Impactful Integration (Part One): AI-Generated Visual Metaphors for Sustainable Change in Coaching
The power of visual metaphor and using AI-generated images during the integration process after coaching.
I am a somatic coach and for the past few months I have been working on a project using AI-generated visuals to support my coaching clients in their integration after a somatic coaching session.
The process has had a powerful impact on the lives of my clients.
What is integration?
Integration = intentional incorporation of new insights into your lived experience.
I once heard that if you hear a new word you should try to use it seven times that day. You need to integrate the new word into your life. Use it, play with it, get it wrong, feel it. Then it becomes part of you.
In short, integration is the key to sustainable change.
Most of the magic of coaching happens outside of the coaching room. You might have a lightbulb moment with your coach, but if you don’t integrate that new understanding and put it into practice in your daily life then it’s not going to stick.
You’ve made a new neural connection, now tread that neural pathway a few more times!
Metabolise it, digest it. Incorporate it into your bones.
Integration isn’t necessarily an action-based process. It’s more about incorporating, merging with, activating, embedding, unifying and even empowering something you are newly learning about yourself. In a holistic and intentional way. It’s ‘being with’ this new understanding and letting it, on an embodied level, sink into your being.
In Part Two of this series I thrash out the concept of integration in more depth, and the transformative power of effective integration.
The magic of Somatic Integration Visuals is that I, as the coach, co-create something (the visual) to support the client in their integration (which is usually a solo pursuit). We continue the co-regulation of the coaching space.
Part One, In Summary
This is Part One, using visual thinking for my own self-discovery. Where it all started!
After a coaching session I was back in the real world, with no coach by my side to support the integration of my learning. It was up to me. And I was intrigued to see if I could create the visuals that my brain had imagined in the coaching sesh, as part of this integrating.
I discovered a way to create my own internal dreamlike and wacky imaginations using an AI image generator. I share some of those images with you below, and explain the shift in understanding I was surprised to find from using these externalised representations of my inner mind.
In this Part One, to give you some context, I expand on how the emotional part of the brain actually doesn’t use words! Which explains why using these internal images as metaphors when trying to figure out why you are stuck on a problem can be a useful tool. What’s actually happening, when you externalise your ‘stuckness’ into a visual metaphor, you create emotional distance which allows you to explore it with curious detachment.
It dawned on me how supportive this tool might be for my coaching clients to help with their integration. Which was the birth of this process of creating Somatic Integration Visuals.
Terminology
In this series I welcome you into my world of Somatic Coaching. I would like to introduce you to language that might be new to you. But don’t worry, I will explain as we go (as I did above with the word integration), but as a handy cheat sheet I have created a glossary for you. It is set out at the end of each Part.
Seven Part Series
Come with me to discover how I bring this tool of co-created digital images to my coaching clients. Part One is about how I discovered the tool and the impact it had on my own self-improvement. Part Two dives into the impact of integration and key findings from the project.
In Parts Three to Seven, five of my clients gave me permission to ‘case study’ their sessions. This provides you with real world examples of this process in action. A sneak peak into the world of Somatic Coaching and the power of these visuals in integration. You will see…
How Ruth taps into a child-like understanding of ‘following the fun’ with her business, sensing into the bouncing coloured balls in her belly, freeing her up to a more joyful way of approaching the constraints of time.
How Molly can now bring herself back to a sense of authentic self when she becomes dysregulated by recalling her image of the grassy Earth Goddess.
How Daphne connects with a sense of grounding and flighty activity in order to galvanise herself into action.
How Pam discovers an inner source of power, a Resource she can utilise in challenging times.
How Marta went from a lost sense of overwhelm under a pile of canvases to an empowered creative, able to choose her next move.
Visual thinking during self-discovery (Part One)
I’m a visual thinker. I picture things in my mind as images or visual patterns rather than through words or numbers.
I notice this when I am being effectively coached or therapised. When working on a Block with my coach I often use visual metaphor.
In coaching a ‘Block’ refers to the ‘issue’ (or area of the client’s life or specific problem) that the client is stuck on. It’s that thing you just can’t seem to move past, no matter what you try. Identifying your block and then figuring out how to move around it, through it or remove it from your path is essentially the coaching process. I will use this term ‘block’ throughout these essays.
“What is a visual metaphor?” You might be asking. A commonly used example would be, ‘It’s like I’m banging my head against a brick wall’. A symbolic metaphor for feeling like you aren’t getting anywhere and whatever you try to do is fruitless. The metaphor brings the point home to us by giving us a really accessible visual.
