I recently received a question about confidentiality and ethical issues, which reminded me of some major differences that working with our Retooling-on-the-Run approach can offer. 

Most importantly, because of our emphasis on the non-verbal dimension of the bureaucracy of habits, there is much less need to know about the client's history.   

We handle confidentiality and ethical issues somewhat differently than normal because we deal with phenomena that are observable, by anyone.  We are looking for basic patterns and dynamics, not personal history.  

We are looking for the linkages and tipping points between an individual's goals, as expressed in words, and their nonverbal habits of action and response.  This is why we can offer very clear metrics along with transparent and practical translations into daily life.  

By working with everyday observables like how we move through space, the practitioner also reveals him or herself to the client. This thereby renders normal power politics and manipulation transparent and at the same time, demonstrates integrity and builds trust.

In our efforts to assist the client, we look for patterns that link the fundamental issues and dynamics they present to the Five Families/Rings model. 

Working with how they move through space, we can then help them find new responses and ways of organizing themselves for action and experience that open the way to attaining their goals.

Here is a recent example.

When asked how she would like others to respond to her differently, the client reported that she does not seem to get the respect she desires from higher echelon leaders.

Noticing that the client is reporting this using many emotionally-oriented words, I showed her a sitting version of the Wind conversation that asked her to simply turn her gaze from left to right with her arms moderately spread apart. 

Instead of simply rotating around her spine, she rocked from side to side by bending her spine. 

According to the language of movement, she performed a Wind movement (turning) in a Water way (bending). 

In other words, her nonverbal habits of thinking were mixed with feelings. 

In itself this is not a problem.  However, very few high echelon leaders, especially men, seem to consider thinking merged with feeling to be a source of strength.

Showing her that (1) she did in fact bend when she thought she was turning, and (2) how to turn without bending produced a radical shift in her balance, posture, presence and her voice.

All of a sudden, a criticism that she has endured for many years now made simple, obvious, and non - judgmental sense.  

Whenever she suspected or felt that she was not being viewed as she wanted to be — all she needed to do was pick up her hands and gesture side to side with her gaze — thereby demonstrating her rational attitude.  

And, she immediately realized, doing so did not produce the experience that she was suppressing herself in order to do so.  

I knew nothing about the circumstances of her life, nor did I need to.  My questioning was to reveal patterns that linked actions and consequences with non-verbal habits of movement.  

And what we worked with were archetypal human patterns, not ones that were uniquely and historically her own.

"As long as one prefers one's separate truth,
the deep and profound connection to all of human life
is closed or distorted."