Coaching within a feminist framework

Femme de pecheur venant de baigner ses enfants

We cannot escape our biases. So its good to know what they are. Its the necessary inner awareness we must have so that we can meet our clients where they are. We must know exactly, as well as we can, who we are.

Which brings me to the concept of "the feminine."

How much do you value the feminine?

Untamed, wild, powerful, intuitive, bringing life into existence, nurturing, embodied, yielding, connecting all of life, flowing, emotive, generous.

Our world asks us to be dis-embodied, rational, non-emotive, competitive, decisive, driving, mechanistic, striving for success. These are the values that have been elevated by a patriarchal and capitalist society. The imbalance can often seem beyond repair. Our job as coaches is elevate the feminine.

We restore harmony one person and one interaction at a time. We reclaim the feminine. We elevate the positive mother, the earth, the nurturing receptivity and value for all lives, including that of the earth.

To come into wholeness there must be a valuing of all the parts of ourselves, whether masculine or feminine.*

What is your relationship with the feminine aspects of yourself and your world? What is your relationship with the masculine? Are you ready to locate your coaching practice within a feminist framework? A framework that counteracts the dominant paradigm with a clear valuation and elevation of the feminine?

In our society, we have an inherent and often invisible preference for the masculine, even among those of us who pay attention to gender disparities, capitalist oppressions, and earth-destroying exploitations.

All coaching that I do is located within a feminist framework. And that is just so much broader than you might think.

Inherently, I reject patriarchy. That's feminism at is simplest. When we reject patriarchy, we reject violence and oppression as well. We reject rigid societal roles based on gender and sex. Pretty basic.

My feminism is an elevation of the feminine. Valuing mother nature and the earth. Valuing the shakti energy, the divine mother, the creative and destructive powers of kali, community, creativity, justice, fertility, and fierce protectiveness.

Not only should you bring your feminism and elevation of the feminine into the coaching space, you must. You must coach and guide from the vantage point of the powerful priestess, the fierce warrior, the great mother, and the wise and wild woman.

The feminine needs us.

* (To clarify, these are elements of the psyche and not related to male or female sex organs.)