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Integral Coaching primarily rests on six major foundations of theory and research.
Integral Theory
Based upon the work of many theorists including Plotinus, Aurobindo, Habermaas, Maturama, and Wilber, integral theory is the bold project to include and account for everything in human life, leaving nothing out. Integral Coaching is based on the central tenet that in order to have a real, lasting impact on another human being, we must consider their full, complete selves; we must see them for who they really are, not only for part of who they are. In Integral Coaching, we believe that the more fully we can understand the forces constructing and coursing through a human life, the more powerful our coaching can be.
Pragmatism
The philosophical tradition most focused on resolving practical difficulties and learning what works through experimentation, pragmatism is based on the work of John Dewey, William James, and Charles Pierce and brought to the modern world in the books of Richard Rorty. The point of coaching is always to have a practical impact in the day-to-day life of clients. This means that telling them what “should” work for them based on a certain theory is useless if it does not connect to the actual human being, in their lives, at that moment. Pragmatism insists that we do not become enamored with our own models or methods and that, instead, we always ask, "What will be most helpful for our client right now?"
Ontology
This branch of philosophy studies being. Particularly, ontologists are interested in what it is about humans that make us different from other sorts of beings. The central question of ontology, then, is “What is it to be human?” At New Ventures West, we take this question as central to all the work that we do. While this inquiry into human nature is ongoing, much of the way we conceive of human beings comes from the revolutionary insights of Martin Heidegger. Heidegger posited that we are meaning-making beings who are at the same time constrained by social, historic, linguistic and biological forces. Coaching must never lose sight of ontology if it is to stay connected with the genuine human condition, taking into account the deep call we all feel for authenticity and the courageous path necessary for its fulfillment.
Linguistics
Humans exist in language as fish do in water. The horizons of what is possible for each person are bound by the way she speaks and listens to herself and others. The branch of linguistics that informs and inspires our work at New Ventures West flows directly from the work of John Austin, John Searle, and Fernando Flores. These thinkers studied how language coordinates action and brings about our social world. When coaches work at a fundamental level with language, it allows them to initiate profound change in identity, meaning, and relationship because their horizon of possibilities is expanded. Integral Coaches have learned through their own experience the power of language and invite their clients to share in its mystery and wonder.
Biology
It is habitual for many of us to fall into the trap of ignoring or taking for granted the biological nature of human beings. The current popular paradigm holds that the people we are are somehow housed within this outer shell of the body, and it is the person inside that is essential, with the body holding marginal importance. Integral Coaching, on the other hand, is deeply informed by our existence as embodied creatures. Humans shift in biological time as our body takes on new habits and new responses. Our work as coaches has to find a harmonious home with how the body functions. In a practical sense this means that our work is based upon what has been learned by the best somatic thinkers, biologists, and cognitive scientists. Only when a pattern of response has been integrated into the body has true long-lasting change taken root.
Adult Development Theory
While adults certainly learn in different ways than younger people do, it has been convincingly shown in the work of Jane Loevinger, Robert Kegan, Carol Gilligan and others that adults too develop through a series of distinct and identifiable stages. When we appreciate this, our work can be appropriately designed to fit an individual's current developmental level and encourage movement towards the next. Being familiar with the landscape of adult development provides Integral Coaches with the contextual frame for what's happening in a client's life, pointing them towards the most salient topics and fruitful approaches.
