MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO COACHING USING SOME PRINCIPLES OF EASTERN PHILOSOPHY AND ALEXANDER TEC

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MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO COACHINGUSING
SOME PRINCIPLES OF EASTERN PHILOSOPHYANDALEX
ANDER TECHNIQUE

• Margaret Stolmack

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• Just as the Alexander Technique and some Eastern
  Philosophies seek to change behavior, so too
  Coaching.
• Behavioral coaching belongs to a tradition
  that represents a collective and universal desire
  for understanding, meaning, fulfillment and
  growth.
• Personal development within the behavioral
  coaching framework encompasses the notions of
  self-leadership and continuous improvement.
• Zeus Skiffington

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• Just as the Alexander Technique and Eastern
  Philosophies promote authenticity,
  self-responsibility and self-efficacy, so does
  behavioral coaching.
• Just as practitioners of Alexander and EP have
  learnt how to better recognize and regulate their
  emotions and behavior, thus gain more control
  over their lives so it is when an effective model
  behavioral coaching is implemented.
• The similarities of outcome and the synergy of,
  in fact, using all three at some time in ones
  coaching interventions cannot be underestimated.

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Behavioral coaching encourages mindfulness and
self-transcendence as pathways to connectedness
and well-being. Zeus Skiffington The three
are inexorably linked. All three disciplines use
different measurement standards to judge the
validity and usefulness of their principles and
concepts, when, in fact, they are so
imperceptibly similar as to be invisible. As
with Alexander and EP behavioral coaching
emphasizes self-responsibility and
self-regulation. Just as when one is doing
effective coaching it is that we are more often
than not in-the-flow or experiencing flow
states.
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• Some of the areas of personal development
  integral to the behavioral coaching model common
  also to Alexander and EP are
• Self - knowledge
• Self responsibility
• Self efficacy
• Self regulation of emotion
• Self control
• Mindfulness
• Self transcendence
• The influence of EP can be seen in the
  importance coaching places on being in the
  present, letting go of the past, being mindful
  and not being attached to emotions
• Zeus Skiffington
• Alexander also encourages and teaches us to be
  in the present, let go of past habits, become
  present to the self and give up attachment to
  outcomes.

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• Coaching is humanistic in that it views the
  human being as the ultimate measure of all things
  recognizes every individual has a capacity,
  ever yearning for learning, growth and
  fulfillment.
• Some of the major philosophical underpinnings
  of coaching include humanism, existentialism,
  eastern influences and constructionism.
• Alexanders fundamental discovery was this
• There exists in man a primary control
  conditioning the proper use of the total
  organism. Complete correction of bad physical or
  mental habits is not to be achieved by treatments
  or exercises designed to palliate the specific
  bodily symptoms, not acts of will designed to
  change the undesirable patters of thought and
  behavior, but only indirectly, through learning
  to master the primary control of organism as a
  whole.
• Together with improved physical and mental
  health have I found that the Alexander Technique
  has brought about a general heightening of
  consciousness on all levels.
• Aldous Huxley

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• The split between mind and body, long taken for
  granted in Western philosophy is illusory.
• The mind our thoughts and emotions have a
  central impact on the bodys health.
• By paying attention to the principles of
  Alexander, EP or coaching and exerting some
  control over emotional and mental states your
  worries hostilities habitual reactions
  pessimism and depressions you may help yourself
  stay healthy and realize your potential in this
  lifetime.

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• As a person becomes aware of his/her muscle
  state, this lays the basis for better functioning
  of the musculoskeletal system and this will help
  to prevent or lessen musculoskeletal problems.
• Secondly, there is an important effect
  psychologically in being aware, even if only
  every now and again, of ones muscles.
• There develops a sense of individual unity, of
  being centered in oneself.
• It gives a satisfying sense of integration.
• Professor David Garlick
• The Sixth Sense
• I surmise so many of us are interested in the
  Technique from the time we come into contact with
  it because of the integrating effect.
• The mind comes back in touch with the body and
  gives it a rewarding sense of re-integration, of
  being back in touch with oneself.
• Professor David Garlick
• The Sixth Sense

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• All three approaches work synergistically to
  create a far more integrated approach to
  behavioral change.
• When I have used a mind/body/spirit approach in
  my coaching I have had the most breakthroughs and
  quicker and more sustained results than purely
  working with a behavioral change model.
• Whilst it isnt possible to use it often, when
  one does a multi-disciplinary approach can speed
  the process and embed the change not only in the
  individuals head but in his body as well

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• Mr. Alexander has demonstrated a new scientific
  principle with respect to the control of human
  behavior as important as any principle which has
  ever been hitherto discovered in the domain of
  external nature.
• John Dewey
• The majority of people fall into a mechanical
  habit of thought as easily as they fall into a
  mechanical habit of body which is the immediate
  consequence.
• Alexander, EP and coaching all seek to make the
  individual present and conscious of habits that
  impair function of mind and body.

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• the subconscious is only a synonym for that
  rigid routine we finally refer to as habit this
  rigid routine being the stumbling block to rapid
  adaptability, to the assimilation of new ideas,
  to originality. On the other hand, the
  consciousness is the synonym for mobility of
  mind, for all that the subconscious control
  checks and impedes, a mobility which will obtain
  for us physical regeneration and a mental outlook
  that will open a new and wider possibilities in
  the enjoyment of those powers we all possess, but
  which are so often deliberately stunted or
  neglected.
• F. Matthias Alexander
• Mans Supreme Inheritance

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• References
• Mans Supreme Inheritance
• Conscious Guidance and Control in Relation to
  Human Evolution in Civilization
• F. Matthias Alexander
• The Lost Sixth Sense
• -A Medical Scientist looks at the Alexander
  Technique
• David Garlick BSc (Med), MB, BS, PhD
• Behavioral Coaching
• -How to build sustainable and Organizational
  Strength
• Perry Zeus BA, Fellow VAAR
• Dr. S. M. Skiffington BA, MCP PhD, MAPS, MISH

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• Thank youany questions?