A geologist, a psychotherapist and her client walk into a bar.
Actually, no – they walk into the hills.
Also, the geologist and therapist are the same person: Ruth Allen, author of Weathering, a beautiful book I enjoyed reading this summer.
If you’re passionate about the natural world – and personal development – then you might enjoy the book as much as I have. It’s a thoughtful exploration of what it means to be human in an ever-changing world, using landscape as both metaphor and physical terrain to navigate. An alchemy of rocks, deep time and personal stories that geologically metamorphose into ageless wisdom.
Beyond that, something else intrigues me here: the story of transferrable skills.
Allen started her career as a geologist and later requalified as a therapist – a radical career change not dissimilar to my own journey from geospatial professional to executive coach. But what I find interesting is that Allen didn’t abandon geology to become a therapist – she found a new application for it.
It makes me wonder what our former selves could offer us today. All of us have accumulated knowledge and skills learned earlier in our careers that may now feel obsolete or unrelated to our current occupation. What if we could revive, integrate and apply this in new ways?
I recently ran a seminar where, as a former mapmaker, I offered the fractal and fuzzy nature of the British coastline as a metaphor for boundaries in coaching. It worked well. Perhaps the coaching world might also benefit from triangulations, thematic layers or map projections?
Something to ponder.
In the meantime, maybe you could try to finish my joke. Something about three people walking into a bar and two coming out…
True Horizon Coaching 