Effective Consultations
I have just taught nine days of consultation skills. As always, working intensively helps to develop new ideas, new ways to see things. Here is a view I particularly liked.
The two fractions of the Equilibrium bottle can correspond to the two possibilities of the Aura-Soma consultation. The oil is the lighter part of Equilibrium, floating above the water fraction it represents the spiritual dimension of both bottle and consultation, encouraging us to rise above, uplifting. Often consultations are an attempt to inspire the client, to talk them up to another level. The phrase that comes to my mind is “spiritual pep talk.” Personally although I think such consultations are given with the best intention I think they often miss the real opportunity that the consultation offers.
The clue is in the name: Aura-Soma. Aura refers to light and Soma refers to the body. The more I work with Aura-Soma the more I understand that Aura-Soma is not about being spiritual at the expense of our human life, it is about bringing spiritual presence and consciousness into our human difficulties. The consultation that seeks only to uplift will generally not give the space for the client to bring their own story into the consultation.
I see the water in the base fraction as representing the client’s story. It is the denser part of Equilibrium: it is life’s human experience. In truth here are the matters on which their soul is meditating, seeking to digest and integrate. Only if we as practitioners invite the client’s personal experience into the consultation process and make that the centre of the consultation, will our consultations have the chance to really engage with our clients where their life is being lived. Their story is the earth in which the consultation process takes root and things grow best when they are rooted, when they can unfold and grow from within.
Unless we are willing to open to the clients story our well-meaning words will most likely share the fate of water, falling “off a duck’s back” as we say in England. It means that what comes from outside does not penetrate within. In such cases the light that Aura-Soma and the Practitioner offers does not truly enter and take root in the client’s life beyond the consultation room.
I believe the potential of the Aura-Soma consultation is to bring the soul presence to the human story. We would always mix the two fractions of an Equilibrium bottle before applying it, so why not make the mixing of the two parts of the consultation – the light of Aura-Soma WITH the client’s story the heart of the consultation?
The skills and practice of this are the essence of my Aura-Soma consultation skills course (named Practices and Principles of Aura-Soma). It is a unique course that has grown out of more than twenty years of giving consultations. If you are unable to attend a course but would like to learn more I shall soon be starting a Consultation Club on the internet with monthly sharings for those who would like to deepen their Aura-Soma consultations.
Subscribe to RSS Feed