The Future of Embodied Communication Coaching

Rachel Cossar: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of conversations in the future of work. I am your host, Rachel Koster, and today, we are talking about a topic that is near and dear to my heart as a somatic and embodiment professional myself, former professional ballet dancer, gonna talk about the future of embodied communication coaching with a good friend and wonderful thought leader in this space, Zena Habib. Zayna, over to you to introduce yourself please to our audience today. Of course.

Zeina Habib: Thank you so much, Rachel, for having me here today. I’m really happy to be presence with your audience and with the people that we’re gonna be talking with. So my name is Zena. I have been a coach for the last 7 years, and I got into embodiment about, like, 3, 4 years ago. I think the biggest thing for me was how do you link movement and the body with growth and, motivation. And this kind of different mindset that as an athlete or as a dancer you have on a daily basis, but maybe if you’ve been working for a long time, we’re not very active, you don’t have. And, for me, it was a great transition from just being a Manager and kind of transformed my life. And I really do love the impact I see on people when we start working together. So I think this is the biggest thing for me. I am ICF certified. And I have well, I have had the certification for the last maybe 4 or 5 years now, and it’s been a really nice to be able to support, all the managers, the leaders. And I’ve worked a lot also with women around the world, especially in the MENA region, and kind of be able to empower them to create the change they really wanna do in their life. Beautiful. Well, we’re so happy to have you.

Rachel Cossar: So thanks again for joining. So we’ll we’ll start off with our first question. I know you were sharing a little bit about your your background in this space, but can you just share for the audience, like, what is embodied coaching and Like, how how did you actually develop your your coaching practice around this focus? Yeah. Of course.

Zeina Habib: So when I first started in coaching 7 years ago. I just went to a communication training, and then they were like, you’re really good at this. Do you wanna be part of it? And then I realized that it is my thing, and I love it. So I started working in it. And when it felt like something was missing, like, great. I was able to kind of connect to new parts of myself, but the change itself There was kind of a part that I wasn’t able to reach in a sense. And then being a dancer, I was like, curious. Like, what does it look like? To kind of connect to areas of my life, connect the dancing with the growth mindset, with the working on the coaching. So I did a little bit of research, and I found a lot of trainings, and I found a lot of work being done around somatic and embodiment. And I decided, great. And this is when I felt like coaching was more complete. And to help our audience understand more what embodied coaching is. Everyone maybe knows coaching from a sense of, like, changing of mindset and, like, you know, understand your thoughts and self awareness, but there’s another part, which is included in the embodiment, two parts actually. One of them is the somatic part. Which is your own sensations. So, for example, when you tell someone I’m scared, what does it really mean? How do you know how what is the bodily sensation that tells you you are there when you’re happy, whatever it is. So kind of understanding the sensations within our body, where they are, and how they move around. So we are quicker at identifying things. Because it’s hard to get to the word maybe fear, but it’s easy to be like, oh, I’m feeling a sensation in my chest. The other aspect of it is more about the behavior and the posture. Like, how is your posture affecting you? And how do you change behavior? Because you cannot think to have it. You can’t be like, I want to start being patient. It’s not gonna happen. You have to practice it in your body. It’s happening within your muscles. So how do you start noticing how to happens and creating that change that you want. So if I were to describe it in, like, a few words, embodied coaching is about noticing the sensations within our body, and starting to understand more postures and our relationship to our muscles and behavioral change within this world and not just what is happening within our mind. Totally.

Rachel Cossar: That’s a a great definition, and it’s it’s so wonderful to hear how some of your experiences as a dancer has informed who you are as a coach, right, because as a dancer, I mean, so much of your world is physical is is driven by physical awareness and and pushing yourself physically and understanding some of those boundaries. So that’s, you know, it’s really beautiful. It’s also really interesting because we talk a lot about this in nonverbal communication training and, you know, understanding physiological, as you said, reactions to stress, to threat, to walking out on a stage and presenting in front hundreds of people. Right? Like, it’s it’s really interesting if you can tap into that physical awareness you have so much more power and control over how you end up showing up. That’s a really powerful thing, I think. Yeah. 100%. And this is I love how you say it.

