Coaching the Multiplicity of Mind

Notes Sydney Harris (American journalist and author), 90% of the world’s woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves – so how can we know anyone else? 

Institute of Coaching scholar Tatiana Bachkirova shared this quote in her December 2016 webinar titled: The Self as Multiplicity: A Challenge and Opportunity for Coaching. She explained that the reason the “self” is a mystery is because it is multiple and quite difficult to comprehend.

Tatiana explored the nature of our multiplicity of mind, and how coaches can address their own multiplicity of mind. She proposed the notion of a mini-self, an independent functioning unit that allows engagement with a particular task. The brain may be a network of mini-selves, most of them unconscious in any given moment, but in some of them consciousness is involved. They are called into action by a situation or need. Guy Claxton explains it poetically: every new situation gives a shake to the kaleidoscope of my personality.

My July 11^th webinar, A Coach’s Tour of the Personality, builds on Tatiana’s insights. I published a hypothesis paper four years ago, Coaching the Multiplicity of Mind: A Strengths-based approach, that posits that the mind has nine universal mini-selves, or subpersonalities. This model emerged from intensive training in internal family systems, was tested with hundreds of coaching clients, and evolved into the co-authored 2016 Harvard Health book, Organize Your Emotions, Optimize Your Life, described below. You can meet the inner family in the IOC blog, A Coach’s Mind: Inside Out.

Now I’m working on mapping the inner family to major personality models, Jung’s cognitive processes and Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, Big Five, and others, which I will share in the webinar. Here is an advance peak of the presentation.

You’ll learn about a new coaching (and self-coaching) approach to navigating inner conflict and the decisional balance, understanding strengths, as well as developing more balance and wholeness. You’ll awaken to a fresh new vantage point on self-awareness, self-transformation, and self-mastery.

Last? You’ll feel some kinship with Walt Whitman who famously said: Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself: I am large, I contain multitudes.

Margaret Moore/Coach Meg

      ... and Coach Meg’s inner family