Level 1: Foundations of Unfoldment
Whether you are a new or experienced coach, increasing your skill and deepening your development as a coach at Aletheia starts with the Advanced Coaching Program Level 1.
Aletheia Coaching is a Presence-based approach to coaching that integrates scientifically proven methods for generating lasting transformation. Aletheia Coaching is the art of navigating inner worlds to uncover innate resourcefulness, creativity, and genius, opening fresh ways to respond more skillfully to the complexity and challenges of life.
“When people ask me which coach training I recommend, I immediately point them to Steve March’s cutting-edge Aletheia Coaching. It has brought considerable depth to my coaching and is perfectly suited to our complex, uncertain times. ”
Here is a detailed summary of what you will learn in Level 1 session-by-session. We’ve also included some testimonials from Level 1 graduates.
The bottom of this page answers frequently asked questions. Feel free to contact us with any additional questions.
session 1: The core principle of unfolding
This session starts with a brief history of Aletheia Coaching. We make the crucial distinction between self-improvement and self-unfoldment and explore the unique value of unfoldment for navigating the complexity of our times. We introduce the fundamental attunement of loving Truth, Beauty, and Goodness for its own sake and the paradoxical principle of Letting Be and Letting Unfold as keys to begin to leverage the natural emergence arising from the complexity we face. Development is explored as a dance of work and Grace. Your homework is to uncover how this shifts your orientation to your own development and what starts to unfold as you put the fundamental attunement and core principle into practice. We will also introduce and invite you to start to practice specific somatic practices several times per week throughout the course. You will meet with a practice partner to do related exercises and discuss what is unfolding.
“Life is an ever-deepening and unfolding journey. So is a coaching engagement. Unfolding requires the coach and client to work with exactly what is arising in the present moment as it is arising. It is a dance of work and Grace that requires the coach and client to trust that what is arising in the present moment is exactly what to work with.”
session 2: The view and the method
Every coaching approach assumes a view of what a human being is, whether they make that explicit or not, and offers a method based on that view. In this session, we introduce the view and method of Aletheia Coaching. Our view includes an understanding of ego formation based on an understanding of childhood development. Further, our view includes an understanding of ego transformation based on adult development, including psychology and timeless wisdom from various spiritual traditions. This view is called The Four Depths of Cosmos, Psyche, and Soma: Parts, Process, Presence, and Nonduality. Then, we introduce the basic method of Aletheia Coaching called The Three Gestures: Inquiring, Unfolding, and Enacting. Each of these gestures has a specific expression in each of the Four Depths. This session introduces the core practices of Feeling-Saying and Tracking-Contacting. During this session, you will also be given a guided meditation to explore this view in your own experience. Your homework is to practice Feeling-Saying and Tracking-Contacting in a coaching conversation with your practice partner.
“The Aletheia Coaching methodology weaves together multiple modalities and schools of thought to support human beauty and potential. Personally, the practices with Parts, Process, and Presence provided a unique, deeper self-awareness and, more importantly, increased self-leadership. Steve uses the word ‘unfoldment’ and after several months, one feels what it means to live in such a state of acceptance, grace and joy.”
Session 3: Working with protector parts
You will learn the fundamentals of Parts Work in this session. We will demonstrate how to listen for and identify Parts by noticing reactivity, separation, avoidance, attachment, and self-deficiency. We also explore how all Parts have good intentions yet typically produce unintended negative side effects. Further, Parts are a case of mistaken identity. You will learn how to help your clients identify their Parts. Then, you will learn how to help them disidentify from their Parts and relate to them in a radically accepting way from Presence. This creates the psychological safety necessary for deepening unfoldment. You will learn how to relate and converse with Parts from Presence in a way that they feel seen, understood, loved, and valued exactly as they are. Have you ever felt really seen by someone else? Perhaps a friend or a lover? When we feel seen, something in us melts and releases. And that’s what happens when our Parts feel seen. They spontaneously soften, melt, relax, and release. This can usher the coaching conversation seamlessly into Process Work and/or Presence Work, where clients find themselves more deeply resourced for addressing their current challenges. In this session, you will also learn how this coaching style leverages neuroplasticity and memory re-consolidation to create sustained change and transformation using micro-practices. Your homework will be to practice identifying your own Parts, disidentifying from them, and accepting them from Presence. And you will also practice helping your partner do the same in a coaching conversation.
