Coaching with collage or vision board: What’s the difference and the benefit of collage?
You’re probably familiar with the idea of vision boarding – you find a selection of images and words which represent how you want your life, or a part of your life, to be. You pop them on a board or piece of card, and put it somewhere you see it regularly.
It's an aspirational tool which will hopefully will keep us focussed on our goals, keep us on track and keep us motivated.
And it’s something you can do in the comfort and privacy of your own home; you don’t need to share it with anyone else.
Job done.
You might be thinking this sounds a lot like a collage. So, what’s the difference and what’s the point of using it in coaching?
Ultimately for me coaching with collage is just so POWERFUL. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it can be transformational. And I’m always reluctant to use the T word.
And there are a couple of really important differences.
Firstly, the selection of images in a vision board is very intentional, you’ll already have a sense of what you want to create and you’ll seek these out and place them in a deliberate way.
When we coach with collage we’re exploring, we’re trying to find an answer or sense of connection with ourselves. We work with our intuition instead of our thinking brain.
Here’s how
We set an intention or ask a question – so we ground ourselves, enabling our intuition to lead us
You’ll spend time going through magazines and papers selecting images (and text) you’re drawn to (this is where your intuition comes in) and I’ll encourage you to pull out all the images your attracted to, even if they’re similar to one you’ve already pulled.
If you’re hovering over an image, and aren’t sure, I’ll ask you to pull this one too.
Once you have a pile of images, I’ll ask you to start placing them on the board, again working as intuitively as you can. You might want to cut and trim your images at this point
I’ll encourage you to play with the placement before you pin them
This might sound a bit woo, but there’s science behind this. The images we use are effectively metaphors, and metaphors are super powerful. They’re a shortcut to our unconscious, they help us connect to our authentic self, they enable us to tap into our wisdom. As someone once said to me, they bypass the bouncer that is your thinking mind.
But we’re not finished here.
Now we get to the juicy bit, the coaching questions; how this works varies depending on the space we’re working in (1 to 1, workshop or group programme) as these spaces impact on what will feel safe:
I will ask questions around why you were drawn to the images or text, what is meaningful, what their positioning means, how they relate to each other. We’ll explore the layers together
If it’s just us, we’ll talk this through, taking as long as you need
if we’re in a workshop you’ll have a journal to reflect in and we can check in individually (so you’re not having to share with others)
and if we’re doing this as part of a group programme we’ll talk together about what our boards mean, using the power of the group to gain different insights
You’ll be left with a deeper sense of connection to yourself and where you’re going; you’ll learn about yourself in new ways; and you’ll have a reminder that you can see and that can evolve with you - which is why I like a cord board and pins so your board never needs to stay still, just like you.
Here’s what Kasia had to say about her experience of coaching with collage on retreat with me:
“It was amazing to feel yourself drawn to different images and spend time thinking what that meant to me. You have all these ideas about yourself and your life floating in your mind and it was amazing to see them in front of you. It felt reassuring and surprising at the same time; like a ‘birds eye view’ of yourself. I still look at my board now and it grounds, focuses and motivates me when I need it.”
If you want to know more about how coaching with collage can support you, book a clarity call with me.