An Introduction to Integral Coaching

Transcending and Including our Current Way of Being: 
An Introduction to Integral Coaching® 
 
Joanne Hunt

 
ABSTRACT This article provides an introduction to the Integral Coaching® method developed by
Joanne Hunt and Laura Divine, founders of Integral Coaching Canada, Inc. A brief introduction to
the field of coaching is offered using the four quadrants to appreciate the underlying assumptions
of how change occurs and therefore, how schools of coaching have approached this rapidly
growing field of adult development. Further delineation of Integral Coaching Canada’s use of
subject-object theory and a “transcend and include” developmental model is provided and resides
at the root of this school’s truly AQAL approach to change. Included are the necessary steps of
working with a client’s Current Way of Being, the strength of its identity, horizontal capacities
and inherent limits, as well as the client’s emerging future—a transcending and including New
Way of Being that better supports a client’s desires, intentions, and response to the call that he or
she uniquely hears.

Evolution of the Field of Coaching  

Throughout human history, we have sought out people to assist us in our quests to grow,
develop, and bring about change: shamans, elders, teachers, spiritual leaders, experts,
consultants, therapists, mentors. In the last twenty years, professional coaches have stepped into
this powerful and poignant niche of need and yearning to provide new ways of supporting human
growth. As the demands of modern life become increasingly complex, many are turning to
coaches to address suffering inherent in the dissonance between how we are and how we want to
be in our personal and/or professional lives. Right now, all across the world, people are being
coached on topics as wide ranging as enhancing strategic planning skills, working more skilfully
with others, living an authentic life, eating healthfully, becoming a better parent, attending more
mindfully to body and spirit, saying no to requests from others, and so on. This proliferation
brings both an exciting momentum to the field and the need for a steady frame of reference to
understand and evaluate coaching methodologies. In this article, I will leverage the rich depth
and breadth of Integral Theory for this purpose, as well as outline its rigorous and artful
application in our Integral Coaching® work. First I will examine the arising of the discipline of
professional coaching including the development of formal coach training programs. I will then
provide an introduction to Integral Coaching Canada’s method and process for working with
human beings through an Integral frame. 
 
Prior to the 1980’s, most people used the term “coach” to refer to a role in the field of human
performance, specifically the field of athletics. During the 1980’s, coaching moved outside the
boundary of sports and into the broader field of human potential primarily in organizational
settings. Companies were actively seeking ways to accelerate and advance human performance.
Change was occurring at faster and faster rates, and with this came a need to find better ways for
people to not only meet the challenges but to develop themselves. Leaders were called to
increase their capacities to delegate, manage, and prioritize while simultaneously balancing the
demands associated with the advent of modern technology, globalization, and multicultural
teams located in different countries. Professional coaching became a development modality that
effectively met more complex needs and provided reliable and confidential executive support.
Further, coaching emerged as a legitimate profession beyond the field of athletics. As these early
years unfolded, business cards declaring one as a “Professional” or “Executive” coach sprouted
up routinely and people sincerely offered their expertise working with business leaders and
managers. Despite this surge in mainstream popularity, formal coach training programs were still
in their infancy and not well recognized by the client population.
 
In the early 1990’s, formal coach training courses progressed into professional certification
programs. And over the last fifteen years, the field of professional coaching has continued to
grow rapidly including coaching services, coach training, and coach accreditation. Today
coaching services support just about any field imaginable: life coaching, career coaching,
performance coaching, executive coaching, parent coaching, relationship coaching, and peer
coaching, to name a few. As coaching’s forms of service and modes of training have expanded,
the essence of all offerings and training programs remained relatively the same: To support
change and development in a person’s life. What differs amongst coaching schools and
approaches, however, are their underlying views about what it actually takes for change to occur.
In this article, I will use Integral Theory as a powerful framework for understanding these
diverse views.
 
Laura and I have been active participants in the coaching field since the late 1980’s - initially as
executives working inside large corporations each receiving coaching, attending coach training
courses, and coaching others. We have been exposed to and trained in various coaching
approaches over these decades and are Master Certified Coaches accredited by the International
Coach Federation. Coincident with our coaching immersion, we have studied Ken Wilber’s work
since the late 1980’s and been engaged in our own personal development paths for even longer.
Throughout our careers, we continued to hold deep inquiry regarding what it actually takes for
change to occur and also be sustained in a person’s life. We began to feel a palpable tension
between existing models of coaching and what we were experiencing through our own coaching
work. As much as we could appreciate the value of various coaching approaches that we had
been exposed to and used, they seemed incomplete and partial. We wanted to include and
transcend the traditional modes of coaching into a more Integral, sustainable, and powerful
approach. From this space between what we envisioned and the current modes of coaching
available arose a profound call to develop a truly Integral model. Thus, we brought together each
of our histories in various change management modalities, went to the root of Integral Theory,
and developed our own coaching approach from the ground up. We called it Integral Coaching®. 
 
Our approach is sourced by an “include and transcend” developmental model as described by
Ken Wilber1 and Robert Kegan2. It also utilizes the other components (or elements) of Wilber’s
Integral approach, including coaching-specific models that illuminate quadrants, levels, lines,
states, and types. These AQAL (all-quadrants, all-levels, all-lines, all-states, and all-types)
models form the primary lenses through which our coaches come to know and appreciate their
clients’ unique worlds. Finally, our Integral Coaching® approach also draws upon the wisdom
and compassion we have gleaned through our own unique life journeys. 
 
The first section of this article depicts how the four quadrant model distinguishes multiple views
regarding the requirements necessary for change to occur and how these views shape the role of
the coach. Next, this article moves into its primary focus—to provide the reader with a
comprehensive overview or map of our Integral Coaching® approach. This article also sets the
context and foundation for each of the subsequent articles contained in this JITP issue. 
 

Belief Structures Underlying Human Change

At its core, coaching is about change, bringing about change, sustaining change, and nurturing
change as we develop over time into fuller and freer versions of ourselves. It is from this root
intention of supporting change that coaching schools started to arise. And, as is the case in any
profession, these schools arose with diverse views as to how human change actually occurs. 
 
Whether realized or not, coaching schools have underlying belief structures regarding change.
This includes both how change is approached and how it is sustained in clients. In other words,
coaching schools, unconsciously or consciously, have a view of how people grow, integrate, and
maintain anything “new” in their lives. 
 
