In Nature, all things are used in the creation process...our inner worlds are no different...this is inner-alchemy. The felt-sense of freedom (or our lack of it) are our guides in the transformation process...
FREE is an acronym I came up with to create a clear and strong container for transformation to take place.
Using the FREE coaching process, both coach and client are reminded of the goal of our work together - to feel FREE in ourselves and in our lives - as well as a process of change towards that goal.
Although the acronym suggests clear stages, the phases within the process are fluid, often flowing into one another, taking place concurrently and being revisited many times along the deepening spiral of creation.
The journey will be unique to you and what is needed in the moment but the FREE approach outlines the anatomy of a transformation process, landmarks we can explore and come back to as we navigate the terrain of your unique situation, leading us through adventure towards eventual resolution.
In essence, the FREE process outlines the core facets of any helping process which can be found in many forms throughout coaching, counselling and psychotherapy theories. It can also be related to the narrative arc of the Heroe's Journey, the journey towards self-actualization and inner integration that we all move through many times in our lives. Our experience of self is not linear, singular or static and so the challenge if we choose to accept it, is to find ways to meet our multiplicity and evolution with creativity, flexibility and increasing mastery over time.
Me & Coaching...
My journey with coaching began as a student of Self Craft Coaching Academy, where I embarked on a six month training journey with people from all around the world who wanted to do the deep inner work with themselves and support others in their varying professional fields.
I love the stance that coaching takes of empowering the individual to take a collaborative and pro-active approach to creating their life. However, I quickly learned that there are a lot of people that, due to systemic challenges and inequities, cannot access coaching services and whose nervous systems may be in a space that does not facilitate empowerment and proactivity...yet.
Eventually I pursued a degree in psychology and counselling to deepen my therapeutic skill-set so that I can ethically navigate the more tender terrains of the human condition, before moving into a phase of conscious creation and empowerment.
The Coaching I offer is for anyone willing to meet their life with increased awareness and with creativity - by connecting to and drawing upon the wealth of inner resources within them.
You are the Medicine.
Let's unearth it together.
The FREE Approach to Coaching
For simplicity, here is an overview of what is experienced in each phase of the FREE process:
Face yourself = Together we will facilitate Self-Awareness, Clarity + Honesty towards your feelings, desires and motivations and where in your life you might feel restricted or separate. Great alchemy can be present in this phase alone because awareness itself is a stimulus for change. Inner-conflict and suffering brings with it a sensation or perception of separateness. Our aim is to bring awareness to the source of the separate feeling and re-unite parts of ourselves that have felt stuck or alone, back into the love of our conscious presence. Sometimes this is all the alchemy that is needed to move forward with greater freedom. By turning the light of our consciousness towards the multi-faceted nature of our being, we reunite with the perspective that our possibilities are limitless and that we have all that we need to succeed on our journey.
Release / Re-negotiate Resistance = What we resist persists, because some aspect of it wants to be integrated back into the whole or is pointing us towards a part of ourselves we are not claiming. In this stage, we acknowledge the messages of resistance in our bodies and hearts, try to understand the values they are making a stand for and re-negotiate their impact on our lives where needed, so that we are liberated, not inhibited. Resistance can also refer to the forces we perceive to be blocking or restricting us from the outside - set-backs, other people, health-challenges or financial difficulties. During this process, we learn to care for and become the magicians of our own energy, attuning, listening and moving in the ways that serve freedom, flow and healing as well as assessing and choosing pragmatic action that support our wholistic wellbeing.
Embrace all of You = Attend to aspects of self that we have rejected, neglected or are not at peace. Our human experience becomes richer when we invite them back into our experience of self in ways that nourish our wellbeing. This process can require re-visiting the Release/Re-Negotiate phase to unearth new self-awareness, until blocks to self-love have been alchemized. It will also require us to step into new ways of being with the parts of ourselves we are inviting back in or giving new roles in our lives. Embracing all of us often includes making space for multiple, seemingly contradictory truths to exist simultaneously which involves mindfulness, patience and courage. The focus is on giving every part of you a place in the whole so that your inner-archetypes can have a healthy influence in our life. The gift of this is greater psychological flexibility, unconditional self-love and greater self-trust and playfulness in your navigation of the human condition.
Embody your Inner Hero = This is the moment we see you meet the current challenge of your story with empowerment, commitment and a bit (or a lot!) of experimentation. I will support you to implement self-directed practices, rituals and behaviors that feed the ways of being that engage your Inner-Hero, taking an active role in your Life's creation. Using the narrative arc of your Heroes Journey and the gifts of the Archetypes that meet you there, you will weave new threads in the tapestry of your being, strong fibers in the way you show up in the world and take care of your Kingdom. The challenges are neccesary for the Hero to develop the skills it needs to heal the Kingdom, which can represent the integrated Self, but it can also represent humanity. When you strengthen your access to freedom and wholeness, the whole society benefits.
This work is for you if you experience yourself as...
Sensitive
You struggle with self-esteem and self-regulation...
Perhaps you experience anxiety or inhibitions in showing up as your authentic self due to concern about being accepted or accurately seen. Perhaps you often experience being misunderstood or have a lot of love to give but the strategies you use don't seem to be working in creating the experience of relationship you desire. You have a lot of creativity and flexibility but don't have a good sense of your center or your roots...
