Video: Intro to coaching with Y&J
Check out this short introduction video to meet me “in person” and get a feel for how I show up in this work. Below is a transcript of the video.
Hey, Y’all I'm Jillian gross Fortgang. I'm a relationship weaver rooted in body centered practices that cultivate joyful and loving community care and connection with curiosity, compassion and courage.
I identify as a cis, queer, white woman, and I think bringing an intersectional lens rooted in racial equity and collaboration is important to how I show up as a coach. I believe deeply in meeting folks where they're at, and tapping into your own wisdom that already exists from your experience, your community norms, and the wisdom of your body, so you can connect your head, your heart and your hands. So you can walk through the world with integrity.
What integrity means to me is aligning your actions with your values. And that's really, to me, what's at the heart of coaching, and leadership development. Over the years of working as an educator, a nonprofit professional, a fundraiser, a researcher, and a whole other range of things that I would be happy to tell you more about, what I've learned is really to boil this down to four little things, four little steps. My secret formula for living in integrity. What that is, is to notice, pause, reflect and choose. And what I mean by that is to learn how to notice big reactions. They could be emotional reactions, they could be body reactions, they could be reactions that you're seeing other people have, or even that something just doesn't feel right. Learning how to notice those and pay attention. Right? And then when you pay attention, that's the moment to slow it all down, to pause to take a breath… [breathe deeply here] not drive forward, not double down or not get defensive or runaway, right? But then to reflect, to get really curious - with compassion for yourself and others. Suspend judgment and get really curious about what's going on. Right?
One of my teachers, Leslie Huddart talks about “tracing the source,” because very rarely do these big reactions actually have much to do with what's happening in the moment. So when we learn to notice and pause when we get uncomfortable about something, or somebody else is really uncomfortable, then we reflect on it and ask is this old? Is it new? Is it mine? Is it theirs? Is this serving me? What do I want to practice, right? That's when we get to choose how to respond in a way that aligns our values and actions. That's how we get to stay in our integrity.
What this allows us to do is hold the complexity of the messiness and wholeness of humans, right ourselves and others gently and generously so that we can all be walking in our integrity and we can adapt to each other without asking anyone to compromise their own integrity. But then, if we hold each other in our messiness, and in our wholeness, we get to choose together to co-create solutions or ways to address challenges that allow for more freedom, more growth, more learning and more change, in ways that transform us and our communities and our relationships into the beautiful world we want to be creating. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to be able to work with you again. I look forward to chatting with you and doing some coaching.