An examination of perspectives on human development and change is well-served by the four
quadrants component of the Integral (or AQAL) approach. It offers a powerful way to map the
various beliefs about how to enable change in a human being’s life. Similar to Wilber mapping
various therapeutic approaches in the field of psychology3 using the four quadrants, we will use
the quadrants to locate the key perspectives held by various coaching schools. As is the case with
any perspective, it shapes what a coach and client do and do not attend to or focus on during
coaching sessions. It shapes the roles and the dynamic of the coaching relationship. It shapes
what is looked for to discern if the desired progress has actually been made. And it shapes the
actual method or approach that is used to provide coaching services. While each school sincerely
brings forth their earnest comprehension of what it takes to bring about change in the prospective
coaches and clients whom they serve, we have found that many approaches are partial.
Typically, only one or two quadrants are focused on or privileged in a single coaching school.
Figure 1 provides perspectives of change subscribed to by various coaching schools.
 
My intent in this article is not to provide specific critiques of particular coaching schools. Rather,
it is to provide a map that serves two functions. The first is to provide the reader with a way to
examine their own views regarding what it really takes to bring about and sustain change, and
the second is to provide a means to appreciate and distinguish what is included (and not) in any
given coaching approach. I recommend that when reading through this section, the reader notice
their own preferences and biases as well as considering what quadrants are included (or not) in
the various coaching approaches with which the reader is familiar. 

 
A school that approaches change from the Upper-Left perspective believes that change occurs
through bringing what is unconscious or in the client’s inner world into the conscious light, that
answers reside in the deep wisdom that resides within each of us. Gaining access to this inherent
inner knowledge and then following its guidance is how schools operating from this perspective view change. Stemming from this belief is a coaching approach that focuses on enabling clients
to access their interior wisdom, learning to hear it, trust it, and give it voice. 
 
The coach’s role in this approach is to enable clients to reveal, unfurl, and connect to their own
deeper beliefs, truths, and intelligences. Coaches hold the space and ask questions that open the
client to their inner consciousness and potentially to a consciousness beyond the self. This
requires the coach to refrain from offering their perspectives as this would unduly influence the
client in ways that counter the fundamental belief of this coaching approach. While clients build
capacities such as deep internal wisdom, cognitive perspective-taking, and emotional
understanding, they do not necessarily translate these interior capabilities to efficacy in their
lives. In our view, the phenomenological roots of this coaching approach emphasize dimensions
that are necessary to bring about and sustain change—inner awareness, reflection, and a more
deeply sourced wisdom—but without attention to the other quadrants, it is incomplete,
insufficient, and partial. 
 
Schools that approach change from the Upper- Right perspective hold a belief that change occurs
through taking deliberate action. No action, no result, no change. According to this view, change
comes about by shifting what we physically do, how we behave, and how we speak. This
behaviourism-based approach to change asserts that what we do shapes who we are. The
strongest enablers of change from the perspective of this coaching approach are measurable
actions, breakthrough results, stretch goals, and getting things done. 

The coach’s role is to help the client do just that: set behavioural goals, build action plans, and
hold the client accountable to carrying out each step. Through motivation and/or challenge -
carrot or stick - the coach’s job is to get the client to accomplish the steps in their plan and
achieve their stated goals. Clients gain strength and confidence when they get things done that
they have never before been able to do. In our experience, clients coached from this perspective
truly can experience substantial accomplishment but they often become reliant on the coach’s
enthusiasm, motivating support, and action-planning capabilities versus building that self-
sustaining competency within. We agree that the Upper-Right coaching model leverages an
important component of sustaining change—taking action, developing new behaviours,
demonstrating added skills, and achieving new results—but in isolation, it is partial.
 
Schools that approach coaching from a Lower-Left perspective are rooted in the belief that
change is sparked by the interaction and shared meaning-making between individuals. They
believe that conversation and the shared intersubjective understanding that naturally occurs in a
conversational space gives rise to new thoughts and ideas that would not be possible alone.
Grounded in hermeneutics, this Lower-Left approach believes that change does not occur until
we are exposed to language that evokes a break, a crack, or a disruption in our own construct of
meaning. This approach calls for the voice of an “other,” or the coach, so that through
conversation the power of language can shift a client’s view of reality. This approach holds the
coach’s role as being a conversational partner with the client, a “thinking partner” bringing
forward new perspectives that are intended to serve as catalysts towards new client insights. The
coach is also fully present with the client and stays attuned to follow threads that spontaneously
arise. This approach advances both the client’s access to new ways of seeing as well as their
capacity to be intimate while enjoying emergent conversation. Yet there is a risk of the client
being unable to embody what he or she can so richly talk about. In our experience, the Lower-
Left coaching model allows for key elements of human development—the capacity for shared
meaning, intimacy, unique expression and insights, witnessing and being witnessed, and
understood—but alone, however powerful, this approach is insufficient and partial.
 
Finally we find that schools that orient from the Lower-Right perspective tend to approach
change with the belief that change has to do with optimizing the function and fit of a client in the
context of the overall system(s) in which they live. While the system discussed here may be the
organization in which the client works, a Lower-Right approach would also include any other
group or system such as their family or community. For example, if there is not a good fit
between the client’s skill sets and the roles, expectations, and operating structures of their
organizational system, then the client most often has to adapt or develop new abilities to better
align with the system within which they want to contribute, develop effective ways to influence
the system, or move to a system where there is a better fit.  
 
The coach’s role in Lower-Right approaches requires a systems view in order to understand the
style and requirements of the system and how to assess their client’s fit in this system. This will
determine what is feasible for the client and what is not possible, barring systemic and structural
changes. This step may involve such things as obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the
organization (team structure, mandates, operating principles and procedures, relationships
between players, etc.) as well has how the client fits into the organization (their role, functions,
reporting structure, etc.). Depending on the results of this comprehensive view, the coach would
work with the client to help them build the knowledge and capabilities needed to better
contribute to the whole. This may include working with other organization members similarly, or
if a successful fit doesn’t look possible, the coach would assist the client in finding greater
organizational congruence elsewhere. This approach enables the client to better understand the
lay of the land, learn how they can influence the system, and/or discover an alternative system
that could be a better fit. In our view, a Lower-Right coaching approach captures a critical aspect
of realistic and substantive change – an understanding of the larger system, roles, expectations,
and operational requirements – but as a sole focus, it is incomplete and partial. 
 
