ABSTRACT

It is said that the way we think when we are walking and talking is different from if we are sitting a desk. In this chapter the author, Rachel Ellison, coaches her client in an art gallery, a library, a hotel café and in a park. The client reports heightened creativity and accelerated learning from coaching on location rather than in his office. Taking a beneath the surface approach, psychoanalytic themes are explored in response to the client’s attitude and comments in relation to the location. Themes include being at a cross-roads in life, and being cross with his decisions in life, as well as the reputational risk of coaching peripatetically, lest a work meeting resemble a date. The subconscious, including sexual fantasy, is explored through references to the artwork and the gallery buildings themselves, in terms of power, self-loathing, hostility, feeling attached or feeling chained against one’s will. Also relevant are the subconscious sexual desires which may or may not be engaged, as well as projection and transference.