Coach FEATURE: Meet Pablo Bensemann, Dipl. Transpersonal Coaching

Pablo Bensemann Headshot-500pxWe continue to meet our fellow coaches, get inspired and build coach community with these "Meet the Coach" features! This month we meet Pablo Bensemann, a transpersonal coach - and one of my favourite coaches I have met online! He is authentic and thoughtful, courageous, earnest and engaged.

This "Meet the Coach" is longer than our usual features, and Pablo has really shared himself with us! I hope you enjoy - and are inspired as I was! Read on...

About Pablo Bensemann, Dipl. Transpersonal Coaching:

From: Born in Auckland, New Zealand but lived in Sydney, Australia since I was 20 years old.

Business name: Pablo Bensemann - Transpersonal Coach

Describe your coaching business in one sentence: I am a Transpersonal Coach who supports Vigilant Visionaries to create a Life of Prosperity and Balance for themselves and others, by Aligning their Authentic Passions and Transforming Pain Points into Wisdom and Inspired Action.

Meet Pablo:

QUESTION 1: What one book should every coach read - and why?

Just one?!? Well, it's great to see a few of my favourite books and authors have already been recommended by the other featured coaches, and I have also been able to add a few new books to my own wish-list, so thanks for this great question!

In addition to continuously developing my coaching skills and presence, I am also conscious of the need to strengthen my business development skills, so I'd like to offer two books that I hold in equally high esteem when it comes to cultivating both aspects of my character as a coach.

One of the books I highly recommend for every coach to read is "SQ21 - The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence" by Cindy Wigglesworth. Modelled on and inspired by work around multiple intelligences, Cindy Wigglesworth has identified, tested and validated a set of 21 skills or competencies of Spiritual Intelligence drawn from commons threads among the major faith traditions, modern psychology, philosophers and traditional spiritual wisdom.

The other book that I highly recommend that every coach should read is "The Prosperous Coach" by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler.  A deceptively simple and organic approach that gets back to the Soul of coaching, deep connection and transformation as the access to creating clients!

This is not a book about the how-to of the specific skills, tools, techniques and methods of practical coaching. While many of those elements are indeed incorporated and expanded on, they are done so in the context of combining the principles of those skills, tools, techniques and methods that we all learn in our formal coach training and then applying them to the business practice of creating clients, and creating a prosperous and sustainable coaching practice.

And just for fun, while we're talking about books that 'every coach should read'... then every coach should definitely read something from Abraham Maslow. I am currently reading "The Farther Reaches of Human Nature" by Abraham Maslow, and I am absolutely loving Maslow's raw curiosity and irreverence.

Following through on our theme of self-actualisation, I would add a couple of bonus titles to the list; "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and "Illusions", both by Richard Bach. Two books everyone should read, whether they are a coach or not.

QUESTION 2: Which website do you visit the most?

My visits to specific websites are fairly evenly spread out amongst the links and articles provided to me in my subscription emails from many of my favourite inspiring people and organisations.

If I were to choose one specific website only, apart from my own, then it would be a close call between Facebook and LinkedIn. I maintain highly curated feeds of pages and profiles and belong to some great groups, where I learn so much from being connected to such a diverse range of people who share common interests albeit with differing perspectives, and who share articles, journals, and inspiring information with each other and the inspiring conversations that ensue.

QUESTION 3: Whom do you admire most?

My incredible partner. One of the most courageous, creative, passionate and inspiring people I know; and someone who very rarely takes "no" for an answer on anything.

We've learned so much from each other as we've traversed the highs and lows of life and relationship over the past 19 years together. And I know how fortunate I am to be able to look forward to spending the rest of our lives together continuing to discover, learn, evolve, build, laugh, love and cry together.