All of the coaching schools that exist today can be mapped using the quadrants. There are a
myriad of combinations ranging from a school’s focus that is purely UL or LR to ones that are a
combination of these views. Some schools emphasize the subjective quadrants (UL and LL),
engaging in deep meaningful connection and inquiry, forging a strong bond between coach and
client. They believe that it is from this subjective side of the map that all is possible. Other
schools focus on solely the objective quadrants (UR and LR), valuing action, results, and
systemic contribution. Some schools attend to only the lower quadrants believing that group
dynamics, shared meaning, group structures, systems, and processes are the strongest influencers
of change and human development. Some schools attend to three of the four quadrants - such as
the UL, LL, and UR - without including the perspective of the LR, where optimal fit and
function is an important dimension in affecting and sustaining change. Many combinations are
possible, and yet very few offer a balanced attention to all four quadrants 
 
An investigation of the underlying beliefs of these coaching approaches show that they are all
right and they are all partial. The view that we hold for our Integral Coaching® approach is that
for change to occur in a way that is embodied and sustained, the focus and attention needs to
embrace and include all four perspectives of how change occurs. Furthermore, the quadrants
needed to be utilized in an interconnected fashion rather than as separate segments in a non-
integrated way. See Figure 2 below for the four quadrant approach to change that we use in our
Integral Coaching® method. 
 

 Without an approach that draws on all four quadrants including a strong system of structural
development, the client may have new insights and very powerful conversations with their
coach, but limited sustainability in terms of action and embodiment. They may become reliant on
their coach’s skilful guidance and perspectives. Over time, client growth also requires practices
to develop necessary capabilities, the structure of a formal coaching contract or program to guide
the coach and client’s work together, and the solid methodological framework of a coaching
approach that integrates all four quadrants into a coaching system that ensures that these
practices are not only based on the Upper-Right perspective but all four perspectives. 
 
Our Integral Coaching® approach employs a methodology that includes and enables the deep and
penetrating insights that come to light through conversation, intimacy, and shared meaning (LL).
Clients’ ways of seeing and understanding greatly expand (UL) and systemic impact is readily
examined and effectively worked with over time (LR). The muscle-building actions (UR) are on
behalf of developing underlying capabilities needed to fully and skilfully function in this wider,
broader landscape across all quadrants. With a comprehensive methodology such as this, the
client tends to more easily trust the map of their coaching work. The structure of their coach’s
approach provides a strong, powerful, and safe container that allows the client to understand
where they are, where they are headed, and the journey along the way. 

 
Developmental Model and Coaching Method 

Having mapped various coaching approaches across the quadrants and shown how these four
perspectives guide the way a coach will work with a client, I will now turn to the next
consideration: What developmental wisdom underlies the method of coaching utilized by
different coaching schools? To what degree has developmental theory been investigated? Has a
rigorous method been formulated that supports a particular developmental model? What are the
key components of that method, and what is the process for carrying it out? The degree to which
coaching schools have articulated a developmental model - let alone formulated a comprehensive
methodology that brings the theory into actualized form - varies widely in the industry. 
 
Developmental, systems-based, and rigorously-defined coaching methods are critical missing
components in most coaching schools. If you ask questions in order to reveal a school’s method
of coaching, most responses describe the process rather than the method: “First our coaches do
this, then they do this, this is the path, this is how we get there.” An elucidation of the method
driving the process is almost always missing. Even if one asks directly: But what is the method
of development upon which the process is built, the most common reply lists the elements or
components included in coaching in general. Responses may include words like practice,
embodiment, insight, distinctions, reflection, connection, powerful questioning, deep listening,
witnessing, etc, but none of these is a method. They are components of coaching conversations.
They are not a coherent part of a comprehensive system. Unless, of course, the coaching method
is defined as, “We just have coaching conversations.”  
 
Looking at coaching conversations themselves can help illuminate the way in which a coaching
school holds development. Whether the school is aware of their approach or not, it shows up in
the way or form through which their coaches conduct conversations with clients. A coaching
conversation takes place between a client and a coach and is focused on what the client needs,
wishes to develop, or longs for in their life. Conversations may include issues clients are facing
at work or home, related topics of concern, or developmental opportunities. How the
conversation takes shape directly relates to and is, in many ways, informed by the beliefs
underlying a particular schools approach to change.
 
Indeed, many schools speak about coaching conversations rather than coaching methods. Items
generally included in any coaching conversation are active listening, powerful questioning, and
direct communication which can include bringing forward new perspectives. These are, in fact,
International Coach Federation (ICF) Core Competencies. However, most coaching schools do
not have a particular method for operationalizing these competencies in a comprehensive
framework of human development. The components do not sit in a “bucket” of what this
conversation is supposed to be doing, let alone how and why. The competencies themselves end
up being the map. One is left wondering: What is being done and how does the coach know if it
is going well for the client or not? Depending on the coach’s own AQAL Constellation™ (their
unique profile of quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types), the answer is vastly different,
especially if coaches have not been trained to see their own preferences, biases, and related
views. There may be great conversations between a coach and client but usually the
developmental map that core competencies rest in is not well defined. 
 
One can well imagine the different tenor of conversations led by a coach from an Upper-Right
coaching approach versus a Lower-Left school of thought. Furthermore, as a unique human
being, the individual coach will have his or her unique quadrant orientation – a topic we will
explore in depth in Quadrants as a Type Structure Lens (this issue) – which affects how the
coach orients through a particular quadrant and translates the remaining three quadrants.
Quadrant orientation bias is especially noticeable if the coaching school has a loosely defined
conversational approach, without a robust method within which various types of coaching
conversations are held, without a process that is clear for both the coach and client, and without
explicitly defined and developed capabilities of the coach to effectively and elegantly carry out
the developmental model employed.
 
Let us explore coaching conversations, as they are a fundamental part of the coaching discipline. 
Certainly we can agree that all coaching conversations have a beginning (opening connection,
quick update, and how are you?) and have an ending (agreeing on next date, next steps,
confirming actions, if any, new perspectives, if any, expression of thanks, etc.), and a middle,
where the majority of time is spent. What unfolds in the middle of a conversation is quite
different depending on the coach and the approach they represent. Figure 3 below provides a
glimpse into how the middle of conversations can sound depending on the view of change
advocated by a particular coaching school as originating in the UL, UR, LL, or LR quadrants.

