Dr. Freud got serious again and indicated that this charter might be drawn up in conjunction with the couples’ therapy that my wife and I hope to begin. Dr. Freud indicated that he has someone to recommend who often helps couples create this kind of charter. He wrote down the name and email address of this person, as well as a performance/organization coach he thinks could be of assistance if I remain in my current job
With this final “hand-off” to other professionals, Dr. Freud shook my hand warmly and conveyed best wishes for my continuing work: “Please let me know how you are doing and feel to set up a new set of coaching sessions with me in the future if you think they would be beneficial.”
I do like this somewhat crusty, but deeply caring coach from Vienna. And I love his bookshelf!
Freud’s Perspectives and Practices: An Expanding Analysis
We now have Donald’s narrative of his work with Sigmund Freud as a mid-21st-century life coach. Given this narrative, we might ask what is to be learned from the perspectives and practices being engaged by this founder of the school of psychoanalysis who has turned to life coaching. I have identified six major lessons to be learned from Dr. Freud in his work with Donald. In bringing forth these lessons, I have invited several colleagues and influential authors to join with me in providing this expanded case study analysis.
Lesson One: Three Domains of Coaching
As we follow Dr. Freud’s process of coaching with Daniel, there is a shift between inviting Daniel to share information about his current state, to identify his major intentions regarding career and family, and to explore old and new ideas about how best to work toward these intentions, given the current status. While Dr. Freud might not be fully aware that he was moving with Daniel through the three coaching domains of information, intentions, and ideas, the presence of all three domains is assured by the type of inquiry in which he engages with Daniel.
I invite my colleague, Agnes Mura, to join me in expanding on these three domains. Agnes and I wrote a book about coaching strategies quite a few years ago (Bergquist, and Mura, 2011) in which we introduced the concept of Domain (taken from the medieval era when each kingdom in Europe operated in its own Domain, provided its own set of rules, norms, and values that were often represented in a shield). In contemporary times, those of us who operate as coaches also have our own three domains, each with its own rules, norms, and values. Agnes and I offered a basic model regarding the ways in which we approach the many challenges of mid-21st Century life.
This model concerns the ways in which we identify our current reality, our desired reality, and the ways in which to move from the current to the desired state. In Europe of the Middle Ages, there were many small fiefdoms, rather than several small and large countries (as there are today). Leaders of each fiefdom establish their own set of rules and a code of conduct for their realm. Each fiefdom has its own history of success and struggle, and its own rulers. Thus, there was a set of domains in Europe that required one to recognize distinctive differences in perspective and practice when crossing the boundary into a new fiefdom.