QUESTION 4: What's your vision for your life? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

  • I am living with my partner and our dogs, chickens, ducks/geese and bees on a coastal property close to the beach and surrounded by native forest.
  • We have additional facilities and accommodation to host successful and prosperous retreats, seminars, workshops and events that create space for people to slow down, and reconnect with their Soul Purpose, and what that looks and feels like in the world.
  • We have well-tended and bountiful fruit and vegetable gardens, incorporating mandala, labyrinth, keyhole and forest garden permaculture designs, large enough and providing enough produce for our personal needs as well as catering for the participants of the retreats.
  • We have the capacity and opportunities to regularly travel internationally, both for holidays/leisure and business.
  • I am continuing to learn and develop my own experiences, education, skills, certification and accreditation, in coaching and other areas of personal and professional interest, to support my ongoing contribution to humanity's collective conscious evolution.
  • I have published at least 2 x self-actualisation related books (1 x fiction & 1 x non-fiction).
  • We are happy, healthy, and prosperous.

QUESTION 5: What are your Top 3 Goals at the moment?

  1. My partner has just launched a new business, and it's a very exciting time for us. A lot of our energy is going towards supporting this new venture and there are lots of changes in our relationship and lifestyle to be considered as we develop and adjust to new routines, structures, expectations, priorities and support. There is a wide range of practical, emotional and business requirements of moving into this next phase of our life.
  2. At the time of writing, we have just planted our first backyard vegetable garden, so we're in a process of continuously learning about and monitoring the growth, development and wellbeing of about 20 different varieties of vegetables incorporating a range of permaculture principles. We're also getting to a stage where we have a constant year-round rotation and supply of homegrown produce. We're already very excited about our first harvest. And as an added bonus, it's an awesome space for my morning and evening meditations!
  3. My mother has recently been diagnosed with Younger Onset Dementia and I am researching and learning as much as I can about how this disease affects the lives of the person and their friends and family, how it progresses, ways and methods to slow the process as much as possible, and ways to support, care for and manage the impacts in everyone's lives.
  4. And of course, continuing to serve the inspiring coachees and clients I'm in partnership with as they continue to create lives of prosperity and balance for themselves and others through alignment of their authentic passions and transformation of their pain points into wisdom and inspired action.

QUESTION 6: What has been your favourite coaching moment so far?

Often people start out coaching with the desire to build, create or change something, so they're very focused on 'Doing' - what there is to do, what they are doing, what they are not doing, what they should be doing.

My favourite coaching moments are always that moment of epiphany, when the Coachee realises that the 'thing' they came to coaching to work on, or the 'thing' they thought was causing all the tension in their life, is not actually 'THE thing', and the lightness and freedom that comes over them in that moment of clarity.

Recently, an inspiring and successful entrepreneur came to coaching for support with "structure to achieve more in the most efficient and organised way possible" and to be "genuinely and productively held to account when necessary". His business ventures already nurture awareness and help businesses and communities be the best versions of themselves.

This entrepreneur was great at envisioning the big picture and reverse-engineering goals to highlight the major milestones. He wanted to get better at identifying, actioning or delegating the incremental milestones, and was specifically intent on "learning more strategies, formulas and/or methods that have brought others success to apply to future ambitions". He was committed to finding as many ways as possible to 'do' more!

A formula to conceptualise optimal performance in all areas of our lives that I employ in my coaching, devised by Timothy Gallwey, founder and developer of the concept of The Inner Game, is "PERFORMANCE equals POTENTIAL minus INTERFERENCE".

I find it interesting that the focus is on 'reducing' the interference rather than 'adding or building' more skills. By removing the INTERFERENCE, eg. obstacles like "fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus, and limiting concepts or assumptions", our PERFORMANCE will naturally and exponentially evolve to our pure POTENTIAL.

Coaching at this deep level of who we are 'being' as opposed to what we are 'doing' transforms energetic tensions, conflicts and obstacles in our life. This then creates more peace, freedom and space for us to naturally and organically create from our expanded sense of Self, guided by our natural intuition.

The look on this entrepreneur's face when he made the connection between 'where' in life he was actually self-sabotaging, and 'why' he was self-sabotaging, and realising that the path to creating more of what he wanted in life and business was to actually do 'less', was priceless.

