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Many people use drugs as a
substitute for changing relationships. Self-medication with alcohol or nicotine,
or prescription anti-depressants and stimulants are easier than applying intelligence,
focus and analytical skills to complex relationship situations. Drugs
are also cheaper for patients (in the short term) and more profitable
for health professionals.
Where Soulwork started
We began using the name Soulwork in 1994, when people
attempted to describe a stable
resource state in our early format of systemic coaching. So many people called this
experience Soul that we called that part of our program Soul-work.
That name seemed to stick although many of us find it too religious and too
New Age.
As many symptoms of physical and mental health problems seem
to vanish following Soul-work coaching (see
Human Consciousness), we wanted to improve the results that we already enjoyed
[i].
When we interviewed people who recovered from serious disease
without medical assistance, we found that self-healed people had typically:
- Resolved (not dissociated) guilt from past actions
- Accepted disease symptoms as “teachers”
- Found a stable sense of integrity
- Created quality relationships
- Resolved traumatic memories
- Chosen healthy role models
Our challenge seemed obvious. How could we coach people through
these steps?
Which Reality is Real?
Do you want to understand your past, to live appropriately
in your present and to plan future events? People who confuse their
subjective models with objective reality may be called neurotic or psychotic.
We sought to model how people create inner worlds (see
Quantum Thinking), to help people make appropriate
decisions (see Expert Modeling) and to enjoy
relationships (see Enjoying Partnership)
Clues to coaching people from disease to health lie in the
biology of the neurological structures that mediate perceptual, emotional and
cognitive experiences - a body-mind. Changes in your body-mind
worlds are often followed by changes in your
emotional reactions, your behavior and your physical body.
Coaching the Body-Mind
Systemic coaching helps people change their physical,
perceptual, emotional and cognitive experience. Short-term change is
commonplace. A lack of long-term change
may indicate that:
- the coaching was inappropriate and was rightfully rejected, or
- the coaching only communicated with brain
structures that handle new information
Cognitive
coaching and interventions are unlikely to communicate with brain
structures that mediate emotional, perceptual and somatic change. Systemic
coaching can go somewhat deeper.
Psychobiological Change
A person can acknowledge and respond to logical questions
and requests. You can check that a verbal message was received
by observing the person's verbal responses.
A person can also respond to imagery,
music, metaphors, movement and symbols. You can check that a
nonverbal message was received by observing the person’s nonverbal responses.
The words conscious and unconscious seem to
refer to which parts of the brain process the information. In most
people, the left cerebral hemisphere is thought to dominates
the processing of logic, reason, judgment and understanding, while
the right hemisphere is believed to dominate the processing of images, metaphor
and inferred communication.
Coaching the Left Cerebral Hemisphere
The left brain hemisphere stores and processes logical
information. We coach people to define their goals and to explore
the consequences of achieving those goals and the blocks to achieving them. Each person is actively
and consciously involved with the cognitive details of
their coaching.
Coaching the Right Cerebral Hemisphere
Research on alexithymia (people cannot express emotions and develop
somatic symptoms - which may be similar to systemic identity loss) implicates the right brain as storing painful emotions.
Systemic coaching can communicate with the right hemisphere using humor, metaphors,
puns and symbols.
The work of Milton Erickson, MD, inspired us to develop a
Hawaiian dreamtime ritual (moe uhane) into what we
now call interactive metaphors.
Interactive metaphors seem to simultaneously
stimulate both cerebral hemispheres. A systemic coach can use interactive
isomorphic metaphors to help people understand and integrate their emotional and
cognitive responses to change emotional reactions.
What do you want?
Systemic coaching stimulates left and right
brain activity simultaneously. While verbalizing goals, people unknowingly
communicate objections by nonverbal incongruence. These objections can
be recognized by trained coaches. Such incongruence is commonly observed
between verbal language (left brain) and accompanying nonverbal language
(right brain). (For example, you may think, "I understand", while
shaking your head from side to side.)
A coach who can gently
dissolves yes-no incongruence has a powerful tool for helping
people find inner peace. Other common forms of incongruence are self-criticism,
and responses beginning with "Yes, but...”. (Dissolving verbal
and nonverbal objections is taught during our Systemic 2 training).
Coaching the Limbic System
Right brain and left brain communications are simultaneously
processed through the limbic system, which associates thought with emotion.
Emotional states generated by the limbic brain
influence and can override the cognitive processes of the neo-cortex. The
limbic brain can produce somatic sensations
and psychosomatic symptoms.
Coaching at the limbic level helps people change
emotional states. Examples include the uplifting effect of certain art or music on
depressed people. When your limbic system is engaged, your physiology and
emotions change. You may consider a problem differently as you listen
to music, for example. This concept is utilized in
many forms of hypnosis and meditation.
Coaching, Logic & Emotion
Your limbic brain is the source of your feelings of conviction.
Paul MacLean, a neurobiology
pioneer, said: "The limbic system, that primitive brain
that can neither read nor write, provides us with the feeling of
what is real, true and important.”
Our knowledge of the limbic brain helps us understand
simultaneous incongruence between knowing (intellectually) that something is
true, while feeling (emotionally) that it is not true. (This is especially
common when thinking is influenced by
identity loss and relationships bonds).