Zeina Habib: You have more power and control. Like, you have kind of an intelligence that you didn’t tap into before. It’s like additional resources for you. Totally. I love that.

Rachel Cossar: An additional intelligence you can just tap into. So on that note, when we think about connecting with our bodies. Right? The I I find a lot of our professional world is biased towards the content and the cerebral, and the body just gets left behind. So in your opinion, like, what are some of the biggest barriers to people being connected to their bodies in today’s world of work.

Zeina Habib: So it’s interesting. I think there’s multiple to it, but the first one is I feel like the lack of knowledge, awareness, and skills to do that because people, we grow up, like, even if you think about it, growing up in school, if you’re not if you have if you were not an athlete, if you were not a dancer, if you didn’t have any physical activities in your life, you don’t learn that skill.

Rachel Cossar: Like, no one tells you you need to be in tune with your body. No one tells you this is important.

Zeina Habib: And and realize that technical people are skeptical about it because they think this is very, like, artsy or, like, very spiritual kind of thinking. So it takes a lot. Yeah. It’s it’s not they’re not used to it. Sure.

Rachel Cossar: Because it is not, it is not it’s not how they think. Like, it’s a lot of the technical stuff when you’re working technically a lot. This is a completely different set of skills that you’re using that you’re not used to, and you need to kind of also when it comes to the body experiment.

Zeina Habib: So you need to be the kind of person who’s willing to trust that. So they will have that trust of like, what does it look like if I do this, or what does it look like if I do that? Because it’s not you can’t do 1+1. It’s equal to. It’s not it doesn’t work that way. So it’s a lack of skill, a lack of awareness, and a bit of lack of trust, and that feeling. And the last part, which is a bit also important, is connecting to our bodies, being being connected to our feelings being connected to difficult things. You cannot decide what to be connected to, and Some people may not be I don’t wanna say ready, but may not, wanna be doing that. They may be more disassociating sometime or numbing. So it takes a lot of, like, trauma awareness or maybe just simply understanding of what it’s like for people to slowly going into this world rather than just kind of, like, rushing into it. Totally. Yeah.

Rachel Cossar: I think you bring up a really important point with this kind of work that I I experienced pretty early on when I started, you know, working with people in embodiment and communication and all that is the bod you know, the the the book. Right? The body keeps the score. Like, whether we like it or not, our bodies store memory and information and, you know, sensory data And the body’s gonna do that anyways, whether you’re attuned to it or aware of it is another thing. Right? And that’s what you can kind of work to develop. But if you’re not careful and if you’re not approaching it with a guide or a coach or a facilitator, I think sometimes you can touch on things that you didn’t even know were there, right, and whether it’s something as serious as trauma or or just something that completely shocks you, it can be a pretty a pretty, like, powerful experience. So I think you’re right that, like, you want to approach this in a sustainable and supported way? Yeah. A 100%. It’s it’s it’s important, but a tricky area to go into unprepared.

Zeina Habib: Totally. Absolutely. So that’s why you just think, like, such a I always think it’s it it bears mentioning that with this work that, like, you can’t just, like, fly into it and or start coaching in this space without, like, understanding what you’re dealing with.

Rachel Cossar: So that’s that’s that’s really great to hear and now, right? We we have this added. It’s interesting for some the video can be a barrier but when we actually think about it, it’s a huge connector and a huge opportunity. So how do you within virtual communication specifically where so many people think that they lose all of their body language and all of their everything. Like, how do you bring the body front and center in virtual communication? Yeah.

Zeina Habib: So I’d it does feel like you’re losing some of the contact in the sense of, like, the person being present with you. All of them, you’re just seeing kind of a snap shot of what is happening, but also I feel it’s an opportunity for multiple reason. First of all, it’s safety. Because a lot of people within this work or within any work, maybe don’t feel as safe to say some things in person or as comfortable. So virtual gives the opportunity for people. I realize to communicate more, and that is great. And it helps a lot. From what can we do to kind of, do it better, or how do we make sure that our body is present? I think my first is gonna sound like gonna sound maybe like a weird tip, but my first tip is turn off the self view Oh, I love that. Of yourself.

