Posi%ve Psychology Coaching Fall 2014

Transcription

1 Posi%ve Psychology Coaching Fall 2014 Class 8 Notes Class 9 Pre- Work Lynda Wallace Course Instructor 0

2 Today s Agenda Welcome and Logis<cs Research Primer: The Brain s Controlled and Automa<c Systems The Elephant and the Rider Awakening Desire Engaging the Elephant Solu<ons Focused Coaching Review Steps 2 4 Coaching Demonstra<on Journaling Prompt and Partner Coaching Assignment 1

3 Neuropsychology Research Primer The Brain s Controlled and Automa%c Systems Most mental processes happen automa<cally, without the need for conscious asen<on or control, enabling the mind to perform hundreds of opera<ons each second. Controlled mental processing (conscious verbal thinking), on the other hand, is limited. We can think consciously about only one thing at a <me. The automa%c system includes parts of the brain that cause us to feel pleasure and pain and that trigger survival- related mo%va%ons. This system, which makes instantaneous approach/avoid (want/don t want) decisions, has been shaped by natural selec%on to trigger quick, reliable ac%on. Our species survival thus far aqests to its effec%veness. The controlled processes language, reasoning, and conscious planning arrived in the most recent eye- blink of our evolu<on. When conscious verbal thinking evolved, the human brain was not re- engineered to hand over the reins of power to our new logical facul<es. So those facul<es have a limited ability to mo<vate ac<on. The automa<c system retains control over the dopamine release buson. Adapted from Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis 2

4 Haidt s Metaphor: The Elephant and the Rider The controlled system (language and conscious thought) is like a rider placed on the back of an elephant (the automa<c system), put there late in our evolu<onary history to help the elephant make beser choices. The rider can see farther into the future, and can marshal poten<ally valuable informa<on, but the rider cannot order the elephant around against its will. By holding the reins and pulling, the rider can direct the elephant, but only when the elephant doesn t have desires of its own. When the elephant really wants to do something, the rider is no match for it. 3

5 How is This Relevant to Coaching? By nurturing the desire for a beser future, making it specific and concrete, and then bringing elements of it progressively closer in <me - - we can help our clients to inspire the elephant to want some of the same things as the rider, and to move in the direc<on of posi<ve change. 4

6 Awakening Desire OYen, clients are reluctant to imagine and describe their deepest hopes and dreams, evidenced by: Discomfort or puzzlement at the ques<on. Fear of desire and the accompanying risk of disappointment. Self- limited descrip<on of a good enough future. To help clients awaken their desire for a beqer future: Normalize the existence of desires and needs. Discuss the clarifying value of the ideal. Let them know we won t expect them to achieve the ideal, just to describe it. 5

7 Engaging the Elephant Humans cannot simply think our way to sustained ac%on in pursuit of a goal. We must also engage the parts of our brains responsible for want/don t want decisions, and for pleasure, pain, desire, and fear. These parts of our brains have the greatest mo%va%onal power. We need not only to talk with the rider, but to find ways to engage the elephant as well. 1. Fuel the desire for posi<ve change. 2. Expand the desire for change into a desire to make the effort required to create the change. 3. Engage the brain s pleasure triggers, again and again and again. 4. Encourage whole person engagement on the journey toward sustained change. 6

8 Engaging the Elephant 1. Fuel the desire for posi%ve change. Encourage clients to allow themselves to fully imagine what they really want. Support the crea<on of an emo<onal connec<on to specific and concrete pictures of their desires. Nurture grounded hope based on strengths and resources. 2. Expand the desire for change into a desire to make the effort required to create the change. Walk back from the desired future to what it would look like to be one step closer. Commitment to specific, prac<cal steps to get one step closer. 7

9 Engaging the Elephant 3. Engage the brain s pleasure triggers, again and again and again. We get a shot of dopamine (the pleasure neurotransmiser) every <me we make progress toward a goal. Encourage immediate, small, repeated ac<ons in pursuit of the goal. Celebrate both effort and progress in every session, and in between. 4. Encourage whole person engagement on the journey toward sustained change. Strengths, interests, passions, pleasures, and prac<ces that can help sustain the effort over <me. 8

