You might have experienced the following for yourself: After a good night sleep, the next morning you’re definitely feeling better about something that had happened the previous day and caused you stress or made you feel bad.

Why is that?

This is actually a perfect example of our innate mental self-management capacity. While we’re sleeping, we’re going through the so-called REM phase during which our eyes are moving back and forth rapidly. This is thought to correlate with an optimal collaboration of both brain hemispheres. That’s why during the REM phase, our brain is processing all kinds of information, emotions, memories, and stress in a natural way. While we’re “sleeping on it,” our brain is in an optimal and solution-oriented state of creativity.

In a LIMBIC COACHING session, we’re making active use of this natural self-management competency in order to help clients to

• assimilate whatever is bothering them and brought them into coaching in the first place
• overcome obstacles and challenges
• intensify positive emotions
• enhance their skills.

Here’s what happens during guided eye movements in a LIMBIC COACHING session:

After coach and client have identified what exactly has blocked the client or caused them stress, the client focuses on this and then follows the coach’s hand movements with their eyes, thus moving their eyes in a similar way they do during REM sleep. This prompts their brain to enter that powerful mode. By processing stress-triggers in this targeted way, clients can remain focused and creative in situations that used to trigger blocks or stress.

The beauty of using guided eye movements in the LIMBIC COACHING approach is that they don’t just process previously identified stress-triggers. They also put the client’s brain into an optimal state of creativity. This is why many clients have flashes of insight during the LIMBIC COACHING session and come up with new ideas and solutions.

To have even more options in coaching, particularly for sessions via Skype and for self-coaching, the LIMBIC COACHING protocol offers two alternatives to the guided eye movements.

1. A set of musical pieces that were composed just for the LIMBIC COACHING method. Listening to these tracks via headphones puts the listener’s brain into the powerful processing mode.
2. Bilateral tapping of particular points on face, torso and hands to stimulate receptors in the skin and send calming signals to the brain. This tapping part of the LIMBIC COACHING protocol has its roots in EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), TFT (Thought Field Therapy) and PEP (Positive Embodiment oriented Psychology) and combines the best of the different approaches in a unique way.

Both perfectly

• complement the LIMBIC COACHING procedure
• transform stress-triggers
• support the brain in “re-labeling” whatever used to trigger stress or involuntary responses.

Muscle response testing with two fingers of the client’s hand allows coach and client to detect what exactly interferes with the client’s performance, stress-resilience, and/or sense of well-being. Once identified, this stress-trigger can be processed in a targeted way via bilateral stimulation.

Hence, in a LIMBIC COACHING session, coach and client can focus on the areas that really deserve attention and identify valuable experiences and resources that the client would not necessarily have connected to their issue.

Thanks to the Muscle Response Test, coach and client avoid unnecessary “detours” and can accomplish a lot in a single coaching session.

In LIMBIC COACHING , we use the powerful Solution-Focused Communication skills to determine what exactly the client wants to achieve rather than focus on the issue that brought them into coaching in the first place. Hence we aim to help the client establish a clearly defined goal and outline appropriate first steps to take after the session.

The essence of this outcome-oriented approach is:

• the use of scaling questions
• the focus on the person rather than the problem
• an active search for resources rather than deficits
• the exploration of possible and preferred futures
• trust that clients are experts in all aspects of their lives

Affirmations according to the LIMBIC COACHING protocol are a powerful brain-based technique for closing the coaching session. Just like a unique gift handed over at the end of the meeting, they are designed to help clients

1. consolidate what they can take away from the challenges that were identified and addressed
2. enhance their confidence in their skills to actually accomplish the previously defined goals
3. actively connect 1 and 2 with the next required action steps.

The LIMBIC COACHING method is an additional tool for experienced professionals who want to have more choices to accomplish impactful results in coaching.

By integrating the client’s emotional brain, this unique approach works “on the correct floor of the brain” where blocks and stress originate but can’t be solved with language or logic. You can help clients effectively process

• emotions
• limiting beliefs
• memories that used to inhibit performance and create stress.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN BENEFITS OF ADDING THE LIMBIC COACHING APPROACH TO MY REPERTOIRE?

1.  LIMBIC COACHING perfectly complements “classical” coaching. By addressing blocks head-on and thus helping clients overcome self-sabotage and stagnation fast, you can attain even more sustainable results with clients in the course of a long-term coaching engagement. This clearly advances your coaching practice.
2. By providing precisely the succinct support many people want and need, you can attract new clients whose needs are currently not met in a long-term engagement.
   As you know, coaching generally focuses on supporting high performers and individuals to accomplish long-term goals or leadership. In this form, however, coaching does not cover all areas in which clients could benefit from succinct support and pinpoint solutions when facing a challenge or an obstacle.
   Brief and Single Session Coaching with the LIMBIC COACHING method closes this gap. By matching the fast-paced life style and demanding work and sports performance environments many clients face, it opens coaching for people who normally wouldn’t even consider looking for support.
3. On the practical side, thanks to the unique LIMBIC COACHING protocol it isn’t necessary that your clients talk about their issue in detail. Sharing a general idea of what it is that they want to address or accomplish is sufficient for a successful coaching session. LIMBIC COACHING interventions allow maximum transparency for your clients. This makes it the ideal approach to work on issues your clients don’t want to talk about or have difficulty verbalizing.
4. Several components of the method are also very effective for self-coaching.