““A part is not just a temporary emotional state or habitual thought pattern. Instead, it is a discrete and autonomous mental system that has an idiosyncratic range of emotion, style of expression, set of abilities, desires, and view of the world. In other words, it is as if we each contain a society of people, each of whom is at a different age and has different interests, talents, and temperaments.”
Session 4: working with hurt parts
Building on the practices learned in Session 3, you will learn how to work with the Parts that feel hurt. You will learn how to help your clients find, contact, and unfold their Hurt Parts through acceptance, love, and compassion. As this happens, you and your clients discover that Hurt Parts aren’t only hurt. In fact, they are wonderfully sensitive and wise and provide a channel for rediscovering innate resourcefulness, creativity, resilience, playfulness, and genius. Your homework will be to practice Parts Work with your partner in a coaching conversation.
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
Session 5: working with inner critic constellations
Parts Work offers a very skillful way to work with Inner Critic Parts. First, we must recognize that there are at least two Parts in a critic constellation: 1) the Critical Part and 2) the Criticized Part. We typically identify with the latter one and feel criticized as if from the outside. We will apply what we have been learning about unfolding Parts and learn a powerful way to shift our relationship with Inner Critic Parts to create more freedom to be ourselves. And, of course, you will learn how to help your clients do the same. Your homework will be to help your practice partner with their Inner Critic Part(s), and they will help you with yours. Nearly every coaching engagement requires, at one point or another, that you work skillfully with the client’s Inner Critic Parts. After practicing what you learn in this session, you will approach that work with confidence.
“In Level 1, I deepened my ability to trust what is coming up in the present moment, both personally and as a coach. I have learned how to relax and let coaching sessions unfold. I am now more comfortable and skillful coaching across different depths of experience. Aletheia Coaching is particularly useful in these dynamic and challenging times where the client’s world can dramatically change from one coaching session to the next.”
Session 6: working with polarizations
Sooner or later, we all feel stuck in a seemingly unresolvable way. Perhaps there is a Part of you that says, “Leave this job now before it kills you!” and another Part that says, “Do whatever it takes to keep this job. You can’t afford to be unemployed right now.” We feel stuck because we get that both Parts are trying to be helpful, both have good intentions, and we don’t know what to do. These Parts are pulling in opposite directions as if they are in a tug of war with each other. Such a constellation of Parts is called a Polarization. Polarizations produce a lot of suffering, and we all have them. Parts Work excels at unlocking Polarizations. You will learn how to help your clients defuse the tension in a polarized constellation, discover untapped innate resources, and open creative possibilities to address the complexities of life that remain hidden by the high tension and stress of Polarizations. Your homework will be to help your practice partner work through a polarized constellation they experience. And, of course, they will help you with one of your polarized constellations.
“When a client is really stuck, the cause is usually a polarization.”
Session 7: working with process
In this session, you will learn the fundamentals of Process Work. As Parts feel seen, they soften and melt. There is more flow of life process within us. You will learn how to access this flow of aliveness through bodily felt senses and imaginal felt images and how to use the understanding arising from your felt experiences to navigate complexity. You will learn how to help your clients contact felt senses, be with them from Presence, and uncover their meaning. You will learn how to start a coaching conversation without an issue and follow a thread of deepening unfoldment. You will also learn how to create Process-centered integrating experiments for your clients that leverage neuroplasticity to crystalize transformation. Your homework will be to practice Process Work with your practice partner, shifting into Parts Work where appropriate. Learning how to integrate Parts Work with Process Work will give you a robust coaching method for skillfully navigating anything that arises in coaching conversations.
“You can have lots of feelings and have the same feelings over and over again. It isn’t the recognizable feelings that make so much difference. It is sensing the edge, the unclear, what you don’t recognize, but it is there, the bodily discomfort that the problem makes, which has meaning; it has its own peculiar quality, implicity, it is complex, it has in it everything that relates to that problem, but not in a way you can say.”
