Seeing things differently in Nature

Insights unfold differently in Nature

Something exquisite unfurls when coaching conversations take place in nature. New ingredients become integrated into the coachee’s enquiries infused with the weather, changing landscape, quality of light, animals encountered – these emergent and unplanned experiences add something valuable to the coachee’ s exploration. As you’ll see below, there’s something subtle yet significantly different to walking shoulder to shoulder, than a conventional coaching conversation taking place indoors.

I’d like to share the experience of a recent client. She’s an experienced GP, juggling a highly-demanding role in an urban General Practice alongside parenthood. I’ve worked for almost ten years with GP’s, Doctors and other NHS frontline workers and have deep admiration for their work in exceptionally challenging times.

Coaching in nature:

We agreed on the shape of the coaching, including the optimal space between sessions (in this case every 3-4 weeks felt right).
Three (one-hour) coaching sessions all outdoors, whatever the weather.
As dates transpired, all three took place in person, however, we were initially planning one of the three to be remote because of diary constraints. We’d planned to talk on our phones, each walking in nature (which also works extremely well).
One walk took place in a local woodland, the other two on farmland tracks on the outskirts of a suburban area.

Our first session focused on clarifying our agreements, for example around confidentiality. As we walked, I invited the coachee to explore what she was seeking and those themes gradually evolved into a handful of clear goals. My coachee agreed to send me after each coaching session a brief email (just a few bullet-points), summarizing her take-away insights and actions. These proved really helpful to keep the thread of our conversation going between coaching sessions.

Below is my coachee’s reflections, responding to some questions I invited her to consider.

How would you describe your experience of coaching in nature with Marcos?

I came into our coaching sessions with some reservations, this was a new experience for me and I was unsure of where our conversations would go. My fears were unfounded though and I would recommend the process to anyone who needs to find more balance within themselves and/or their lives. I found being in nature, with Marcos walking alongside me both literally and figuratively, helped me to be more open and able to explore difficult issues than if we had been sat in a room together. There was something about being outside, being able to appreciate the natural world around us, that was freeing.

Describe one or two insights where you made breakthroughs.

The breakthroughs I experienced were in understanding of myself, my situation and responses. The insights deepened with each session. Initially the session outcomes were quite practical and to do with reducing workload and commitments. At later sessions we were able to explore the underlying drivers for taking on a high workload and then work on self-perception and boundaries.

Any memories of being in nature that helped with your thinking, feeling or clarifying issues?

Marcos was skilled at using pace and pauses in our walking to allow the conversation to flow or take a pause for thought. While exploring a particularly challenging aspect, we stopped to look towards the setting winter sun, having time and peace without movement allowed me to think more clearly.

How might this work support GPs?

Working in General Practice is very busy and stressful, often self-care or home life can suffer. Many people who go into medicine including General Practice are high achievers who may have perfectionist tendencies and we want to do the best for our patients. The sessions with Marcos helped me to prioritize both regarding work and home life. The NHS does offer coaching sessions to GPs and I have also taken up this offer. I felt the sessions in nature with Marcos were more personal and the fact of being in nature allowed me to open up and see things differently than if the session had been online or sat in a room together. I would definitely recommend to colleagues.

You can select a one-off coaching session in Nature or a package of 3 coaching sessions in Nature here.

If you’d like to explore how coaching in Nature might support you, please contact us for a without-cost exploratory conversation.

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I love adventure and I find myself sometimes wanting to do too much, so I rein myself in by saying: “ do what you need to do and don’t get distracted ” – the problem is there is always so much life beyond the front door !

I play the bass, what I love about that is that as a bassist in the band you’re the one responsible for the ‘dance,’ blending harmony with rhythm – this reflects something about how I am in life.

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www.fatelephant.nl

I work intuitively and creatively giving people lots of room to be themselves and discover their own qualities. I also bring trust and I reckon most of the time you wouldn’t even notice me; it’s a bit like the bass in music, without it ’the dance’ just wouldn’t happen. In spite of my corporate work being mostly about sales, I’m not the kind of person that buys into the ‘push, push, push!’ sales rhetoric. As with KOLIMBRI, I work in a way that is relational, even if it’s about sales, my belief is the relationship-building is fundamental.

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I love to help people to connect with Dutch community, especially working with refugees to help them find their own way; it’s not about changing themselves, rather it’s about how we can collectively find ways to live together in such a way that the Netherlands becomes our shared home. Making these connections to one another through using culture and art feels exciting.

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I feel there is some direction that I can give to the Kollective around creating and bringing together creative minds. My first step though is to get to know people better, so that the Kollective feels like our mutual home. What would nourish me? Tickle my brains! I love the bandwidth of ages and perspectives that the YoungIMPULS project is already bringing me.

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Put simply, it’s being myself and making space for one another; listening with honesty.