 If a coach conducts the middle or bulk of the conversation from the UL perspective, then they
will most likely ask questions aimed at evoking a client’s interior: how they react to a new frame,
how they feel about a new seeing, and how it affects who they take themselves to be. Coaches
approaching change through this quadrant do not tend to bring forward their own thoughts,
assessments, or offers. As mentioned previously, they primarily hold their role as one who
enables the client’s interior wisdom to be brought into the light and expanded through skilful
questioning. Through this frame, a coach does not tend to offer structured, well-defined practices
or exercises in the UR to support the client in structurally engaging with a new insight. Who am I
to suggest what the client should do?  Usually UL-leaning coaches tend to trust that the insights
will naturally and organically become embodied as the client moves in the world. In our view,
this is a partial truth. Over time, a client will develop; that is a human phenomenon. But, a coach
can also work to alleviate suffering by employing an all-quadrant approach sooner and with
greater consciousness. 
 
Furthermore, not only is an Integral approach fundamental to a complete coaching inquiry but
also to understanding client responses. The client’s answers arise from their unique way of
framing the world, and therefore, sit in a container that by its very nature strives for both
transcendence (eros) and communion (agape). Self-identity fights to be maintained in its current
structure, and will color the client’s responses and reactions to coaching inquiry.  Responses
from a client to any question posed are always answered from the vantage point of their unique
AQAL Constellation™. This Constellation gives rise to a client’s Current Way of Being
(CWOB). This CWOB includes all of who they are at that moment in time: their way of seeing
(perceptions, feelings, thoughts), their way of going (words and actions), and their way of
checking for how things are going (results or consequences). 
 
New insights, perspectives, or expanded views are still processed through the client’s current
AQAL Constellation™. New seeing is primarily a function of the mind grasping something new.
It is not yet embodied as a lived experience although many clients do feel, “Now that I see it, I
must be it.” Ah-ha moments are, in essence, state experiences, but that does not mean that what
is seen or realized is stably lived at that moment in time. Competency or capacity building is
associated with all four quadrants; insight alone does not lead to change. 
 
However, many coaches take the wise answers to UL questions or rich co-creative LL
conversations as indicators of embodiment versus indicators of cognitive understanding. These
are two different things. Without getting to know and work with their Current Way of Being
(CWOB) through structured integrated practices as they include and transcend to a longed for
New Way of Being (NWOB), we are left with mind snacks. Delicious. Insightful. Meaningful.
But not embodied.
 
If the middle of a coaching conversation rests in an UR orientation, the focus is on planning,
reports of action taken, and required future steps. The available amount of energy and how to
increase capacity is also a common concern. While we concur that it is necessary to take action,
the UR does not provide an UL ability to understand the complexity associated with trying on
new behaviours: “Why do I resist doing this but not that? Why do I always leave this for the
bottom of my list but this other item always gets done? Why did I not get done what I agreed to
do?” Similarly, the client may have struggled with behavioural change in response to his or her
way of engaging in key relationships (LL) or systems (LR), and will be unlikely to make true
progress unless those “collective” quadrants are included. A typical accountability session
conducted from the UR perspective may also include a client reporting to their coach that they
were unable to carry out an action. A coach who responds with “Let’s talk about how committed
you are to this or not?” is resting in an UR focus on action with a singular meaning-making
perspective of getting things done through commitment and its companion willpower. 
 
If the middle of a coaching conversation rests in the LL, clients often feel that their coach “really
gets them” and the conversations are supportive, valuable, and insightful. Clients can have a hard
time imagining ever being without their coach. The idea of having a solely UR plan of action and
then a conclusion to the coaching relationship is not within this particular frame of holding
change, which includes having a thinking partner for as long as the client is in a particular
position. Clients often truly value the intimacy, support, and deeply shared meaning associated
with their work together. However, when you ask a client specifically to speak about what has
actually changed in their lives as a result of their coaching relationship, many times they are not
able to point to many explicit actions or results. They tend to respond more subjectively,
“Everything has changed. I am so fortunate to have another person to consult with and I really
appreciate her support.”
 
In summary, coaching approaches that orient from one or a few quadrants are inherently partial.
Enabling new actions (UR) without consideration of the impact on the systems in which the
client resides (LR), on the shared space of his or her relationships (LL), or own unique
interpretations (UL) risks poor sustainability and true embodiment of change. Similarly, schools
that take an Upper Quadrants approach through UR doings in support of arising UL insights, can
leave clients with many “seeings and doings” without a system or map to hold it all together.
Similar conclusions can be draw about Right-Hand or Left-Hand approaches. As Wilber has
aptly stated, “Cripple one quadrant and all four tend to hemorrhage.”4
 
The beliefs regarding what it takes for change to occur set the formation of a coaching approach
in motion. These beliefs also influence the degree to which a developmental model is considered
and/or defined, a comprehensive method is formulated, and a process for the method is
operationalized. In our view, all of these approaches have relevance and respond to important
human needs for support, guidance, and companionship in development. However, in our
estimation, the approaches arising from partial assumptions regarding how change occurs and the
lack of coherent methods and processes in coaching systems leave clients not as well served as is
possible with a full Integral approach. 
 
What Laura and I have been (and continue to be) interested in is building a coaching approach
that provides the best opportunity for a client to actually make, sustain, and embody change in a
way that contributes to their unique developmental journey. The following sections describe the
coaching approach we have built based upon the belief that for translation and transformation to
occur, not only must we include a four-quadrant view of change, but the approach itself needs to
be fully AQAL (all-quadrants, all-levels, all-lines, all-states, and all-types). This includes the
developmental model our Integral Coaching® is guided by as well as the comprehensive method
itself. We started with the question: How do you bring a “transcend and include” developmental
model into coaching? And the answer has been: through a truly Integral application.
 

