The world we live in is calling us to embody a new kind of coaching and leadership in our work and our lives.
Presence-Based Coaching offers a holistic, transformative approach and unique methodology that goes beyond traditional coach trainings to focus on developing presence through an integrative approach to learning and development. We draw from the fields of presence, mindfulness, somatics and embodiment, developmental psychology, neuroscience, and complex systems to offer an emergent and powerful synthesis of the most potent approaches to coaching on the planet.
Presence-Based Coaching
draws from multiple streams…
Presence
We describe presence as a meta-competency— a capability that underpins everything else that we do. It becomes deeply woven into the fabric of who we are and how we organize and respond to our world. A meta-competency includes and enables other competencies. It is a way of being as much as a way of doing.
“Presence is an internal state: the inclusive awareness of stillness, possibility, and immediacy.”
Somatics
Whole person learning and practices produce embodiment, a compelling leadership presence, and physiologically supported change.
“We are what we have practiced. What we practice now is what we will become.”
Developmental Psychology
As humans grow, the arc trends towards more flexible and complex thinking, holding multiple perspectives, and an ever larger circle of care and concern. Seeing this arc accelerates its unfolding.
“The fewer perspectives you have, the more certain you can be that you’re right.”
Interpersonal Neurobiology
Human connectedness takes place below the level of language, one nervous system to another. Knowledgeable self-regulation leads to authentic and trusting relationships.
“You’ll never know who you are unless you shed who you pretend to be.”
Mindfulness
Rigorous attention on present-moment experience enables choice and awareness. Inhibiting automatic behaviors opens new possibilities.
“My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind.”
Complexity
A world that is increasingly complex requires new and sometimes counterintuitive leadership. Relying on what has worked in the past often makes matters worse.
“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
Cultural Context
We are all a product of nature and nurture. As coaches who live our values of care and inclusion, we need to know our own cultural imprinting and how it impacts who we are in the world, as well understand how the complex dance between identity and culture impacts our client’s lived experience.
“History matters, and an awareness of it puts our lives into a context…history lives in and through our bodies right now, and in every moment.”
Resilience
Presence leads to resilience: the capacity to be creative and resourceful and to take optimal action, no matter what’s going on around us.
“Reality does not take breaks.”
Trauma-Informed
The Presence-Based Coaching methodology is inherently trauma-informed. We work with the wholeness of our clients, including their embodiment, nervous system regulation and ability to mindfully center into the present in the moment.
“Trauma is not what happens to us; trauma is what happens inside you, the wound that you sustained, the meaning you made of it, that way you then came to believe certain things about yourself, the world or other people…a disconnection from your authentic self, that can be restored at any moment.”
We all have a story…
We were born in a particular place and time. We have been shaped by our family and our culture. We have had countless experiences: some triumphant, some traumatic, some rich, some painful. Loss. Success. Grief. Joy.
It took every one of these experiences to produce us; omit anything and we’d be different. Add anything else and we’d be different too. Given this…
…we are each the only person we could be.
Through it all, we have been developing. Every new challenge we have taken on — a bigger job, more responsibility, more complexity, higher stakes — has required us to become different in some way.
New challenges and opportunities can overwhelm us, or can be catalysts for our development. Our choice. The interplay between the outer (the world of achievement, results, projects) and the inner (the world of development, insight, learning and practice) is constantly evolving us.
Human development trends towards an ever-larger circle of care and compassion, more space for complexity and ambiguity, the capacity to touch others in ways that matter, and an embracing intelligence that invites a better future. If we choose, our pressing challenges and our worthy aspirations serve to accelerate this development.
Purpose. Vision. Values.
Our purpose is to develop coaches and leaders who:
Our vision is a world inhabited by people who are awake, in touch with their own aliveness and passions, and contributing their gifts to a greater good. We support others who commit to personal growth, act from their values, see their challenges as catalysts for development, and serve with an embodied sense of authenticity and compassion for others.
Through our values we fulfill our purpose by both living and modeling:
In a world filled with constant distractions and increasing demands, the ability to be fully present is a powerful skill for individuals to connect with their authentic selves, enhance interpersonal relationships, and achieve meaningful goals both personally and professionally.
Presence-Based Coaching combines a world-class coaching approach with leading edge lifelong learning and a deep understanding of the bodymind as one. The result is an integrated and richly embodied learning experience.
Presence-Based® Coaching brought richness and depth to my coaching. The faculty’s amazing and flexible support made it as easy as possible to get certification. Completing Mentor Coaching and my exam remotely also honed my somatic phone coaching skills. Still, I keep returning to North Carolina because of the evolving, leading edge content, the extraordinary PBC community, and the many other international faces that make this my “tribe”.
This articulation of coaching and leadership development is sophisticated and encompassing. The compelling and experiential course design constantly interspersed theory with application. While grounding skills in a strong body of theory, the emphasis was on practice. I came away with a greatly enhanced set of skills and a much stronger sense of my own leadership presence.