I am raising funds to attend the first of a three-tier coaching training, developed and led by Integral Coaching Canada (ICC). It is the most complete coaching training available, and the only one endorsed by the developer of Integral Theory, Ken Wilber. I fully intend to complete all three levels during 2020-21.

Why? Because it is time for me to take my great love for all humanity, and my deep drive to support our evolution at this critical time in history, in to the world in a new way. The ICC training series will empower me to support people in growing through their limitations to become their optimal selves, AND to become more effective as engaged citizens in their communities, states, nations and the world.

Without being asked, my father directly donated $750, and I am contributing at least $300. Those contributions will not be visible in my Go Fund Me campaign, so please know that the total cost of the first training is actually $5,889.

How did I arrive at this juncture?

 For my entire professional history, I have been an "agent of positive change." I thrive on gathering information and skills, and sharing them with people in ways that are accessible to them, so they can enrich and empower their lives. For 20 years, this work was in the arena of connecting people with nature, through community gardening and organic landscaping.

All the while, I was doing deep work to develop my emotional literacy and maturity, and training in American Zen Buddhism, developing skills in deep meditation, and how to actualize insight in to activities and relationships. I have been practicing for almost 18 years, attended 43 week-long retreats, and been a co-leader in the Zen order, Hollow Bones, in which I ordained in 2011. Recently, I also did over two years of residential training in a monastery and an urban temple.

 I Am Already A Mediation Coach

Hollow Bones offers an Integral form of meditation coaching called Mondo Zen. In a two-part process with a facilitator, you enter in to a true meditative state, root the experience somatically and intellectually, and recognize that meditative awareness is always within you an available to you. But so what? How does this change your life?

You then work with the facilitator to develop an “emotional koan” (In Zen training, a “koan” is an enigmatic riddle to aid in awakening). You choose your own koan, finding a part of your life where you habitually react unconsciously. This reaction is shifted from being a “problem” to a support, using it as a gateway to meditative awareness, so you can see, decide and act with compassion, integrity and equanimity. We also employ other practices to support the complete integration of this awareness in to your daily life. It is a delightful and rewarding way to deepen your awareness and enrich your relationships.

 Why I Am Taking the ICC Training

As an agent of change, I want to support people who are doing their part to evolve as individuals in their private lives, and as members of organizations working to help humanity mature and coexist equitably, and Earth heal and thrive again. This training will provide a major leap forward in my capacities to do so.

I will start by working with organizations I am already a part of, and arenas I have already worked in.

I will offer my services in my local and regional groups of The ManKind Project, which works to support men develop lives of emotional maturity, personal mission, and service in their communities. (www.mankindproject.org)

In Hollow Bones, I will further develop my role in the leader body as we take our meditation practices further in to the world (www.mondozen.org).

As a Fellow of The Environmental Leadership Program, I will connect with established and emerging leaders and organizations who are doing the essential work to help Earth's ecosystems restore, and engage people living in conscious relationship with this planet.

Looking ahead, I also hope to get training in The Collaborative Way (https://www.collaborativeway.com/), which is affiliated with Hollow Bones. TCW provides a simple yet powerful communication tool kit to help businesses function at much higher levels. I want to bring their tools in to environmental and social justice organizations.


 What is Integral Coaching?

Integral Theory draws on all philosophies, religions and psychological studies through all time. The views and tools are overlaid to make the most comprehensive understanding of what it means to be human. ICC took this framework, added their own unique tools to it, and now provide the most robust and whole coaching training there is. What makes it complete? Most coaching methods are partial, because they use a limited range of tools to understand the client and what would empower them to make lasting change.

The Integral framework enables us to understand the four primary ways (called "quadrants") in which we humans interpret and act in the world (which are two different things!). If a coach does not understand which quadrant they primarily inhabit, they cannot understand which one their clients' primarily inhabit. Therefore, whatever they offer the client will be partial at best.

 What Distinguishes ICC?

ICC, using the Integral framework and quadrants, first trains coaches to thoroughly understand themselves, then how to understand clients, not just by “looking at” the client and assessing them, but also by inhabiting their world view, being able to “look as” them. In this way, clients are led to discover their own inner wisdom, solutions and action items. The coach’s input is minimal, mainly to help clarify and refine the clients’ insights and refine their goals and steps to achieve them.

 What Make ICC a Complete Coaching Method?

The other aspect of what makes ICC more complete than other coaching modalities is supporting people’s ability to SUSTAIN the change they seek to make. Why is that? Because actualizing and sustaining change is not about having a goal, setting tasks and getting advice. It is about taking a journey to become the new person that can inhabit and manage the new set of circumstances and responsibilities you set out to create.

A variety of coaching techniques can help you achieve a goal, but who you are now is not the person who can sustain the goal/new reality, otherwise you already would have. ICC shepherds you to become the more evolved, developed and capable person who fully lives the new reality you sought to create. Therefore, ICC coaching is short-term, limited to a topic/goal, so that you, the client, develops independence, rather than needing years of coaching. Of course, you can return to your ICC coach to further a goal, or achieve a new one; yet the aim is always to empower you to claim and sustain your newly-earned circumstance on your own.

 The Time Is Now

Having this basic understanding of Integral Theory and ICC, and where I have come from and where I am going, I am asking you to support my journey with a financial donation. Please be as generous as you can, yet without causing yourself a financial burden. While I need to raise $4,839 for the balance of the training, and aim to do so before it begins on February 24, you can donate in installments through July. Since I am taking all three levels of the training, to become a Master Integral Coach, you can also donate over the duration of my full training which will take 18-24 months, costing an estimated total of $18,000 (including the the first level, for which this campaign is funding).

I will be developing a “thank you” structure for certain levels of donations; right now I need to launch the campaign, since the first level starts in just six weeks. This Go Fund Me will cover the course fee, airfare to Ottawa (the course begins with one week there; the rest is by phone and video conference), food and lodging in Ottawa, and fund raising fees. If you have any questions, ask at anytime, and in advance, thank you so much for believing in me, and what I have to offer the world.

With Gratitude and Love,

Paco John Vérin