Our Transcend & Include Development Model

Coaching is a “present to future” orienting discipline, with many approaches placing a strong
emphasis on the future component: development, growth, and forward-focused change. Many
coaching schools focus on the “gap” between here (today) and there (future). Often coaching
clients are working towards new goals, new insights, new work, and/or a new life, and as such,
“new” or “next” is the focus of most coaching work. There are unmet or emerging desires that
span from succeeding in a new executive assignment to being a better parent; from supporting
my Integral Life Practice to being less authoritarian; from life is not proceeding how I want to
life is not as meaningful as I’d hoped; from wanting to change jobs to being less stressed in my
current job. As you would expect, the fully free human being has future aspirations that cover a
vast spectrum of longings, dreams, and desires.
 
The coaching industry contributes to the prevailing “not-there-yet” climate prevalent in the fields
of personal and professional development and therefore, in our clients as well. This includes
dreams not met, goals not achieved, and a sense of still more to do, learn, and be. The gap
between here and there for most clients is significant. And, of course, for people living a life that
includes active and ongoing conscious development, there will always be a gap. Both personal
and cultural evolution requires one to lean into this gap and continue to move forward. And the
field of professional coaching may be one of the contributors to the development fatigue that
plagues our current lives. Not done yet. Never done. This can actually be a very freeing view of
growth at later stages of development. However, for the majority of people, it is a tiring time of
opportunity as they also long for solace, rest, and stillness.
 
You can feel it even in the human potential movement. The drive for vertical development, new,
and next can be greater than the drive for here, now, and the embodied me already at home
today. How do I integrate this me – already here - in a healthy way? How can I work with her
abilities and limitations with skilful means? Why is the focus only on the future me? What about
being fully aware and present to the current me already living my life? Working with our current
capacities and capabilities leaves much to be done and it is important to be with the “what is” of
my life and not just the “what is possible.” We need to attend to both. Coaching supports an
Orange striving for achievement and growth and a Green sensitivity and openness to all forms of
development and transformation. Healthy Integral development, however, involves including the
“what is” of ourselves (this current me) and not just transcending to a future me. 
 
Healthy inclusion is a critical component of Integral Coaching®. In our decades in coaching, we
have not found another coaching school whose coaching methods, processes, or development
practices formally include a view that the “current me” is the ground from which a “new me”
will grow – we value the present, not just the future, in the ‘present to future’ paradigm. Integral
Coaching® supports a client’s healthy transcendence to a next developmental locale while also
including the place where they are currently standing. It is this Current Way of Being (CWOB)
that is usually unseen and unconscious to us and our clients. Our CWOB has a structure and a
way of seeing, taking action, and checking how things are going. This way of seeing, going, and
checking is distinct for each client and is manifesting in the world whether the client is aware of
it or not. And, as is true with most systems, this CWOB will fight to maintain itself even if
change or a New Way of Being (NWOB) is deeply desired. Like a transplanted heart deposited
in the chest of a deeply grateful human being, the first response of the body is to reject the
foreign object, even if it will save our life. Integral Coaches™ provide support and structure to
help clients through natural resistance such that over time, new ways are embodied, which
includes getting intimate with our embodied current ways.
 
Our CWOB drives where we sit when we walk into a classroom, who we gravitate to or are
distant from, whether we choose to sit or stand, dive into projects or hold back, what we notice
and do not, and how we check for how are things going. A Current Way of Being is unique and
arises from a client’s AQAL Constellation™. And, like a fingerprint, it is not repeatable in
anyone else. This is why a particular position in a company can have a clear job description in
writing, but John (the new guy) will fill that role in a very different way than Alice who just left.
John and Alice will each have a unique way of seeing, going, and checking in relation to the
same job description. John has been described as a racing boat captain with firm hold of the
wheel. Alice has often been referred to as an oak tree sheltering her team with a strong sense of
right and wrong. A race boat captain has a very different way of seeing, going, and checking.
And one can well imagine that Alice’s departure and John’s entry will significantly affect
everyone on the team! 
 
The strong “present” of a CWOB is a comprehensive unification of all past moments, a
culmination of who and what we have been up until this current moment. As such, it is important
for a developmental system to acknowledge its power and resiliency. The muscles of this CWOB
have been uniquely honed to support our current manifestation. Whether we are aware of it or
not, these capabilities exist to support a particular and needed way of being in the world. Integral
Coaching® pays attention to the strength of the present manifestation, by both honouring it and
utilizing its skills and capacities, while at the same time attending to the aspects of the CWOB
that do not support a client’s development in the coaching topic that is the focus of their work. A
singular focus on the “bright and new future” only attends to half of a client’s developmental
reality. It does not attend to the developmental tension between the “current me” and the “future
me” that rests in this moment. Attending to the future alone creates much dissonance and leaves
gaps in development over time. 
 
The tension between the past and future realties is readily seen in organizations. Consider a new
leader who speaks prolifically about the new, shiny future without acknowledging the present;
He does not honour the company’s past actions, triumphs, and failures that have brought it to
where it is today (thank you, very much). The situation is the same for coaches; this client has
survived and thrived in their own unique “past to present” without the help of a coach. And it is
this strong past that enables a client to look toward a new future and seek the support of a coach.  
 
In a developmental sense, getting to know, honour, fully see, and work with a client’s Current
Way of Being is necessary if the healthy aspects of this Current Way are to be included in the
client’s next iteration of themselves. As Wilber states, “healthy translation leads to healthy
transformation.”5  Working healthily with the current manifestation of a client enables them to
develop a conscious capacity to understand why they do what they do, say what they say, and
respond to everyday situations in the manner that they have gotten so used to, it has become
invisible. This manifestation includes the great and not so great aspects as well as the ability to
discern what is to be honoured and honed, as well as what is to be let go of in the transcending.
In our system, working with the CWOB also enables the client to work healthily with its limiting
aspects; the parts that they are outgrowing, shadow elements, and aspects of themselves that are
no longer serving a call to a fuller and freer self. Compassionate openness to the pain and beauty
of the CWOB modeled by the Integral Coach™, and key to our coaching model, allows the
client to witness himself more fully without running, denying, or suppressing aspects in fear or
shame. Many coaching schools focus on discarding and improving only. Our Integral Coaching®
method provides a much needed platform for clients to “get real” but without judgment or force
in holding their feet to the fire. As Pema Chodron stated, “If this process of clear seeing isn't
based on self-compassion it will become a process of self-aggression.”6 Spiritual and moral lines
of development along with the cognitive, emotional, somatic, and interpersonal lines create a
further Integral cascade that allows self-awareness and change to flourish and become embodied. 
 
