ASE in coaching, therapy & counseling

ASE Licensed TrainerThe Authentic Self Empowerment (ASE) methodology provides coaches, therapists and counsellors with a holistic approach to healing the root of many psychological issues by focussing on both remedial change and generative transformation.

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This approach is useful in helping people deal with a vast range of life’s challenges because it is applied at the very core of the presenting issue. If required, ASE addresses the original emotional event(s) that has lead to the problem. ASE facilitates a context for personal growth that heals your past, empowers you in the present and enables you to create a compelling future.

The ASE methodology is effective at helping individuals to connect more fully with all levels of their intelligence and to resourcefully approach any type of dis-ease, distress, burnout, depression, unwanted emotional states, addiction, trauma, phobia, relationship problems, abuse and chronic sickness. Additionally, ASE can be used to help individuals find direction, clarify goals, connect with their core values, establish their life’s purpose and be intrinsically motivated by it.

 

ASE is trauma-informed

 

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
C.S. Lewis

Trauma is a fact of life – with devastating and debilitating effects, according to the psychiatrist and trauma researcher, Bessel van der Kolk (2015). Gabor Maté describes trauma as a disconnection from the authentic self, which is not necessarily the result of what happened to the person in the past, but the result of what is currently happening inside them (2022).

A trauma spectrum is referred to in the literature (E.G., Scaer, 2005 & Van der Kolk, 1998), based on the severity of the traumatisation, with some practitioners referring to severe trauma, such as the effects of war/terrorism, physical/sexual abuse, or disaster/devastation as big ‘T’ trauma; and the less severe types, such as the effects of interpersonal conflict, bullying, humiliation, or abrupt change, as small ‘t’ trauma. However, an accumulation of small ‘t’ events, including attachment and attunement problems in childhood, or adverse childhood experiences can amount to big ‘T’ traumatisation, understood as complex trauma (Boullier & Blair, 2018). Furthermore, the nervous system cannot always distinguish between an actual threat to physical safety, versus something relatively harmless that triggered an emotional reaction (Porges, 2011). For this reason, small ‘t’ trauma can have a similar effect as big ‘T’ trauma. Moreover, the nervous system of a trauma survivor may continue to react even when there is no immediate danger. This occurs because the brain and body have not yet found a way to process and let go of a traumatic event (Porges, 2011). Applied ASE does not distinguish between big ‘T’ and small ‘t’ trauma, but rather concerns itself with how the traumatic experience is currently affecting the client’s life.

ASE is a trauma-aware and non-pathologizing methodology that promotes healing beyond symptom relief. This is achieved through creating a safe and receptive space in which clients can more successfully anchor their awareness in the here-and-now while connecting with their vital energy, thereby helping traumatised clients to (re)-engage in the present. Van der Kolk (2015) asserts that for real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present. In addition to expanding perspectives, reframing understanding, reflecting on meaning, and inspiring new ideas and/or actions (top-down), applied ASE also involves somatic and embodiment (bottom-up) processes to support the release of blocked vital energy in the body and foster integration.

Unresolved trauma has no demographic boundaries and can be passed on from one generation to another – adversely affecting all sectors in society, including how we experience ourselves individually and our collective perception of reality (Siegel, 2020; Haines, 2019; Maté, 2022; Hübl, 2020). Due to the impact of trauma on the brain and body, as well as the pervasiveness of trauma across generations, ASE recognises that many, if not all, of the issues that clients present are the product of trauma.

A fundamental aspect of TCP involves fostering a healing relationship with the client, based on empathy, compassion and open awareness.

 

The origins & applications of ASE

 

Authentic Self Empowerment (ASE)

 

In this video Jevon Dängeli describes how ASE works (in 2008) while comparing it to NLP and Time-Line Therapy:

 

“In oneself lies the whole world, and if you know how to look and learn, then the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either that key or the door to open, except yourself”.
J. Krishnamurti

 

References:
Boullier, M., Blair, M. (2018)
. Adverse childhood experiences. Paediatrics and Child Health, Volume 28, Issue 3, pp. 132-137. doi.org/10.1016/j.paed.2017.12.008.
Haines, S.K. (2019)The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice. North Atlantic Books.
Hübl, T. (2020)Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. Sounds True.
Levine, P. (2010)
In an unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. North Atlantic Books.
Maté, G. (2022)The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture. Avery.
Porges, S. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. Norton & Company.
Scaer, R. (2005). The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Resiliency. W. W. Norton & Company.
Siegel, D. (2022)IntraConnected: MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging. W. W. Norton & Company.
Schwartz, R. (2021)No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model. Sounds True.
Van Der Kolk, B. (2015)The Body Keeps the Score. Penguin Random House.
Van der Kolk, B.A. (1988). The trauma spectrum: The interaction of biological and social events in the genesis of the trauma response. J. Traum. Stress, 1: 273-290. doi:10.1002/jts.2490010302
Vaughan Smith, J. (2019)Coaching and Trauma. Open University Press.

 

What are the Principles of Authentic Self Empowerment?

 

The Transpersonal Coaching Model

 

Authentic Self Empowerment Training & Retreats with Jevon Dängeli