A lot of approaches to change are incomplete and unsustainable. Our approach respects the complexity of being human while helping clients to figure out where on the map of growth and development they find themselves. We recognize both a client’s past-based way of being and their future-based desired outcomes, being careful to side-step as many of our own biases or blindspots along the way. We investigate from four different vantage points at varying levels of depth. This kind of comprehensive approach across a wide spectrum of human experience gives our clients the edge to push forward in their lives long after our relationship with them has ended.

VANTAGE POINT #1 – the ‘inner experience.’
We eavesdrop on the client’s thoughts, emotions, memories, states of mind, perceptions and sensations to better understand their operating system and how they navigate life. This coaching works within the client’s subjective experience (which only they can feel) and has the potential to open the door to greater relational, emotional, values and cognitive development. While this is clearly an important vantage point, its not uncommon to find coaching programs and approaches that operate from this vantage point exclusively, unknowingly creating an incomplete picture of the client and limiting the scope and potential for their growth and development.

VANTAGE POINT #2 – the ‘exterior experience.’
From this vantage point, we explore everything observable or substantiated about the client – how they behave, act, speak, intonate, their observable body language, posture, eye contact, as well as everything happening in their physiology (brain function, neurosynopsis, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, circulation, etc). Coaching in this realm utilizes behaviour modification techniques, stress-relieving visualizations, presentation skills, communication techniques and lots of practical homework.

VANTAGE POINT #3 – the ‘cultural experience’
From this vantage point, we look beyond the client to consider how cultural conditioning (how we’ve learned to respond in a manner generally approved by society and sub-sets within society – i.e. gender, age, socio-economic, ethnic, political, religious, education, etc.) shapes perspectives and preferences. When we do not account for this influence (e.g. ignoring the pressures an over-weight person in a thin obsessed media culture feels, or how a beautiful woman may believe all women are capable of unlimited advancement, but be unable to see how beauty has played a role in her advancement) we risk designing coaching approaches that miss the mark. Understanding the cultural influence gives us more information to work with.

VANTAGE POINT #4 – the ‘cultural structure’
From this vantage point, we look at the practical and relevant structures and systems that exist in and around our coaching relationship, including but not limited to technology, government, economic, financial, legal, educational, religious, etc. Depending upon a client’s goals or vision, they may need to consider things like the legal implications of starting a new company, the technology gaps if they move to Bali, where a particular training course is available and whether there might be able to seek student loans. No matter how strongly a client believes in their vision (vantage point #1) if the cultural structure doesn’t exist, they are either going to have to create it or change their vision. This is a reality that no amount of manifesting or intention-setting work is going to change. If they don’t have the money for a particular venture (i.e. to quit their job and open a dive shop) no amount of clarity of intention is going to erase the reality of the barrier of having no money and the challenges the client may face without it.