Christina Merkley, The Shift-it Coach

Whether you are an old hand at Visual Coaching or are completely new to it, we can all benefit from reflecting on our lives every once in a while: to identify what mid-course corrections we might want to make. Sooooo, in the spirit of this holiday season … I’m gifting you my Mini SHIFT-IT Retreat, complete with 4 Visual Maps and Instruction eBook.

Hear Who Made It First To The Finish Line in the 2015 Visual Coaches Cohort. And How You Can Add the Power of Visuals to Your Practice Too!

One of the fundamentals that Graphic Recorders, Graphic Facilitators, Graphic Coaches/Counselors and other Process Professionals who use visuals have to learn about is COMMON FORMATS. These formats can be used when working from a blank sheet of paper (or digital surface) or in pre-constructed templates and forms that facilitators, coaches and therapists use to guide thinking and feeling.

About a year ago I dove into learning BodyTalk, a consciousness based method with wide-ranging scope. I'm LOVING it. BodyTalk is difficult to describe, as it's a 'you had to be there' kind of thing that is very experiential at various physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels. And it's different for every person every session. In a nutshell its 'structured intuition' ... I intuitively navigate The BodyTalk Framework to uncover what the priority for my client is at the time of their session. Male Case Study: I've been given permission to share a case study from a male client, let's call him Fred...

Some simple color tips it behooves you to keep in mind to make your visual work as effective as possible, including lettering, icons and highlighting tips…

DECIDE UPON INFRASTRUCTURE: I suggest before you launch a new site (or refresh an existing one) you first begin with the end in mind by considering a few important questions....

I attract a lot of other Process Professionals in my work. Some want to add visual skills to their toolkits or enhance the ones they already have. Others seek help in building their practices. Others want to shift their personal or spiritual lives. In this interesting mix I also encounter professionals who do process work with groups, who want to shift into working with individuals visualcoaching1… i.e. make the move from change management, organization development and facilitation into coaching or other more personal expressions of process work.

An Orphan is an aspect of our self who shows itself when we get emotionally charged or triggered by something in our present day life ... The trick to Orphan Rescue is to tease out our different states of consciousness … so we can become aware of who is running the show, and ultimately get the most mature and grounded aspect of our consciousness into the drivers seat.

Contact in the Desert is a conference dedicated to the wide-ranging fields connected to what is popularly known as UFOs. It was held (for the 2nd time) in Joshua Tree, California, U.S.A on August 8-11, 2014. And I attended, along with 2000 others from around the world. Why? Well, for a lot of reasons … not the least being the “UAP” I experienced a few years ago (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) … which I’ll share about later in this article.

This issue of The SHIFT-IT eZine is on a new modality I’ve been exploring and learning this year … called BodyTalk. A few months ago I blogged about my initial explorations via an in-person special I offered folks here in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada ... I’ve progressed now beyond doing BodyTalk just in person … having attended courses on how to do Distance Sessions. Something I have been intrigued by since I first heard you could do this methodology by distance

Abraham-Hicks, one of my favorites for Law of Attraction info, is currently touring their way through the Pacific Northwest … in the general vicinity of where I live. Every year they make a stop in Portland and Seattle and an unofficial one in Victoria, British Columbia (my town), as we’re the last port of call on their Alaskan cruise. A vibrational stalker, I usually stroll the breakwater that evening to tap into their vibe in the air, hehe. Hoping I’ll get an Esther Hicks sighting (Esther, come take a stroll with me and JJ (Jerry Jr!) we’ll meet you on the dock!).

One way around the chicken and egg (which comes first!) catch 22 of wanting to work but not having enough experience or confidence to charge fully, is to offer your services for pro bono or reduced rate or to just plain volunteer....

2014 was launched with a very special experience, the passing of my lovely Aunt Rose Mary, after a long illness … just 5 days into the year. As such, I’ve been in a thoughtful state this past month, as my family and I come to terms with her passing, each in our own way. Part of my way is to write, share and pass along lessons learned.

Whether you’ve been doing personal visioning and planning work for a while, or are new to it, we can all benefit from doing a Mini SHIFT-IT Retreat every once in a while: checking in on how our life is going and what mid-course corrections we might want to make.

Part 3 - How Coaches, Therapists and Other Helping Professionals Use Interactive-Visuals Interactive-Visuals can effectively be applied wherever there is some sort of process going on with a client (be they groups or individuals) - given it's the kind of process that lends itself to being visible (i.e. drawn out and seen --- either by the client themselves or possibly others if they care for their info to be shared).

Part 2 How Organizational Leaders, Consultants and Facilitators Can Use Interactive-Visuals

Part 1 Speakers, Authors and Trainers: While these folks may do some sort of process as part of their work with their clients they are mostly 'content experts' ... so are usually delivering their content via various means to different types of audiences.

While nothing replaces the power of working in-person with large sheets of paper (or on whiteboards, foam core and such) ... there are many other mediums that have their useful place in the 'working visually toolkit'.

In my line of work, supporting folks to be more fully who they authentically are, I find myself in our group and private sessions emphasizing two powerful P words over and over again: process and position.

I want to share briefly with you what I’ve coined my “Outer Work Model” … the seven stages for building an operation in the 50-300K range.