To understand the name “Soul Support Life Coaching” we must start quite literally at the beginning with “Soul.”
What is the soul? What is its purpose? What is its role in our personal and collective journeys of healing, growth, and transformation?
Obviously, each faith tradition has their own distinct, yet overlapping, concepts of the soul. I do not adhere to any one tradition. My conceptualization and understanding of the soul does not require a belief in the Divine, spirits, or the metaphysical (although I do personally believe in them).
The soul is less a thing, and more of a location. It is the place where our essential core selves exist. It is the home of our dreams, visions, hopes, and talents. It is the gathering place where we are able to connect not only with the source of who and what we are, but also where we come to understand our connection to all life in its many forms.
The soul is the vessel that holds all of our potential, ever ready to pour its contents into our lives and the world. It can be understood as the guardian of our inherent worth, protecting at least a part of ourselves from the corrosive exploitations of this world; a location within the self where the truth and reality of our absolute value remains inviolate in the face of dehumanizing forces.
And finally, the soul is not just a mere property of the individual but exists also as the dwelling place for the vision and roadmap to achieving collective harmony and justice. Groups, organizations, nations, and humanity as a whole have souls; these collective souls are the repositories for our shared dreams, wisdom, and understanding of who and what we are as a species. It is a place, if we can connect to it, from which we can enable and enact the potential and reality of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “beloved community.”
It is my belief and understanding that when we are disconnected from and out of balance with this place called the soul—whether as individuals or as organizations, communities, institutions, and nations—we often experience breakdowns, disruptions, and chaos in one form or another. The cause for the disconnection or imbalance is varied and specific to each situation, but the goal remains the same: to regain sustained connection with and access to our soul and the wisdom and potential held therein.
Therefore, “Soul Support” is meant to be a space and process whereby individuals, groups, and communities assess the ways they have become isolated and alienated from their soul and develop practices and beliefs that reestablishes their connection and ability to live in alignment with their soul. The word “support” is very specific and intentional. I cannot, as a life coach, do the work for clients. I can only provide space, opportunity, and tools (with a healthy dose of encouragement) to enable individuals, groups, and communities to heal, grow, evolve, and transform in the ways they understand as necessary. I am not here to convince individuals, groups, and communities on how, or even if, they need to change. Instead, I am here to aid and support folks in the change and transformation they have decided for themselves to intentionally undertake.
This then brings us to “life coaching.” Simply put, life coaching is the modality or vehicle I use to provide support to clients in their efforts to restore connection to their soul and realize the change and transformation they seek.
As a coach, I seek to motivate, encourage, guide, and lovingly hold accountable clients and do so from a whole-person (or whole-group, whole-community) perspective. For me life coaching is a framework through which I am able to see the whole person, group, or community I am trying to help, which is often different from professional, relationship, fitness, or wellness coaching that can often (but doesn’t necessarily have to) focus on only a part or particular aspect of a client and intentionally or unintentionally disregard other parts.
Ultimately, it is my experience and understanding that only in bringing to bear the wholeness of who we are as individuals, groups, or communities, can we achieve the sustained change and transformation we desire. Thus, “Soul Support Life Coaching” is the enterprise I have created to motivate, encourage, guide, and lovingly hold accountable individuals, groups, and communities in their work and journey to live in accordance with their soul’s truth.