A Transformative Experience That Led Me To Standing On New Ground
On May 8 and 9, I had the privilege of gathering with colleagues from around the world for the 9th Annual Americas Coaching Supervision Network Conference. The theme was Mosaic, and it turned out to be much more than a conference title. It became a transformative experience for me, as a person and, as you’ll see soon, in my business.
Mosaics speak to me because Italy, my birthplace, has some of the most beautiful mosaics in the world. It’s fascinating how artists can take millions of broken pieces of pottery to make a beautiful, cohesive piece of art. So immediately the word, Mosaic in the context of coaching spoke to me. But I didn’t realize what a transformative experience it would be!
At this conference, there was a Mosaic: Different voices. Different cultures. Different supervision traditions. Different ways of knowing. Coaches, supervisors, psychologists, researchers, and practitioners from across the globe came together to explore the future of our profession. The quality of thinking in the room was extraordinary, but what struck me most was the quality of presence.
This wasn’t a gathering of people interested in quick answers or performance hacks.
It was a community willing to engage complexity, uncertainty, and the deeper layers of what shapes us as practitioners and human beings.
Over two days, we explored supervision through sound, embodiment, collective intelligence, personal history, systems thinking, and reflective practice. We weren’t merely discussing supervision. We were inhabiting it.
And somewhere in the middle of all of that, something shifted.
Not a mindset shift.
A coherence shift.
A restructuring at the level of origin.
The feeling I carried home was simple: I’m standing on new ground.
Beginning and Ending in Sound
One of the most memorable aspects of the conference was that both the opening and closing ceremonies were held through sound bathing with singing bowls.
For those unfamiliar with the practice, sound bathing is an immersive experience where participants are invited to receive sound rather than analyze it. The vibrations move through the body, creating a different relationship with attention, presence, and awareness.
In a profession that often gives greater value to cognition, beginning with sound was significant. The bowls invited us to arrive before we spoke. Before we networked or presented ourselves as experts.
We arrived as nervous systems. As bodies. As human beings.
The resonance of the bowls seemed to create a shared field that transcended language and culture. People from different countries, traditions, and professional backgrounds sat together in the same vibrations. It was a reminder that learning doesn’t only happen through information. Sometimes learning begins when we become quiet enough to listen.
Closing the conference in the same way felt equally powerful. Rather than ending with a summary of key takeaways, we ended with integration. The sound created space for the learning to settle somewhere deeper than intellect.
It felt less like the end of a conference and more like the beginning of a conversation with ourselves. Are you starting to see why it was a transformative experience? But that’s not all…
Origins: The Past Is Not Finished With Us
The session that resonated most deeply for me was the work of Dr. Saba Hasanie on Origins.
For years, I have observed something in my own coaching practice that has often felt difficult to articulate: the past doesn’t disappear simply because we decide to focus on the future.
People bring their histories into every leadership role, every relationship, every decision, every coaching conversation. Not because they are stuck in the past. Because the past lives within the present.
Dr. Hasanie’s Origins framework explores how our formative experiences shape the way we make meaning, lead, relate, and navigate the world. Her work challenges a long-held assumption in coaching that exploring the past belongs exclusively to therapy. Instead, she demonstrates that understanding our personal history can be a powerful pathway to self-awareness, choice, and development.
The colorful mandala exercise invited us to explore the landscape of our origins, not as a psychological excavation, but as a process of understanding the patterns, strengths, beliefs, and narratives that continue to influence who we are today.
As I sat with the exercise, I felt an unexpected sense of validation. She put language to something I have known in my body for years.
The work I do with women often involves helping them understand that their current patterns did not appear out of nowhere. The ways we protect ourselves, perform, strive, belong, disconnect, or over-function often have roots in experiences that once made perfect sense.
The goal is not to live in the past. The goal is to understand the ground from which we are operating. Because when we can see that ground clearly, we gain choice.
For me, this was not simply an interesting framework. It felt like confirmation that the integration of personal history, embodiment, and coaching is not only valuable; it’s necessary.
The conversation Saba and I began during the conference continues. We connected deeply around this work and are exploring possibilities for future collaboration. The Origins work opened a door I can no longer ignore. It belongs in what comes next.
The Invisible Systems We Carry
Another profound thread throughout the conference was the exploration of Systemic Coaching and Constellations, presented by Oana Tanase and drawing on the work of John Whittington, whose approach is rooted in the family constellation work of Bert Hellinger.
At its heart is a deceptively simple idea: We never arrive alone.
At any given moment, we carry with us every system we have belonged to and every system to which we still belong.
- Family
- Culture
- Organizations
- Communities
- Professions
- Countries
- Generations
These systems continue to influence us through invisible threads of loyalty, identity, expectation, and belonging. Much of what we experience as personal can often be understood as systemic.
What appears to be an individual challenge may actually be connected to a larger web of relationships and influences. The constellation work offered a way of making those invisible dynamics visible.
What moved me most was the reminder that growth is not simply an individual process. We evolve within systems, and sometimes transformation occurs when we become aware of the unseen forces that have been shaping us all along.
The Transformative Experience Continues
When I think about Mosaic now, weeks later, I don’t think first about the presentations. I think about the people. The generosity of conversations. The courage in the room. The willingness to engage complexity without rushing toward certainty.
I think about what becomes possible when an international learning community gathers not to prove expertise but to deepen understanding. I arrived expecting professional development. I left experiencing something much deeper.
The conference theme was Mosaic, AND I witnessed coherence.
Pieces that once seemed separate began revealing their connections.
- Somatics
- Origins
- Systems
- Supervision
- Leadership
- Personal history
- Professional practice
They were never separate after all. They were parts of a larger whole. And somewhere in that realization, I found myself standing on new ground.
Not because I learned something new. Because I recognized something true. This conference returned me to the origin from which my work has always grown.
If you’d like to get an inside peek into this conference, we began by meeting via zoom and our sessions were recorded. You can access them here. Maybe you’ll love it so much, I’ll see you at the next conference!