The 5 Principles
1. You are responsible for your own experience — but you’re not alone.
If you want your life to change, you will have to do it. This can mean making some difficult choices when your comfort zone is calling you. Success rests squarely on your shoulders — not on mine, not on your parents or your boss’s or your spouse’s. That said, you are connected to a vast inner network of inspiration, energy, and guidance, all of which is pulling for you to win.
2. Only you can know what’s best for you.
No one can tell you what’s right for you. that means there are no masters, no one to credit or to blame, except yourself (not that blaming is useful). This is good news! Now, you can live your life out of your own personal vision and desires, and stop looking outside of you, or to the past, for the answers. Those kinds of answers never satisfy.
3. You have all the answers you need.
People often look at goals as insurmountable mountains. There seems to be too much to know, too much to do, to achieve our loftier aims. But what if it were true that you have access to all the answers you could ever want? Most importantly, you have the answer to this simple question: “What’s next?” This means you don’t need to know everything, just the next step! It means you have an inner guidance system that will lead you, incrementally, to the fulfillment of your most passionate desires. With this knowledge, you can get your life or career out of “stall” and into overdrive.
4. You are perfect as you are.
As paradoxical as this sounds, you are tailor made to live the life you are most wanting. Does this mean you will ever be finished or complete? Not at all. As humans we are ever-expanding beings, and as soon as we’ve conquered one mountain, we’ve got our sights set on the next. What this principle invites you to do is to accept and affirm the self you are — to stop resisting, judging, or disliking yourself for not having achieved something more. Self-love, deeply experienced, helps you see yourself as innocent and therefore you are able to kick fears and regrets to the curb, because these are concerned with the past and the future, not with today.
5. Joy is your compass.
Keeping focused on your goals for the long haul requires that the process — not just the end result — be joyful. Joy is your master compass. It tells you when you are headed in the right direction. It’s your body’s way of saying “yes!” This can also be experienced as peace, contentment, a sense of rightness or alignment, and similar feelings. Likewise, the lack of joy tells you, “don’t go there” or “adjust your course now.” Joy is expansion and self-fulfillment, and when you are feeling joy, how can you help but uplift the lives of those around you? Because joy is its own reward, your actions are more pure, your direction is more true, and your happiness is more… happening now!
What is Facilitation for Self-Emergence?
Facilitation for Self-Emergence (FFSE) is a partnership established for the sole purpose of supporting you in creating the life you most desire.
As a facilitator, my role is to empower you to step up and take the reins of your life firmly in hand, by giving you practical tools and encouragement.
Throughout this process, I support you in discovering more of what makes you truly happy and alive. I also challenge you to make important choices and to believe in your own vision of your future — not your family’s or anyone else’s.
Sessions provide a rare opportunity to give voice to your innermost dreams and to be listened to and taken seriously. This alone can help you move forward in a way that might have seemed difficult or impossible before.
As a partnership, our primary task is to bring forth your authentic self so that all of your actions are aligned with your deepest sense of meaning and purpose. When your goals are held in the context of your spiritual/total self development (your deepest values and what makes life meaningful), you attain a powerful clarity of focus that makes the doing more joyful and effortless.
Beyond Therapy*
Traditional therapy is about searching your past for the causes of present difficulties and blocks. In therapy we uncover traumas, hurts, and misunderstandings and explore how they have led us to our present feelings of disempowerment. Unfortunately, many get caught in the illusion that the past is responsible for their present and future happiness.
Self-emergence, on the other hand, focuses on the present and future by evoking your hopes and aspirations. It teaches you how to take the raw material of your thoughts and emotions, and to build the life you truly desire. It shows you how to see yourself as the artist and your life as a canvas. These sessions are, therefore, ultimately affirming, constructive, and creative.
Does this mean we pay no attention to your past or your feelings? Not at all. Sometimes we do get “stuck” and it can be helpful to investigate the source of that in order to free your mental and emotional energy. I have an array of tools to accomplish this. The difference is that with self-emergence our goal is to empower you in moving forward towards the attainment of your goals, both inner and outer. Your power lies in your ability to make new choices today, to recognize opportunities for self-expression and fulfillment, and to stop defining yourself by what happened in the past.
The Sessions
Facilitated sessions are both explorational and goal-centered. Each one starts with an objective (which could be a question for inquiry) and ends with a review and action or integration plan. Each session lasts 30 to 45 minutes. Expect to roll up your sleeves and be highly engaged in a one-on-one workshop.
Sessions typically take place by Zoom or Skype, with phones as an option. Calls can be recorded and sent to you after each session.
The Facilitation Plan is typically 13 sessions (3 months) long. Plans may be revised as your needs change, or renewed for continuing your current work or for new or expanded goals.
* Disclaimer: If you are dealing with a physical or psychological problem, you should strongly consider making use of qualified medical and psychological professionals. My work is not intended to substitute for these primary resources, nor am I making any claims for healing physical or psychological maladies through my facilitative work. Part of any healing remedy may involve western allopathic medicine or procedures. Check with your feelings and your rational mind and use all resources available to you.