I grew up in a liberal family and didn’t question that much at first. In fact, I probably thought of my views as the result of my own “free thinking”. The psychology I met at university, and later the coaching world, was overwhelmingly left-leaning too.
I was, however, impressed by traditional Buddhist monks and Japanese martial arts teachers, who seemed to have a very different take on human nature. Responsibility, discipline, duty and community stopped being things I was suspicious of. I also started noticing how individualistic and “victimy” a lot of helping culture could be.
Getting sober after years of addiction especially made this less theoretical (19 years now). So did running a business – I had to get rid of excuses. I found that personal responsibility, discipline and better boundaries were what actually worked.
Later, founding Sane Ukraine – a trauma project that taught local Ukrainians to support people affected by the war – sharpened this again. Faith inspired me too. The nuns I worked with there were, frankly, some of the best-regulated people I’ve come across – and I’ve spent years around yogis, meditation teachers, psychologists, therapists, dancers and so on.
That got me looking more seriously at philosophy. I found traditions that didn’t reduce everything to either the physical or the individual psychological – ethics, virtue, beauty, faith, social position and the wider community mattered too. For me this isn’t about throwing progressive psychology away. It’s about seeing what it misses. Every worldview has a bias.
I’ve been teaching coaching and embodiment for over 25 years, and we’ve trained more than 2,000 embodiment coaches. I’m interested in what survives contact with actual practice, not just what sounds “nice”. I’ve found that includes conservative values and ideas.
