Coaching World Issue 2: May 2012 | Page 2

Leadership Leadership Leadership J. Whittington Seeing Client Relationships as Constellations Because systems are so deeply interconnected and interdependent, Systemic Coaching allows coach and 2 Coaching World | May 2012 In order to help facilitate the Systemic Coaching process, Whittington commonly uses a practice called “Systemic Constellations.” The literal translation of Systemic Constellation is quite simply: a group of objects that stand together to form a pattern. These patterns, often referred to as living maps, are seen in constellation workshops and one-to-one systemic coaching. They provide an extremely practical methodology for accessing and applying your own and your client’s intuitive intelligence as well as providing extraordinary levels of access to the collective intelligence in the wider system. For the coach just starting to explore Systemic Coaching, John has recently completed his first book Systemic Coaching and Constellations: An Introduction to the Principles, Practices and Applications. “While I was writing it, I had a picture in my head of a coach with it tucked under their arm, as a deep resource they could refer to in multiple situations and contexts” explains, Whittington. This introductory book includes a substantial number of exercises that the coach new to this way of working can try themselves or, after some experience, with clients. It describes the underpinning principles, provides practical exercises and describes multiple applications from individual to team. It also includes case studies from North America, Mexico, Australia, the UK and Europe. It includes descriptions and visuals designed to support the facilitation of goal setting constellations and also for systemic coaching facilitated over-the-phone. With FAQ’s and many helpful photographs it’s a comprehensive introduction. For more information, visit amazon.com. Research “Systemic coaching is coaching that gives a place to everything in all of the systems in which the client has or still belongs,” says John. “We all come from systems. Whether we like it or not we are all deeply connected back into a vast web of interconnectedness through our family, education and organizational systems.” By focusing on the simple truth of what is without the stories and judgments, Systemic Coaching is an effective way of revealing a client’s true situation, their truths, resources and obstacles. “Coaching in this way allows all sorts of entanglements with the past and the present to be illuminated and resolved, allowing coachees to move into the future with clarity and real freedom. This creates enduring resolutions.” Systemic Coaching and Constellations: An Introduction to the Principles, Practices, and Applications By John Whittington Marketing For the past 10 years, John Whittington has specialized in a methodology that focuses on identifying the hidden dynamics that exist within these systems, with a revolutionary field of coaching referred to as Systemic Coaching. Systemic Coaching specializes in identifying all of the relationships/systems an individual, team or organization participates in, and identifying obstacles, resources and solutions that lie within them. coachee to see hidden connections, loyalties and resources and identify what’s not being seen or said. “Often clients – and their coaches – come in with stories, judgments and ideas about the problem and even the solution,” explains John. “Systemic Coaching respectfully offers the coachee an opportunity to set the stories and judgments aside and go a little deeper. And it starts by simply illuminating what is.” Benefits e all participate in relationships. Relationships with our jobs, relationships with our clients, our families and friends, even relationships with inanimate and abstract objects such as houses or money. Every day we all participate in multiple relationships – or relationship systems – that have deep emotional and psychological connections that affect us in very significant, often unconscious ways. Profiles W