When coaches try to “break up” the habitual behavior of their clients, they may be trying to move stored material between two different memory systems. Resistance to the disruption of habitual behavior and the challenging of an existing psychosocial template may be based not only on our fear of changing established behavior patterns, but also on the profoundly difficult task of moving stored memories back from the implicit system to the explicit system where these memories were first formed.
Our social/psychological constructs (paradigms, schemata, left-column beliefs and assumptions) may be much more deeply embedded in and reinforced by and through complex, highly redundant and multiple-level neural connections and networks than we had previously thought to be the case. While our psychosocial template will shift a bit from moment to moment, given new information arriving from the changing environment and feedback we receive from actions we have taken in this environment, there is an underlying set of neural networks that are much less likely to be modified by any one change in our environment. While Polystasis speaks to our capacity to be flexible and adaptive (the accommodating aspects of our learning process), the constructs contained in our neural networks speak to our desire for stability and continuity (the assimilating aspects of our learning process).
To examine (let alone attempt to “break up”) these constructs as a coach working with clients may be quite difficult. The outcomes of such a disruption may be difficult to predict. What does this mean for the coach who is encouraging her client to see things “in a different way”? First, it means that there is likely to be some initial resistance. This is not a “bad” sign; rather, it is a sign that this “different way” is being taken seriously by her client.
Second, the coach might want to consider a “different way” of presenting the “different way.” For example, the coach might want to couch what they say in a metaphor or analogy: “it is as if you were . . .” Third, the coach might use the resistance as an opportunity to assist her client is exploring his cluster of assumptions that are motivating the resistance: “let’s spend a few minutes exploring the source of your resistance.” This approach only works if the coach is not herself being resistant to her client’s resistance. This can be a “learn-able” moment for the client and can actually yield greater benefit for the client than any adoption of the coach’s way of seeing things.
Amygdala and Coaching
I would suggest that the amygdala plays an important role not only in the assessment of possible threat but also in the anticipation of pleasure. We look forward to a pleasant interaction with a specific person based on past experiences with this person and input from our psychosocial template. A shot of dopamine might accompany this anticipation—just as it does when the addicted gambler enters the casino or when our lover removes their clothes (or our clothes). There might be no more powerful engagement of the polystatic process than in the anticipation of threat or pleasure. This power might often relate not only to the squirt of a feel-good neurochemical but also to the triggering of a deeply held and fundamental archetype related to an evil figure or force, or to a benevolent, seductive and pleasure-evoking siren.
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