Creating New Shifts with a Visual Coaching Technique

Recently, one of my coaching clients, Terri was trying to move forward with her business but could not quite figure out what was holding her back. She had participated in all the usual coaching sessions and yet, she still felt stuck. Something was not feeling right, she said, yet she had a difficult time to express what exactly that “something” was.

This is when I introduced the online Art Guidance Cards to my client. Since Terri was not familiar with the process of using a visual coaching tool, I explained to Terri that Art Guidance Cards are a fun, creative, visual, and tangible process of exploring her situation – and that it may open her subconscious and inner wisdom. Terri agreed to try out a session with the cards, so I chose a brightly colored Art Guidance Card and emailed it to her.

During our phone session, I asked Terri to click on the card link on her computer, while I also opened the same page on my computer. Then I began our session with a brief grounding exercise to relax Terri and asked her to tune into her inner voice. I suggested to either ‘ask a question’ or ‘set an intention’, which would be used for the Art Guidance coaching session. Terri answered her intention is “Clarity around her next step with her business”. We then clicked on the next page, to view the art image I had sent her.

Terri’s first words were “Wow!” and “This is really amazing!” I asked her “What do you see in this abstract art image?” and she described her current situation. There, within the bright red and yellow lines, she saw “roots, leaves, fire“, then “chaos” and “confusion”, and in the white swirls, she recognized herself, hanging limply off to the side, wondering what to do. The art image was a mirror of her outer situation, as well as her inner state of being. We were off to a great start as Terri’s imagination kicked in without any hesitation.

The next step was to get a new perspective, so we clicked to see the following page. This was perspective number two, which showed the same image rotated ninety degrees onto its side. Immediately, Terri began to see new patterns, lines, and shapes which she did not see in the first perspective. She saw “an octopus, a river, ribcage and a canyon”, and said “it felt a bit daunting”. Terri also recognized that she had moved, now her position was in a yellow dot off on the right. I asked her more questions, and Terri realized, there was some humor in this picture, she noticed a “swirl that resembled a snail, and some glasses”, and she laughed. We discussed the symbolism and she explained that she’d like to go faster than a snail, but needs the glasses to see her way!

We continued by clicking on the third perspective, which showed the image turned another ninety degrees, and was now upside down. Terri now saw a woman dancing and recognized herself in this picture. She said that she would love to be the woman dancing. I asked her if it was possible to be dancing in her life and with her business? This question moved Terri quite deeply. She realized that to be dancing, she needed to shift her thinking about the business. What she had been doing so far was more like a destructive fire, at times too chaotic, and then too drained to move. I witnessed a great shift occurring, and asked Terri to note how she was feeling. She said she was experiencing a sense of relief, and a little more hope.

The fourth perspective followed, in which Terri saw a more peaceful flow, a less threatening motion to it, and she herself on top of what looked like a boat to her. She described a sense of gliding and enjoyment, emotional comfort and resolve. Another big shift seemed to appear when Terri mentioned the need to let go of control, and allowing the boat to navigate gently, while she felt relaxed enough to enjoy the ride. I asked Terri how this relates to her business, and she explained that she had created her own chaos by being too controlling. Letting the control go was what she needed to do now.

In the fifth and last perspective, the image was back the way it was when we looked at it the first time. However, Terri noted how different this art image now felt to her. No longer did she feel the chaos and confusion. Now she felt more clear, relaxed and in tune. I mentioned that there were several great shifts that had occurred during this session, and that we could start with some action steps to make everything more concrete. We ended the session by reading the Description and an Affirmation of the Art Guidance Card, which was aptly named “Dynamic Manifestation”.

Do you ever experience a time when there is more happening for a client than he or she can verbally communicate? If you have a client like Terri, who is stuck in a situation, the Art Guidance Cards will help access “more”; it’s another way to assist clients to access information. Some information may not come from simply talking about it. The purpose for creating the Art Guidance Cards was to provide a technique and a tool that can connect the dots for clients. They can see their situation more clearly by gaining some distance from it, and then have the freedom to move around their situation in ways they could otherwise not have done so.

The purpose of the Art Guidance Cards is to empower clients to see new perspectives, make choices, and move forward; this allows them to transform their cognitive perceptions into new possibilities. As the example with my client Terri shows, metaphors and symbolic images can impact and move the client to transform their own beliefs, thoughts, feelings and situations. This newfound transformation will also aid in coaching the client to take new actions.