In bringing this series of essays on the psychology of anticipation to a close, I turn my attention specifically to the matter of coaching our clients regarding their anticipations. Specifically, what does the polystatic model offer as a way to guide this coaching process? And what else can be derived from the analyses offered in this set of essays for those engaged in professional coaching? I address these questions by providing a list of the insights and implications found in each of the four essays.
This Coda contains a summary of specific insights and implications I have presented in the four essays as they relate to the field of professional coaching. The list includes coaching insights and implications contained in the first two essays on the psychology of anticipation (essay one) and anticipatory differences to be found among the nine different personality types of the Enneagram (essay two). Additions to this list come from the third essay on the behavioral and cognitive functions of the polystatic process, and the fourth essay on the emotional functions and neurobiological factors related to Polystasis and the psychology of anticipation.
Essays I and II
From the first two essays on the psychology of anticipation, I extract the following Insights and Implications for use by Professional Coaches. Making use of these insights and implications, we can assist a client in addressing their anticipations:
Perfect Storm and Valence
An effective professional coach will assist their client in identifying the assumptions made and the heuristics applied under specific conditions of anticipation. Many conditions in mid-21st-century life hold the potential of threat. It is in these conditions and at these moments that our client must be particularly vigilant and reflective. We encourage our client to ask themselves: Is this situation really like the last one? Can I do a better job this time in coping with this challenging situation? I might have to consider differing points of view. Is this genuinely threatening, or am I imagining that it is threatening?
A perfect physiological storm takes place when our coaching client anticipates a threat. Adrenaline is coursing through their veins and sustaining their sympathetic state of arousal. Yet, our client often does nothing about draining off this energizing system. They remain in a sympathetic state. Their polystatic process is messed up, with sustained energizing of a body that remains immobile. Our client continues to anticipate the lion. This being the case, they continue to activate their body in preparation for a fight with or flight from the lion. They even reset their polystatic baseline. The dial is now set on the survival mode—as are their psychosocial and somatic templates. As Peter Sterling has noted, it isn’t our client’s body that is at fault. It is just doing, appropriately, what their imagination is telling them is the “reality” to which they must respond.
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