The Big Picture
Yesterday I launched The Big Picture my new product featuring The Collage Coaching Technique™. It’s an important one in the evolution of the Shapeshifter, so much to share on the subject, but for starters this is a piece that I posted to my community of creatives in the advertising industry on LinkedIn…
I’ve always been a pen is mightier than the sword, let me write that down type, rising to every linguistic challenge to prove a point. But, It seems I’ve been missing something (yep you heard me patient art directors).
Words don’t cut it.
It was not until I started my coaching business that the penny really dropped. And I’m not just talking about the cloying irritation of motivational catch phrases. (Be your best self. Um? ) No, I didn’t compute how hung up people are about wording things in the ‘right’ way. The struggle to find the words and then do a self edit for fear of not being understood or sounding silly. The sheer frustration around not being clear. I’m a patient listener, a deeply invested listener, BUT there have been times when I have had to call out the dance around what sounds pleasing. People pay me to offload, and get under the skin, that’s how change is made, stuff gets done. The clock is ticking, we have to get beyond the politeness.
I repeat. Words don’t cut it.
And that’s why I’ve put an arts-based method at the heart of my practise. And I don’t mean vision boards (as lovely as they are). I needed something to get my cynical heart-beating. This is it. The Collage Coaching Technique™ A scientifically supported 3- stage process founded by the brilliant psychologist and coach Andréa Watts. Andrea’s story is one that will appeal to anyone for whom the relationship with creativity has not always followed a smooth path. I digress. What CCT™ does is use imagery to bridge the gap (chasm) between the conscious and unconscious brain to reveal a vivid, unapologetic version of who we really are and how to get to where we want to be.
There are plenty of scientific examples to support why image is the default language of the brain, I’ll use processing speed as an example - 45 bits per second when reading, versus a staggering 10 million bits per second when looking at imagery. I can’t quite get my head around all that, but the power of this in a coaching session puts intuition on speed dial. That, ‘I can’t describe’ frustration’ can be revealed in pictures with seemingly no effort.
And that’s why I am a born-again pictures girl.