 "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." C. G. Jung

QUESTION 7: What are your Top 3 favourite coaching tools and/or resources?

1) The Coachee is most definitely my top favourite coaching resource.

Deep presence, deep listening, Clean Language, Focusing and Soul-to-Soul connection all reveal that the Coachee truly does have the answers they are looking for.

I love exploring and engaging with the Coachee's rich tapestry and inner-landscape of values, metaphor, imagery, symbolism, visualisation and intuitive urges.

I do have a very comprehensive intake form, and a range of customizable resources that we may or may not employ depending on the needs or desires of the Coachee, yet even these are all tools that still put the Coachee back at the centre of their own transformational journey.

It's quite incredible what Coachees reveal about themselves, and to themselves, when they take the time and effort for committed, authentic self-reflection and positive action on their own behalf.

Deep down, the Soul knows exactly who you are, your authentic passions, your true purpose, and your true path in life!

2) The Wheel of Life.

I prefer to call my adapted versions, The Symphony of Life, and it's one of my all-time favourite coaching processes.

I find this is a very powerful tool for connecting the Coachee's inner and outer worlds. I personally complete this process for myself every six months to focus, plan and take inspired action. And I also offer an expanded, multi-dimensional Symphony of Life experience as a one-off half-day workshop.

Further to identifying the external circumstances in our life and using scaling to measure, develop and track projects and actions plans, this is also a great tool for diving deep, deep beneath our emotional and psychological layers to identify the common passions that are driving us across all aspects of our life.

Revealing these underlying and interconnected energies of our beliefs, perspectives and circumstances helps us identify which small but significant changes in one individual aspect of our life will create significant positive changes and growth in ALL aspects of our life, akin to the pebble-in-the-pond effect.

"Small changes can produce big results - but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious." Peter Senge

3) The VIA Character Strengths Survey and Reports.

I find the VIA Character Strengths Survey and Reports are great tools for identifying our top 5 signature strengths, our middle strengths, and our lesser strengths, and supporting and developing awareness of which strengths are operating well in our life. It also identifies which strengths could do with a little focus and development. I was personally very surprised at my own top 5 strengths, as well as some of my lesser strengths!

Working inside my commitment that there is nothing wrong with anyone or their life that needs fixing, I really love the concept of 'under-use' or 'over-use' of our respective strengths, which resonates strongly with my philosophy and approach of aligning authentic passions, and integrating what are often referred to as our 'Shadow qualities' to create balance and prosperity.

There is a range of free and paid reports, with increasing degrees of depth of information, insight, strategies and considerations for transforming pain points in life by processing them through the positive lens of strengths, preferences and solution-focused approaches.

QUESTION 8: What do you love most about being a coach?

There are so many things to love about being a coach!

  • I love that my days and nights can be as varied and interesting as my clients and the projects they are creating in their lives.
  • I love that I can work from anywhere; the beach, or the park, or out bushwalking, and work with clients who are located anywhere in the world.
  • I love the deep authenticity of the conversations that I get to have all day, every day, as part of my occupation. And that I am continuously learning something new about how we are all so deeply interconnected.
  • I love the alignment of my passions for psychology, philosophy, spirituality, mysticism, mythology and conscious evolution. And that I get to incorporate my 'Whole Self' and life experience into generating my livelihood.
  • I love being witness to the inspiring transformations Coachees create in their lives.
  • Of course, I love that the work I do as a coach specifically and consciously contributes to the collective conscious evolution and transformation of humanity as a whole.

But, above all else, what I really, really, really love the most about being a coach is how it causes and supports 'me' to be a 'better' version of 'myself', constantly expanding my own awareness of myself, and others. Continuously growing and deepening my own capabilities and capacities for presence, courage, integrity, compassion, vulnerability, empathy, creativity, responsibility, contribution, peace, faith and joy.

QUESTION 9: Tell us a secret about your life...

