Transformational Counseling is a process of assisting others to
transform their lives.  Transformational Counseling is a process
of assisting others in their reinventing themselves, of creating a life
that they love and living it powerfully.  Transformational
Counseling is a process of creating a space for others to get present
to or become aware of their self limiting belief, to create or invent a
possibility for themselves and their life that could not have existed
before and to learn how to be in their possibilities as opposed to
being that which has always stopped them in the past.  



The development of transformational counseling has been the result of
my work in counseling, psychotherapy, coaching, hypnosis, neuro
linguistic programming, the work of Louise Hay and especially Landmark
Education.  To understand and be able to utilize the technology of
Transformational Counseling with others, of being able to make a true
difference in another personâs life, requires that one understand or
get certain concepts or distinctions about what it is to be a human
being and reality itself.  While the distinctions of
Transformational Counseling are initially presented separately, it is
in their practice or communication with another that a true synergy is
reached and itâs potential or power actualized for the client. 
For the counselor as well as the client the synergistic learnings that
take place within Transformational Counseling is nonlinear in
nature.              
 



The clients that I work with are all experiencing a loss of power,
freedom and full self-expression in one or many of the various domains
of their life.  The clients that I see are all being stopped in
living a life that they love and living it powerfully.  If they
continue being as they have been being nothing will change, life will
be as it has always been.  They will remain stuck and unable to
reach their true potential in life.  The clients that I coach or
counsel know that something needs to be different in their life but are
unsure of what that something is all about, of what is not working, of
what is missing, of what needs to happen.  It is in assisting a
client to discover or become present to that which has been causing
their depression, sadness, anger, frustration, etc. and to learn how to
create a new way of being that the work of Transformational Counseling
is all about.         



One of the fundamental distinctions of Transformational Counseling is
that our thoughts are very important, if not the most important
component of what it is to be a human being.   We tend to
believe that the external world, or what we commonly believe to be
reality, is that which is truly important.  As a result of such a
belief, we are constantly engaged in trying to change something in the
external world, constantly believing that this type of activity will
bring us true happiness and contentment in our life.  Within
Transformational Counseling, it is our thoughts or thinking that is of
immense importance to us and our process of living.  It is our
thoughts and thinking patterns that literally shape or determine our
feelings, behavior, experiences and our reality.  More
specifically, it is our thoughts that we have about ourselves that
tends to create or shape our experiences, that forms the background of
our life and our sense of reality.  It is from the thoughts that
we initially create about ourselves that we subsequently develop into a
belief about who we think we are, our self-image, of how we define our
very being and it is from this belief that we live our life.  A
belief is merely a thought that we think is true or real, that
expresses some sense of ontology.   



Inside the conversation of Transformational Counseling it is also
important to understand that we are truly responsible for the thoughts
that we have, including and especially those that we have about
ourselves.  We literally invent or create all of our thoughts
including those that we have about ourselves and with them our feelings
and behaviors.  To truly get our responsibility in how we create
our experiences or reality is to also get how we create or invent all
of our thoughts about ourselves and with it our reality.  Reality
itself has no meaning outside of what we give it.  We are, as
human beings, meaning making machines, beings that wrap meaning around
everything in our life, including and most importantly about
ourselves.  Being responsible for our thoughts, getting it that we
create them, is completely different from the experience of guilt or
blame.  It is not that we are to blame for our experiences but
merely that we do create what we think about ourselves, who we think we
are, how we feel about ourselves and how the world appears to us. 
There is a distinction between responsibility and blame or guilt.



What we tend to think about ourselves has at its core what can be
referred to as our self-limiting belief.  The self-limiting belief
is a thought that we have about who we think we are, that defines our
identity at its core, a belief that was developed between the ages of
three to six approximately.  During this time frame in our journey
through life something happened, an event took place and it is from
that event that we developed or created a thought or belief about
ourselves.  The original event is not so much of importance as the
fact that we created a belief about ourselves, a belief that has
actually limited us in life.  The self-limiting belief is a sense
of inadequacy, an idea or thought that something is wrong with us, that
something is broken.  Once this self-limiting belief is created or
invented we tend to live our lives as if it were true.  Our
self-limiting belief is a fundamental, core belief that we have about
ourselves, about who we think we are, that creates our feelings about
ourselves, affects our behavior and determines our experiences.



