There are endless ways to align with what is alive in you at any given moment–to take next steps in thriving.
Emergence Initiatives supports this empowerment for individuals (children through elders), families, couples, and organizations.
Counseling and Coaching—Navigating Life
With individuals of all ages and with couples, the focus is on a holistic approach to truly enjoying life, not simply relieving difficulties. Our approach assumes that the current challenge or struggle points to the very place where life is trying to burst out–it provides a clear orientation for navigation. So, instead of seeing it as a problem, we view it as the lens for coming alive. Through hands-on tools, we empower people to discover and articulate what is important to them and what they are drawn to do about it. Together with clients, we co-design new habits to shift internal mindset and external circumstances in order to align their decisions. Most importantly, a strong emphasis on resilience builds inner and outer resources to confidently navigate future life challenges. While the tools we use are varied, two stand out:
- Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping (EFT Tapping) offers a simple tool to access physical, neurological, and emotional data. It has a great influence on a variety of challenges: emotional distress, physical pain, trauma, challenges with weight, sexuality, depression, transitions and challenges for teens and young adults, marital stress, end of life issues, etc.
- Non-violent communication (NVC) empowers choices that support all involved. It builds tools of self-empathy and compassion, and it facilitates reconciliation of relationships. It is particularly valuable for teens and young adults getting to know their own values and opinions in light of others’ around them. Couples thrive using its insights as they navigate their and their family’s lives together.
Spiritual Direction and Supervision—Journeying into Freedom
“As I learn more about the seed of true self that was planted when I was born, I also learn more about the ecosystem in which I was planted—the network of communal relations in which I am called to live responsively, accountably, and joyfully with beings of every sort. Only when I know both seed and system, self and community, can I embody the great commandment to love both my neighbor and myself.” —Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak
With the intention of coming and staying alive, Spiritual Direction deepens our relationship with our real Self and with the Mystery, who goes by many names. In that deepening, an overflow of life results, empowering a response to this Mystery in our daily lives. In this way, Spiritual Direction moves us into the world with grace, hot on the trail of justice, compassion, and transformation for all those on the edges–human and nature alike.
Personal Spiritual Direction: Strong focus on discernment as a way to sift and sort through the various influences in life to notice and follow the movement of what is Sacred, however it is recognized in a person’s life. Use of various practices such as contemplative listening, non-violent communication (NVC), Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping (EFT Tapping), body attunement, and imaginative prayer, among others. Attention to the cycles of Nature and the religious rituals and traditions native to each person. Simply put, helping others in finding Mystery in all places and nurturing contemplatives in action. Hear from others’ experiences via word of mouth.
Group Spiritual Direction: Small group opportunities for guided contemplation, silence, reflection, and community formation. Offered in traditional settings and in Nature. Hear from others’ experiences via word of mouth.
Spiritual Direction Supervision: One-on-one supervision of those practicing the art of spiritual direction or interfaith spiritual guidance. Emphasis on noticing and responding to the movements of the Mystery and on the varied obstructions that naturally occur when supporting people in their relationship with the One who calls us Beloved. Attention given to how the grace of spiritual direction deepens the director’s relationship with the Divine.
Organizational Development Consulting and Coaching
Systemic analysis, wed with reflective practices, enables collaborative organizational transformations, such as:
- Visioning and re-visioning of organizational purpose
- Organizational structures realigned with current purpose, at all levels of leadership and implementation
- Designing power structures that promote communication and collaborative feedback across levels of responsibility from visioning through implementation
- Exercising power as a set of resources structured to bolster innovation and accomplish the organizational purpose
- Practical empowerment of every employee to contribute to the corporate purpose
- Moving conflict to innovation with attention to restorative and regenerative working relationships
- Mediation and reconciliation processes
References available.
Holistic Life Patterns–Personal, Familial, and Couples
We help people create a system of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual practices that embody their values, visions, and goals. Together these habits create thriving life patterns. We encourage people to consider every aspect of their lives: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. We invite reflections across the board: food, technology, money, awe and beauty, spiritual practices, play, relationships, health, acts of compassion and activism, work, volunteering, physical intimacy, and being a part of Nature. We support whatever level of implementation and feedback people seek, from co-creating a daily plan to facilitating an annual retreat. References available.