In summary, Integral Coaching Canada works with two concepts of “me” that exist
simultaneously: a “current me” and a “future or new me.” Both of these identities have a Way of
Being which includes: (1) a way of seeing, perceiving, and making sense of, (2) a way of going
that includes actions, words, interactions, “doings” and, (3) a way of checking or gauging if the
results or consequences of our actions are a success or failure, a happy result or sad one, good or
bad, etc. which takes us back to (1).  Each of us has a Current Way of Being and we all grow into
New Ways of Being in repeated and ever widening cycles over our developmental lifetime.
Integral Coaching® builds the capacities and capabilities to grow into a New Way of Being while
also working to integrate the healthy aspects of our CWOB as we include and transcend it. 
 

Integral Coaching® Application of Subject-Object Theory 

This next section will examine how we use subject-object theory as a foundational element in
our “transcend and include” Integral Coaching® method.  Ken Wilber’s many publications have
elaborated on this developmental path where what is subject at one level becomes object of the
subject at the next level.7  In The Atman Project, we find the following summary statement: 
 
“At each point in psychological growth, we find:

1. a higher-order structure emerges in consciousness (with the help of symbolic forms);
2. the self identifies its being with that higher structure;
3. the next higher-order structure eventually emerges;
4. the self dis-identifies with the lower structure and shifts its essential identity to the higher structure;
5. consciousness thereby transcends the lower structure;
6. and becomes capable of operating on that lower structure from the higher-order level;
7. such that all preceding levels can then be integrated in consciousness”8

 
We would depict this using Integral Coaching® language by saying that a client comes to
coaching longing for change in an aspect of their life. Through interaction with their Integral
Coach™, the client comes to see both their Current Way of Being (through symbol or metaphor)
and all that their CWOB has allowed for in their life up until now. They also clearly see the
aspects of this CWOB that are now preventing them from manifesting in a new form. This is the
first step in the self dis-identifying with their lower structure.
 
Then, the client is exposed to a New Way of Being (through metaphor or symbol), and the client
identifies strongly with that higher self and the structure of that self (its ways of seeing, going,
and checking) as it emerges. This is the beginning of the client becoming conscious of and
identifying with a higher order structure or their NWOB. Throughout formal cycles of
development during the course of coaching, the client engages in a dual approach of building the
capacity to witness and healthily integrate the CWOB as they simultaneously build new
capabilities to embody the NWOB in their lives. Through this structured Integral developmental
process, the client progressively dis-identifies with their CWOB and shifts their essential identity
to the NWOB. They are still able to draw upon the strengths and capacities from their CWOB,
but they now do so from the vantage point and capabilities associated with their NWOB.
 
This process of including and transcending is used in Integral Coaching Canada’s methodology
in vertical (transformation) and horizontal (translation) development for, in fact, they are
intimately related. Filling out our horizontal capacities and getting familiar and competent in the
whole territory increases the probability of vertical movement. In our Integral Coaching® work,
when we speak about horizontal capacities we are referring to exploring the whole terrain arising
from a client’s current AQAL Constellation™ which includes not just their level of
consciousness (structure-stage) but also their lines of development profile, quadrant
competencies as well as the effects of quadrant orientation, the ability to experience and work
with various states – not only with respect to state-stage development but moment to moment
healthy state access9, gender development capacities, the current manifestation of their
enneagram type structure, etc. Working with this full set of AQAL lenses is more fully addressed
in the AQAL Constellation™ (this issue). Horizontal capacities involve working with all aspects
of a client’s CWOB including its shadow elements. In so doing, a client fills out the territory,
addresses shadow elements arising in this current form – hopefully contributing to less “kids in
the basement” issues in the future10– and fully claims the talents and skills associated with who
they are at this moment in time.    
 
It is important to point out that we hold these include and transcend cycles as microgenetic and
not macro level stage movement. In other words, our view is that there are multiple cycles of
development within altitude or structure-stage. So, as the reader proceeds exploring our method
more fully, be assured that we are not proposing that a six or ten month coaching relationship
will produce a shift in level of consciousness, although this coaching work definitely supports
this occurrence when clients are at the exit phase within a level. Our Integral Coaching® method
also provides evidence for shifts within level from an entry phase (what we term “wobbly”) to a
solid phase and from this solid phase to an exit phase (what we term “disintegrating”). This is
further elucidated in the AQAL Constellation™ article in this issue. 
 
In developing our coaching method, we also drew from subject-object theory principles which
can be briefly translated into Integral Coaching® terms as follows:
 
When I live from a certain way of seeing, going, and checking (my CWOB), I am not usually
aware that I am operating from this place. It simply is “me.” It is the “me” who I take myself to
be. Being blind to me, I am the subject; I live as subject. It is my “am-ness”, my identity, “me.”
This is referred to as my proximate self and I cannot see it as object. 
 
Development opportunities arise when this unconscious driver starts to become visible. I
(subject) become seen by me and begin to develop capabilities to work with this “me” (object)
fully, consciously, and openly aware. Once “I” become seen by me, I am no longer fully
identified as the “I” (1st person-subjective) and movement therefore, has already begun in the
developmental path of this, once unconscious, “I” becoming “me” (1st person-objective) or “my”
(1st person-possessive) over time.  I can notice “my” thoughts or “my” feelings but they are not
all of who I take myself to be because I am also the one doing the noticing.  Within a coaching
frame, I can, with greater awareness, more fully attend to my own development.  
 
The initial shift occurs in the first ah-ha moment of seeing my CWOB, usually offered by the
coach through a metaphor or image. Oh, there I am! In this moment, I glimpse me as object and
this represents the first move from proximate “I” (total subject) to distal “me” (partially object).
Per above, this distal “me” refers to the part of me that I can see as object. Of course, at this first
moment, I am still living through the reality of my CWOB so, in essence, I am seeing my
CWOB through my CWOB. In other words, at the moment that I have the ah-ha experience
associated with seeing my CWOB, that is the exact moment of initial progression from
proximate to distal, subject to partially-objectified subject.  An “ah-ha moment” is a product of
this first shift! Over time, subject becomes more and more fully object and object is consciously
worked with as I dis-identify with it. As my NWOB becomes more embodied, I can look back
and see my “old self” and its related attributes fully as object. As I include and transcend, I have
the ability to work with my old CWOB through the seeing, going, and checking capabilities of
my NWOB. The subject at one level has become the object of the subject at the next level and I
have taken responsibility for the healthy inclusion of my CWOB in that development.
 
