The Foundations section serves two functions. First it offers material which helps bring all participants up to some relatively level ground. If you've come through my ACC-level Human Potential Coach Training program, some of this will be familiar, though it is still predominantly unique material to the Emergent Coach Training program. As all Emergent participants must have training to the ACC-level, we assume you have some grip on the coaching competencies (and Code of Ethics) and can coach to that standard. The material in this section touches on those in order to refresh and align.

The second function of Foundations is that it contains all the important documents required for participation in the program. This means they're all in one easy-to-locate place.

Alongside the functional documents in this section you will:

• Learn about Presence as we define it and learn how to begin developing your own practices of Presence.
• Have a brief overview of the updated ICF Competencies and Code of Ethics
• Gain access to our level-1, self-guided, 8-week mindfulness training program. This is free to all participants and engaging with it will seriously upregulate your development as an Emergent Coach.
• Learn about practices of embodiment. Another of the key competencies of an Emergent Coach and the practices we'll share with you here will once again support your depth of learning and practice in the program.

Foundations comes free with any purchase of an Emergent Coach Training course. So too does the Mindfulness Self-Guided 8-Week program.

Pathways begins March 9th, 2021

"Conscious thought is the tip of an enormous iceberg. It is the rule of thumb among cognitive scientists that unconscious thought is 95% of all thought—and that may be a serious underestimate. Moreover, the 95% below the surface of conscious awareness shapes and structures all conscious thought."

—George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh

In Pathways we dig into some foundational elements of the Emergent Coach Training model, cover key aspects of the underpinning science, and explore how to integrate the learning.

Pathways has 6 x 2.5-hour live class calls where we learn and practice Emergent Coaching strategies in teacher-led sessions and break-outs.  You will also have 1 2.5 hour live group mentor call.

Live classes occur every second week. Participants are expected to meet every other week as a buddy group. Buddy calls are essential opportunities to practice and consolidate the skills being learned & must be logged for certification or allocation of ACSTH units.

Module topics are:

Module 1: Beginning at the Beginning

This module is largely designed to set up the scope of the program and offer important context for your learning. In it we’ll cover:

• A big picture view of the Emergent Coach Training program. 
• A brief overview of the scientific underpinnings of the Emergent Coach Training model.
• A review of practices essential for Emergent Coaches to commit to in order to develop capacity. 
• Experiential learning in using body as a resource for change.
• Direct learning of the Emergent Coaching core skills which support deeper listening, empathic resonance and the capacity to support another and self. 
• The interrelationship between professional and personal ethics and their importance to the Emergent Coaching model.
• A review of the ICF Core Competencies and an introduction to the ICF PCC markers.

Module 2: The Science of the Implicit—Embodied Cognition, the Embodied Mind & Presencing

In this module we dig deeper into the Emergent Coach Training scientific themes. This module's learning includes:

• Peering a little deeper into the scientific journey through behaviorism, cognitivism on to the current subset of embodied mind and cognition.
  
• In the live class there is experiential learning and practices to help develop the coaches capacity for working with the implicit.
  
• We’ll also learn & practice with 3 key processing pathways which can each be recruited for appropriate task:
  • The analytic (or D-mode to Prof. Guy Claxton)—the conventional manner we use to engage analysis for deliberate problem solving & decision-making.
  • The fast intuitive—the rapid fire “rule of thumb” gut feeling, effective yet prone to bias.
  • The slow intuitive—a more reflective method and a key aspect of the Emergent Coaching process.
• Exploring Otto Scharmer’s “Theory U” and how it potentially integrates with and informs the Emergent Coaching model.
  

Module 3: Emergent Pathways

Clearly, as we’ve seen so far (and as the Lakoff & Johnson quote above highlights) there is way more going on inside of us under the conscious radar than there is above. What is all of this internal processing? What might it mean for us in terms of change and development? How might we access this vast terrain of implicit material more effectively?