"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying." Nietzsche
Here Nietzsche demonstrates the impact of metaphorical language. He’s captured the essence of the gradual nature of growth, a complex and existential idea to navigate, in visual terms which we can immediately visualise and understand.
However, visual thinkers get a lot more abstract than these commonly used examples! As you’ll see with Marta in Case Study Five, her visual metaphor was being stuck under a pile of art materials and canvases, metaphorically representing the chaos of her state of mind around creative expression and overwhelm on where to start.
Working in visual metaphor, neurologically speaking, connects the dots to understanding yourself better. (The body-and-mind is pretty cool that way, more on this later.)
Why are visuals so effective?
Using imaginary images in the coaching setting opens pathways for thinking around something that could be difficult to access with words alone. Images can serve as a bridge, something less daunting, allowing us to express complex emotions more easily.
Our wacky and unique inner imagery (just like in dreams) taps into our subconscious minds. Imagery helps surface some of the deepest fears, hopes and memories. They might not make much sense at first but once acknowledged and explored with detached curiosity they serve as a useful gateway. A secret door to a new perspective.
Working with my life coach Amelia Saberwal last year, we journeyed through many fantastical metaphorical images.
Let’s see symbolic visual metaphor in action…
The Block: “I don’t want to fall into the same patterns, making decisions for the wrong reasons. That would lead me down these paths in life that aren’t right for me.” I brought to my coach.
“Describe ‘wrong decisions’,” she enquires.
“Like moving somewhere that didn’t suit, staying with a partner that wasn’t right, sticking with a career that didn’t fulfill me. Acting the good girl. People pleasing. Because I thought I had to do these things to stay happy.” I’d explain.
“Who is this good girl? What does she look like?” my coach would ask.
Visual Metaphor: At this enquiry, my brain pops out the image of a Girl Guide. I smile and describe her. Specifically mentioning all the badges.
Symbolism: “Well she’s got her hand up at the front of the class and achieving for the sake of achieving, trying to do the best and certainly not breaking the rules.”
Emotional (and somatic) resonance: “I can feel her trying so hard.” The image serves as an access point for some emotional resonance. I could be compassionate to this youthful and keen, but immature and misguided, me.
I remember times in my life when she was leading the charge. She was, as the symbolism pointed out, ‘achieving for the sake of achieving.’
Shift in understanding: Girl Guide Meryl behaves in a certain way that leads to misaligned decisions.
My coach asked, “and who is Meryl that makes aligned decisions?”
Visual Metaphor: “She is daring to wear some comfy dungarees.”
Symbolism: She’s free, creative and able to play. And a little alternative!
New perspective: I can now spot when Girl Guide is in the driving seat when I’m about to make a decision. And when I’m unsure of my next move or what I want… I imagine what dungaree-d Meryl might do instead.
With this loosening and creativity, this can lead to breakthroughs in understanding and problem-solving for the original conceptual block brought to coaching. Ultimately leading to better self-awareness… really what this whole game of tackling life is about!
Also, significantly, for those of us dealing with trauma (there’s an argument that everyone is to some greater or lesser extent), imagery can be a gentle way to access and start the processing of difficult emotions.
What’s going on neurobiologically?
“Internal mental experience is not the product of a photographic process. Internal reality is in fact constructed by the brain as it interacts with the environment in the present, in the context of its past experiences and expectancies of the future. This is the reason why each of us experiences a unique way of minding the world.” Daniel J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are
The human brain has an affinity for visual processing, due to its evolutionary development (language came later). This neural bias towards visuals is so ingrained that even blind people think in visual patterns. Thinking in visuals enhances memory retention and recall, much more than remembering words or sounds. Images also help us feel more strongly. Which in turn strengthens those neural connections. Seeing really is believing.
Delving into the brain's architecture, the limbic system deals a lot with our feelings. (The limbic system is a complex system made up of the amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus and other areas of the brain.) This part doesn't really use words. So, when we feel something really deeply, we sometimes find it hard to verbalise. It's not that our feelings are too complicated; it's just that our brain's feeling department doesn't speak in words.
This is useful in therapeutic or coaching contexts. We keep lots of pictures in our brain that shape how we see the world, other people, and our own past and feelings. Sometimes, our brain uses these pictures to send us messages in a sort of secret code.