Performance differences between equally skilled athletes are due to differences in their mental strength. That’s why state-of-the-art approaches to help your clients mentally prepare for peak performance are crucial.

CLEARLY IDENTIFY WHAT’S NEEDED TO GET “INTO THE ZONE”

With the LIMBIC COACHING method, you can clearly identify with your client what exactly has kept them from performing their best in a particular context and immediately process this challenge to increase the odds that next time they do.

Based on this, you can develop unique strategies that get the athlete “into the zone” instantaneously whenever necessary.

This approach enables the you to directly address all areas in the client’s personal, professional and sports life that have an impact on their performance.

This typically spans from stressful memories of past experiences to unhelpful emotions regarding something upcoming.

And this clearly makes your coaching even more sustainable.

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN HELP ATHLETES ACCOMPLISH EVEN MORE EFFECTIVELY WITH THE LIMBIC COACHING APPROACH:

• Mentally prepare for peak performance in tournaments, competitions, and other important performances.
• Have their mental resources ready the very fraction of a second they need them.
• Optimize focus, composure, and confidence.
• Overcome performance anxiety and let their mind work for, rather than against, their best interest.
• Prepare in an optimal way for possible negative audience responses.
• Mentally and emotionally process and overcome
  • past defeats
  • injuries
  • criticism and judgments of past performance both from the media and from their environment.

The brain-based LIMBIC COACHING method perfectly complements hypnosis and most therapeutic approaches and increases your effectiveness.

MEET CLIENTS’ NEEDS FOR SUCCINCT SUPPORT

Many clients want fast and succinct support. Hence, a long-term engagement does not necessarily meet their needs. By adding this Single Session and Brief Coaching approach to your repertoire, you can attract new and different types of clients and at the same time have more options to address issues with long-term clients.

NO NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE ISSUE

Most people believe that effectively addressing certain issues requires talking about them. But thanks to the precise LIMBIC COACHING protocol it isn’t even necessary for clients to give details about their issue. Sharing a general idea of what they want to address or accomplish is sufficient for the session to provide the desired outcome.

That’s why this approach perfectly meets the needs of clients who don’t want to talk about or have difficulty verbalizing whatever is bothering them.

TANGIBLE PROGRESS IN EVERY SESSION

By making use of your clients’ natural mental self-healing capacity in order to dissolve (subliminal) blocks at their source and thanks to the clear focus on what really needs to be addressed, you can achieve amazing results, often within a single LIMBIC COACHING session.

WITH THIS APPROACH YOU CAN HELP CLIENTS EVEN MORE EFFECTIVELY:

• Increase their sense of self-confidence
• Restore and stabilize inner balance
• Overcome phobias and anxieties such as
  • test anxiety
  • fear of flying
  • fear of public speaking and stage fright
  • arachnophobia
  • dental treatment anxiety
• Reduce physical stress such as lack of sleep or jetlag
• Handle stress, conflicts and interpersonal disappointments in their personal or professional environment
• Transform setbacks and obstacles
• Cope with grief after a loss or break-up
• Handle memories of negative experiences and the subsequent emotions
• Deal with food cravings
• Identify limiting beliefs and turn them into positive, encouraging mottos

With the unique LIMBIC COACHING method, you can raise your performance coaching to a higher level by meeting your clients’ unique needs even more effectively.

This brain-based approach allows the most precise mental preparation for any situation that is connected with how others perceive your client’s performance, such as:

• Media interviews
• Exams
• Auditions
• Speeches and presentations
• Assessment centers
• Job interviews
• Public appearances.

OPTIMAL SUPPORT FOR ARTISTS, MUSICIANS, AND ACTORS TO PERFORM AT THEIR HIGHEST LEVEL

With the LIMBIC COACHING approach you can mentally support creative clients very effectively for all kinds of challenges they are facing in their profession.

You will learn tried and tested techniques to help clients in a custom-fit way:

• Overcome mental blocks and boost their creativity
• Prepare mentally for peak performance in an audition
• Handle negative feedback for their performance or creation by audience or media
• Utilize stage fright in the best possible way
• Brace themselves for potentially negative judgment of their performance or creation by audience or media to be able to optimally handle it
• Mentally and emotionally process past stressful or suboptimal performances
• Learn their lines effectively (for actors)

COACHING TO HELP STUDENTS PREPARE FOR TESTS AND EXAMS

With the LIMBIC COACHING method you will have unique tools to help students:

• Prepare for exams and tests in a goal-oriented way
• Develop their individual learning strategy
• Transform test anxiety into confidence in their skills
• Employ strategies to help them feel exactly the way they want to feel during the exam (concentrated, focused, self-confident, mentally alert)
• Mentally and emotionally process memories of past exams and mental blocks resulting from these
• Learn to deal effectively with other people’s expectations regarding the outcome of their exam

Yes, we also offer advanced courses that increase practitioners’ flexibility in applying the LIMBIC COACHING method in different contexts to help clients achieve particular goals and outcomes.

Each two-day advanced course includes supervision, introduction of new formats and detailed training handouts. Participants apply and practice the new material with supervision in small groups.

The investment for each advanced course is $800.

We currently offer LIMBIC COACHING advanced courses on the the following topics:

• Parts Work and “the Inner Team”
• How to Best Handle Cravings
• Constellation Work in Individual Coaching Sessions
• Conflict Resolution
• Dysfunctional Beliefs and Loyalties
• Performance and Resource Coaching