And, of course, the pattern repeats itself so that someday my New Way becomes as ingrained as
my Current Way once was. Put differently, my New Way—once I reach the functional limits of
its capability - becomes my next Current Way and the cycle starts to repeat. This is true
horizontally as I fill out the territory and true vertically as I move to new levels of development.
 

Phases of Development in Integral Coaching Canada’s Method

Now that we have reviewed the foundation of our Integral Coaching® method with respect to key
aspects of Integral theory, transcendence and inclusion, and subject-object relations, let us turn to
how these components are manifest in the phases of client development as understood and
applied through Integral Coaching Canada. 
 

• Current Way as Subject (not yet visible to client)

  • The Current Way of Being (CWOB) is the client’s current manifestation in the world. It is an unconscious driver in the client’s life. (Subject - Proximate Self or “I”)

• Current Way as Object (first made visible to the client as partially-objectified subject moving to object over the course of coaching work)

  • Once the CWOB metaphor is offered to the client, the CWOB becomes visible and accessible. It becomes an “object” that the client can now be in relation to and dis-identify with as they work with new practices and reflection exercises to become more effective with its historical pulls. (Partially Object - Distal Self or “Me / My”)

• New Way as Object (a future self that starts as an object seen by the current self and becomes subject over time)

  • The client also works with the developmental capacities necessary to build their New Way of Being. They identify with this NWOB and its expansion of seeing, going, and checking capacities.  Embodiment is built through structured cycles of development including AQAL designed practices and exercises. Over time, this New Way of Being will become “subject” and the next driver of the client’s life.

• Transcend & Include 

  • The Current Way of Being never disappears. Nor should it. This is a radical departure methodologically from most coaching schools focusing only on the future or the “gap” between here (now) and there (future). Our CWOB lives inside our next level of development (vertical or horizontal). Building new capacities to work with what has been an unconscious driver of our life is as deeply constructive as building capacities towards a NWOB. 
  • As the NWOB becomes embodied over time, the client is able to work with their CWOB aspects through the capacities of their NWOB thus transcending and including as they develop. 

 
This dual-mode development is extremely powerful. It allows the client to identify where they
are in any given moment: whether they are drawing on their CWOB or their NWOB, when it is
appropriate to draw from which one, and when they are being pulled strongly in one direction or
another. Working actively with your CWOB and NWOB calls for being awake, knowing where
you are, and bringing this consciousness to your manifestation in the world. This ability has huge
and immediate impacts on a client’s life. 
 
Figure 4 provides a pictorial representation of the transcend and include developmental model
used by Integral Coaching Canada. 

At the beginning of a coaching relationship, a client is living fully (100%) from his CWOB -
indicated as the dark grey circle in the above Figure. Over the duration of a coaching contract,
the client builds capacities that enable him to better work with his CWOB so that its capabilities
can be drawn on when necessary. Over time, the strength of this way of being decreases, and it is
no longer the unconscious driver of his life. At the same time, the client is building capabilities
(muscles) to support his NWOB - represented as the white circle. Over time, the client builds the
capacities to live more and more from this expanded future while incorporating healthy aspects
and addressing shadow aspects of his CWOB. At some point during the coaching relationship,
the two come together in a true transcend and include developmental shift - indicated by the
appearance of the gray circle within the white. And, of course, at some point in the future, the
NWOB will become familiar, taken for granted, not at all new anymore, and will form a new
subject or a CWOB ready for its next cycle of development.  

Figure 5 provides a snapshot of what multiple development cycles look like over time. We go
through many include and transcend cycles within a particular altitude. The numerous cycles
within a given level of consciousness account for the vast differences that exist within horizontal
development. Enabling horizontal health involves very different approaches when an altitude
first becomes available to us, to when it stabilizes, to when it starts to disintegrate as a next
altitude enters our field of awareness. In our Integral Coaching® work, horizontal health does not
only address balancing the quadrants at a particular phase in a client’s level of consciousness but
also attending to the healthy development associated with their enneagram type structure,
feminine and masculine capacities, necessary lines to support their coaching topic, access to
supportive state shifts, etc.  In this way, we are building AQAL health at any particular level.  

Integral Coaching Canada’s Coaching Process 

As stated earlier, a coaching school’s process directly depends on their conscious or unconscious
conceptions of how change occurs: some engage in conversations only, some in action planning
only, and some in simply ensuring that ICF core competencies are included as elements of each
conversation (powerful questions, active listening, etc.). Very few have a LR system that makes
coherent sense of all these seemingly disparate yet related components. For example, some
schools may view a written formal coaching program for a client as a “system” or map of
development. Yet, without it resting in a larger developmental system and LR coaching process,
such a document is simply a list of things to do or accomplish (UR). For most schools,
development systems are not defined and elements of coaching are randomly drawn upon. A
compilation of a set of particular elements is presented as a coaching “system,” but, in actuality,
these “systems” are a weak collection of separate elements. Figure 6 below provides a broad or
generic process that many coaching schools use and the Core Coaching Competencies as defined
by the International Coach Federation (ICF). These competencies are basic elements that are
used throughout a coaching relationship. 

 An Integral Coaching® system includes and transcends Figure 6 by providing a strong LR
structure and processes within which the elements come alive and are more profoundly defined.
Integral Coaching Canada has a complex methodology, developmental foundation, training
architecture, and curriculum that are all based on Integral Theory. Our methodology is an explicit
system that enacts embodied developmental change. Furthermore, as seen in Figure 7 below,
there is a process through which the coach and client journey. It is a dynamic and rigorous
process that rapidly produces shifts in the client and deeply longed for manifestation. The widest
“bucket” in Figure 7 is the human developmental theory upon which we have built our Integral
Coaching® method. From that profound foundation arise the methodological elements including
working both with a client’s CWOB and their NWOB. The elements (from Figure 6) such as
“active listening” live within the powerful CWOB/NWOB methodology. The final “bucket”
defines the actual process to carry out this method. There are four distinct types of coaching
conversations, per Figure 7: Intake Coaching Conversation, Offer Coaching Conversation,
Cycles of Development Coaching Conversations, and Completion Coaching Conversation.  