These are symbolic representations from our subconscious which transcend verbal expression.
For instance, an image about fleeing could symbolically represent an underlying desire to escape a real-life situation. By interpreting these visual and symbolic cues, both in dreams and conscious thought, we can unlock deeper psychological insights, making them useful tools in the coaching process.
As Jung said, "Dreams are the main source for all our knowledge about symbolism." This highlights how our internal imaginary visuals (including in dreams) serve as a gateway to understanding the symbolic language of our unconscious.
It’s the meaning-making that you lay on the images that is revealing. It’s something to loosen your exploration, a launchpad for figuring out what might be really going on for you.
It’s all a platform for discovery.
(In no way am I saying there’s a formulaic image interpretation that applies to everyone. Your teeth falling out in a dream does not necessarily mean you’re fearing loss. Being naked somewhere public doesn’t definitely mean that you feel exposed in an area of your life.)
Images -> to symbolism -> to language -> to emotion -> to new perspective -> to lived reality…this is how you can connect the dots and make sustainable change in your life.
We will see later in this series how important the symbolism of our internal images are, and how personal they are. A cloud to you might indicate ‘clouded understanding’ or confusion. A cloud to Ruth (Case Study 1) represented a dreamlike state and helped her connect with a ‘higher self’ version of her identity. Which resulted in a significant shift of understanding for her. Stay tuned!
Enter the world of AI
I like to draw but I had an urge to create some of the images in more detail. Something my amateur artistic prowess could never achieve.
Talking to my partner one day about this urge and the fantastical images that were appearing in my coaching, “Chat GPT now has a digital image generator called Dall-E.” she drops in absentmindedly. Oh really now… So I thought I would have a play. (Hey there dungaree-clad Meryl.)
As I plugged in words from the inner visual workings of my mind, and experimented with descriptions and styles and features, I realised how therapeutically useful this tool was.
I popped my Somatic Coaching hat on and thought what might I ask a client now. “What else do you want to see in this image of your brave adventuring self?”
A sunset. Those bring me a felt sense of hope and joy. A peacock. The national bird of India (where I was when I decided to quit my job last year) and a symbol I have come to associate with maintaining my freedom. The bridge of Lisbon where I wanted to move. Done, done and done.
I was dungaree-wearing Meryl in a dinghy, travelling from island to island and enquiring what might be there to explore. My dingy allowed me the safety to travel away from the mainland (of home, comfort and stability) and discover new things. Knowing I could return.
Dinghy riding, dungaree wearing Meryl, exploring and traversing into her new world.
As I built this externalised image and saw my inner longings come to life before me, something was shifting. It seemed to be embedding the work I had done in coaching. Deepening my understanding of what I wanted and the direction I was moving in. Connecting those dots. Integrating!
By externalising it into a visual metaphor, I created emotional distance which allowed me to explore it with curious detachment.
The distance meant I could be more objective, and act as my own coach.
It’s easier to introduce symbolic visuals into a playful imaginary landscape than asking me ‘so what are you scared of doing next?’ or ‘what do you want to do with your life?’.
Most importantly, from a somatic perspective, as this image appeared on my screen I had a ‘felt sense’ of it in my body. I was feeling the change happening. It was resonating. It was integrating the understanding of myself I had gained in my coaching. I want to maintain freedom, I want to move to Lisbon, I want to stay expansive and creative. Then I could put those things into action.
More Playing!
I got pretty excited about this and started to ‘digitally draw’ all sorts of weird and wonderful parts of my psyche. For instance, during a recent therapy session the central visual my mind was giving me was a young girl in a secret walled garden. It had been abandoned and there was moss and broken china everywhere. The boundaries separating the flower beds were out of place and the little girl was interested to look around.
After my therapy session, I jumped on my laptop and opened Dall-E where I was able to create this walled garden and introduce some order to the garden. The symbolism: I realised that this garden was my childhood self, which (like the garden) I’ve abandoned in recent years. Walking away from much of my creativity, my singing for example, for a chunk of my adulthood in pursuit of things I thought I was meant to be achieving.
In the digital image I restored the flowerbed boundaries, helping the flowers bloom again. Restoring emotional boundaries in my waking life (from work and certain relationships) could help me cultivate the creative parts of me again. All very symbolic, all very resonant.
