I have skilled up in personality type to fulfil my vision to become a Personality Type Coach. Read about this journey and what it can offer you.
I spoke on ‘Learned Wisdom: Journeys in Type and Transition‘ at two international conferences in 2019. Firstly, I spoke at the British Association of Psychological Type (BAPT) ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ Conference in the UK in April 2019. Then I shared this information locally at the Australian Association of Psychological Type Conference in November 2019.
This presentation focused on personality type in my transition from corporate employee to life coach, writer and personality type practitioner. I shared how I help women negotiate major change with personality type as a compass.
A central part of my journey has been becoming a Jung/Myers-Briggs Personality Type Coach and practitioner. So I share more here about that journey, what it means and the wisdom it can offer.
Learning about my own personality type preferences
Becoming a Personality Type Coach and practitioner has been a key pillar of my professional identity journey. Learning about my INTJ personality preferences made all the difference in the world for me. I realised that I am a rare bird, with people with INTJ preferences making up about 1.5% of the population. INTJ women are even rarer at 0.5% of the female population, one of the rarest gender/type combinations. This helped me to understand I might naturally be and feel different. Learning more about my introverted, intuitive, thinking and judging preferences helped me honour these parts of myself.
I learnt more about my preferred cognitive processes and how I approach the world as an Introverted Intuitive (Ni). And I learnt about how this interacts with my preference for Extraverted Thinking. Strongly logical and structured, I also have intuitive flashes and a sense of knowing what to do. This can be a tricky combination I don’t always understand. I’m not naturally good at explaining my vision to others; I’ve had to work on this. I need to get out of my head more and into the bush or the ocean, swimming with fish. I’ve been able to do this in recent years and I feel more balanced because of it.
Becoming a Personality Type coach
I wanted to learn more about personality type and share this wisdom with others. So the three pillars of my life transition and identify shifts were becoming:
- a life coach
- a Jung/Myers-Briggs personality type coach and practitioner
- fluent in the intuitive art and symbolism of tarot
I achieved all of these goals and in this piece, I focus on my journey of becoming a Personality Type Coach. You can read about my journey of becoming a life coach here.
Beginning the journey
There are many ways to become a type practitioner with a number of assessment instruments like the MBTI®. Some people begin this journey earlier in their lives, weaving it into careers in psychology, education or human resources areas. It’s often an adjunct to other skills and pathways.
My journey began later in life when I was in my mid 50’s. My passion for Carl Jung and his writings has been a long-term personal interest. I was keen to formalise this passion through learning about type as the heart of my new evolving professional work.
I began by enrolling in a program to build type assessment skill. The coach I worked with had trained with Mary McGuiness, a Sydney-based type practitioner, trainer and author of many years’ experience. So I chose to train with Mary and gained my certification in the Majors Personality Type Inventory™ instrument in 2016.
This journey coincided with becoming a carer and companion for my mother who was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. I supported her for many months until she passed away in late 2017. At the same time, I faced redundancy from my job of 30 years in a government organisation. This all happened concurrently with training and practice to become a life coach. So I sought to develop my new skill-set quietly and deeply at the most uncertain and challenging of times.
Gaining a broader perspective
You don’t actually need an indicator instrument to work out personality type I have since discovered. It’s just one source of information and this needs to be checked against other information in a coaching context. But you certainly need a deep knowledge of the theory and practice of type however you develop this rich information. And that was my focus in becoming a type practitioner – deep work and deep knowledge.
Gaining the basic skills in personality type assessment via an instrument is a great place to start. I embarked on my learning with passion and fascination. The preparation, training and follow-up were intense.
I see a parallel between the depth of skills in becoming a personality type coach and practitioner and that of understanding your personality type. Both take an investment of time and money and being open to deep learning.
As a person learning about your own personality type preferences, a free online test without the necessary background or knowledge to interpret and apply the learning is only going to take you so far. And possibly in the wrong direction.
Likewise, I can’t imagine how anyone can do the initial training to become a type practitioner without deepening their practice in an ongoing way to provide quality insights to clients.
As Roger Pearman says:
In the hands of a knowledgeable and artful user the theory and instruments are like a Stradivarius. Unfortunately, and for far too many learners, they tend to be played like a dime store violin.
