Integral Master Coach

Inner Landscapes Coaching

Helping People Live An Authentic Life

Introduction

When we have problems or feel stuck in life, we often look outside ourselves for solutions. In some situations, that is exactly where we need to focus. However, in many circumstances, what is slowing us down or keeping us stuck, is coming from obstacles that we have created inside ourselves.

As children we do the best we can to deal with the imperfections of life. We develop strategies to protect ourselves from feeling hurt or frightened. These initial strategies can become reactive behaviour later in adulthood causing different kinds of ‘problems’.

These ‘problems’ show up in our negative self-talk and in the repeating of unhealthy or ineffective behaviour. Uncovering our old patterns and learning how to deal with them effectively opens us to internal resources that were not previously available.

These old psychological/emotional processes are just part of our inner landscape.

Inner Landscape

Our inner landscape includes everything that is going on inside of us all the time. This encompasses our thoughts, our emotions and the felt sense of our bodies. And there is so much more. The vastness of the inner world offers an openness to life’s mysteries and to releasing into our very essence.

The inner landscape is a deep source of information and strength that is mostly outside of our awareness. Paying attention to, and becoming comfortable with, diverse aspects of our inner world, brings us vision, insight and deep personal fulfillment. It opens us to resources that we did not know we had.

Coaching Process

The coaching process starts with your coaching topic – an important issue in your life where you feel stuck in some way.
Working with the topic you will uncover and make peace with the patterns of thinking and feeling that are currently holding you back. This results in you developing new perspectives and capacities for moving forward.

With practice, you create a safe space within yourself where you learn to be with whatever is arising within you at any particular moment. You begin to consistently align your behaviours with your core values and goals. You also have a space from which you can explore the more transpersonal aspects of the inner landscape.

The work develops a skill set that you take with you long after the coaching sessions come to an end. The culmination of this life-long process is to come home to yourself and to live your life from a place of authenticity and connection.

The inner journey is experiential, not theoretical. You take your journey at your own pace and move in the directions that you choose. As your coach, I accompany you each step along the way.

Integral Master Coach™

Gordon Mackay

“Integral Coach® is a registered trade-mark in Canada owned by Integral Coaching Canada Inc. and licensed to Gordon MacKay.”

My personal inner journey spans more than five decades and like yours, is unique yet universal. I have many years of study and experience in various fields, including: Gestalt Therapy, Buddhist meditation, non-dual thinking, shamanism, inner child work, Therapeutic Touch, Alcoholics Anonymous, palliative care, dementia support, and, of course, training to become an Integral Master Coach™. My inner work has also been guided throughout my life by visions and dreams and by many wise and gifted teachers.

In my earlier career, I was the manager of a communication and client services area of a large organization before moving into Human Resources Development as a management development advisor. There I provided executive coaching services, ran group coaching circles, designed and delivered soft-skills management training courses, and led team development processes. I have been a Certified Integral Master Coach™ since June 2005.

Inspirational Quotes

“Sit with your emotions as they arise, feel them, listen to them, appreciate them, but never run from them, because they’ll track you down and haunt you until you are courageous enough to face them and ultimately learn the lessons that they hold.”

— Erin Chatters

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

Carl Jung

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while or the light won’t come in.”

Isaac Asimov

“Relationships do not cause pain and unhappiness. They bring out the pain and unhappiness that is already in you.”

Eckhart Tolle

“Trauma is not what happened to you, its what happened inside you as a result of what happened to you. And that’s the good news. Recognizing that trauma is an internal psychological wound with manifestations in your body, actually allows you to heal.”

Gabor Maté

“There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading to the same place, so it doesn’t matter which path you take. The only person wasting time is the one who runs around the mountain, telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.”

unknown

“Avoiding your triggers isn’t healing. Healing happens when you’re triggered and you’re able to move through the pain, the pattern, and the story - and walk your way to a different ending.”

Vienna Pharaon

“Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.”

David Bowie

“Every man has two lives and the second one starts when he realizes that he has just one.”

by Mario de Andrade

“My goal is to create a life I don’t need a vacation from.”

Dr. Alicia Hankins

Truth is not to be found outside. No teacher, no scripture can give it to you. It is inside you and if you wish to attain it, seek your own company. Be with yourself.

Osho

"Silence has nothing to do with the mind."

Jean Klein

“The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.”

Mark Nepo

Inspirational Poems

Summer Kitchen

by Donald Hall

In June’s high light she stood at the sink
            With a glass of wine,
And listened for the bobolink,
And crushed garlic in late sunshine.

I watched her cooking, from my chair.
            She pressed her lips
Together, reached for kitchenware,
And tasted sauce from her fingertips.

“It’s ready now. Come on,” she said.
            “You light the candle.”
We ate, and talked, and went to bed,
And slept. It was a miracle.

Adapted from “A Christmas Letter”

by Fra Giovanni

Life is so full of meaning and purpose,

so full of beauty beneath its covering

that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage then to claim it; that is all!

But courage you have, and the knowledge

that we are pilgrims together,

wending through unknown territory home.

And so, at this time, I greet you,

not quite as the world sends greetings,

but with profound esteem

and with the prayer that for you,

now and forever,

the day breaks and shadows flee away.

To Come Home To Yourself

By John O’donohue

May all that is unforgiven in you,
Be released. 

May your fears yield
Their deepest tranquillities.

May all that is unlived in you,
Blossom into a future,
Graced with love.