When I took this image back to my therapist we were able to explore other symbolic representations in there. The broken ‘china’ for instance. I didn’t call this ‘crockery’ or ‘ceramics’. The specific word used reminded me of my childhood in Asia and being somewhat of a Third Culture Kid (growing up in Hong Kong and Tokyo). This internal landscape was a blend of the secret walled garden which felt very British, with parts of me that I have carried since my time in Asia. I was able to make an emotional connection to how I have struggled with a sense of ‘what is home’.
The image was supporting my further exploration with my therapist into formerly unearthed parts of me. Connecting the dots.
Externalising these internal images… it was like that feeling when you read a book and it articulates something you’ve fleetingly understood deep in your subconscious, and then someone succinctly sets it out in language that clicks. Your bones are exclaiming, ‘yes, that’s it!’
It’s having a deep conversation with a friend and they ask that pertinent question which causes you to pause and two ideas finally merge in your mind and the issue immediately makes sense. The path is clearer. Ah ha.
It’s fumbling through a collection of keys attempting to fit them into the lock and failing, until the right one glides in, turns and the bolt releases. There’s a relieving release in your body, and the opportunity for momentum forward through the door.
Bringing this to my clients
I noticed whilst coaching clients that they were speaking in visual metaphor too. Sometimes images at random would appear, sometimes entire landscapes were available to discover.
As we followed them, and let the body react to them, the client would have transformative shifts in understanding of the problem we were tackling.
Take Daphne (Case Study Three) where she was struggling with this unproductive flighty feeling and frustration of not using her time wisely. The juxtaposing images of a stone in her belly and of swarming flies appeared to her. The flies symbolised joyful, active busy-ness. The stone was something in her that was grounding, a deep ‘knowing’ of the path to take. She yearned for this, on the one hand grounding without being attached to comfort and on the other the momentum to metaphorically ‘fly’ towards her goals.
In the months that followed my own creative play for self-discovery, I embarked on a project to see if this method could support others with their self-development process. All through the somatic coaching framework.
And there Somatic Integration Visuals was born!
The results have been fascinating, impactful and insightful. I summarise the findings in Part Two and bring them to life in the five case studies.
I’ll be sharing the exploration with you in the following Parts:
Part 2: Somatic visuals as an integration tool
Part 3: Case study 1 — Reframing Time
Part 4: Case study 2— Earth Goddess
Part 5: Case study 3— Swarming Flies
Part 6: Case study 4— At a Crossroads
Part 7: Case study 5— The Artist’s Store Room
Just itching to try this out?? You can book a somatic coaching session with me via this link: So you want to get somatic?
Lastly but by no means leastly… I have been invited to showcase the Somatic Integration Visuals, and their related case studies, at the upcoming DAR Fest exhibition in Brussels from 1–25 Feb 2024 at the Octopus Heart Center.
Happen to be in Belgium? Come check it out! Event details are here. You can catch me doing a live Q&A on 17 Feb at 5.30pm.
Somatic Integration Visuals - Glossary
Block: Refers to the ‘issue’ (or area of the client’s life or specific problem) that the client is stuck on. Something the client can’t seem to move past, no matter what they try.
Bodymind: We are integrated neuro-psycho-biological beings! in somatic modalities we don’t treat the conceptual thinky mind as separate from the embodied experience of life. We invite our clients to show up as an integrated whole.
Embodied Self-awareness: The holistic understanding of yourself through physical sensations and experiences of the body. Being conscious of your body's movements, feelings, and presence in space, and recognising how these physical sensations relate to your emotions, thoughts, and overall sense of self.
Focussing: A body-oriented coaching tool the client is invited to focus on any internal sensations that arise. The client names these ‘felt senses’, without meaning making. The aim is to understand how these sensations are connected to their emotional state or life situation. We dig to find the story behind the story which can be told by these subtle clues in sensations in the body. By naming the sensations this helps the client ‘disidentify’ with them. The client listens to the data held in their body and this can lead to insights in how they view their situation, or even resolutions to problems.
Integration: intentional incorporation of new insights into your lived experience. It isn’t necessarily an action-based process. It’s more about incorporating, merging with, activating, embedding, unifying and even empowering something you are newly learning about yourself. In a holistic and intentional way. It’s ‘being with’ this new understanding and letting it, on an embodied level, sink into your being.
Resource: These are invaluable in the process of improving your embodied self-awareness. Resources can be things like going to nature, speaking with a good friend, dancing, breathing, carving alone time, journaling. Resources can also be internal felt senses that are resourceful for you (we can gather these when we do more somatic activities and healing).