Totally Coached, Inc.

The “best thinking” that I have gained has enabled me to create and keep a focus in my life which was not present before.

I have been a seeker for the better part of my life. I have studied many different thought disciplines, worked with many gurus and guides. I have used different methods of meditation and mind control and I have exercised various methods of self discipline. For sure, my efforts have been fruitful and my path as a healer and seeker has been better illuminated as a result.

 

Most recently my life has been a series of transitions and tests. As part of a new career path that I have embarked on, I enrolled in the Intrinsic Coach® Development Series. The “best thinking” that I have gained as a result of participating in the ICDS has enabled me to create and keep a focus in my life which was not present before. The choices I need to make and the path that I need to follow are very clear now. I feel that I have experienced a transformational breakthrough as a result of learning Intrinsic Coaching® and having the opportunity to be a coachee during the series. Further, that clarity and focus have remained with me after the experience. I have become more self-reliant and whole.

 

After 51 years, I have learned in my life to accept what comes and when it comes, and to know that when the student is ready the teacher appears. Despite that wisdom I will say anyway that I wish I had this knowledge (of the Intrinsic Coaching® methodology) earlier in my life.

 

Paul Shashaty, DC, DACS, DCP

A Physician & A Diabetic Patient: Before and After Learning Intrinsic Coaching®

Recently one of our new coaches, a family practice physician, shared the story of how Intrinsic Coaching® helped a patient with diabetes begin to take charge of her health and move forward with treatment.

The patient had been diagnosed a year earlier with diabetes. During the initial visit, when she learned of the diagnosis, I also talked with her about beginning insulin treatment. In my mind this was the best way to proceed. Given what I knew about the disease and possible treatments this was obviously the thing to do. I explained the treatment and reassured the patient about the effectiveness and safety of using insulin and we set our next appointment.

The patient, however, didn’t come back. In fact she stayed away for over a year. This time when I saw her I knew I wanted a different kind of conversation. I knew there was more to this patient and her thinking than was merely apparent.  So, this time I began the visit in a different way. I asked the patient, “What’s the most important thing to you about your diabetes?” The woman answered, “I don’t want to end up in a wheel chair.”

At first I was confused. Not starting insulin only increased the likelihood of the very consequences the patient was afraid of. I had learned from training in Intrinsic Coaching® that the most important thinking here was the patient’s thinking and that there was more to that thinking than I could possibly see. By taking an Intrinsic Coaching® approach I discovered that when this patient was younger she had seen several older relatives end up in wheelchairs as a result of diabetes and that those relatives had been on insulin. Aha!

Now I was able to share some important information regarding the changes in insulin treatment of the past 35 years. It was shared with the patient in a coach like way, keeping it simple and always asking for the patient’s thinking about the new information and what that might mean for her now.

In the end the patient chose to begin with insulin. Aware of what she did want and equipped with new information she was more able to draw on her best thinking. I felt relieved of the responsibility to “get the patient to do the right thing” and instead empowered her to take charge of her own health. It was a powerful shift in our thinking and in the relationship.

Interestingly, it didn't take any longer to arrive at such a profound result. The difference wasn't time, it was the skills.

Teresa Pena, MD MBA
Lead Physician
Fairview Hugo Clinic
Hugo, MN

Intrinsic Coaching® allows the coachee to dance his dance...

I participated in a West Coast Swing class this past weekend and experienced a new insight as it relates to Intrinsic Coaching®.  The instructors were just incredible in their teaching ability and talked of learning a dance as a leader and as a follower.  They introduced the concept of as the lead you set the dance in motion and then at some level you also let go.  It was really neat and I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment.  With Intrinsic Coaching® you have to ask the questions and start the momentum, but then you have to let go and participate in what is happening, what the coachee wants and not drive it. If you drive the conversation as the coach it tends to go in directions that diminish the coachee’s participation and amplifies more obstacles and more needs for the coach to come up with solutions rather than being supportive of their goal.  I was reminded that it is their dance, not my dance!  An Intrinsic Coach® takes a strong lead initiating the process, eliciting best thinking while at the same time let’s go and allows the coachee to dance his dance.

Gary Bachman, ND, Skagit Naturopathic Clinic, Mount Vernon, WA