We’ve been talking about how I work with healing in my coaching process, with a closer look at symptoms that clients present when they begin their work with me. What are the symptoms? I define “symptoms” as the limiting, painful, and distracting aspects of your daily experience getting in the way of functioning to your full potential. Symptoms can be mental (such as brain fog), psychological (anxiety and overwhelm), physical (fatigue, nausea, etc.), or even spiritual, such as a sense of futility or not knowing why you’re in the world.
When you start working with me, I don’t go looking for the root cause of your symptoms—I address the symptoms directly, knowing that the root cause will reveal itself. I give you immediate tools to address the symptoms and provide you with relief. When you have that relief, you stop using your energy to cope with the symptom, and you have the resources you need to go deeper, find your inner truth, and focus on what you want.
As we go on, we’ll look in-depth at some of the tools I’ve developed to address symptoms, but I’d like to give you an example now of how managing a symptom immediately offers room to do the deeper exploration that leads to healing:
My client Sally wanted to give presentations regularly. She had all the information she needed but had a bad case of stage fright: shaky legs, trembling voice, and fear of forgetting what she was going to say. I suggested she start taking my formula, “Stage Fright,” two days before the presentation.
Sally called me right after the event to tell me how well it went. She felt clear, grounded, and confident. She said her words just flowed. She was pleased with herself and how it felt to speak from a place of certainty and relaxation.
While she continued to use the formula as needed, we began to do the more profound work of getting at the cause of the stage fright. Knowing the symptom was managed, she was far less anxious and distracted, and she was able to turn her attention to the healing work. Over several sessions, I walked her through coming to terms with the causes of her fear, as well as other painful emotions and unresourceful beliefs, and one by one, she let them go.
After that, she decided she didn’t need the formula anymore because she now felt confident enough to do it independently—and she did!
The healing work Sally and I did together resolved her symptoms. Still, the tool I provided for symptom management gave her the emotional and psychological resources to go deeper, as she wasn’t spending all of her personal energy dealing with her fear.
As your coach and healing guide, to me, symptoms are always a clue—they’re what bring you to my door, but they’re also a precious source of information. I always want to know as much as I can about what you’re experiencing so that we can deal with it and free you up to envision how your life can be different and explore what you truly want. If you’re ready for some tools to deal with your distracting symptoms as we work toward healing, I’d love to learn more about where you’re stuck and how to help. Schedule a Discovery Session today!
Warmly,
