Celebration isn’t the right word. Celebration suggests cake and candles and corks popping. It reminds me of the moment when someone said “Thirty-five years sober? We should celebrate, let’s get champagne” the irony completely lost on them.
A few days ago, somebody described me as the most grounded person they’d ever spent time with which I took as a significant compliment. “How do you do it?” they asked, “how are you so present and calm?” The easy answer is “lots of practice.” The following day a colleague asked me how long I’d been a coach and psychotherapist, needing to know more exactly than “a long time” because they’re writing about how I do what I do. I checked my certificates and realised with a start that I was licensed in California as a Marriage and Family Therapist thirty years ago, and certified as a Master Somatic Coach twenty-five years ago. There’s something about the numbers ending in fives and zeros that has more significance than the other numbers, and however you look at it, this is a really long time.
Research suggests that it takes 300 repetitions of an action to get it into muscle memory, 3,000 repetitions for embodiment, 10,000 for mastery. I hesitate to say I’ve truly mastered the embodiment of somatic coaching, but I’ve certainly done enough reps! The most conservative of calculations suggests at least 25,000 client hours. All of them a privilege. Some more satisfying than others, and by that I mean satisfaction with my own performance. I spend a lot of time in self-reflection and supervision to keep learning, evolving and enhancing my skill. And I’m so grateful that I continue, all these years later, to enjoy meeting with clients to support their own self-development.
In deeply acknowledging my status as a seasoned practitioner, I wonder what you too might acknowledge? I notice how often that which is transparent to us isn’t recognised. Just this week I reflected appreciation to someone about their capacity to consciously take a breath, slow their tempo, pause and consider how they really felt in that moment. They responded with something like “that’s just the way I am” and again, I reiterated the value of these skills, how much they support their advancement as a leader. They are making a significant contribution in the corporate world and as a C-suite exec, don’t necessarily get the affirmation they rightly deserve. So, I leave you with this: what can you acknowledge about yourself that doesn’t usually get much (if any) attention?
[My private practice is full at the moment, so you’re welcome to reach out for an update on my availability in the future].