Our self-limiting belief affects our behavior in that we are constantly
trying to fix it.  For example, if ones self-limiting belief is
that the individual is ânot enoughâ, that person will constantly try to
be âenoughâ, constantly be doing things to compensate for what or who
they think they are.  While an individual is constantly attempting
to fix it, the self-limiting belief is also in the process of
fulfilling upon itself, of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, of
causing the person to be ânot enough.â  Given the fact that ones
self-limiting belief is hidden from them, from their view, we are not
aware of its existence or its affect on our life, of its influence or
impact on our life.  Even though it is not true, not real, we
believe it to be so and as a result the self limiting belief is that
which keeps us stuck, keeps us living in the past, prevents us from
living a life that we love and living it powerfully.  Our
self-limiting belief is in a very real sense our personal affirmation,
an affirmation that is embedded in our âself talkâ, an affirmation that
determines how we tend to feel about ourselves, an affirmation that
guides and determines our behavior in life, that defines our very way
of being and how we appear to the world.



The first goal of Transformational Counseling is to assist an
individual in becoming present to his or her self-limiting belief, of
bringing it into ones awareness.  It is this distinction or
awareness of ones self-limiting belief that is crucial to his or her
transformation.  Without such awareness ones future will be as it
has been, will be what can be referred to as the âprobable almost
certain futureâ.  Without such awareness, ones future will merely
be the past and even with a constant attempt on the individualâs part
to fix the self-limiting belief, his or her life will merely be to
continue with its fulfillment and actualization in their experiences
and life.  Awareness of ones self limiting belief can be gotten by
the person experiencing its genesis or the originating event and with
it the belief that the person invented or created about themselves at
that time.  An individual can also become present to the
self-limiting belief by monitoring his or her spoken word.  The
self-limiting belief exists in our language, in the words we say or
speak.  Mirror work will also facilitate this type of awareness as
ones self-limiting belief exists inside the feelings that one will
become present as the individual observes his or her image. 
Regression can also be utilized to assist one in getting the genesis of
his or her self-limiting
belief.               
 

      

Once one becomes present to his or her self-limiting belief, the
opportunity then exists, possibly for the first time in the personâs
life, to invent a possibility for his or her life, to begin to reinvent
his or her life anew.  An individualâs possibility is how that
person will be in the present, free of the constraints or barriers of
the past, a creation from nothing.  Within Transformational
Counseling, an individualâs possibility is a new or different way of
thinking about himself or herself, of who they are, of who they will
be.  Like the individualâs self-limiting belief, a personâs
possibility is a personal affirmation or declaration.  Like a
personâs self limiting belief, an individualâs possibility also exists
in language, and once generated by the individual, will begin to create
or invent his or her experiences and sense of reality through the power
of his or her thoughts and word.  Unlike a personâs self limiting
belief, an individualâs possibility will allow him or her to create a
life that they truly love and be able to live it
powerfully.        



The third component of Transformational Counseling has to do with the
individual learning what Landmark Education refers to as the process of
enrollment.  Given that a person will either live life as his or
her possibility or their self-limiting belief, there will be a tendency
for a person to go back to or stay in his or her self-limiting
belief.  This is what is very familiar to us, that is, being our
self-limiting belief in our daily life.  Learning the process of
enrollment will assist the individual in being able to get out of his
or her self-limiting belief and back into their possibility.  When
we have a breakdown, we have gone back into being our self-limiting
belief and as we do so will truly experience a loss of power, freedom
and full expression that is from the past.  It is in our
breakdowns that we are being inauthentic, that the self-limiting belief
becomes hidden again.  The process of enrollment allows the person
to become authentic about how he or she has been being inauthentic, to
again become present to his or her self-limiting belief, and in the
process to continue generating his or her possibility or invent a new
one for themselves and their life.   