This has been the most difficult question of them all for me to answer authentically!

Which, in and of itself, is a clear indication to me that I want to make every effort to answer it as authentically as possible.

Is too much authenticity a bad thing?

(Deep breath...) I am a gay man.

Now, to my family, friends and most of my colleagues, this is not really a secret. I have been out of the closet for a fair few years now, and my sexuality is not something I intentionally hide from anyone.

And yet, intentionally or not, this is still the first internal response that I have to the question, "Tell us a secret about you".

I suppose I could have gone with something along the lines of "I still experience moments of doubt and feelings of anxiety as I continue expanding my personal and professional boundaries and comfort zones!". That would definitely be something surprising about me, wouldn't it? I'm a coach after all, and surely I'm not supposed to experience doubt or feel anxious in my life, right? But it's true!

Or maybe I could have shared that I once worked on a cruise ship for six months as a member of the Entertainment Team, coordinating ship-board activities for passengers during the day, and performing in themed cabaret shows for entertainment in the evenings. Not many people know that about me, right?

So why did I choose to tell you this 'secret' about me?

While I know that my sexuality does not 'define' who I am as a whole person, I also know that my experiences growing up and my experiences and lessons living as a gay man most definitely do 'inform' a very large part of who I am as a Whole person.

I know intimately what it is like to live with a shadow of fear, self-doubt or shame around accepting and expressing my authentic self for fear of being judged, rejected, maligned, discriminated against, or maybe even subjected to physical violence, and how that can impact so many other aspects of my self-expression and fulfillment in my life.

And I also know intimately the freedom and empowerment that comes from authenticity, vulnerability and deep connection.

So, there you have it. No more secrets!

QUESTION 10: If you could change one thing in our world, what would it be? And how would you go about it?

Wow! This is such a powerful question!

The big 'Why' for what I am called to do is to Ease Suffering - Our personal suffering; the suffering we inflict on other people; the suffering we inflict on other sentient beings; the suffering we inflict on our environment and the planet.

I know that for many people the use of the word 'suffering' can have quite heavy connotations, and there are many who wholeheartedly subscribe to the philosophy that nothing but our own minds can free and save us from our own personal suffering.

Yet there are some types of suffering that are just a lot more obvious and easy to identify, while others are less obvious and easy to ignore, bypass or deny.

In essence, the one thing to change in our world is for us to move from fear-based relationships with our Selves and others, to authentic love-based relationships with our Selves and others.

I acknowledge there are many paths and processes to achieve this, and one perspective is to cultivate a deeper, conscious awareness of what we want for our lives and why we want it, in contrast to what we truly, deeply need for our lives.

Being responsible for our personal conscious evolution and the transformation of our personal suffering into wisdom and inspired action creates space for more compassion, empathy and kindness for our Selves and for others.

This in turn reduces the collective suffering of ALL humanity, all sentient beings, the environment and the planet and positively contributes to the collective conscious evolution of our global community.

By taking only the very noblest principles from philosophies such as Ethical Consumerism, Conscious Capitalism and Buddhist Economics, and empowering people to be conscious of and responsible for the impact, both virtuous and vicious, that our 'choices' have on all Life on the planet that we are connected to as the United Whole.

Then we foster an experience of connectedness that influences our choices in life for the purest good and true flourishing of all our fellow human beings, in harmony with the flourishing of our natural environment.

Courage, Creativity,
Passion & Inspiration,
All-Ways in Unity.

 I'll leave you with another of my favourite quotes, this one by me 😉

"We're conditioned to want more, more, more.
We don't need 'more' in our lives.
There's already more than enough for everyone.
What we need in our lives is 'Balance'."
Pablo Bensemann

 

Pablo Bensemann Headshot-125px

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2 Comments

  1. Pablo

    Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity to share more of Who I Am, and What Makes Me Tick!

    Courage, Creativity,
    Passion & Inspiration,
    All-Ways in Unity.

    Reply

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