End of Year Update
What I've Been Up to in 2020 + A Video of Me
As we approach the end of the year, here’s an update of what I’ve been up to recently.
Individual coaching work
This year has been a deepening and broadening of my coaching work.
It’s been quite the journey. Before COVID struck, I was traveling for client work and training programs—for example, to Israel for a collective trauma workshop, and to San Francisco to complete master certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
Since then, it’s been a year of honing my craft. And it’s been a year of going deeper inside, becoming clearer on who I am, what I do, and why.
To that end, I’ve been taking part in several multi-year training programs on early childhood development and how complex trauma can be resolved.
I’ve been incorporating somatic and embodied practices in my work, to help free up frozen energy in body and mind.
And I’ve begun facilitating constellations, to resolve unconscious intergenerational systemic effects in individuals, families, and organizations.
This work often means diving into dark and challenging places. But it’s beautiful and life-affirming to witness what unfolds.
My clients, most of whom are leaders in some capacity, have said some nice things about our work together.
Overall, I am learning to relate to my work a process of coming home—to ourselves, our bodies, and our emotional realms. I wrote an essay about this, called Coming Home to Leadership: Embodiment, Presence, and Emotional Capacity in Leadership.
Yellow
Earlier this year, I founded Yellow, together with Robert Poynton.
We started Yellow with the intent of it being somewhere between group coaching and group learning. That is indeed what it’s become…and so much more.
It’s a place for curious minds to explore. It’s a space for like-hearted people from around the world to expand their minds in small, tight-knit groups. It’s a place to have deep, rich, nourishing conversations that are often hard to come by in daily life.
There is no set curriculum. Instead, Rob and I design each gathering on the back of the last one. The program is alive and responsive, based on the needs of each group.
Sometimes we bring in guests, like a Zen monk to explore silence or a regenerative olive oil producer to learn about the conditions of aliveness. Other times we facilitate conversations and exercises around themes like embodied leadership or improv.
It’s a journey into the unknown – both for the participants and us as facilitators.
“It’s been an oasis for me, a vital space in very tough times.”
“It’s a space to think differently … Yellow has gotten me to ask myself: Who am I? Who am I as a father? Who am I as a leader?"
“I am now more deliberate about what I am doing. I used to think about what is expected of me, what people would think, and what is political. I don’t do that anymore.”
“It’s the kind of thing one should do because you are trying to have a richer sense of yourself and the world.”
We started the first cohort in the spring, and the second round in the autumn.
In January 2021 we’re starting our next cohort of four groups. We have one spot left. The next cohort after that will begin in August 2021.
Apply on our website if you can feel that this is something for you.
Witnessing
We collaborate with all kinds of people on Yellow.
One of our collaborators is John Oliver (no, not the comedian), the founder of Interior Truth.
I had the privilege of being witnessed by John a while back.
We sat in silence. I spoke a bit. It was beautiful.
Click below to watch John’s edit of our time together:
Location
These days I’m based in Berlin, Germany. Give me a shout if you’re around.
Questions I’m sitting with
Of course, this newsletter wouldn’t be what it is without a question or two.
So here are a couple of questions I’m sitting with right now:
What am I projecting onto others?
How can I treat this moment with reverence?
What here is mine to do?