Core Transformation Coaching:
Resolving Personal Issues Without Inner Struggle
Everyone has automatic thoughts, feelings, or behaviors they want to change. Trying to change with willpower alone often doesn’t work. That’s because these responses are unconscious. You don’t have to put on your to-do list to get stressed, or try to remember to do your bad habits. They just happen.
What if there was a method that worked at the unconscious level, to make change more automatic? Core Transformation offers this and more. Supported by research, this gentle step-by-step process combines the best of mindfulness, self-compassion, and deep transformation in one powerful package.
People who experience Core Transformation sometimes call it a “spiritual experience” because of the incredible, healing states they enjoy during the process. But you don’t have to have any spiritual beliefs to find benefit. And if you do, the process is deeply respectful of your beliefs, because all your answers come from within.
The results of doing Core Transformation repeatedly include an ongoing sense of well-being that can help us become more resilient even when life gives us challenges. Core Transformation doesn’t require us to endlessly revisit our past, but provides a way to move into a new and empowering future.
Core Transformation has worked for people with stress, nervousness, feeling down, anger, negativity, shame, and bad habits, as well as for losing weight, having better relationships, navigating health challenges, and much more.
What It Means to Be a Certified Core Transformation Coach
To become Certified as a Core Transformation Coach, I’ve studied with the developers of the Core Transformation method at Andreas NLP and completed their rigorous training program leading to certification.
The complete Core Transformation Coach Certification program includes 1) completing the Core Transformation Foundation Training, 2) completing the Advanced CT Training, followed by 3) the CT Coach Certification component. The CT Coach Certification training included in-depth training and practice in how to use CT with a wide range of situations and people. My training also included receiving feedback on my coaching from peers, mentors, and the trainers.
Core Transformation is a unique method of deep emotional healing. This allows me to help people transform their inner blocks to accomplishing their goals. Most coaches have access to a useful, yet limited palette of tools. Core Transformation adds the “missing piece” that helps us reach a successful outcome much more quickly and reliably.
Sample Case Study
By Connirae Andreas
“Ruth” had struggled with her weight for as long as she could remember. It had been a source of embarrassment for her as a teen-ager, and as an adult she found herself ashamed of the way she looked, and too self-conscious to go out with friends or to spend any time in public where she was certain people would stare at the body she felt was betraying her. She felt depressed and hopeless about the years of effort (and money) she had put into numerous diets and exercise programs, only to find that very few had any effect, and any positive results she did experience lasted for only a short time, with the weight she had let go of quickly coming back with a vengeance.
With the assistance of a Core Transformation-trained guide, Ruth found, to her surprise, that there was a positive intention behind the weight, an intention that the aspect of her that was “in charge” of hanging on to the weight was committed to.
“What do you want?” she quietly asked the part of her that generated the weight challenge, and then waited for a response from within. “The word that keeps coming to mind is ‘protection’,” she spoke up a moment later, as her guide slowly nodded her head. “Now,” her Core Transformation guide suggested, “invite that part of you to step into what it’s like to already have protection. . . . and when it’s there, ask this part of you ‘when you already have protection, what is it you want through having protection that’s even more important, even deeper.’” As Ruth followed the suggestions, her posture began to shift as a new level of relaxation moved through her. “I hear the word ‘safety’,” she responded. “Oh, my god, is it possible that this part of me is trying to help me feel safe?”
As the process continued, Ruth discovered that the part of her was seeking relaxation through the safety, and through relaxation, it wanted to be able to reach out to others; by reaching out to others, this part wanted to feel accepted, and through feeling accepted, it was looking for love. From love, this important part of her wanted to find peace, and through peace, wholeness.
Ruth continued the Core Transformation process, allowing the part of her to experience wholeness and to allow the wholeness to spread fully throughout her body.
She found, as a result, that her perspective shifted. By moving into the Core State (wholeness) she had been seeking all along, everything else began to change. Finally, she was able to bring the wholeness she had not thought possible into her whole life, filling the past, present, and even the future with this remarkable internal state that changed everything.