Through live class and online content we’ll explore:

• How to develop the capacity for insight and intuition.
• How Presencing, mindfulness and reflective practice can potentiate powerful insight which offers rich material for coaching both in session and as external developmental work.
• The impact of rich, unusual, imagistic, forms: music, art, poetry, dance etc. How they directly engage with implicit experience.
• Working with the embodied intelligence directly through the body itself.
• Some experiential practices for working with these areas.
• Supportive learning content on all of these areas above.

Module 4: Transforming Language—Archetype, Myth, Metaphor & Narrative

Module four is devoted to exploring the techniques which support the contacting and catalyzing of our biggest story. We do so by:

• Defining what is meant by myth, metaphor, archetypes and rich language and exploring how these can be skillfully recruited in service of Client change, transformation and insight.
• Reviewing some of the key aspects of myth and archetype and how they can be recruited into change conversations (e.g. What is the Hero’s Journey? What are the archetypes of Inner Masculine & Feminine? How do these play out in our life? How might we rewrite the narrative of our life?).
• How rich, poetic language catalyzes the implicit material. In doing so we’ll touch on the work of Eugene Gendlin known as Focusing which forms the body of Emergent 2 and the relevance of such language to his process connecting felt experience to conscious symbol and meaning making.
• The PCC markers for competency 8.

Module 5: What Makes a Me—Coaching Self and Selves

As coaches we spend the majority of our time in supporting our clients in improving themselves, so what is this self we are so intent in modifying? While such questions may appear unhelpfully metaphysical and seemingly of little benefit to the pragmatism necessary for addressing our clients more prosaic requests, in Emergent Coaching we are inviting the coach to develop the capacity to hold the truly biggest picture of the client, self and process. To be able to address the obvious while at the same time hold the largest possibility for transformation and growth.

Some of the key themes of this module will be:

• Exploring the various theories of constructed self through contemplative perspectives & via the work of cutting-edge, contemporary researchers such as Antonio Damasio, Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson & Eleanor Rosch. 
• Learning how the constructed self can inform some powerful opportunities to explore the client’s narratives, belief systems and sense of self.
• Exploring the nature of parts and facets of self and how these can be creatively & powerfully employed in coaching sessions to develop and integrate aspects of persona in service of client goals.
• In the live class we’ll have several practical exercises exploring these above areas particularly focusing on working with parts and facets directly and in conversation. This is stunningly powerful work and can transform a client's perspective in an instant & rapidly overcome internal psychological blocks to success.
  

Module 6: Whole Conversations

As we near the end of this first part of the Emergent Coach Training certification, in this module we take time to reflect on how all these varied components fit into a competencies-based coaching model. We also take some time to consolidate and integrate the learning so far.

In this final module we will explore:

• How the Emergent Coaching skills integrate and map to a coaching arc which meets the PCC markers and ICF competencies. 
• How to communicate Emergent Coaching skills including session and engagement set up and management. 
• The arc of an Emergent Coaching session. 
• Documents to support good management including developmental plans, agreements and intake forms. 
• When to dive deep and when to hold back. Once we taste this type of work and the potential, we need to be sensitive to how and when to apply and integrate these skills successfully. Here we explore that. 

Module 7: Mentoring

In this final module participants meet in small pods (typically maximum of 5) with a mentor to clarify and receive feedback on live coaching.

There is plenty of self-guided learning content with unique supportive material which is accessed via our dedicated online learning platform.

Pathways will take approximately 13 weeks to complete and earn 24 ICF ACSTH (or CCEUs)

Focusing begins May 25th, 2021

“Our brains and our bodies know far more than is normally available to us. We are conscious of only a fragment of what we deeply know. The central nervous system perceives and processes a great body of information that is stored outside the range of everyday awareness. Focusing is at once richly complex and surprisingly simple. It is mental and kinesthetic, mysterious in its capacity to summon buried wisdom, holistic in its respect for the ‘felt sense’ of a problem. An effective method in itself, it is also valuable in conjunction with a variety of psychotherapies, with biofeedback, with meditation, to unblock the creative process and define problems. In short, focusing works for any kind of ‘stuckness’.”

