A Walk through the 'Tree of Life' Exercise Recently Jessica Austin, co-developer of our Positive Psychology Coaching Course, led me through one of the exercises taught within the course called "The Tree of Life - A Diagnostic Activity for Goal-Setting and Coaching Conversations." A free copy can be downloaded here. It's a very elegant and powerful exercise using the metaphor of a tree, created by Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener. It's regularly used in Positive Acorn's coaching sessions and is part of their overall organizational mission to provide valuable content free of charge on a regular basis. One of the standout features of this activity is that while other assessments look at satisfaction or take stock of values or identify strengths, this exercise offers a chance to look at all of them and how they connect to one another.
The exercise included identifying my Supporting Resources, Values, Strengths, Life Domains and Developments. Throughout this process, Jessica expertly lead me through the exercise with great compassion, intuition, and intelligence, pointing out items I hadn't realized myself. She helped me identify additional strengths I hadn't recognized based on our conversation about my values and support systems.
One of my many 'aha' moments during the exercise was when we identified my Life Domains - the most important areas of my life which represent the strong boughs of the Tree of Life. Jessica asked me to rate how I felt I was doing in my life in each of my life domains on a scale from 1 to 5. One that popped up as a 3.0 was the relationship with my husband. I've been helping him start his own business and I'd found myself frustrated that not enough 'action' was happening yet and we'd fallen into a pattern of me nagging and him retreating, which was ineffectual and annoying for both of us. Jessica helped me break that pattern beautifully with her questions and insight during the coaching session.
We discussed how I could move my 3.0 rating in this particular life domain to a 3.5, and I suggested that I do a better job of being supportive. Jessica artfully led me to a decision that would specifically accomplish this goal.
I found the entire exercise to be very powerful and even emotional, and Jessica was very gentle and intuitive in guiding me throughout the process. I came away with insights I definitely wouldn't have realized when doing this exercise on my own, plus I left with specific action items I could take to move forward in my life. I'm very happy and grateful that this exercise is being taught in the coaching course so that others can experience the same positive effects that I have. Thank you, Jessica!
- Jenny T.
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