Soulwork Systemic Coaching
I wish to thank the professors and students of Gdansk
University for inviting me to your beautiful city. I hope that you will find
this talk interesting, and that you attend the demonstrations of systemic
coaching that I will present this evening.
Success in any field can be inhibited by behaviors and
symptoms generically called mental illness.
These symptoms can affect people of all ages, races, cultures and class.
They range from acute, short-term distress to chronic, long-term
impairment.
Acute, short-term symptoms are often associated with
identifiable stressors. The most common symptoms result from physical stress, such as
dehydration, infection or exposure to poisons, toxins or stimulants. Acute
emotional stress may also result from overwork or a relationship change.
The symptoms of chronic stress may appear to be independent of
identifiable stressors. Although attributed to genetic factors or biochemical
imbalances, many symptoms of chronic mental illness appear to be associated with
a person’s relationships and lifestyle.
Most people can solve their problems, even severe problems,
without professional assistance. The steps by which most people naturally and spontaneously
solve their own problems are the basis of our Systemic Coaching.
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Soulwork offers an existential
approach to life and death,
freedom and bondage, responsibility and consequences.
Soulwork searches for sense of life and deals with senselessness by
exploring self-awareness as part of the totality of human existence. |
Relationship Coaching offers systemic diagnosis for relationship behavior,
and effective solutions for resolving many symptoms diagnosed as mental
illnesses. Systemic diagnosis evaluates a person’s history, behavior and
subjective experience – for example, time orientation, emotional structure and
relationship matrix.
Stress Disorders .
Divorce and Children
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Parent Alienation
Systemic Coaching
Relationship Coaching, whether systemic or therapeutic,
follows a similar sequence.
- Evaluate and resolve any current crisis
- Evaluate and resolve entanglements
- Evaluate and resolve guilt issues, both direct and transferred
- Dissolve conflicts and objections to success
- Evaluate and change life patterns that prevent success
- Stabilize an experience of integrity
as a basis for life decisions
- Evaluate and change relationship bonds as required
- Evaluate and change emotional trauma as required
- Evaluate and change mentors and role
models as required
Individual Coaching Flowchart
People who are unable to care for themselves may require
institutional treatment. These people can be referred to appropriate
health professionals for evaluation, psychometric testing and treatment.
About Mental Illness
Biological perspectives of
mental disease describe mental illness as body processes, whereas psychological
perspectives emphasize a person’s history and environment. Some
people appear to inherit a vulnerability to mental illness.
We acknowledge that both psychobiology and environment
play important roles.
We perceive people as products of their genes, of their families and of their cultures.
Our personal histories shape the manifestation of our genetic and biological factors.
A general coaching question is, "How do you want to make sense of your
life?"
Schizophrenia
. Depression .
Anxiety . Bipolar
Disorder
Diagnosis of Mental Illness
Behaviors that violate societal rules are often perceived
as signs of mental illness. However, behavior considered deviant or sick in one
culture may be perceived as normal in another. Some states of consciousness that
would be diagnosed as mental illness or psychosis in the West may be valued as
essential human experiences in Eastern cultures.
At the end of a busy day - have you ever sat and gazed at
a wall mindlessly? I have, and probably you have too. It's a
normal reaction to stress. In addition, most people acknowledge periods when
their ability to cope was limited by an emotional stress reaction to overwork
or a crisis. Severe life crises are associated with mental
health symptoms in otherwise healthy people.
What is the difference between normal and abnormal? The usual
answer is that a normal person copes with abnormal conditions in a timely
manner, whereas an abnormal person does not. A Soulwork
perspective is that “normality” exists on a hierarchy of actualization. What is normal
in one context is abnormal in another.
Many health professionals refer
to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM
IV) or the International Classification of Diseases
(ICD). Both the DSM and ICD define mental illnesses by unique symptoms and characteristics.
However, the described symptoms often overlap, differ from person to person, and people may
simultaneously display more than one set of symptoms.
| In Relationship Coaching,
we ask what people want; we help people define their goals
(goalwork) and which, if any, relationships may impede progress.
We help people identify relevant life
challenges in an appropriate sequence for resolution.
