What are 1:1 sessions with me like?
It depends on many factors, but firstly I like to start by
hearing your story and what you find to be relevant in your meditation journey.
It helps me to help you if I understand what motivates you, what you've been through/experienced, and how you conceptualise the process/project of meditation.
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The Space I Provide
I'm here to provide an open and compassionate, but also confidential, space for you to share how you relate to life, being and existence in its deepest sense.
By listening to how you construe things, I can better relate to you and tailor my language/advice in a way that may resonate with you more. For example, are you more rationally or scientifically minded? Are you more poetic or philosophical? More hippy/spiritual? More of a personal development type person? Or a mix of all of the above? However you may be, I am very considerate of the fact that everyone is trying as best as they can to make sense of this world.
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To begin, it's good to ask yourself:
-Why do you want to meditate?
-What do you hope to achieve/realise?
(Trying to answer these questions and sharing your answer with someone else can be helpful in its own right.)
It's helpful if you come to these sessions with an idea in mind of what you want to find clarity on/specific issues you want help addressing. If you're unsure of what you want to work on or don't have any specific questions, that's fine too :). Points of interest and focus always emerge!
From here we can go into more detail on which particular stage you may be at in your journey/where you're currently working from. *I do have a general roadmap for how one progresses on the path of insight, but it's important to remember the map is not the territory and everyone is different. And also sometimes this stuff just confuses and deludes people more.
Getting Started
How I Can Help/What We Can Get Into
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Finding your leading edge of practice and insight - and instruct you on how to deepen, integrate and move forward from this place.
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Advising specific techniques for specific moments of practice - When it comes to meditation practice, I have trained in many different techniques and have learnt when and which techniques are more advisable at different periods along the path.
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Providing you helpful resources - frameworks, theories, maps and other teachings which can help you make sense of your experience and the general terrain of meditation and the mind.
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Ask an adept meditator questions you couldn't ask a monk - I don't shy away, so ask away!
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I believe in a skilful balance between practice & theory, with an emphasis on what is practical. To close things off, at the end of our session together I normally advise 2-3 pieces of practical advice that you can start implementing into your practice straightaway (any more than 2-3 things and it's easy to be overwhelmed). Think of it like suggested 'homework'.
Ending The Session
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If I guide you in a meditation you will feel peace for a day.
If I teach you how to meditate you will feel peace throughout your life.
But if I teach you how to teach yourself to meditate
then you can help yourself and others to feel peace across lifetimes.
The Phenomenological Approach:
Phenomenology [fĭ-nŏm″ə-nŏl′ə-jē] (noun.) - The study of consciousness from the first-person perspective. A branch of philosophy which attempts a kind of science of subjectivity.
Phenomenology is one of the most foundational disciplines and is essential to all other pursuits of knowledge, including epistemology, metaphysics and metaethics. All spiritual traditions contain phenomenological assertions, and everyone is engaged in phenomenology whether they realise it or not - but being a good phenomenologist requires considerable practice.
If I were to consider myself gifted at anything, it would be phenomenology. Working on the 'pure' phenomenological level is often (though not always) how I approach coaching. And I would regard this method as not only my particular forté, but as also one of the cleanest means of spiritual awakening.
See an example of me working with someone during a 1 on 1 coaching call to deconstruct the anatomy of their raw/direct (phenomenological) experience, thus leading to deeper self-understanding and freedom from binding delusions which cause contraction in our perception and more suffering.
PLEASE NOTE - I am not a therapist and am not trained to help you with deep psychological issues. Meditation is not a substitute for therapy. Please seek qualified professional help if you are dealing with trauma.