Coaching in Times of Tragedy
With all what’s happening around the world now, the psychological wellbeing of a lot of people is at risk. How can coaching help?
Dr. Victor Frankl, a renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, founded logotherapy, a therapy based on finding meaning in life. He was arrested by the Nazis in 1942 and spent three years in various concentration camps, where he endured unimaginable suffering and loss. He wrote his best-selling book “Man’s Search for Meaning” in nine days after his liberation, describing his experiences and his theory of logotherapy.
In his book, Frankl states: “This striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man. That is why I speak of a will to meaning in contrast to the pleasure principle.”
In times of mass suffering, be it losing loved ones and missing sense of safety during pandemics, people in war zones, or even people suffering severe economic crises, many people start experiencing a sense of meaninglessness in life. That also may be the case with people going through personal experiences of loss, chronic illness, or other tragic events.
While therapy can be the go-to for many people in such cases to address and heal their traumas and go through grief, coaching can still help in restoring a sense of meaning, and moving forward with life.
But what can be “meaning” for someone who experiences life as “meaningless”? Where should you dig? How can coaching help?
When one’s life as they know it is threatened, compromised, or questioned, one’s purpose may get threatened, compromised or questioned as well. That’s because one usually looks at their purpose from an inward angle; who I want to be, what I want to be, and how I want my life to be like.
Difficulties challenge that narrative for us, and they can make who and what we wanted to be and how we wanted our life to be like UNATTAINABLE!
According to Frankl, “it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us”.
Coaching can be a medium for clients to shift their perspective of their purpose from that inward angle to an outward one: What does life expect from me here and now in the current circumstances? What can I give to life today? What can I be for life today? How can I make meaning of this very existence?
Back to Frankl who says “This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life.”
That points to another area where coaching can help, which is helping your client identify their uniqueness and individual impact, and own their responsibility towards others and life.
“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” ~ Nietzsche.
We do not want to suffer, yet, despite all efforts, suffering is an inevitable component of the human experience, for with suffering comes responsibility, and with acceptance of responsibility, meaning is found, restored and renewed everyday.
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Book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Dr Victor Frankl
You Tube www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Mans+search+for+meaning+you+tube&mid=88095DF18999DF207C6088095DF18999DF207C60&FORM=VIRE