Rachel Cossar: Yes. I love that. Yeah.

Zeina Habib: Why?

Rachel Cossar: Because I always tell that the first level is creating self awareness.

Zeina Habib: So you have to be in a meeting, be able to feel your own body, and be able to be attuned to the other person’s body. The problem is when you see yourself, you’re no longer present because you’re like, Oh, I need to move my hair because this is in the way, and you’re out of the conversation and focused on yourself. So when you don’t when you remove that, you are giving yourself the opportunity for the 1st skill, which is curious self awareness, simply monitoring. When Rachel said that, I felt maybe a stronger heartbeat. Oh, great. I noted down. Or I noticed that I don’t know. The person I was talking to move their head or move their body differently. And what does that mean about them and how can I help them feel maybe differently? How can I mirror and help them feel more calm or being tune with them? So I think it the first thing is curious self awareness and the absence of judgment and the absence of, like, oh my god. I did this wrong, or I talked this way, or I showed up this way. And then the absence of self observing, like, looking at ourselves and just being critical and focusing on that.

Rachel Cossar: So, yeah, using the body to be able to connect and be able to understand the person we’re talking to.

Zeina Habib: And I think this is a learned skill, so I would say practice Like, consider it’s an experiment, new science for you, and just go ahead and play around with it. Start noticing what other people show up as or what you show up as and go with that. And the other one, which is gonna sound a it’s a bit different in the sense of when we are connected virtually all day, if we’re not connected to our body, we might forget to move to eat, to drink.

Rachel Cossar: And, you know, we forget how much it affects us.

Zeina Habib: Like, we could be showing up completely different in a meeting just because of some bodily need that we’re not taking into restoration. So make sure that because we are virtual and it’s so easy to stay connected and it’s so easy to have a call from the airport or have a call from anywhere, How do we make sure that we’re not forgetting our own needs also? And not just for us, but to show up for the conversation in a good way that helps it. Yeah. Great points.

Rachel Cossar: The virtual setting is a little bit of a contradiction almost, right? Because it’s you and a screen, but the screen itself is a portal to the other person in connecting with another human being. Right? And I think it’s really easy to have almost like your mind totally leave your body And for professionals who are on video multiple times a day, often back to back, as you said, like, being able to remember that you have the very three d experience. That’s that’s almost always like physical first. Right? Your body’s always in the physical moment. The physical present moment and to be able to anchor into that and to remind yourself that, oh, I need to get up. I need to walk around. I need to get some fresh air, some water, whatever, can help you then return to that computer, that screen, and connect with the human on the other end. But It’s that also is like a muscle that you have to develop. Yeah. Practice. I mean, you know, the dancers, you’re used to it.

Zeina Habib: You’re like, practice as part of your life. But maybe the usual mental stuff we’re not used to practicing as much. Right.

Rachel Cossar: Or, like, even just like the mind body connection component of, oh, the, like, my awareness just left again. And now I’m slouched again. And now, you know, the the self perpetuating behavior of having poor posture, which lowers my energy and makes me feel even more tired and also sends that message to my audience. Like, it’s all pretty intricate interrelated stuff, but if you can short circuit the awareness and kinda keep bringing it back to the present moment, keep readjusting yourself in your seat, you know, then over time your body will start to support you in in in ways that I think can often surprise people. Oh, yeah. A 100%.

Zeina Habib: And just one thing on this is I always talk about is because I feel we are very hard on ourselves. And how can we make sure that we do exactly what you said every time and all the time while still being open about it. Like, taking it funny, like, oh, I did this again. Let’s just sit up instead of, like, I did this again and then just kind of making it harder because it becomes, like, I don’t want to create that change anymore instead of I’m excited about that change. Right. Yeah. Absolutely.