Soulwork coaches people to define healthy goals and to
define the relationship conditions that allow those goals to be accomplished.
Some mental and physical health problems seem to evaporate along
the way, without specific intervention.
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Developmental
Disorders . Personality Disorders
. Adjustment Disorders
Diagnosis & Subjective Experience
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Personal history – mapping a “timeline” of personal and relationship events
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Past representations – mapping the spatial matrix of important memories
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Relationship maps – mapping the spatial matrix of significant relationships
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Goalwork – mapping the spatial matrix of personal goals,
expectations and beliefs
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Dreamwork – mapping the metaphoric matrix of
past, present and future
A person's nonverbal signals enrich their verbalized
content, and may support or deny it. Soulwork includes noticing and
consciously responding to unconsciously expressed communications.
We examine clients' relationships, history, goals and
congruence, the benefits and consequences of continuing the client’s behaviors
and of achieving the client’s goals, compared to three hierarchies:
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Abstractions (incorporating the work of Dr Gregory Bateson)
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Relationships (incorporating the work of Annegret Hallanzy)
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Actualization (incorporating the work of Dr Clare Graves)
Often, a goal includes alleviating or controlling symptoms of physical,
emotional or mental illness. Soulwork coaching offers long-term alleviation
for people with the following symptoms of mental illness. Achieving the
desired success marks the end of coaching!
People Diagnosed with Personality Disorders
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People who demonstrate overwhelming narcissism
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People who demonstrate poor impulse
control, with troubled relationships
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People who demonstrate inappropriate emotional responses
[ Personality
Disorders . Borderline Personality Disorder
]
People Diagnosed with Anxiety Disorders
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People who report generalized fear, with rapid pulse and difficulty breathing
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People who report fearfully reliving traumatic events
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People who control fear through obsessive thoughts or compulsions
[ Anxiety Disorders . Trauma & PTSD ]
People Diagnosed with Mood Disorders
- People who report chronic sadness, hopelessness and worthlessness
- People who report chronic mood swings, exaggerated self-importance and agitation
- People who report chronic swings between manic and depressed behavior
[ Bipolar Disorder ]
People Diagnosed with Dissociative Disorders
- People who show amnesia
- People with distinct personalities that alternate in
controlling behavior
- People who report being detached from their bodies or minds
[ Schizophrenia
and Identity Loss ]
People Diagnosed with Psychosomatic Disorders
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People who report inexplicable physical symptoms
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People who report blindness, deafness or seizures without a somatic cause
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People who fear a disease and interpret any symptom as evidence of it
[ Psychosomatic Disorders ]
People Diagnosed with Substance-Related Disorders
- People who report symptoms attributed
to the effects of drug abuse, the side effects of medications,
or exposure to toxic materials
Addictions
People Diagnosed with Eating Disorders
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People who report fear of weight gain and avoid eating
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People who report binge eating and self-induced vomiting
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People who use drugs to prevent weight gain
Eating
Disorders
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Soulwork Systemic Coaching
Systemic Coaching can be used alone, or with other modalities.
Clients can be encouraged to consult a
physician or clinician regularly, and to benefit from a healthy
diet, regular exercise, pure water, time with friends and walks in nature.
- Coaching in health includes: nutrition, exercise, medication
and emotional management. Although helping professionals have long recognized
the importance of diet, exercise and drugs; behavioral, relationship and psychological factors
are often ignored.
- Coaching
produces and supports healthy behavioral changes, such as diet, increasing
physical activity, and increasing knowledge and skills.
- Coaching provides many possibilities
for improving relationships and emotional stability.
- Coaching helps people live full lives.
It promotes emotional well being and life activities (e.g., educational and
vocational goals, recreational activities).
- Coaching supports disease management and
professional health care.
It helps a patient and family cope with emotional distress and treat severe
emotional problems.
In this talk, I outlined some of the potential of our format
of
systemic coaching, both as a form of individual coaching and as a complement to
psychotherapy. Our work also includes
complete formats for couple coaching, team coaching, family coaching
and organizational coaching.
Do you want relationship coaching or systemic coach training?
Do you want to coach people to resolve emotional and relationship challenges?
© Martyn Carruthers, 2001. All rights reserved.
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