Logical arguments (mediated by the neocortex) rarely change
emotional beliefs (mediated by the limbic system). Intuiting this, effective
salespeople and politicians make emotional, rather than logical, appeals.
Your emotions are not normally subject to your neocortex.
As your limbic system can operate without conscious logic, classical conditioning
strategies such as those used by practitioners of NLP
(Neuro-Linguistic Programming) can be used to access emotions, and to integrate
or dissociate them.
By communicating with the limbic brain, we coach people
change their perception of emotions, so that they can experience emotions as
interesting body-mind communications. (Integrated brain function can have the
effect that
sales pitches, hypnotic language and political rhetoric lose much of their influence!)
Coaching the Amygdala
Your limbic brain also mediates music, speech intonation and metaphor.
Coaching strategies that communicate directly with the limbic brain
are interactive metaphors and symbolic integration. Your limbic brain
responds emotionally to symbols, such as icons, mandalas and art.
We can use symbols to coach the limbic brain.
Your amygdala is a part of your limbic system that associates
emotions with symbols. Your amygdala receives information from your cortex, and
integrates sensory information from both the external (objective) and internal
(subjective) worlds, resulting in your experience of “reality”.
The amygdala has been called the heart of the
limbic brain. If you remember the bitter taste and smell of lemon juice, what
happens to your saliva flow? The amygdala responds as if
imagined events were actually taking place.
This allows us to coach people to explore possible
strategies for achieving worthwhile goals, and to reduce the emotional
impact of trauma. People can learn from traumatic, phobic or abusive events
without being overwhelmed by emotion, until the trauma, phobia or abuse can be
peacefully evaluated.
Coaching & Synesthesia(Synesthesia
is an experience in which the stimulation of one sense elicits a perception that
ordinarily would be elicited had another sense been stimulated, as when a loud
noise registers as a light, or vice versa: Encyclopedia Encarta)
A systemic coach can use synesthesia to cross-link
(or unhook) sensory systems. Systemic coaching at the limbic level helps a
person experience unpleasant feelings as interesting
communications, without being overwhelmed by body sensations such as guilt,
sadness or anxiety.
As the limbic system also interprets music, speech
intonations and metaphors,
we can communicate directly with the limbic brain with interactive metaphors and
symbols. Symbolic maps and matrices are valuable tools for systemic diagnosis
and systemic coaching.
Coaching the Hind Brain
Your hind-brain also translates body-mind communication. It is
sometimes called the reptilian hind- brain and controls everyday repetitive
behaviors such as habits, rituals, routines and motor skills. You may call it
your auto-pilot when you walk and daydream.
Your hind-brain associates emotions with action. (Action might be called
honest communication.) You communicate aggression, submission and
sexual interest through your actions. Body movement and nonverbal
communication involve the hind-brain, and like your
limbic system, your hind-brain respond to symbols. Systemic coaching
uses symbols to communicate with this part of your brain.
A Psychobiology of Soul
These various parts of the brain can function and
communicate simultaneously ... and ecstatically. We coach people enjoy a stable
experience of integrity as a basis for long-term change.
A person experiencing this integration displays verbal
congruence and nonverbal symmetry, which may indicate that the both
cranial hemispheres, limbic system, amygdala and hind-brain are in an unusual
state of cooperation. During this experience, a person can simultaneously focus
on abstract concepts and on specific details. Most people report a sense of
transcendental awareness. (So many people called this experience Soul
that we called this part of systemic coaching Soul-work.)
Many people, during this experience, say that Soul
has an independent existence; that Soul
existed before the person was born; and that Soul will continue
after the death of that body. (Psychobiology cannot confirm or deny this,
although some of us like the idea!)
Some of
our group believe that our coaching can enable or enhance spiritual connectedness – while
others believe that Soul experience is a natural result of integrated brain
activity. Whatever is true, Soul experience seems to provide a basis for
fulfilling the requirements for spontaneous health described
above and provides a rational basis for significant
body-mind healing in short time frames.
People who cannot experience this
existential harmony share similar reasons - crisis (preoccupied),
guilt (a need to suffer) and codependence
(independent happiness may damage an important relationship). Other reasons were that
the person suffered long term dissociation (lost
identity), had identified
with another person (identification) or
had simultaneously identified with two people
(identity conflict).
Hence Soulwork systemic coaching includes strategies for dissolving these
systemic issues.
We hope that our Soulwork systemic coaching may be a step towards immuno-elation,
optimal immune system function. This may reduce aging and increase resistance to
many diseases, while alleviating many symptoms of
psychosomatic illness and autoimmune disease.
NOTE: Consult a physician about any
opinions or recommendations about medical conditions.
October 2004
Since I wrote this article in 1998, we have redefined
systemic coaching. Our paradigm has shifted. Most people remain true to
their conditioning. People searching for simple
solutions for complex problems continue to prefer medication and short-term
distractions. If you search for a long-term sense of life - we invite you to investigate
our
relationship
coaching and systemic coach training.
Our challenge is to make systemic coaching
readily available. We invite you to join us.
Relationship Coaching ...
Systemic Coach Training ...
Your Next Step?
Do you want relationship coaching or
systemic coach training? We can train you to coach individuals, partners and teams to resolve a
wide range of emotional and relationship challenges.
© Martyn Carruthers 1998, 2008 All rights reserved
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