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Many health professionals and patients to use drugs as a substitute for change.
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 the patient (in the short term) and more profitable
for the health professionals.
But the long-term consequences and side-effects of
psychoactive drugs are unacceptable to an increasing number of professionals and
patients.
Where Soulwork started
We began using the name Soulwork in 1994, when people
spontaneously attempted to describe a stable
ecstatic state that is the basis of our life coaching. They called the
experience Soul.
As many symptoms of physical and mental health problems seem
to vanish following Soulwork coaching (see
Human Consciousness), we wanted to improve the results that we already enjoy
[i].
We interviewed people who recovered from serious disease
without (and sometimes despite) 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
- Evaluated and changed their role models
Our challenge was obvious. How could we coach people through
these steps?
Which Reality is Real?
Most people want to understand their past, to live appropriately
in their present and to anticipate future events. People who confuse their
subjective models with objective reality are often called neurotic or psychotic.
We sought to model how people create inner worlds, to help people make appropriate
decisions - see Expert Modeling.
Clues to coaching people from disease to health lie in the
biology of the neurological structures that mediate perceptual, emotional and
cognitive experiences - the "body-mind". Changes in your inner worlds may be followed by changes in your
emotional reactions and your physical body.
Coaching the Body-Mind
Systemic coaching accelerates changes in physical,
perceptual, emotional and cognitive experience. A lack of long-term change
may indicate that
- the coaching program was inappropriate and was rightfully rejected, or
- the coaching may have only communicated with brain
structures that handle new information
Hence cognitive
“interventions” are unlikely to communicate with brain structures that
mediate emotional, perceptual and somatic change.
Psychobiological Change
A person can acknowledge and respond to logical
questions and requests. A coach can quickly check that a message was
received by observing the person's verbal and behavioral responses.
A person can also respond to imagery,
music, metaphors, movement and symbols. A coach can check that a
message was received by observing the person’s nonverbal behavior
responses.
The words "conscious" and "unconscious"
may 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 and 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. Each person is actively
and consciously involved with the cognitive aspects of
their coaching.
Coaching the Right Cerebral Hemisphere
Research on alexithymia (a person cannot express emotions and develops
somatic symptoms) implicates the right brain as storing painful emotions.
Soulwork coaching strategies coach the right hemisphere with humor, metaphors,
puns and symbol.
Milton Erickson, MD, inspired our
developing “interactive metaphors”. Simultaneous
stimulation of both cerebral hemispheres can associate emotional and cognitive responses
that coach a person change emotional reactions.
What do you want?
Goal coaching stimulates left and right
brain activity simultaneously. While verbalizing goals, people unknowingly
communicate objections by nonverbal incongruence, which can
be recognized by trained coaches. Such incongruence is commonly observed
between the verbal language (left brain) and the accompanying nonverbal language
(right brain). (For example, you may say "Yes", 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 incongruence are self-criticism, responses
beginning with "Yes, but...”, flattery and
lies. (Dissolving objections is taught on Soulwork 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 produces somatic sensations
and psychosomatic symptoms.
Coaching at the limbic level helps people change
emotional states. An example is the uplifting effect of certain music on a
depressed person. When your limbic system is engaged, your physiology and
emotions change. You can consider the same situations differently as you listen
to music, for example. This concept is heavily utilized in
meditation.
Logic and 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) something is
true" while "feeling (emotionally) that it is not true".
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 operates without conscious logic, “classical conditioning”
association strategies such as those used by practitioners of NLP
(Neuro-Linguistic Programming) can be used to access and “control”
emotions.
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. (And integrated brain function causes
sales pitches and political rhetoric to lose 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 the 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 of lemon juice,
notice what happens to your saliva flow!) The amygdala responds as if
imaginary 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 can be
peacefully evaluated.
Synesthesia
A coach can use synesthesia to cross-link sensory systems.
Coaching at the limbic level helps a person experience unpleasant feelings as interesting
communications.
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 become valuable tools for diagnosis
and coaching.
Coaching the Hind Brain
Your hind-brain also translates body-mind communication. It is sometimes
called the reptilian hind- brain. It is concerned with repeating everyday
behavior: habits, rituals, routines, and motor skills.
Your hind-brain also associates emotions with action. (Action might be called
honest communication.) We communicate aggression, submission, territoriality
and sexual interest through actions. Body movement and nonverbal communication
involve the hind-brain, and like your
limbic system, your hind-brain respond to symbols. We may use symbols to communicate with
this part of your brain.
A Psychobiology of Soul
Soulwork coaching can help motivated people experience a
stable experience of integration. Perhaps
in this integration, the various parts of the brain communicate simultaneously ...
and ecstatically. We await an opportunity to test this idea with EEG and CAT
equipment.
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, a person can simultaneously focus on highly
abstract concepts and on specific life details. Most people report a sense of
connectedness and transcendental awareness. So many people called this
experience Soul that we called our work Soulwork.
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.
Some of
our group believe that our coaching enables 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 do not experience this
existential harmony shared common reasons - crisis (preoccupied),
guilt (a need to suffer) and codependence
(suffering is required in an important relationship). Other reasons were that
the person had long term dissociation (lost identity), had identified
with another person (identification) or
had simultaneously identified with two persons (identity conflict).
Hence Soulwork systemic coaching includes strategies for dissolving these
systemic issues.
We are refining ways to provide immuno-elation so
that immune system functions optimally. This seems to reduce aging and
increase resistance to many physical and mental diseases, and reduce relationship
stress. Strangely, it may alleviate many symptoms of autoimmune disease.
NOTE: Consult a physician regarding the
applicability of any opinions or recommendations about medical
symptoms or medical conditions.
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 physical, emotional, educational and relationship challenges.
© Martyn Carruthers 1998 All rights reserved
October 2004
Since I wrote this article in 1998, we may have redefined
coaching. Our paradigm has shifted. Yet many people remain true to their
conditioning. People searching for "simple
solutions for complex problems" rarely find more than short-term
distractions. Some people search for a long-term "sense of life" - we
cherish those few
people - and train them to add Relationship Coaching to their skills.
Our challenge is to bring
Soulwork to ordinary people everywhere. We invite you to join us.
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