What is Nature Coaching?

• The natural environment can constitute the setting, both indoors and outdoors. When indoors, Nature can be present by setting up the coach’s studio with objects, plants, sounds, images and natural materials (used during the session), as well as choosing nature-inspired imagery, language and metaphors. When outdoors, the coach will co-construct with the client the choice of the location, based on preferences, needs, season, site accessibility and the evocative and thematic potential of the place itself)

• The awakening of somatic intelligence is the basis of the coaching process. The body is the core medium of human experiences and learnings. It provides orientation and understanding, being a living fabric endowed with intrinsic intelligence. By awakening the inherent knowledge of the body, we allow the coachee to root the development of their awareness within themselves, activating their natural internal compass of self-orientation, empowerment and growth

• The ultimate goal of Nature Coaching is to heal the ecological, social and spiritual divide that constitutes the origin of the widespread crisis of our social systems today. Nature Coaching aims at recovering the awareness of our interconnection and interdependence with our relational ecosystem, facilitating the best personal and relational adaptations. This way, we can develop responsibility for the impact of our choices on every level of life (inner and outer), along with self-regulating, self-orientation and self-agency capabilities. It’s a path of becoming whole again, within us, and in connection with all the different forms of life around us

Countless scientific researches from the 1980s to the present demonstrate the positive impact of experiences in contact with Nature on our physical and psychological well-being. These positive effects translate into the improvement of the coachee’s ability to face their difficulties, developing their sense of self-efficacy, awareness and self-realization.

At the heart of Nature Coaching is the reconnection of the coachee with Nature, as well as through it with its most authentic Nature, in terms of personal uniqueness, talent, skills, resources, ideas, intuitions, solutions, presence and awareness.

For the natural world to have this impact on the person, it is not enough to take the coaching session outdoors. This would be superficial. The coach needs to facilitate in the coachee the acquisition of a state of presence, expanded awareness, observation, openness and listening, in which to feel connected with Nature, its life, its beauty.

There is no well-being for people without the well-being of the planet, and today we all have a great responsibility towards future generations.

Changing our perception about the impact we have on Nature is urgent and vital, and Nature Coaching is one of the ways we can cultivate this awareness.

This article was first published on ICF Coaching World.