10 Solu%ons Focus Step 1: The Miracle Ques%on (Review) Step 1: Ask your client to imagine and describe a future when the problem no longer exists. Spend <me helping your client to create as concrete and specific as possible a picture of his or her daily life in that future. Imagine there is a miracle overnight and you wake up to discover that this problem is completely solved it no longer exists. How will you start to discover the next morning that the miracle had occurred? What would be different? What else? How would your everyday life change? How would you feel? What would you do differently? What else? How would other people begin to no=ce the change? 9

11 Solu%ons Focus Step 2: Finding Exis%ng Elements of the Solu%on 0 10 Step 2: Inves%gate exis%ng elements of, or progress toward, the preferred future. On a scale of 1 10, how close is your current situa=on to your imagined future? What is in place now that makes it a 3 (or whatever answer your client gives) rather than a zero? How do you contribute to that? Tell me about a =me when you experienced some element of your imagined future. How did you help make it happen? If your client offers a very low number, accept it, and probe even that for clues to a solu<on: That must be really hard. How do you cope with where it is on the scale? How do you keep it from going even lower? 10

12 Solu%ons Focus Steps 3 and 4: Taking Steps Toward the Solu%on 0 10 Step 3: Help your client imagine gebng a liqle closer to that future. What will it look like to be one step higher on the scale? How will your life be different then? What will you do differently then? What will others no=ce about what s different? Step 4: Discuss what small steps your client will take right away. Suppose you were one step higher on the scale this week. What would you be doing differently now? Is that something you d like to try? 11

13 Coaching Demonstra%on: Solu%ons Focus Notes 12

14 COMPLETE PRIOR TO CLASS 9 (11/11) Es<mated Time: 30 minutes Journal Reflec%on: Inspiring the Elephant In your peer prac<ce session last week, you discussed a preferred future in which a problem you ve been struggling with no longer exists. This week s journal reflec<on is an opportunity to dive deeper into that preferred future and to really let your desire grow. Remembering the clarifying and mo<va<ng power of describing the ideal, take a moment to re- imagine the preferred future you began to describe last week. Perhaps there are ways in which you were cau<ous when you pictured what that future would look like. Give yourself the freedom now to really let yourself imagine, in as concrete and specific ways as you can, a <me when the problem you ve been struggling with has been completely resolved. Write about what you imagine and how it would feel. To really inspire the elephant, we need to engage the parts of our brains that are responsible for pleasure, pain, and mo<va<on. We can t just think our way there. So with your desired future in mind, indulge your imagina<on, get crea<ve, listen to music, dance, run, meditate, or do whatever else might help you make a strong, posi<ve connec<on to your desired future. Then come back and write about your experience. 13

15 COMPLETE PRIOR TO CLASS 9 (11/11) Es%mated Time: 75 Minutes Peer Prac%ce Session: Solu%ons Focus This week, you ll build on last week s session, when you coached your partner through step 1 of solu<ons focus. Begin this session by asking your partner to describe the preferred future as he or she wrote about it in this week s journal reflec<on. Then con<nue with steps 2 4. You don t need to ask all of these specific ques<ons, but do try to go through all three of the steps. Step 2: Inves%gate exis%ng elements of, or progress toward, the preferred future. On a scale of 1 10, how close is your current situa=on to your imagined future? What is in place now that makes it a [whatever number your partner gives] rather than a zero? How do you contribute to that? Tell me about a =me when you experienced some element of your imagined future. Step 3: Help your partner imagine gebng a liqle closer to that future. How will you no=ce when you re one step higher on the scale? What will others no=ce? How will your life be different then? What will you do differently then? Step 4: Discuss what small steps your partner will take right away. Suppose you were one step higher on the scale this week. What would you be doing differently now? Is that something you d like to try? 14

16 Partner Coaching Session Feedback Notes Date: My Partner: Feedback to My Partner Three things I found helpful Two construc<ve sugges<ons Feedback from My Partner Three things my partner found helpful Two construc<ve sugges<ons My reflec<ons on the feedback I received One inten<on for next week s session 15