Jungian Coaching (Part 2)

In this blog series, I answer a few questions I was asked by my colleague Gauri Ramesh about Jungian Coaching. Gauri is the Certificate Program Coordinator at Jung Platform and wondered if I could say a little bit more about Jungian Coaching. 

What does taking a Jungian perspective on life coaching entail?

When we take a Jungian view on coaching, we put the individuation process at the heart of it. Generally speaking, when facing difficulties we usually want to get rid of our suffering. We want to overcome fear or to get unstuck from an unwanted situation. A Jungian question would be: Why might the psyche have created this particular difficulty on my path? What function does it serve? And how does it relate to the innate tendency to wholeness?

In Jungian life coaching we focus on developing a conscious relationship with the challenges we find on our path. One way of looking at our problems is that they serve as an initiation rite into the depth of our being? What our clients initially experience as obstacles might turn out to be signposts; they are letting us know what direction to go into next.

Taking on this perspective in life coaching, means that we see difficulties as means through which our clients individuate. It is not the objective to eradicate obstacles, but to engage with them. Questions a Jungian coach may ask a client:

• What inner state, feelings and thoughts are being triggered by the challenge?
• What old belief, idea or feeling is brought to the surface by this challenge?
• Is there an unmet need that is expressing itself through this challenge?
• Who are you invited to become? What new skills and fresh attitudes are you asked to develop? 

Developing a conscious relationship to difficulties and seeing them as initiations, is where Jungian coaching is different from other types of life coaching. Rather than being mere roadblocks that we need to overcome, difficulties can be teachers on our life path. They help us live the life that is authentically ours.

Can you give an example of a client?

Sarah came to me feeling torn about a recent breakup. Though her two-year relationship had already ended, she doubted the decision. She wasn’t happy with him, but she couldn’t shake the thought that she should have done more. If only she worked harder, made him happier… She felt inadequate, and stuck in a loop of self-doubt that left her questioning both the relationship and herself.

As we talked, a familiar theme emerged: Sarah carried a deep belief that she wasn’t good enough. This belief wasn’t new; it had roots in her childhood. Her parents fought often before their eventual separation. As a child, she felt caught in the middle. Home didn’t feel safe or comforting, yet she also felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility to fix things. She tried to mediate their arguments, constantly wondering if she could have done something differently to keep the family together.

This pattern of feeling overly responsible had resurfaced in her relationship. In both situations, Sarah’s unmet need was the same: to feel a sense of belonging and emotional safety. But instead of tending to her own needs, she had poured her energy into trying to make her partner happy. Just like she had tried to soothe her parents. Over time, this coping strategy of compliance (and putting others first) had left her disconnected from herself.

Through our work together, Sarah began to see the cost of this pattern. She realized that by focusing so much on her partner’s needs, she had ignored her own. The breakup, painful as it was, became a doorway to a deeper understanding of herself. It was an invitation to let go of the impossible task of fixing others and to find worth within. Her self-worth, she came to see, wasn’t something she needed to earn by pleasing others.

Photography became an anchor in this new chapter. Sarah had always enjoyed capturing the world through her lens. She had often worried about whether her perspective would measure up to others’ expectations. Now, she began to trust her natural impulses, following them without second-guessing herself. Her unique vision caught the attention of a teacher, who encouraged her to display her work in a gallery. 

The breakup, which had initially left Sarah questioning everything, ultimately led her to reclaim her sense of self. She discovered that belonging starts from within and that she was ‘good enough’. By embracing her limits, and accepting that she couldn’t fix others, she found a new kind of freedom. This was a freedom to care for her own needs and to trust in the worth of her own perspective.

In our last session, we reflected on her journey and she observed a pattern. When growing up, she had witnessed martyrdom in her mother and grandmother. In our coaching this presence of the Martyr archetype had begun to fade. She had consciously let go of the behaviors that were no longer serving her. By letting go, she made room for a new expression of the Mother archetype. Her new attitude to life included self-nurturing and care for herself and others. 

I’ve developed a coaching model and several tools that take key Jungian concepts into account. In this four-class course I explain the model, provide examples and offer a few tools people can easily apply in their coaching. To learn more & sign up, click HERE. 

In the Certificate Program, we dive into the depths of Jungian Coaching. We put the soul at the center of the coaching. We reflect on key concepts in Jungian psychology and apply them in conversations. Apart from shadow work, we work with the imagination, dreams, and mythology. These skills are necessary for sparking the individuation process of our clients. Deep transformation may happen. To learn more & sign up, click HERE.