—Marilyn Ferguson, forward to Focusing by Eugene Gendlin

Toward the end of the 1970s, Eugene Gendlin launched his understatedly titled book “Focusing” into a somewhat overflowing self-help market. Focusing, however, is not another new-age feel-good gimmick, but was (as you’ve heard) the culmination of years of dedicated research borne initially out of studies Gendlin had conducted with the eminent psychologist Carl Rogers aiming to uncover the key factor(s) which predicted success in psychotherapeutic conversations—why some clients change and others don’t. They discovered one simple difference: it was not what clients spoke about but how they reflected inside and then spoke about it. The “how” was how they related to their inner experience. At the time the book was a best-seller, yet Focusing has seemingly become something of a niche practice these days. While relatively small it’s nonetheless an engaged practitioner base, many of whom overlap with contemplative, therapeutic and Buddhist practice communities. However, Focusing’s empirically-based potential to radically and instantly manifest insight and change for Focuser and Facilitator (or client and coach) alike, to us, makes it a vital skill for any coach wishing to effortlessly and powerfully bring their own and their client’s largest version of self to the change process.

Throughout these 7 modules you’ll be guided through the key steps of this extraordinary skill, and be shown how to seamlessly integrate this into your coaching sessions. The program is delivered by leading Focusing trainer and psychotherapist Charlotte Howorth LWSS and Rod Francis. Emergent Focusing comprises a series of seven 2.5-hour live classes which occur every two weeks, seven 1.5-hour buddy calls to integrate and practice the learning, supplemented by our online learning content.

The Emergent Focusing modules are:

Module 1: Introduction to Focusing

This module's learning will include:

• An overview of the research that led to the creation of Focusing. 
• An overview of the 6 key steps of Focusing—Clearing a space; Contacting Felt Sense; Getting a Handle; Resonating; Asking; Receiving. 
• A direct, experiential and conceptual understanding of what a felt sense is. 
• Alongside some contextualizing content in the learning platform, all of the components will be taught and guided via direct experience and practice in the live class. 

Module 2: Resonant Reflection

While there will be some material to help with the conceptual learning, much will be covered in the live class with your direct experience. In these there will be:

• Guided exercises for taking turns to listen and focus. 
• Opportunities to work through the six focusing steps we covered in Module 1. 
• Experiences of finding a “handle,” or “fire engine” word and direct practice. 
• Learning how resonantly reflect back the focuser’s words and how to fine-tune the reflection to exactly resonate with the focuser’s felt sense. 

Module 3: Making a "Something"

In this module we cover how to make a "something" when we resonantly reflect either the crux of someone’s content, or their fire engine words/phrases, or the crux of a point they are trying to make that is emerging from the soft implicit "underneath."

In this module you will explore and gain:

• Greater mastery in choosing appropriate words and asking appropriate questions.
• Skill in how to differentiate between emotions, thoughts, felt sense and understand how this relates to a Focusing approach and change process.
• How to engage Focusing as a profound perspective shift. We learn how to help the client to dis-identify from their experience as perspective shift & yet to still enable them to keep company with their "issue" in order that they might be able to view it differently from their habitual way of seeing.
• Further learning on the power of resonant language to potentiate embodied shifts.

Module 4: Making Contact

Key learning areas this module are:

• How to work effectively with a critical voice.
• Keeping appropriate distance and pacing.
• The skillful use of metaphor, archetype and rich language.
• Learning & facilitated experience of the 12 avenues (Physical, Emotional; Location/Shape, Sound, Posture/movement, Relevance from past, Metaphor/Simile, Imagery, Internal Dialogue, Felt sense, Internal conflict)
• The importance of keeping the felt sense of an experience company and importantly how to do so.