Session 8: working with presence and absence
Continuing deeper, in this session, we will distinguish Absence and Presence. We will explore how Parts believe that you are deficient in a fundamental way and how relating to Parts from Presence catalyzes the unfoldment of sufficiency and resourcefulness. We will start to distinguish Wholeness as holographic, meaning that every part expresses the whole, and explore how that allows us to work with what is arising as a path to remembering our innate Wholeness. We will introduce Presence Work as a practice to demonstrate this in your experience. We will begin to explore how Presence has many qualities, such as Trust, Love, Value, Strength, Knowingness, Will, Joy, Passion, Peace, etc. (This is an introduction to what is covered more fully in Level 2.) We will introduce a new way to start a coaching conversation called “sitting in the middle of everything.” Your homework will be to support your practice partner in sitting in the middle of everything, supporting their unfoldment through Parts Work, Process Work, and Presence Work as appropriate.
“The Advanced Coaching Program Level 1 has been a major help in deepening and integrating previously held knowledge about Parts Work and Focusing. This is proving super helpful both in my own personal development and growth and in my work with clients. A much appreciated gift!”
Session 9: working with Horizontal and vertical threads
Horizontal or historical threads are recurring issues and challenges we experience throughout life. For example, some clients keep getting into the same kinds of unworkable relationships over and over again. Such recurring issues signal that critical vertical unfolding hasn’t yet occurred. In this session, you will learn how to find and follow vertical threads to support your clients' deepening unfoldment and end related recurring issues. Your homework will be to help your practice partner identify horizontal threads and shift into the vertical unfoldment they reveal. Through this, you will be integrating what you have learned in the course thus far about practicing Parts Work, Process Work, and Presence Work.
“Presence is an intelligent, luminous, self-aware medium that knows itself by being itself. Presence is not known by the mind; it is actually the source of the mind.”
session 10: Working Flexibly and The Nine Integrating Focuses
In this session, you will learn how to use the method more flexibly and how the focus of attention and energy shifts across both coaching engagements and within coaching conversations through nine integrating focuses. You will learn how to spot how clients get stuck in certain patterns of focus, endlessly re-assessing the situation, trying to improve behaviors, or in self-help patterns that ultimately undermine their efforts. You will learn how to shift the focus of attention through coaching conversations to help clients get unstuck, focus on unfolding, and integrate what unfolds.
“The primary job of a developmental coach is to help their clients find the unexplored vertical thread of unfoldment driving the string of recurring issues throughout their life.”
session 11: structuring coaching engagements
The previous sessions introduced the fundamentals of unfolding, which are the core practice of every coaching conversation. Now, it is time to introduce a larger context - the coaching engagement, which spans many coaching conversations. We will explore two types of engagements - time-limited contracts and ongoing coaching relationships. We will also explore the similarities and differences between coaching and psychotherapy. Your homework is to continue coaching your partner and deepening your integration.
““Over the last eight years I’ve explored and practiced a number of transformational coaching modalities. I really like the multi-level integrated approach in Aletheia Coaching. It allows great versatility to move through a range of depths to meet the client exactly where they are in their developmental journey. The training Steve has put together is well researched, comprehensive, and tested. What’s more, I have found Steve to be an excellent and supportive teacher.”
session 12: Three kinds of coaching
Within the field of coaching, broadly speaking, there are three kinds of coaching: 1) coaching for behavior change, 2) coaching for building competency, and 3) coaching for self-development. In this session, we explore how to perform each kind of coaching powerfully using the Aletheia Coaching methodology.
Being a skillful coach requires both the skill of applying methods and deep development as a human being. Indeed, the depth of your own development limits the depth you can go to with your clients. In this session, we also explore the ongoing path of deepening development offered through our practice of Parts Work, Process Work, Presence Work, and Nondual Work in Aletheia and overview what will come in Level 2 and Group Coaching Supervision.
Participating in Level 1 can be a profound and life-changing experience, both for you as a coach and also for you as a human being navigating a complex world. You will leave the course equipped with an advanced next-generation methodology that is well-suited for these complex and challenging times and a new horizon of possibility for your own future development.
“I feel like Aletheia Coaching has given me a magic wand. My clients are constantly amazed at the power of the method. I am constantly amazed by the ease of the method.”
FAQ
Is this program for beginner coaches?
Yes! The Advanced Coaching Program offers a cutting-edge methodology. New coaches can start their coaching careers by learning to practice one of the most advanced and comprehensive coaching methods currently available. There is no pre-requisite for Level 1. However, everyone must apply and be accepted into the program to participate.
