Coaching World Issue 16: November 2015 | Page 23
Three Ways Coaching
Helps to Integrate
the Brain (And Why
This Matters)
Coaching helps clients connect
their reactive tendencies to
their higher, more creative and
productive brains.
We’ve probably all heard the
term (coined by Daniel Goleman,
of Emotional Intelligence fame)
“amygdala hijack,” where the
lower, more reactive limbic system
over-responds to a perceived
threat and causes us to act in
decidedly unproductive ways.
When this happens, our higher
brain, particularly the prefrontal
cortex (seat of executive function),
is flooded with adrenaline and
other chemicals, which make it
unresponsive in the moment. (This
is actually a very helpful state if you
need to run from a predator, but
it’s less productive when you’re in a
meeting.)
One of the most helpful
integrations in the brain is the
connection of the amygdala
and limbic system to the
prefrontal cortex. The stronger
the connection, the quicker the
recovery and the less likely the
person is to act in a reactive
manner. When our clients are
angry, hurt, upset, sad, etc., and we
ask them about their values or help
them to take a new perspective,
we very likely are also helping
them to activate more of these
key connections, thus creating
integration between their reactive
and creative brains.
Coaching helps clients connect
what they are doing with what
it means.
The process of coaching tends to
slow life down a bit. Coaches know
that meaning matters, and they
help their clients find it through
the process of asking open-ended,
powerful questions and focusing
on values and purpose, among
other tools. Coaches then help
clients take this awareness into
action in their lives, encouraging
them to make choices according to
what is meaningful.
This creates integration between
what the person is doing as she
focuses on a task with what she
cares about, and in a way, who she
is being or becoming. Interestingly,
it literally connects two different
networks in the brain—one that
helps us focus and move things
forward (known as the Task Positive
Network), and another (known as
the Default Mode Network) that
gives us the power to dream. And
by the way, this sort of integration
in the brain also helps clients
connect what needs to get done
(Task Network) with empathy for
the people who are doing it (also
part of the Default Mode Network).
Coaching helps connect the
forest and the trees.
One side of our brains, the right
hemisphere, tends to see the
forest. That is, it takes in the
whole picture, the holistic view—
everything at once, but nothing in
particular. The other side, the left
hemisphere, sees individual trees
but not the whole forest. Both are
valuable and important. Coaches
create integration by helping clients
get a sense of the big picture of an
issue, or a compelling broad vision,
and then work with them to break
it down into bite-sized pieces.
Only the Beginning
There are many other ways
coaching helps create more
integration in the brain. Even
just the process of reflection
integrates the back of the brain
with the front, helping us to make
more well-informed decisions
in the future and learn from our
mistakes. And the present, focused
nature of a coaching conversation
may well mimic certain aspects of
mindfulness, which is also shown
to build integrative structures in
the brain.
And why do we care? Because
coaching is all about building
capacity in the client. I don’t want
to be “on call” for every problem
a client has—and that’s not the
ethic of this profession. No, I want
my clients to have calmer, more
stable, less reactive, more creative,
more productive and more
reflective brains. And when they
take these more integrated brains
into their homes and workplaces,
they invariably create more
positive results for themselves
and everyone around them.
Thus, coaching really does have
the power to help create a more
aware, and perhaps even more
enlightened, world.
© Ann Betz
23
Many clients have key strengths
on one side, and sometimes even
an aversion to the other side. On
the left, it can look like a resistance
to vision as something fluffy or
pointless, while on the right, it
can look like avoiding the details
that move a project forward.
Coaches know how to help their
clients with both sides in order to
both create and implement the
projects—or lives—they desire.
This creates integration between
the hemispheres, another key
workout for the brain. And by the
way, research shows that the most
effective leaders are those who
are more integrated between the
hemispheres of their brains.
Coaching World
When we are connected with the
deeper meaning of something,
motivation increases and stress
decreases, and yet, in today’s fastpaced society, we tend to push
questions of purpose and meaning
to later on (if at all) when we have
had, so to speak, a chance to catch
our breath. And of course, all too
often, tomorrow never comes.