Quest

The Personal Web Site of Carl Pearson

Personal Development

Quest

The Personal Web Site of Carl Pearson


Home Personal Development T'ai Chi Mountain Quest Contacts

Lou Tice and the Pacific Institute


Lou was one of my first teachers in the field of personal development. He was a great story teller and teacher and I was sorry to learn he had died. No one was better at getting across the power of positive self talk, affirmation goal setting and personal self efficacy than Lou Tice. I still use many of the techniques that I first heard about at one of Lou’s Investment in Excellence Seminars. These days there are lots of people selling the methods and techniques of positive psychology few are anywhere near as convincing as Lou Tice. This is because Lou practiced what he taught for years. Authentic, in person he always spoke off the cuff with the same fluency he exhibited when you watched him on screen during one of his video based courses. I was very lucky to be able to bring Lou to Coventry and host him personally for these workshops. I still enjoy listening to the tapes from his seminars.


http://www.pac-inst.com


Group Process Work


I have long been an admirer of Arnold Mindell. He has continued to make original contributions from his first book, The Dreambody, to his latest Earth Based Psychology. He now mixes up a heady brew of shamanism, psychology, quantum physics, and mythology. It is all tied together with his own group process work theory and practice and a very Taoist approach to spirituality. He is one of the few contemporary writers to link work with individuals to work with groups, often conflicting groups, and also to develop this into a framework for wider social action through his concepts of “deep democracy” and world work. If we all don’t get absorbed into some kind of rational digital consensus consciousness, people are going to be discovering Arnie & his partner Amy Mindell’s work for years to come. It is brave, cutting edge, stimulating and too often ignored because it is not well understood and is not aimed at helping people make money through consumerism. As he is qouted as saying:


“I am still in love with the idea of nature and following the Tao seems to remain the haunting and romantic background to all I do.”


http://www.aamindell.net (Recently this link was not working)


Self Relations Work


Stephen Gilligan was one of the major students of Milton Erickson. He was also around at the beginning of NLP - he receives a personal dedication at the beginning of vol 2 of Structure of Magic. Soon after this he distanced himself from the NLP approach preferring to develop his work in the tradition of Ericksonian hypnotherapy. Later he developed his own approach, self relations work. I was curious to study with Stephen because his approach combined an appreciation of martial arts, Aikido, with an Ericksonian approach. From what I had read he had also looked for a different approach to NLP, something else that also interested me.


I have worked several times with Stephen over the last sixteen years and have found self relations work a great approach to working 1-1 with individuals. It draws on conscious and unconscious processes and requires the practitioner to recognise the field beyond personal consciousness as well as what is happening through the conversation and questioning that forms the basic level of interaction. The idea of sponsorship is profound and the attention given to developing the skill of the courage to love is  a route to powerful internal personal development. As Stephen once said to me:


“ May love be the skill and the Way.”


The following page on the web site provides a fuller guide to my experience of working with this wonderful approach.


In recent years Stephen has rekindled an effective working partnership with Robert Dilts, one of the most respected practitioners from the field of NLP. Their book and workshop, The Hero’s Journey is an excellent resource.


You can find out more on Stephen’s own web site.


http://www.stephengilligan.com