It’s time for nonduality to find its home in professional coaching.

The age of “sages on stages” is over. Nonduality has had a long phase of (male) teachers sitting on podiums, speaking to seekers hoping to hear what they believe they’re missing. Perhaps we’ve entered a new phase where we realize that underneath the learned belief in an egoic self, we are all ALREADY awake and whole. We can recognize the joyful freedom of nondual understanding simply and directly by being our own teacher. The wisdom is already there. But we may need some guidance to rediscover that. It’s time for nonduality to find its home in professional coaching. The equal partnership of coaching (or guiding or any other name for it) is a beautiful, zeitgeist-appropriate way for nondual understanding to unfold. Books (even direct and practical) don’t work for everyone and don’t always produce a complete shift. Most need a live guide eventually — to troubleshoot, get unstuck, and reflect our true nature back to us. That’s where we, nondual coaches, come in.

Nonduality transcends labels. That’s the beauty of it. Beyond all labels, what remains? (Nondual) being, right? You don’t even need to grasp what nonduality is about to live it. But what if you aspire to be a nondual coach? Do you first need enough firsthand nondual experiences to discuss it? Again, fundamentally, you’re already a nondual being. This knowing is the only experience you need. A nondual coach isn’t just someone fascinated by the concept of nonduality. It’s not even about seeing yourself as a coach. It’s about surrendering to the act of coaching in any form it takes.

Anyone can be a good guide if they have seen the truth of this understanding thoroughly enough (beyond lasting doubts) for themselves and learn the technical skills of nondual inquiry. Because at the ultimate level, there is no coach and no coachee. There is also no one to be enlightened, so we can forget about all that. Apparently many excellent teachers in the nondual tradition never had an enlightenment experience, whatever that would mean.

There is only what is happening and that is exactly what should be happening, the only thing that can be happening – and that can be a client who comes to a coach. Know (remember) that Being is pulling back into itself, you’re just the guide. You’re nothing. And yet you have your role to play.

If we’re right in stating this is the truth of our human existence, then we should be able to speak about it simply and with any other human being. Anyone should be able to share this truth and point to it in any context. As long as you’re not hurting or harming anyone and the basic ethics of the helping professions are observed.

If you’re not hurting the client and are doing your best to help them see, you are in service. You may not be the ultimate teacher, you may not even be the most helpful guide they could have, but you are the guide the client is currently experiencing and you have a role to play on their path. Play it to the best of your ability.

If you are a trained coach you have unique skills that nondual teachers usually do not have. You know how to listen, ask questions, reframe, and make distinctions to help a client see what they cannot yet see for themselves. Have faith in these skills. You will gain more confidence by coaching more clients.

Having said all that, you must be confident enough in your own understanding to guide another, which is especially important in dealing with their questions and doubts. You can’t take anyone where you haven’t been and you can’t answer questions you haven’t at one point answered for yourself. The good news is that nondual coaching is not only for the client but also for you! Awareness is questioning and answering awareness. You answer your own questions again and again, in the present inquiry, together with the client.

So yes, you need to have done the work yourself. And no, it doesn’t matter if right now, in this session with this client, you too are not entirely sure. In fact, this allows you to walk alongside the client, to dance the dance together, instead of you setting yourself up as a teacher of “wisdom”. Every step with the client is also pointing you home, over and over again. Our understanding is only ever relevant in this moment. Yesterday’s understanding is worth nothing.

Do you know how to deal with doubts when they come up? Because they will. The client will bring up doubt after doubt. You may share many of them when they come up. Then you find out together what is true, NOW. Coaching can be a wonderful reminder of what you’ve already seen. Speaking this makes it ever clearer for you. So let go of the belief that you must be doubt-free and see this as an ongoing opportunity to see the truth.