Perhaps my main offer to the world is a way of being that stems from seeing the world and all humans as part of the same flow of life.

To work with clients or students, one has to have a map of understanding that jives with the method or model one utilises.  I have studied many, many theories of psychology and psychotherapy, philosophy, communication, coaching, and spiritual systems. Over the years (decades!) something has gelled together into a theory of human being and behaviour, how the world works, and how people change – a theory that I could call my own, but has yet to be articulated fully.  I am sharing here some of its main ingredients.

Psychology

From my MA in Counselling comes inspiration from Heinz Kohut’s theory of Self Psychology, as well as Bowen’s on Family systems.  Self Psychology gave me the concept of Self Structure and a view on anger and rage as related to this structure falling apart, rather than something that humans have stored away inside.  Bowen theory contributed to how energy states are shared in groups – anxiety is contagious – and the notion of self individuation.

A class in Buddhist psychology gave me the first ever visual that resonated: that the self itself does not really exist, but is recreated over and over through the stories we identify with.

Somatics

My early career was in Rebirthing – a kind of breath work designed for self connection and integration of early trauma. While I left that particular field after a few years, embodiment and somatic aspects of personal development has continued to be important. Through Conscious Dance practices, principles of Aikido, and resolving trauma through different modalities (SE/EMDR/EFT), there has been endless learning about dynamics within and between people.

In recent years the field of Neuropsychology has expanded rapidly, and is validating much of what I had arrived at intuitively.  This field is articulating an integral understanding of trauma and how to resolve its effects. But also, new science is showing how to form new desired habits of mind, new neural pathways.

Integral

My training for Integral Coaching in 2008-2010 added complexity and depth. First and foremost, we have to tend to the whole human being if change is going to be sustained. We have to tend to inner and outer, personal and relational, cognitive and embodied, human and spiritual – all of it! Integral Coaching provides an effective model for human change, utilising knowledge about forming new neural pathways, while beginning any quest for change with exploring the individual story of identity.

Nonviolence

There came a time when I recognised that Nonviolence articulates how I believe the world naturally functions. Nonviolence speaks to sharing of power (and the trauma that happens when we don’t), and the power of authentic expression to move hearts. The field of Principed Nonviolence encompasses much understanding of human nature, social movement, and of creating a world that works for everyone.  Nonviolence is in harmony with a world view where all of life is connected, all humans interdependent. We call this world new “new story”.

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is one of several applications within the general field of Nonviolence, and provides a specific structure for how to apply Nonviolence philosophy in the nitty-gritty of human interaction.