Transformation is an ongoing process that tends to appear ordinary, when, in fact, something extraordinary is taking place.

Suzy Ross

The challenge, when defining transformational coaching, is communicate clearly the difference between “transformation” and “change,” as the magic happens within this narrow space.

Transformation is, by definition, a thorough or dramatic change in form or character—a “metamorphosis,” of sorts. We become something utterly different than we once were.

But although we change all the time—the way we look, our opinions, the way we feel, our actions and interactions, or even our behavior or our attitude—that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve been transformed.

The rain and the foot traffic at my favorite hiking spot in Southern Ohio changes the sandstone cave season by season, as does the work of young lovers carving their initials all over its surface. But it took something more to transform it into the cavernous gorge in the first place—it took great floods from the melt of the Wisconsin Glacier to flush away the soft middle layer between the hard capstone layers of Black Hand Sandstone that were deposited and created over millions of years by the Atlantic Ocean, creating the tunnels that eventually transformed into the gorges we now hike every year.

And now, what was once flat land is the rock-strewn foothills of the Appalachian Mountain Range—its entire shape and character dramatically altered forever.

You see, change and transformation are not one and the same.

Because, while all transformation is change, not all change is transformation.

Real, meaningful transformation, in our present culture, is unfortunately a relatively rare occurrence. Most people, looking back over their lives, can only identify, at best, perhaps two or three times they can honestly say they “transformed”—that they went through a period of thorough or dramatic change in form or character.

Transformational coaching is designed—for those who truly desire it—to help people RE|form their lives at the deepest levels, not just on the surface. To tunnel below mere behavioral modifications (what we DO) and carve out deep, lasting change at the character level (who we ARE).

We do this by taking advantage of difficult, formative experiences that naturally occur in life and engaging with them in an intentional way that allows YOU to determine how they ultimately transform you and your life.

So, let’s lay the groundwork: as I’ve alluded to, transformation is a process that involves the whole person and it happens in many “layers” over time.

As all the stuff of life happens, you are beginning to form, from a very early age, the patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that are to become the unconscious set of beliefs that shape your life. This “first formation,” if you will—not unlike the formation of sedentary rock over time—is in heavy production until sometime in your early 20s, creating the foundation of your character and identity.

But we know that even once rocks are formed, they don’t stay the same. There are forces that change them over time. That RE-form them. Rain. Wind. Waves. Heat. Ice. Current. Interaction with other elements. Glaciers melt and floods sweep away that which hasn’t hardened.

And the same is true for US.

Even after your critical stages of development end in those early to mid-20s, you are constantly experiencing this same re-formation throughout your entire life—shaped by the culture around you. The media. Social media. Your relationships. Your gendered experiences. Your racial and ethnic experiences. Your socioeconomics. And the way you experience your deepest emotions—fear, shame, grief, anger, and desire.

You cannot escape re-formation—no more than you can escape your “first formation.”

So, the question, then, is this:

Do you know what’s shaping you?

And do you like the change you see?

In order to do this, transformational coaching takes a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together the best of coaching theory, psychology, neurology, spirituality, and so much more.

THIS is the uniqueness of transformational coaching—because it embraces the elements of many different disciplines and philosophies it has the benefit of going beyond addressing mere performance or development to a deeper level where assumptions, beliefs, expectations, and attitudes all come together to be understood and challenged.

And as a result, Transformational Coaches can work with much more complex issues than other coaching models.

So how WOULD we, then, describe the framework for transformational coaching?

Transformational coaching is: