COACHING ANXIETY Holding Negative Emotions as a Coach

“The mother who can hold her infant unanxiously when the infant is itself anxious is giving her child a specific gift. She is holding heartily at the same time that she is preparing the child to separate from her.” Robert Kegan, The Evolving Self (p. 126)

Developmental psychologist and theorist Robert Kegan, in the quotation above, describes one of the most fundamental issues of human life. It is the issue of identity, safety, inclusion, differentiation, self and other, boundaries, etc. It is also an issue about anxiety. And that’s why this is an issue for Coaches and especially Meta-Coaches.