Integrative approaches

“What is ‘Integral’? It means more complete, balanced, comprehensive and connected. We cannot realistically honour the various methods and fields without exposing as they fit together.” – Ken Wilber.

I am committed to the continuous deepening of the two areas of specialization, the Enneagram and Somatics and to the training regarding approaches and methods that I integrate into my life and my work.

This allows me to maintain more consistent possibilities of intervention in very different areas and contexts, a greater capacity to see the reality of situations that need to be managed with an open mind.

The approaches can be theoretical or practical, frontal or interactive. However dynamic and oriented to awaken, involve and harmonize our different intelligences.

Integral theory

With the Four Quadrant Model, Wilber suggests that almost everything can be observed using four intrinsic perspectives: the inner and outer perspectives of the individual and the inner and outer perspectives of the collective. Another core vision for which Wilber is famous is the understanding that human development, individually and to a certain extent also culturally, passes through specific levels or stages of consciousness. For example, there are cognitive stages, moral stages, cultural stages, spiritual stages, Spiral Dynamics stages and many others. Considered as a whole, they present a powerful message to the integral mind.

These two concepts, quadrants and levels, are the foundation of Wilber's Integral Model called AQAL (all quadrants, all levels). They represent the fundamental structure of his "theory of everything" and the basis of his philosophy called Integral Operating System which invites a perspective that includes all quadrants, all levels, all lines (of development), all states (of consciousness ) and all types (of awareness). We can all experience all states of consciousness and the interpretation we give depends on our stage of awareness.

While we can all also experience the non-dual reality which we will evaluate according to our level, not all of us can know all the stages. While it is possible to move from one state to another, we cannot skip levels in our evolution.

Spiral Dynamics

The Spiral Dynamics model is based on the original work of Clare W. Graves in the 1950s and subsequently developed – among others – by Chris Cowan, Natasha Todorovic and Don Beck whom I was lucky enough to meet and listen to about twenty years ago in United States.

It describes an open and emergent bio-psycho-social double helix model of human consciousness. It provides a new way to frame and understand the forces of human interactions and behavior across developmental stages. These steps can be applied at the nation-state, individual, organizational and geopolitical levels.

The model is based on the assumption that we have complex, adaptive and contextual intelligences that develop in response to life circumstances and challenges, what Spiral Dynamics® calls “life conditions”. The expression of the level of consciousness is therefore a product of the interaction between external conditions of existence and complex internal adaptive systems. These collective intelligences and value systems are what we call “memes.” Each new social stage, or meme, transcends and includes all previous ones and to date nine fundamental levels - or waves - of human consciousness have been observed.

The combination of the Enneagram with Spiral Dynamics®, as well as with other Level and stage systems, helps to understand motivations, inner drives, values and developmental phases that greatly support more conscious choices and decisions.

Movement disciplines

Bodily awareness is the ability to notice a particular sensory signal coming from inside the body. We basically have 3 types of body awareness that allow us to refine our sense of self through movement: interoceptive, proprioceptive and spatial.
This awareness is fundamental for inner balance, for understanding one's emotions, for assessing one's level of tension or fatigue, for being aware of the stimuli that lead to action and how we move in the world, and for expanding our inner resources and support.

A lifetime of experiences and study in the areas of bodily, somatic and movement awareness lead me to affirm that the body is the crucible of all the revelations necessary to understand every layer of being. The postures, gestures, attitudes, perceptions that are only ours and are organized into patterns, determine us at all levels.

In traditional cultures, rituals reorganize our existence in the movement, time and space of the body. They are, among other functions, a process of reclaiming our position in the universe. The individual movements of the body are the most primary (pushing, pulling, throwing, lifting, giving, receiving, etc.) and the community in rituals reproduces the patterns of natural life (circles, semicircles, lines, squares, spirals).

Non Violent Communication (NVC)

NVC integrates four elements:

Consciousness. A set of principles that support a life of compassion, collaboration, courage and authenticity.
Language. Understanding how words contribute to connection or distance.
Communication. Knowing how to ask for what you want, how to listen to others even when they disagree and how to move forward towards solutions that work for everyone.
Tools of influence. Share power with others rather than using power over others.

NVC satisfies three of or desires

Increase the ability to live with choice, meaning and connection
Connect empathically with yourself and others to have more satisfying relationships
Share resources so everyone can benefit

Marshall Rosenberg developed Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in the 1960s as a tool to implement and practice desegregation, multicultural integration, one's humanity and that of others respectfully, compassionately, peacefully and joyfully.
NVC emphasizes deep listening to ourselves and others and helps us discover compassion. Through it we learn to listen to our deepest needs and those of others. His language reveals an awareness that all human beings are just trying to honor universal values and needs, every minute, every day.
It helps to see common humanity, to use power to honor the needs of all, even as a concrete set of skills to create families and communities in the service of life. Its shape is simple and transforming.

“While we may not view the way we speak as 'violent,' words often lead to hurt and pain, both for others and for ourselves.“. — Marshall Rosenberg

Meditation practices

The practice of meditation has accompanied me for forty years. I had the opportunity to encounter and practice various techniques and methods for a long time.
To describe what meditation is, a lifetime is not enough. There are guided meditations, more or less elaborate breathing techniques, relaxation methods, concentration and energy development practices. Whatever path you choose to practice, meditation has the characteristics of cultivating presence to oneself and to reality and of resources to better deal with everyday life and live a conscious life.

Meditation practice is useful for

taking time to listen to the sensations of the body
letting go of tension, relaxing your mind and developing inner strength
finding serenity and calm, cultivate peace and tranquility within oneself
improving the ability to act, think and live
recognizing automatic reactions and make better decisions

Cultural Anthropology

My approach finds its fundamental element in the orientation of cultural anthropology. Specifically regarding man in relation to his environment, in search of meaning and meaning.
The anthropological approach requires the ability to maintain an attitude of non-attachment with the experience of others and at the same time be totally involved in it. Everything is considered from the other's point of view and for this to happen it is necessary to first know one's usual world, the one that must be left aside. The other is the only one who can truly know himself.

Cultural anthropology is about:

understanding the complex variety of human nature
meeting human beings with habits and worldviews different from one's own
discovering similarities and differences between the ways in which humans and groups interpret, imagine, cope with, transform, react and adapt to the world around them
translating worldviews and building bridges between them
grasping the unity beneath the apparent diversity and the diversity beneath the apparent similarity
reflecting on the relationship between nature and culture
interpreting interpretations by combining theoretical knowledge with experience and research

Sociocracy

Sociocracy – or dynamic administration – is an administration system that applies values and tools that allow power to be actively distributed, to give space to everyone's voice and to make decisions in a fair and efficient manner.

I believe I was attracted to delving deeper into sociocracy because it functions as a complex organization like bodily systems, in a decentralized, nested and semi-autonomous way and because it has numerous similarities with traditional social administration systems, first and foremost the use of circles of word.

Participatory decision-making and distributed leadership are a great challenge to the vertical organizational system of control and separation to which we are accustomed, to the way in which we conceive the search for meaning and motivation in our role, interaction and relationship.

What we now call sociocracy was first developed as the sociocratic circle method by Gerard Endenburg in the Netherlands in the 1980s. The decision-making process is based on that of Quakers who typically have a strong commitment to inclusion and egalitarian values.

The characterizing elements are