Like Kahlo, be the best you
In late October 2017, I spent 10 days in New Mexico, the US and visited Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu where Georgia O’Keeffe painted (see Rachel Ellison’s review, vol 12, issue 1), a photographic exhibition of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and the gallery of Native American painter Daniel B Ramirez’s work (http://bit.ly/2ANfwdy).
Each, in their own way, epitomises challenge and personal courage, choice and strength.
Frida Kahlo was the first Mexican female artist whose work sold for more than $1m (a painting bought by Madonna). Having been injured by a tram when young, she had more than 30 operations, spent her life in pain and often painted in bed with an adapted canvas holder. Yet she has influenced generations. Her determination, for example, to wear traditional clothes, among the New York elite, has influenced modern haute couture. She is credited with saying: “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” and: “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone; because I am the person I know best.” She died aged 47 soon after attending a protest rally against the coup d’état in Guatemala – true to her beliefs.
Daniel B Ramirez wants to preserve the traditions of his ancestors and support Native American tribes. He has recently completed a painting that captures for posterity a representative female from every Native American tribe in the US in what has been a hugely ambitious project. He donates some of his profits to Native American education.
O’Keeffe was gutsy and fiery, and true to her vision, living her later life her way, painting what she wanted at Ghost Ranch, subservient to no one. Like Kahlo, even when her eyesight failed, she didn’t complain, but adapted.
Each has had a profound effect on me and reminds me that to be the “best we can be”, we need to nourish ourselves and draw on the beauty of what is around us, opening our eyes, ears and hearts and feasting.
No matter the adversity, it is our mindset that can determine everything, reminding me of a saying attributed to Anäis Nin: “Our thoughts define our universe.”
Eve Turner is a coach, coach supervisor and mentor and founder of Eve Turner Associates. www.eve-turner.com
Mental health: a duty of care
I want to congratulate Liz Hall and Liz Pick on tackling the topic of mental health and coaching (vol 12, issue 3).It’s been hidden in the coaching world for too long.
Now we have courageous colleagues who’ve highlighted a topic that has been frowned upon. The article focuses on the need to open up conversations around the suitability of both coach and client when working with those who may not be as whole and healthy as training schools suggest.
Liz Pick’s case studies allowed the reader to view examples of how experienced coaches, who have clarity around their personal and professional boundaries, can be of huge support and a tremendous asset to both clients and organisations.
Even though we may be fastidious around our contracting, concise in intake sessions and ask pertinent health questions…. life happens. Mental health issues may lay undetected. Do we kick a client out mid-way through our coaching sessions because a huge life crisis arises and they suddenly state they feel lost and suicidal, in that moment? No, we make sure they are in contact with their GP, we outline and re-contract, perhaps adding in a disclaimer, and we support them. Our empathy and humility will allow them a safe space.
We have a duty of care to our clients, but also a duty to self-care by facing our own reactions and emotions with a well-grounded and experienced supervisor.
The focus of coaching may shift and it may well be that a sanctuary offered by the coach serves the client best when reason and logic in the outside world seem overbearing.
Many of us work with clients who have cancer, diabetes, epilepsy or learning difficulties. I have worked with many clients with depression and anxiety. We may even have a chronic illness ourselves, but that does not make us any less professional. We’re humans with our own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual challenges and thus we face our own suffering and vulnerabilities. As Eve Turner states: “This is not something that we enter into lightly”, but we all live on some continuum. Keep up the great work and I look forward to further debate.
Dorothy Larios, PEC Association for Coaching, specialises in health and wellbeing coaching, and is a mindfulness teacher