In this article I have elucidated the underlying developmental and methodological foundations
for Integral Coaching Canada’s human development model, introduced our Integral Coaching®
method that arose from these foundations, and briefly identified the four types of conversations
that arise from this foundation and method.  The Four Coaching Conversations article (this
issue) will address how our method comes alive through different types of conversations that
occur between coaches and clients. 

Conclusion

Our process of building a coaching school based on Integral Theory has led us to include adult
development models, subject-object theory, as well as many other sources of research. And, we
continue to be amazed at the results that are realized by clients through such a coherent
approach.  These results are also directly related to the way we train our coaches to be able to
embody this complexity. Not only is our coaching method Integral in its design, but our Integral
Coaching® Certification Program is also Integral in its architecture. Our training focuses on
integration and embodiment as we endeavour to elegantly bring AQAL into a practice that serves
humanity and alleviates suffering. We continually strive to achieve the very high standard of
building the following capacities in the coaches who train with Integral Coaching Canada:
The Mind of an Integral Coach™ - This development includes the necessary
cognitive understanding of the AQAL models that serve as the backbone of this
work, the rigorous application of the transcend & include coaching method, with
its inherent understanding of subject-object theory, and the process wisdom to
elegantly and seamlessly carry out what it necessary to support another unique
and complex human being.

The Heart of an Integral Coach™ - This component includes the emotional and
psychodynamic health of the coach, full and awakened responsibility for the
manifestation of their own AQAL Constellation™, deep work in effectively
working with their own CWOB and arising NWOB, shadow work associated with
their individual development path throughout the program, emotional capacities to
hold the deep suffering and joy of other human beings including the necessary life
practices to build this embodied and loving presence.

The Body of an Integral Coach™ - This element includes the complex somatic
awareness and cultivation associated with embodying this deep work of
supporting self and others, the range of expressions and experiences available
(gross, subtle, causal), and the container (including strength, diet, fitness) to hold
the full complexity of another human being with somatic patience, presence, and
courage.
 
The Relations of an Integral Coach™ - This fourth component addresses the right
and healthy interpersonal relationships of a coach which includes the profound
knowing of self in relation to others, shadow elements, projections, and
attractions. It includes the ability to compassionately hold human beings in
fullness and freedom, not too loosely and not too tightly, and the ability to say
difficult things because the crucible of relationship has been built with trust,
openness, sensitivity, and love. Present in our coaches is a deep humility in the
face of being given the opportunity to support other human beings in their one
“wild and precious life.” 11
 
The Spirit of an Integral Coach™ - This element includes the exploring of the
spiritual foundation of each coach, in whatever form that takes. Coaches are able
to rest in a wider net, sink into the experience of non-separation, relax into the
ground of being, experience the natural desire to alleviate suffering for self and
others, and healthily act through their unique form of answering a call to be of
service.
 
The Morals of an Integral Coach™ - This final element defines what it means to
engage in ethical conduct with clients, to follow “right action” while in service, to
know what motivates decisions to act or speak in a particular way, and to uphold
the Integral Coaching® Professional Code of Conduct upon graduation. “What am
I to do?” is the deep question for this component and it is fully explored
throughout our coach training.

 This is a rigorous Integral system. And it is an intuitive Integral system. We have developed a
meticulous method and process to guide coaches through each step of working with clients while
also enabling both to draw on their creative and intuitive capacities - because, as human beings,
we naturally intuit all the time. We often refer to the strong back or spine of a coach as the
rigorous part of our developmental model. The front of the coach is the soft animal of our being,
our intuition, our compassion, our sensing, our ability to connect, our capacity to love. Our
programs are designed to bring both forward equally. Rigor and love. Science meets soul and the
Integral Coaching® dance continues. 
 
 

NOTES

1
 Wilber, The atman project: A transpersonal view of human development, 1980, pp. 93-96
2
 Kegan, In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life, 1994
3
 Wilber, Integral psychology: Consciousness, spirit, psychology, therapy. 2000
4
 Wilber, Integral psychology: Consciousness, spirit, psychology, therapy. 2000, p. 113
© 2008 Integral Coaching Canada        38
5
 Wilber, personal communication, December 2, 2008
6
 Chodron, The places that scare you: A guide to fearlessness in difficult times, 2001, p. 27
7
 References to subject-object development are found in many of Wilber’s books including The atman project, Sex,
ecology and spirituality, A brief history of everything, Integral psychology, Integral Psychology, to name a few.  
8
 Wilber, The atman project: A transpersonal view of human development, 1980, p. 94
9
 Loehr, J. and Schwartz, T. The power of full engagement – Managing energy, not time, is the key to high
performance and personal renewal. 2004
10
 Wilber has referred to these unclaimed aspects of development arising in later stages in moments of disintegration
under stress. He has referred to heading home for Christmas with family as a true test of whether our younger stage
issues have been resolved fully. And, of course, as we continue to transform we are able to bring a more complete
tool kit to the table working with seemingly intractable issues through a wider frame. 
11
 Oliver, House of Light, 1990, p. 60
 

REFERENCES

Chodron, P. (2001). The places that scare you: A guide to fearlessness in difficult times. Boston,
MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Kegan, R. (2001). How the way we talk can change the way we work: Seven languages for
transformation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 
Loehr, J. and Schwartz, T. (2004). The power of full engagement – Managing energy, not time, is
the key to high performance and personal renewal. New York, NY: Free Press. 
Oliver, M. (1990). House of Light. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Wilber, K. (1980). The atman project: A transpersonal view of human development. Wheaton,
IL: Quest Books.
Wilber, K. (2000). Integral psychology: Consciousness, spirit, psychology, therapy. Boston, MA:
Shambhala Publications, Inc.
 
 
Joanne Hunt is a co-founder of Integral Coaching Canada, Inc.  She is also the Vice President, Integral Coaching
and Development with Integral Life.  She is a Master Certified Coach accredited by the International Coach
Federation.  Joanne holds a Masters Degree in Management Studies and is the lead trainer, with Laura Divine, of the Integral Coaching® Certification Program offered by Integral Coaching Canada.  This program is accredited by the International Coach Federation at a Masters Level of coaching training hours.  Integral Coaching Canada is the global coaching partner of Integral Life and the Integral Institute.  Joanne lives in Ottawa, Canada with her wife and business partner, Laura.