The implementation or practice of Transformational Counseling with a
client takes place inside a conversation about integrity. 
Integrity is simply planning your work and working your plan. 
Clients are encouraged to develop a written plan, a plan for their
daily life.  A written plan allows the client to take on creating
or reinventing themselves and their life in a new way that supports
their wellness.  Implementing ones plan also allows them to
confront that which has always stopped them in the past.  As
clients begin the process of fulfilling on their plan, of working it,
of living the life that they desire, they will have a tendency to get
stopped, to have a breakdown and as they do so will develop an
inauthenticity, living life as they once did, from the backdrop of the
self-limiting belief.  It is in working with a client and his or
her plan through the enrollment process that he or she has the
opportunity to learn how to get out of their self-limiting belief and
back into their possibility and truly transform their life.  For
the client the process of enrollment is the practice of continuing to
experience a true sense of power, freedom and full
self-expression.  It is through staying in and working with ones
integrity that a person will have the opportunity to stay committed to
living a life that they love and living it
powerfully.           
 



The conversations that take place with a client are conducted within
the language used through my personal training and development with
Landmark Education.  These conversations are done so by
design.  While it is important for a client to begin to act and
behave differently, it is crucial that they begin to think differently
too.  The language used in Landmark Education is unfamiliar and
tends to create a space, at least initially, of confusion.  This
confusion acts as a pattern disruption for the client, causing him or
her to start to seriously question what is being said, the meaning of
the conversation.  It is through this confusion and questioning by
the client that they will have the opportunity to become present to
their very thought process, to that which has been the true cause in
the matter for them, to that which has been creating their experiences
and their sense of reality, especially as it applies to how they have
been thinking about themselves, the basis of how they have been being
and way of life.



As the client begins to live a life of transformation it is also
important that the counselor or coach be very present to the clientâs
tendency to acknowledge or thank them for their assistance.  As a
counselor or coach I let the client know that I can not fix or help
them, that they must do this work if they are to live a life that they
love and live it powerfully.  In my work with clients I make a
stand for the client to assume total and complete responsibility with
true empowerment as the goal.  To step over the client
acknowledging the coach or counselor is essentially the same as
encouraging a client to use a blame pattern.  As with blaming,
thanking another for this type of work does not allow the client to
truly get it that he or she is the cause in the matter and in both
instances the client will not experience his or her true sense of
power, freedom and full self expression.  The client is truly
responsible for transforming their life and it is vital to the process
that they get this completely.    



Transformational Counseling is an extremely powerful technique for
assisting others in making a true difference in their life.  For a
client it is a gradual awakening to that which has truly been the cause
in the matter, to that which has created and shaped their thoughts,
feelings, behavior, experiences and sense of reality.  To assist a
client in being able to stand in their possibility, of being the
possibility of âacceptance, freedom and creativityâ, as opposed to
their self-limiting belief, of being ânot enoughâ, will allow that
individual to live a life that they love and live it powerfully. 
When used in conjunction with other techniques, such as mirror work,
positive affirmations, therapeutic relaxation music, self-hypnosis and
NLP patterns, a space is created for a client to transform his or her
life forever.



In addition to learning the fundamental distinctions and process of
Transformational Counseling, it is also important for the counselor or
coach to have an experiential understanding of this technology. 
To truly make a stand for a client and be able to make a difference for
another will necessitate that the counselor have gotten his or her
self-limiting belief, have invented new possibilities for himself or
herself and also to have learned the process of enrollment.  Being
able to assist another in the process of transformation can only be
achieved when the counselor or coach is in his or her own personal
transformation.  For me this journey started when I enrolled in
the Landmark Forum.  It was through experiencing the Forum and the
curriculum that followed that the process of transformation began for
me as a counselor and more importantly as a human being.  Within
the conversation of transformation we are merely human beings assisting
other human beings to transform their lives, to live a life that they
love and to live it powerfully.      



Harry Henshaw, Ed. D., LMHC

http://www.enhancedhealing.com