This work can help you ground in your center, patch up energy leaks and connect to your resources by cultivating a sense of home within. By growing roots in your own energy you will develop self-trust and confidence and your relationships can bloom more organically and hold greater capacity for everyone to show up as themselves. Let's support the vulnerable parts of you that hold your radiance back from fully shining or that feel threatened by the words of others, by turning a genuine and curious ear towards their message and becoming the regulated adult to your inner child who can hold both softness and strength, both humility and self-pride. Own your experience. Stand in your truth. Embrace your super power for connection and truth. You are meant to spread them far and wide and pollinate different corners of the world with your freshness of spirit.
Passionate
You have big dreams and high ideals...
Perhaps you are driven by high ideals and strong values but find yourself nearing burn-out or giving your flame to too many places so that your energy comes from survival rather than a nourished warmth. Perhaps you live from instinct, compulsively creating without taking the time to rest in the presence of your heart before you act. Or perhaps your self-discipline has been taken over by the inner-critic, making life full of hard edges and linear processes.
This work can help you soften your gaze to include the peripheries, to notice more of what you have in this moment and reconnect to a sense of beauty, play and presence on your path. We can also refine your vision so that your resources are better spent and so that you are nourished by the warmth of your own fire, not just the validation and sense of security that productivity and doing provides.
Full of Depth
So much to feel, so much to process...
You process feelings in your body. You feel it in your viscera. You are a creature that transmutes, but often at your own detriment and to the detriment of your access to lightness in your life. You sometimes feel heavy with burden and possibly experience decision fatigue or needing to hide away in order to regulate. Your moods reflect the process of death and re-birth multiple times in one day. You do your best but you'd like things to feel easier. You can't keep being hit so hard by the eb and flow of life.
This work can help you move old energy from where it is being stored in the body by supporting your natural capacity for transmutation and noticing the role that your thoughts might be playing in your experience. You have much emotional power but perhaps your power is being given to unhelpful thoughts and beliefs which we can examine and rework for your benefit. Alongside release-work, we will practice energetic protection and clearing so that you can save your resources for your own life, without having to process everyone else's aswell. Lets shed the burdens, make space for lightness and joy to naturally flow and relax into the abundance that your depth offers.
At a Cross-Roads...
In the limbo between Old and New...
You are facing many initiatory experiences along your path. Perhaps you are navigating a relationship separation, a change of location or career, health-challenges or set-backs that have rocked your reality. Perhaps you're redefining what you believe and what you want. You have stepped off the cliff edge into the new world but there is not yet any ground beneath you to stand on. This work can help you find stability in the chaos, meaning in the void and help you honour your past, present and future as you birth yourself in this new cycle of your life. Together we can develop inner resources to support you, make sense of what has come to pass and develop the openness to meet the darkness of the unknown and recognize the guiding flame of your dreams, calling to you from your future.
Techniques and Approaches I use
Body-Based approaches
At the end of the day, we feel freedom as an experience in the body – we breathe easy, our heartbeat is at rest and energy is allowed to flow, be it through allowing ourselves to speak, to move or allowing emotions to flow through tears, laughter or shifts in perspective. We will pay attention to how your body is feeling and behaving as you speak about different topics. We will engage the breath, posture and principles of mindfulness and nervous system regulation in examining current responses to life circumstances as well as accessing and "trying on" new ways of being. We will work with our energy by acknowledging the body as instrument and collaborator in the creation of our lives. What story is living in your body?
Examples of techniques and tools:
Archetypal Embodiment practices
Self-Regulation exercises
Dropping into the body at the start of session
Somatic (body-part) Inquiry / Guidance
Engaging voice and gesture to shift / direct energy
Energetic Clearing
Narrative Approaches
We will identify and examine the meaning-making that is contributing to your experience and equally, the perspectives that you want to inform your preferred experience. By exploring and playing with different perspectives, we can find alternatives that feel empowering and authentic and be cognitively aware of when old narratives are at play so that we can consciously re-tell who we are through our words and interactions. How we tell our story impacts how we remember and process those events and in turn, how we are primed to behave and feel in the future. Please note that spiritual bypassing is NOT a method I condone. Owning our experiences for the impact they had is part of bringing them and the self into wholeness. Doing our best with what we have at the time is integral to the Heroes Journey and informs the wisdom and gifts we can then return to the Kingdom. Narrative approaches help us to consciously choose what influence our story has on our life.
Examples of techniques and tools:
Identifying and re-assessing underlying beliefs
Identifying Values & Resources
Telling our story in new ways
Speaking from different Mindsets / Archetypes
Skillful Inquiry
Certificates of Achievement
Self-written Contracts / Letters to Self
Creating your personal Honour Code
Writing your Heroe's Journey
Creative Approaches
The entire coaching process is a a creative act and creative expression will play a role at each phase of the FREE process, from increasing self-awareness to practicing embodiment. Something happens when we are creative that allows us to access different parts of ourselves, our brains and shift energy, connecting us to our inner Magician as well as the gifts of all the Inner Archetypes through our Imaginative functions. Our entire relationship with the world is a creative collaboration. Depending on what feels right for you we will engage our creative capacity and role through the use of drawing, drama and voice techniques and ritual creation. This may take place in session or as homework tasks.
Examples of techniques and tools:
Creating ceremony and ritual
Processing through the drawing
Meditating upon sacred geometry for guidance
Archetypal contemplation
Dancing the new story
Vision-aligned playlist creation / Vision-board
Oracle cards
Visualization Journeys
Utilizing fashion and self-expression
OfferingTree