Case Studies
How I work
What’s It Like Working Together?
If you’re looking for support and guidance in getting back into flow, realigning around your mission or reconnecting with your best work, this question is all-important.
And in that spirit, what really matters are the key principles we share in service of you and your sacred work.
So to help you – and us – to decide if our working together would be in your best interests, I’ll share a few core principles and then hand over to a client of mine, who has kindly summed up how our work together unfolded in practice.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Core Principles
Guiding Our Work Together
1. Inspiration is great fuel but inner truth is the essence
Sacred work isn’t just transactional. Even though it will include many ‘everyday’ elements within it, it runs deeper than that.
For us to stay the course, most of us need occasional boosts of inspiration. It’s possible the start of this journey was inspired by such a vital spark. Its origin is often external, at least in part, or until it ignites a bigger flame within.
However, what really sustains us in our sacred work – and our life path – is our own evolving inner truth that fans that inner flame. That’s something that can take years to discover. And it tends to gain clarity with time and attention.
2. Inner truth emerges by getting to the heart of the matter
If we try to catch the truth in random moments, or chase after it, we can find it’s quite fleeting, like the Cheshire Cat in ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
The kind of inner truth we’re after doesn’t have to take years or decades to discover, but it does require a deeper conversation.
And that requires us to slow down and really get the heart of the matter. Of what matters to us, what it means to take that to heart and move forward with practical, focused commitment.
3. Deepest conversations rarely happen only on our own
Most of us go through a funny arc in life. We start off curious yet being told by others what to do, and even how to think. Then, as we form our own thoughts, we may rebel against that order.
The challenge is to let in some voices without being overly distracted, pulled off course or even overwhelmed by too many voices. This is especially vital if we want to do vital work in this world.
And yet, when we’re after our own deeper truth, it’s almost inevitable that these are not conversations that we can have solely on our own. The key is to choose collaborative partners with whom those conversations can flourish. Conversations that yield our own inner truth.
Working with me
One Client’s View
I recently asked one of my clients to help crystallise – in their words – what their expectations had been before they decided to engage my support. And crucially, how that unfolded for them and their own sacred work.
For context, my client is a highly regarded Transpersonal Leadership Coach for executive teams.
Here’s what they had to say:
What specifically were your reasons for deciding you wanted to engage my help?
I wanted to change what I was doing, but in what way? I wanted support pulling back to reshape the time I have at the age I am. I had got lazy about my practices (especially body wisdom) that support a healthy way of living and being.
Why did you decide to choose me to support you?
Great trust. Chemistry right from the start.
It’s not often one meets someone who is both skilled in stepping aside as a facilitator/coach AND having strong views and opinions, both with genuine humility.
You represent what the world needs – fewer tools, tricks, boxes, models…more values and moral positions, with clear and engaging articulation through experience, storytelling and metaphor.
I value what you think from deep roots that have been hard won – rooted in what you stand for and care about.
You are grounded in yourself, your sense of place in the world, your relationship…and these give you grounded strength.
You have been the wanderer and minstrel, and are the other side of those adventures (even if others are yet to come) which brings gravitas, commitment and rootedness, while still being fluid.
For your non-affiliated quality:
– lots of approaches up your sleeves but not pushing any one of them
– not related to the ‘performance coaching scene’
– signposting without bias or favour
How did our actual work together compare with your reasons for doing so?
No quick fix
Open space with a confidante
To hold myself accountable
In-person walk was profound – both insights and reconnection to wonder
Walk & talk (on phone) was revealing: reflections that arose continue today
Pace / sequence / ability to re-meet topics in different ways
Even if just in a sentence or two, what would you say is/are the most specific result(s) you have gained from our work together?
Crystalised commitment to self and my individual project of creating more spacious and active choices
– as a joyous and nourishing contribution to a better world
– with clearer articulation
Reconnected and reminded me of alternative approaches to the dysfunctional mainstream;
– straddling worlds and dimensions
– recognising loss
– refilling the well of creativiity
Remembering my essential me and putting me back in touch with myself – with childlike wonder
Do feel free to add anything else.
This has re-ignited and re-awakened my appetite for self development and opening up again to a deeper sense of curiosity, exploration and the next adventure in life as who I wish to be and what I wish to do in that time.
Invitation
What’s Your Next True Step?
The key here is for you to make a choice that supports you really well. One that feels right for you now and going forward. I am first and foremost an advocate for you and your sacred work.
If you feel that what I’ve shared is a good match for us potentially working together, or if you have questions you’d like to clarify before deciding, let’s speak.
To arrange a first conversation to explore your questions and how such an approach would serve you, feel free to contact me via email or phone.
I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that our conversation will be supportive, safe and truth-seeking, for your benefit.