Is this program for experienced coaches?
Yes! The Advanced Coaching Program offers a next-generation methodology. Coaches with experience can also benefit from learning to practice this advanced method, up-leveling their skills and deepening their development. We regularly have coaches in Level 1 who have 5, 10, or even 15+ years of experience and are amazed at this approach's freshness, breadth, and depth. Since Aletheia Coaching is a next-generation approach, even experienced coaches can benefit.
What is the structure of Level 1?
Level 1 is an eight-month online program that includes:
Twelve 2-hour live sessions, which include teaching, practice, demonstration, and discussion
Practice partner work between each session
Three hours of private mentoring
500+ pages of course materials + ~20 hours of video lectures and recorded demonstrations
What is the cost of Level 1?
The fee for this course is $3,599 USD, which can be paid either in full or via an 8-month installment plan.
Additional coaching sessions with faculty are available for a fee. If you are interested, contact your course faculty for availability and fees.
When does the next Level 1 cohort start?
Please review the schedule for the next cohort session dates and application deadlines. We launch a new Level 1 cohort approximately every 4-6 months.
What time of day are the sessions held?
Each cohort is offered in two sections (10 AM-Noon and 4-6 PM Pacific), allowing participation from around the world in different time zones. A typical Level 1 cohort will include people from Asia, Australia, North America, and Europe.
How large are the cohorts?
The cohorts typically consist of 50-60 people. Because the sessions are held in two sections, a typical call is attended by 25-30 people.
You will be assigned to a Home Group of about 8 people, which you will meet five times during the course. You will get to know the others in your home group more deeply than the rest of the cohort.
what is the time commitment of level 1?
The typical time commitment is ~5 hours per week during the course. This time is spent preparing for online sessions by watching video lectures, participating in online sessions, doing self and group practices, and studying materials.
what if I need to miss a session?
We ask that you do your best to attend each session live. However, sometimes, you may need to miss a session. All sessions are video recorded. If you can’t attend in person, you can catch up on your own time by watching the video.
When will I be able to start applying this approach with private coaching clients?
In Level 1, you will practice coaching with practice partners. You are not yet required to practice Aletheia Coaching with private coaching clients. If you are new to coaching, we recommend completing Level 1 before you take on private coaching clients. When you take this step, we recommend starting with no more than three clients. In Level 2, you are required to take on private coaching clients and are provided with supportive group coaching supervision.
Of course, many participants in Level 1 are already certified coaches in practice. Given your experience, you can use your own discretion about when you feel confident enough to apply this method. Aletheia Coaching can be integrated with other coaching approaches in complementary ways. Experienced coaches often start to apply what they are learning with clients as early as Session 3 or 4.
“I find it remarkable that I can confidently coach after Level 1 starting from not knowing anything about the coaching world. The depth and breadth of the Aletheia methodology enables me to have extraordinary conversations with my clients where not only do they have their day-to-day difficulties resolved, they see themselves tangibly developing as human beings. ”
What’s next after Level 1?
Each level of the Advanced Coaching Program teaches a different approach to unfolding through The Four Depths. By covering the same territory from new angles, your development deepens, your understanding becomes enriched, and you develop greater flexibility and mastery as a coach.
In Level 1, you learn about the views and methods of Aletheia Coaching. To this, Level 2 adds wisdom. You will learn how to realize and embody ten Qualities of Presence. Presence is the catalyst for all unfolding. The more your coaching conversations are Presence-centered, the more powerful they will be. In Level 2, you will learn how to practice Parts Work, Process Work, and Presence Work somatically using Aletheia Breathwork and release of emotional armoring. Aletheia Breathwork is a powerful style of somatic practice that can be used virtually with coaching clients, a great advantage in today’s world, where nearly all coaching happens virtually.
Levels 3 and 4 usher you in the Depth of Nondual Presence. You will learn how to practice several styles of Nondual Work and how to support your clients through their spiritual journey.
The Advanced Coaching Program offers a unique and comprehensive path toward coaching mastery. We don’t know of another coach training program offering anything of comparable span, depth, or power. Aletheia Coaching's potency will enable you to distinguish and differentiate your coaching offer. Its spaciousness and flexibility will also enable you to find and express your own voice as a coach with more ease and effectiveness.