The part of Ruth that had been so committed to finding wholeness through protection, safety, relaxation, connection with others, acceptance, love, and peace had learned to simply step into that wholeness without all the interim steps it had struggled with for so long. A happy result (one of several for Ruth) was that weight began to come off with almost no effort. With no more need to hang on to it for protection and safety, her body was free to let go of what no longer belonged.
NOTE: While this example is about weight loss, the same basic principles apply to virtually any behavior, feeling, or thought that a person wants to change. We find that every behavior, feeling, or thought that we want to change has a positive intended purpose. We can discover the positive intention through a precise line of questioning. And as we continue the Core Transformation process, we reach a state that is at a “beingness” level. It might be called “wholeness,” “oneness,” “peace,” “love,” “presence,” or something else. It’s a profound sense of wellbeing that becomes the resource that allows us to easily change the original behavior, feeling, or thought that hadn’t been working for us.
(This example was shared with us by someone we trained in using Core Transformation. A version of this sample case study was originally published on CoreTransformation.org.)
Questions and Answers About Core Transformation Coaching
How is Core Transformation different from other change methods?
Here are some differences between CT and various other methods:
- It feels gentle and deeply compassionate to do the process.
- It doesn’t depend on internal struggle or will-power, so the change happens easily and naturally.
- It's effective at transforming virtually any kind of unwanted feeling, behavior, or thought pattern.
- In addition to changing our “problems,” it also results in an ongoing sense of increased wellbeing. So, for instance, it doesn't just remove stress to help us get back to neutral. It also produces a profound inner resource, a deep sense of wellbeing. A person may call it “tranquility” or “oneness” or something else. And this wellbeing can increasingly be present as a new way of living.
- CT’s results are backed up by research.
Does it work for everyone?
Nothing helps everyone. However, the approach I use, “Core Transformation,” works with an incredibly wide range of clients, with a well-trained guide. It can help almost everyone. Some very high quality research shows that CT results in both changing “symptoms” and increasing wellbeing.
How long does it take for someone to change?
This varies, by the person, and by the issue they want to change. Most clients notice some positive shifts in their experience, starting with the first session. Sometimes there are substantial shifts, even from one session. Others are dealing with more complex issues, which naturally take more persistence to resolve. Fortunately, even with tough problems, many people have reported that Core Transformation has finally helped them, after they had tried “everything else.”
What do you mean by ‘well-being’?
CT guides us in an inner exploration that reliably leads to states that may be called "beingness, wholeness, love, presence," and so on. This is a felt experience, not just a cognitive idea. People often describe this experience as "profound.”
In addition, CT is unique in that we not only access this wellbeing, we integrate it into our day-to-day living. So instead of just meditating to achieve a relaxed state that’s independent of our life challenges, we’re transforming those life difficulties, so that we respond more resourcefully.
Do you help people understand their problems better?
In certain ways, yes. However, the main result of CT is to transform the experience. You probably have noticed that some people understand their problem fully, and can describe why they have it and everything about it, yet the problem hasn’t changed. Many people believe if they could just understand their problem well enough, then surely it will change. However, the reality is that this typically doesn't work. So instead, Core Transformation changes the experience of the problem itself.
What do you actually do in your sessions? What’s the experience like?
First I ask a few questions to gather some information. Then I guide the client to explore their inner experience, in a way that’s gentle and precise. We engage the unconscious in the work, which is essential to get results, with any method. We use precise questioning to reach the deepest yearnings of our being, which we always find are positive, profound, and also transformative.
Is it possible for someone to use Core Transformation on their own?
Yes, I can provide “extra value” by giving my clients a script they can use for a self-practice, if this is appropriate for them.
Almost everyone has an easier and fuller experience of the process when they’re guided by someone else. This is especially true for someone who is new to CT, or someone who’s working with a tough issue. In addition, sometimes it’s tricky for an untrained person to find a good starting place for the process. However, after having experience with the method, many clients are able to work on their own in between sessions, and find this can really increase their progress.
Resources
©2021 Andreas NLP. Used with permission