensive that opened with the question: What are the cross-roads you find yourself in, at the moment?
A very special part of the workshop was the attendance of coaches whose ages spanned four decades and who hailed from nine countries. With the presence of a yet to be born babe, and the recent passing of Arnold Mindell, my teacher and the founder of Process work, we witnessed and held the life cycle.
Throughout that life cycle of course come moments of disturbance which can cause confusion, moments that we fight, fear and resist. Our resistance takes many forms.
Do you recognise your brand of resistance in the list somewhere?
- Denial
- Disbelief
- Frozenness
- Confusion
- Procrastination
- Bargaining
- Anger
- Grief
As coaches we help clients to recognise their own modus operandi, (M.O.), when it comes to those moments that call for deep transformational change. And we help them to navigate through the disorientation that often accompanies the experience of the crossroads.
During our workshop there was an intimacy and beauty exploring these cross-roads in community . . . in recognising that the call for change is not something we must struggle or with suffer individually. Rather the process of evolution, that bends, shapes, and matures us, is something that is a shared journey.
As coaches who adopt a systemic perspective, GCI Coaches hold this role for their clients. After all, the planet is at a crossroads, so it stands to reason that we as individuals must also find ourselves at cross-roads, re-evaluating our priorities and role in the world. It’s the only way that anything will meaningfully change.
My thanks to the students who shared so deeply with me and with each other. You have shown again that we learn to coach by learning to journey deeply into our own lives.
If you are at cross-roads at the moment and looking to the world of coaching, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, together we can uncover your starting point to a new pathway and professional coaching credentials.
One thing I can guarantee without hesitation is that throughout your training and coaching career you will experience the magic of seeing lives transform.