Coherence Coaching

Coherence Coaching is designed to understand and transform the root causes underlying our unwanted patterns. Learn how it works.

→ Read the full article on my blog: What is Coherence Coaching?

The Method

The starting assumption of a Coherence Coaching process is that unwanted emotional, psychological, or behavioral patterns actually fulfill a hidden purpose. In the world of the person with the pattern, the behavior is logical and necessary to achieve some other urgent goal or to prevent something even worse. So the behavior is coherent.

At first, this hidden purpose of the symptom is unconscious, though, as is the fact that the client (or a part of them at least) is actually producing the symptom.

All the (conscious and unconscious) beliefs about how the behavior is necessary to prevent something even worse are called the schema.

The schema is learned knowledge, often, but not always, from childhood. The schema is held in implicit, emotional memory, it is semantic (it describes how the world works), it is embodied and held as absolutely true, so obviously true, in fact, that it is hard to even notice. It can contain specific episodic memories, kinesthetic impressions, feelings, emotions, “a felt sense”, etc.

In Practice

Let’s say you suffer from extreme risk aversion at work. For example, you cannot bring yourself to speak out in a management meeting. You want to, and you think you ought to, but there is something stopping you, an anxiety.

Now, if you decide that you don’t simply want to live with that, and go talk to a Coherence coach, their assumption will be that you have a good (but unconscious) reason for your avoidance.

So the first step will be to discover this hidden reason.

To achieve this, Coherence Coaching offers many different techniques. What they all have in common is that they are experiential, meaning they aim to create an experienced, vivid awareness in the client, not just insight on paper.

One of the main techniques is the aptly named symptom deprivation. It is exactly what it sounds like: Imagine the problematic situation, just without the symptom. Imagine you are in that management meeting and for some reason no anxiety comes up. You feel confident. You speak up and state your thoughts. Really imagine it. What comes up? What happens next? Is there some resistance to even imagining this? Or consequences you fear?

This is the first clue toward the purpose the symptom has for you.

After more discovery work, we might finally stumble upon an implicit belief you hold.

"Whenever I offer even the slightest criticism people will get very angry at me! I have to avoid this!"

Even though the risk aversion at work is hurting you, getting yelled at by everyone would be even worse, so you (unconsciously) prefer to stay anxious and quiet.

Now we have revealed your hidden reason for producing the symptom, its coherence.

Understanding, accepting, and integrating that you actually have an urgent purpose behind your symptom can already help quite a lot and in some cases even lead to a resolution of the issue. But if not, there is an additional step.

Memory Reconsolidation

Memory reconsolidation (MR) is a neurophysiological process through which the brain can update or even completely unlearn implicit emotional beliefs. Coherence Coaching makes use of MR to deeply unlearn the schema that is causing the symptom.

→ Read the full article on my blog: What is Coherence Coaching?

Coherence Coaching