My Coaching Approach
I believe that gentleness achieves more than force, especially when it comes to integrating deep and long-lasting changes. It is why I use psychosynthesis as my guiding principles, I found this philosophy to be welcoming, all encompassing, kind and respectful.
My focus as a coach is on the quality of the presence, support and guidance I offer you. My approach is warm and welcoming and I provide a safe, creative and inspiring environment. Since I believe in the medicine of laughter, joy and humor, those will, at appropriate times, fill the space of our sessions. My decision to use psychosynthesis to integrate all aspects of who we are as human beings, and create alignment with our Self, emerged not only out of my own experience but also out of the results I've witnessed in others.
What is Psychosynthesis?
Created by Roberto Assagioli in the early 20th century, psychosynthesis is a life affirming approach to psychology emphasizing positive growth, resilience, and the innate potential within each individual. This approach focus on the development of trust and harmony in the relationships we have with ourself and others, with our environment and the situations we encounter in life, and with our Higher Self (also called Inner Compass, Guiding Wisdom, Holy Spirit, and Transpersonal Self among others).
As a generous philosophy, it allows for endless applications and has the unique capacity to be integrated in all aspects of our life (personal, social, work, business, etc.) without conflicting with other modality, more so, it adds depth, clarity and goodness to what is already present. Simply said, psychosynthesis connects us to our heart and soul, gives us the tool to become integrated human beings and helps us live, participate and blossom into life. Feel free to read my blog post for more information.
Psychosynthesis and Languages
Assagioli was a polyglot, he not only used languages to connect with others but he also used the specificities found in different languages to awake curiosity and questions in his audience. Being trilingual myself, I've been merging psychosynthesis with my work as a French coach and teacher for over 20 year. It has help my clients integrate the language in an organic way while expanding their curiosity and creativity.
I also witnessed that the association of language and psychosynthesis is instrumental in helping clients overcome the fears, anxiety, perfectionism, stress and other challenges arising out of learning a foreign language. Generally those issues have roots in other aspects of their life. Working with personal issues in this context allows the language to become an additional tools for exploration, expression and integration, while psychosynthesis offers the safe space and methodology necessary to address those issues in a gentle way.
Coaching Modalities
There are many modalities and techniques used in psychosynthesis: meditation, movement, drawing, writing, journaling, Gestalt, symbolism, music, dream, story, activation of the will and intuition, guided and spontaneous imagery, and many others therapy modalities. Psychosynthesis, as mentioned earlier, is an open and non-dogmatic philosophy, and in such it encourages practitioners to merge and build upon different tools and technics. This openness embraces truly what the world has to offer to help anyone become their more joyful, aligned and authentic Self with tools that work for them.
Clinical Imagery
While I use many modalities during my coaching sessions, my favorite is clinical imagery, which encompasses guided and spontaneous imagery and its derivatives. In itself imagery is the way our brain processes and communicates with us in a visual, auditory, sensory and kinesthetic manner, or all of those senses together. I like to call clinical imagery the language the soul, but in a practical way it is the language our unconscious uses to speak and convey information to our consciousness.
A clinical imagery experience could be described as a gentle psychedelic journey. Unlike a psychedelic journey you do not take drug and you are completely in control of yourself during the whole time. Like a psychedelic journey, while much shorter in time, your experience feels timeless yet relevant to the present moment, and you are getting “images” and information that are pertinent, impactful and life-changing on the long term. It is why I love clinical imagery! Because those experiences are relevant to you and your specific situation and, when integrated, they become a natural part of yourself and of your life...without any drug needed.
Our mind is a garden, our thoughts are the seeds, we can grow flowers
or we can grow weeds.
Ritu Ghatourey