Coach or Councilor?
Why I’m a Coach
My main motivation as a coach is to help people see things like anxiety and depression in the context of personal growth, rather than as flaws, short comings, or weaknesses.
I believe that when people discover their True Self they often begin to trust it to lead them to new levels of integration and cohesion. Not that such a path is easy or gets rid of your anxiety and depression better than other therapeutic options. But for me this way feels warm and integral and I want to spend my time on this journey with others.
I experienced counselors and other professionals try to convince me that my beliefs were the problem. They were. But the approach didn’t take sufficient time to understand why I held them. The why is important.
I respect your beliefs and the life experiences that have shaped them, and I will take the time to really understand what is happening for you, before offering suggestions or feedback.
See a Clinician if You Are in Crisis
If you are experiencing a mental or emotional crisis, talk to your doctor or primary clinician before seeing a coach. In general coaching works best for people who are not experiencing debilitating anxiety, depression, or other mental health symptoms. I’m happy to work with people who have anxiety and depression as long as there is a clinician involved to monitor medication and other treatments. Likewise, if you are not experiencing a mental health crisis, or you don’t suffer with anxiety or depression, then coaching might be a perfect way to move forward.
Hidden Benefits
I see anxiety and depression as normal and natural mechanisms that emerge in some people in response to environmental conditions, and both come with hidden benefits.
Depression is sometimes a way for your nervous system to minimize risks in certain social situations, and anxiety can be a way for your brain to prepare you for challenges in the future. This is not just looking for a silver lining, or looking on the bright side, or keeping your chin up. What I’m talking about is a significant shift in perspective.
Consider Anxiety
Dr. Russell Kennedy describes anxiety as part of an alarm system that typically originates from early experiences of feeling unseen, unprotected, or abandoned.
Dr. James Hollis says there are two roots to our adaptive patterns, and they are being overwhelmed or being abandoned as a child.
Were you overwhelmed or abandonment as a child, or did you feel unseen? Maybe you felt alone facing seemingly unsurmountable challenges. As children we often don’t realized it’s ok to not be able to do things, and it’s ok to need time to process our experiences in a safe way and a safe place. When that doesn’t happen, it often leads to patterns of behavior that help us survive in the short term, but that get in our way later on.
Dr. Tracy Foose reframes anxiety by saying it is, “not a frailty, but a biological scaffolding of empathy, humility, and restraint.”
Let that sink in. Anxiety is part of our empathy, humility, and restraint system and develops in response to feeling abandoned, unprotected, unseen, or overwhelmed in childhood. It is our trained alarm system reacting to indications in our relationships or environment that conditions look similar to our childhood experiences and we should pay attention.
Both Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Foose have anxiety themselves, and see it as part of their overall makeup, not simply as a symptom to be eliminated. I now feel the same way. Once I shifted to this view it became clear that Jungian coaching is tailor-made to help people accept and make sense of things like anxiety, by re-framing them as avenues to individuated wholeness.
Trauma Informed
I am trauma informed, and believe that everyone has experienced some sort of trauma in their life, but I’m not a trauma counselor. Coaching often uncovers historic trauma that is unrecognized or was repressed, but coaches do not generally work with people experiencing or recovering from acute trauma. A psychiatrist, psychologist, or medical doctor with training in trauma therapy should be your first visit after an event such as a vicious attack, a life threatening event, or exposure to a serious military event or war related trauma. Clinical counselors are excellent at guiding you through the recovery process and when you feel stable, then coaching can have a positive effect both making sense of your symptoms and experiences, and integrating them in to a meaningful life.
True Self
I will often explore symptoms as a doorway into what your True Self is calling you to, and I try to facilitate your own insight and solutions rather then counsel you on how to solve your problems. The insights and wisdom you discover for yourself has the most lasting impact, especially when it strengthens your inner resiliency.
My Contribution
I bring a wealth of specialized information to the table, as well as a lifetime of experience, and I will offer perspectives and feedback if asked and when I think it might be helpful. I know from experience that “coaching and counseling jargon” can be extremely frustrating when a direct answer is sought. While I can be guilty of using terms that are unfamiliar to many people, I try to speak plainly and clearly using everyday language when possible.
What is Jungian Coaching?
Speaking of jargon, people often wonder what the Jung in Jungian refers to. Like Counseling, Jungian Coaching is a therapeutic relationship based in the work of Dr. Carl. G Jung.
Instead of offering problem-solving strategies often associated with other forms of coaching, Jungian Coaches use curiosity, sensitivity to the unconscious, and experiential exercises to explore your symptoms for a deeper calling or a deeper level of understanding.
Often this is described as “finding out what your unconscious is trying to tell you.” The unconscious speaks in symbols and through the body. Some symbols and sensations are universal, such as the stories in myths and the imagery in religious traditions, or headaches and stomach aches that have a psychosomatic origin.
As I get to know you, I listen for your specific language of symbols and emotions as we look at things like your dreams, meaningful events, poignant memories, conflicts, triggers, and images from your drawings, writing, and active imagination.
To see a list of specific areas where still stream coaching can help, see Is Stream Work Right for me? — you can also set up a free investigation call from that page.
Can I see you if I have a Mental Illness?
Coaches can not and do not diagnose or treat serious mental illness. Such conditions benefit most from the highly specialized support of a clinician. If you have a serious mental illness and are interested in seeing me, ask your primary clinician (doctor, psychologist, social worker, clinical counselor, psychiatrist) what they recommend. They are best qualified to determine how to include Jungian Coaching in your overall treatment plan.
Jungian Coaching can uncover unknown (shadow) sides to yourself that you might find unsettling or discouraging and your clinician will determine if and when to start the coaching relationship. Often this is done through an assessment of your emotional stability, ego strength, and general readiness to expose yourself to deeper questions of meaning, purpose, and personal growth.