Background
My aim is always to empower individuals–younger, older and in between–with a vision of optimism toward their future; to recover your courage, unlock your resistance to change, and rediscover your sunshine. Helping you to imagine alternative routes to your goals and dreams offers you the possibility of crafting a natural path for your career and wellbeing journey.
I have lived and worked in large metropolitan cities and small rural communities, enjoyed careers in the academic world of universities, community health and wellbeing, and the evocative world of wine. I am also fortunate to have worked with academics, executives, trade professionals, and retiree’s to set new goals, recognise better career options, renew confidence and enthusiasm, and nurture untapped skills to live a more rewarding and fulfilling life.
I take a narrative approach and use metaphor analysis in my coaching based on Choice Theory as well as Clean Language and Deep Listening as coaching tools that help you tap into your unconscious, re-set your thinking, and choose your actions motivated by your needs, strengths, and ideals. Did you know that people who use their strengths a lot are 18x more likely to be flourishing than those who do not. Try the free VIA Character Strengths Survey to discover your greatest strengths.
Choice Theory
Choice Theory is a psychological theory developed by Dr William Glasser, an internationally recognised psychiatrist, and widely used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and other countries in schools, local governments, organisations, and in the home context focused on building better relationships.
According to Choice Theory:
- Almost all behaviour is chosen
- No individual can directly change another persons thinking
- The only person who can change the individual is the person themselves
- Change occurs as the result of our own choices
Clean Language
Clean Language is a facilitative questioning and listening approach pioneered by counselling pychologist David Grove that recognises metaphorical language as at the heart of how people think, talk, and act. Grove discovered that the ‘Cleaner’ the questions were–free of assumptions and metaphors–then the more effectively the client’s metaphors could be developed into powerful resources for learning and change. Clean questions invite people to consider their experience from different perspectives and can have a profound effect on their capacity to generate new, powerful and useful ideas about their own experience.
University of California, Berkeley, cognitive linguists Lakoff and Johnson (1980) found that we frequently use metaphors without even thinking. It’s very common to talk about love as a journey, our feelings of anger in terms of heat, ideas as food, and time as money for instance.
Here’s some everyday examples of how we understand time in terms of space:
- Have you put the past behind you?
- Are you looking forward to tomorrow?
- Have you ever brought a meeting forward or pushed the start time back?
- Do you sometimes feel you are running behind schedule?
Deep Listening with Music
Deep Listening can help you gain clarity by moving from the cogitive thinking you to the sensory experiencing you.
Pauline Oliveros, composer and pioneer of Deep Listening, describes it as:
“an aesthetic based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation” designed to improve sensitivity and inspire people to practice the art of listening and responding to non-verbal communication.
Deep Listening is a music therapy that taps into your unconscious to expand the aspects of your hearing and listening with all your senses.