Rachel Cossar: Being patient with yourself, giving yourself grace, like, all those good things. So, Zena, we were talking about this a little bit before we started recording, but you are leaning into, you know, the new technologies and AI, in this coaching space. So what do you leverage for your own coaching when it comes to ai and and different technologies.

Zeina Habib: So I think the basic one that I felt made a lot of change the concept of virtual communication in itself. I feel within the coaching world, the amount of people that had access to coaching because of that was enormous. The amount of people you could have access to all over the world was enormous, and I think this is big. This is a huge one. Because I feel a lot of people would not have reached out if it wasn’t for that. Just to remember that tech allowed people to have platforms to talk on from their own home, if they don’t feel safe to be able to do that from there, especially, you know, during the pandemic. But even regardless of that, it opens up a chance of like, hey. I wanna try coaching. Hey. I’m ready to see what that means, and it changed a lot of people’s lives. And that for me is a huge thing that I love I love being in person and coaching in person, but this is also something that I feel created a big difference in my life and in my client’s life. There’s other 2 things like your platform trying out new tools. I think, like, we forget as coaches that we don’t have as much quick like, not I wouldn’t say awareness, but we cannot notice as much as the AI can take in. Like, let’s talk about body language. A lot of my clients, when they’re you when you use this kind of technology, when you try it out, it will give you some hints. So it will tell you about certain things that you could not have noticed, and maybe 2, 3 other people couldn’t because that is about enhancing. It’s about getting more you’re getting more awareness. You’re getting more information. Mhmm. And then you have the freedom to do whatever you want with that information. But I say, why not take in that information? Why not be curious and be able to access this kind of information. Would which could, like, a small comment. Like, we I could go on virtual savings and a small thing it would give me would make me leap forward quickly or quicker than I would have. Right. I think, like, whether virtual safeties and other people that have been working on, like, for example, as a coach, how much of pauses do you give? What kind of questions you ask? Like, all of this kind of work for me feels like huge improvement. And it’s it’s worth it from that sense. Right. And and I feel the last thing is matching coach with clients, like, the technology of AI used in that, because I’ve heard a lot of my clients go away or, like, say or friends of, like, Oh, I didn’t wanna do coaching anymore because I talked to this one person, and it’s like, no. So they kind of, like, make it that, oh, coaching is not working for me or this is not gonna help me. And they miss out on opportunities because I’ve tried it. You know, I don’t know if you’ve tried.

Rachel Cossar: Like, if you go online to look for a coach or for a therapist or any It’s very hard to find someone or the right someone. I think this is the better word.

Zeina Habib: You find thousands of people, but to find the person that will work for you is a bit tough. So I don’t know leveraging AI and this is huge. Yeah. No. Those are 3 great use cases.

Rachel Cossar: It’s interesting because all of them help you as a coach augment your, like, the the work that you actually really care about. Right? Yeah.

Zeina Habib: And it helps the like, it’s kind of helping me and the client too. So it’s great. Right. Yeah.

Rachel Cossar: And I also love that you mentioned that there are opportunities for you as coach to leverage technology to improve your own coaching. Right? Like, I think sometimes coaches neglect that they need some support and coaching and, you know, you’re so focused on the people you’re trying to help that you forget to help yourself. So that’s like a really nice reminder as well. Thank you.

Zeina Habib: Awesome.

Rachel Cossar: Well, Zena, that’s that’s all we have time for today, but thank you so much for sharing your perspective. It’s so valuable, I think, to always bring the body back into the center of of everything, really. So for our audience, how can they get in touch with you directly, follow more of your work, Yeah.

Zeina Habib: So they can find me on LinkedIn, Zena Habib, exactly the way my name is written here, and they can also find me on Instagram. Zena Voice Within. This is my website and my brand is called Voice Within. I have a website also. And I’d be happy, like, they can reach out, you know, whether a VM message on LinkedIn or Instagram or through the website, and I’ll be happy to get back to them and help them in however way they would want to. Awesome.

Rachel Cossar: Well, thank you again, Zena, and thank you, of course, as always to our listeners for another conversation in the future of work. Thank you.