The Hidden Messages in Water - book review

The Hidden Messages in Water by Professor Masuru Emoto is not a book about life coaching per se.  However, I have used it on most of my group trainings delivered to health professionals, managers, community workers and service users.

The Hidden Messages in Water is essentially a masterpiece of positive thinking.  The book promotes positive awareness through a scientific methodology based on Professor Emoto’s many years of research into water crystals. 

The author demonstrates his science through write-ups of experiments and particularly through his outstanding microphotography of water. The author’s scientific contention is that everything in the universe is in vibration, including humans. Vibrations affect everything in the known world and this includes the effect of human emotions. Emoto uses microscopic photography of water crystals at the point of freezing to show the different formations that occur when the water is subjected to a range of human moods, verbal address and art forms, particularly music. When Emoto started the photographic research in 1999 at the suggestion of a colleague, he admits that the results astounded him. Putting a bottle of water on a table and playing different music at normal listening levels showed a wide range of crystal formations.  'Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony' (the 6th) with its bright and clear tones, resulted in beautiful and well-formed crystals. Water exposed to violent heavy-metal music resulted in fragmented and malformed crystals at best'.

The reason I have used this book for life coaching is mainly because of the utterly beautiful photographs.  A well-formed water crystal captured at the point of freezing is a phenomenal picture.  I usually have a crystal slide as part of my PowerPoint presentation.  I refer to Emoto’s research briefly and have the book on display. I use this because I feel the photographs illustrate aspiration, independence and the power of positive thinking and planning.  For these reasons alone, the book allows me to create a framework for mental health training that incorporates aspiration, hope and recovery rather than the continual emphasis on diagnosis and support.

Life Coaching Contracts

Individual Coaching

A Life Coach working with an individual client should have developed his or her own way of explaining what the contract means. John Vanek’s core coaching contract is:

 ’You have contracted me to help you identify areas that you wish to work on for change or progression in your life. You have also contracted me to help you generate SMART goals and review them as the coaching sessions continue’.

A coaching contract is a working alliance between coach and coachee, so practical and wider arrangements must also be covered. These include the coaching environment, safety, confidentiality, mutual responsibilities, openness and honesty. A word of caution: keep the core contract simple. If you talk over too many details to new clients however well you may mean, it can look as if you are talking AT them.

Team and multi-handed contracts

Team coaching takes place when an organisation specifically requires the services of a coach for the achievement of goals and outcomes designed to benefit company or departmental performance. As with individual coaching, team coaching starts with the contract – what does the client want to work on and what can the coach offer. As www.mindtools.com puts it the questions around goals and mission ‘are written with the client in mind, although they may also need to be covered with other stakeholders. This is when there are multi‐party contracts such as those involving the client’s line manager or the HR officer who is organising the coaching arrangements’. Once again, communication and planning are key.

Group Coaching

Group coaching is different again from team coaching. Team coaching often focuses on the work of a team within an organisation to identify specific company or departmental goals. Group coaching can be flexible and adaptable for a wide spectrum of coaching scenarios. Most of us on this training have been asked to deliver group coaching at one time or another. For group coaching the contract is very similar to individual coaching. It should show how the coach is part of a contract that has been engendered by the client. It should pledge a safe and confidential environment, outlining mutual responsibilities, openness and honesty. It should also cover clients’ expectations of the coaching. Introduce ownership from the outset. A clearly communicated contract summary should be given along with practical arrangements and the nature of the working alliance.