What is Transpersonal Coaching?

Sound fancy? Does it sound deep? Well, it’s not fancy at all but it does go deep. In recent posts, I’ve been talking about the differences between coaching and therapy. In this post, I’ll talk about my transpersonal approach to coaching.

Why is Transpersonal Coaching Different?

The term was popularized by Sir James Whitmore, a Brit who started as a race car driver and transitioned into being one of the earliest and most influential leaders in business coaching and life coaching.

I apply this approach to my career coaching and life coaching. Transpersonal means that the work includes the whole person. Most approaches to coaching and therapy stay away from the spiritual. It is considered by many professionals as the domain of clerics or shamans but not their place to talk about such mysterious matters.

In Transpersonal coaching, the spiritual is welcomed. It’s called “Trans”-personal because its aim is to “trans”cend the limitations that we or others impose on ourselves. One way Transpersonal coaching does this is to focus on the client’s sense of purpose. When we lack purpose we tend to feel lost and low on motivation. Dante, writing in the 14th century, begins his Divine Comedy with the words:

“In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost sight of.”

He found himself lacking purpose in the middle of the course of his life. But how can one gain a sense of purpose and thus be able to use that heightened sense of purpose to transcend limitations?

Finding Purpose with Transpersonal Coaching

It is usually not found in a one-hour session, by attending a seminar or reading the right book. But it is possible to uncover it with the help of a caring and competent guide. We use the word “guide” reservedly in Transpersonal Coaching because this coach is not a guide who tells you what to do or what to think.

The job of the coach/guide is to accompany you, ask the right questions, and help you uncover the answers that are already within you. The answers really are within you. That is the only place they can be found. Anything else would be inauthentic.

This will be the beginning of a series of posts about the work of Transpersonal Coaching. Till next time!