Module 5: Deepening Contact

Areas for exploration and learning will be:

• Using the felt sense as a perspective shift and to reveal underlying and unseen aspects of self. 
• The nature of parts or aspects of persona including what we might call disowned or unknown parts. The latter often being described as one’s shadow. 
• How to invite/catalyze meaning & insight via the felt sense and deep listening. 
• The importance of deep listening and the Focusing frame of attention and how these qualities support embodied learning. 

Module 6: Shift Questions

Key learning points will be:

• Understanding both conceptually and experientially what constitutes Shift/ Powerful questions and how to “allow” and frame them appropriately in Presence. 
• Paying deep attention to the client & tracking their energetics (vocal, somatic etc.). 
• Sensing/understanding when the client is stuck or plateaued—when to allow more space and when to introduce a shift question. 
• How to effectively reflect their energetics to create awareness and shifts. 
• Knowing when the question has “landed” & created a shift.

Module 7: Working with Parts

Some of the key learning points in this module will be:

• How to identify part conflicts and how to work effectively with them.
• How to engage with these areas when there’s a sense of being stuck and how to engage focusing in order to assist the client to create solutions.
• Further reflection on parts as perspectives of persona and how to work effectively with them to create shifts of awareness.

Module 8: Integrating

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

― Albert Einstein

In this final module we will be supporting you in being able to seamlessly integrate Focusing into your coaching. In doing so, we will also be looking at how a session incorporating Focusing or a Focusing approach will also embody the PCC markers.

Focusing takes 16 weeks to complete and offers 32 ICF ACSTH (or CCEUs).

EMPOWERMENT: WILD CONVERSATIONS & PURPOSE (August 24th- September 21st, 2021)

The central component of this section is the Empowerment Retreat which commencing in 2021 is offered as either in-person or a virtual online experience. It provides a dedicated opportunity to step out of “regular life” and together as a community explore untapped aspects of our inner process though facilitated direct interactions in the wild which help awaken and reconnect participants with a deeper, more primal and elemental story. 

The retreat is supplemented by:

• 2 live classes on Zoom to help integrate the learning as coaches. 

• 2 buddy sessions (min. 1.5 hours) are required in this module. You may of course set more up for extra support.
• Supportive content in the learning platform. 

• Submitting a max. 30 minute recording demonstrating your coaching skill which will receive helpful mentor feedback.

COVID NOTICE: WHILE WE ARE INTENDING THAT THE 2021 DATES WILL BE FINE, IF THERE IS STILL AN ISSUE WITH LIVE IN-PERSON WORK PARTICIPANTS CAN TAKE THE ONLINE PROGRAM TO ENSURE TIMELY CERTIFICATION & THEN ATTEND A LIVE RETREAT WHEN IT IS SAFE TO DO SO. OUR COMMUNITY'S SAFETY IS PARAMOUNT TO US!

THE RETREAT

Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.

Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers.

The Empowerment Retreat is a four-day immersive and experiential program designed to help participants embody their capacities as Emergent Coaches and to reconnect with and deepen their abilities for deep listening, powerful conversations and living aligned with their deepest sense of purpose. The retreat offers a number of unique opportunities to radically deepen learning in community and for in-person participants to be able to do so in an extraordinary wilderness setting.

Alongside many other activities during the retreat, participants are facilitated into direct wild world encounters in deeply powerful, surprising and transformative ways. The experiential group and individual activities include deep listening practices, mindfulness practices, conversations with the wild, somatic and embodied learning opportunities, and many nature-based practices and games entwined with and built around competencies-based coaching skills opportunities. The activities can open powerful new doors for coaches to be able to engage their clients more effectively and effortlessly in their sessions. Over the retreat, participants are also given plenty of time to engage in their own process of introspection, integration and change and also offered appropriate support. 

The retreat is dedicated to reconnecting with self, others and the land, so ample time is made for that. Alongside all the deep experiential learning we also have a lot of fun and play. Each evening we have facilitated council and a group learning activity which includes story, song, fire and plenty of laughter.

Empowerment takes approximately 4 weeks to complete and offers 20-32.5 ICF ACSTH (or CCEUs).