A clear vision and deepening my learning
I wanted to be playing in this personality space with skill. I had a clear vision of my offerings for personality type right from the start. It’s been a long journey to put the pieces in place as I concurrently upskilled as a coach and dealt with challenging life circumstances.
I took my learning about personality type seriously, researching and writing about type, guest-posting in various places. I updated my accreditation to include the Majors Personality Type Elements™ instrument, again with Mary McGuiness. This training and tool provide deep insights into the hierarchy and interaction of cognitive processes at play for individuals.
Looking for community
A priority in launching a new professional identity and becoming a personality type coach was connecting with community. I embarked on a search for this, joining the Australian Association of Psychological Type (AusAPT) and attending their inspiring conferences. The key value I’ve found in AusAPT and international connections like BAPT is a sense of community.
For me, this also means contributing to the community. I offered to help AusAPT with social media/communications and now co-ordinate this in a volunteer capacity. I’m the NSW representative on the AusAPT National Committee. I’ve connected with BAPT, attending webinars at the crack of dawn here in Sydney through the power of technology. It’s been great to connect too with US-based APTi and with CPP, now The Myers-Briggs Company, in Australia.
Learning from experienced type practitioners
I have been privileged to connect with the most generous type practitioners locally and abroad. The professional exchange and opportunities are there if you seek them. The type community has many excellent teachers who want the community to grow in learned wisdom. They invest their time and energy for those who wish to take up the opportunity.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with and learn from experienced type practitioners and mentors. Apart from Mary McGuiness, these include:
- Dario Nardi – learning about the neuroscience of personality and brain-savvy coaching
- Susan Nash and Sue Blair – learning about whole type and the three lenses of type
- Jane Kise and Ann Holm – learning about saboteurs and self-sabotaging patterns based on type preferences
- Peter Geyer – custodian of the AusAPT Type Research and Practice Collection, advisor and mentor to me and many others
I have worked through a Type Coaching Mastermind with two outstanding type practitioners, Susan Nash and Eve Delunas. This focused on looking at evidence-based ways of identifying type and follow-up coaching strategies.
Shaping my vision
I’ve read many books and articles and written and reflected. It’s been a process of evidence-based life learning that includes writing 442,000 words in a year, coaching others and being a gatherer of women’s wholehearted stories. These stories, alongside mine, are about women’s key life transitions with personality intersecting and weaving its way through.
So in becoming a personality type coach and practitioner, I’ve developed a deep knowledge, a community and skills of writing about this knowledge. I’ve created my personality type offerings along the way. My vision was to offer personality type coaching to women in a deep way so I could share the same insights I experienced. And that’s what I’ve put into practice.
Developing the Personality Stories coaching package
Personality Stories, is a unique coaching package I have shaped, using technology and balancing ethical type approaches with modern opportunities. My coaching clients are women all over the world. I work via Zoom video conferencing and other media including blogging, ecourses and social media.
I trialled the coaching package extensively with fellow coaches to ensure it meets women’s needs. In this way, I have continued to grow and apply my deepening knowledge of personality type in practice. This is a process I intend to continue in partnership with my clients, teachers, mentors and community.
As Jane Kise comments in this article about the depth of personality type learning as a practitioner:
Yep, the theory provides that deep of a well—I’ve been working with it for 20 years and am still gaining new insights.
I gain new insights every day. I’ll build on my knowledge for many years to come with this rich community and my clients as partners.
What’s in the coaching package?
The Personality Stories Coaching Package includes:
- online personality assessment via the Majors Personality Type Inventory™
- an online ecourse on personality type preferences and whole type, also a tool for self-assessment
- a copy of ‘You’ve Got Personality’ by Mary McGuiness
- a 90-minute coaching debrief 1:1 via video-conferencing to look at information and insights about client type preferences.
- a follow-up summary and reflections workbook on type preferences
My years of teaching and adult education experience, as well as coaching skills concurrently developed, made this possible.
So, true to type, I created the vision and framework. I skilled up over time, applying my preferences and also the concepts of Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work. And I now share this learning in a deep way with other women. You can sign up directly into the Personality Stories Coaching program in the Quiet Writing School here:
I’ve been lucky too to work with a global team of fellow coaches through our ‘Creative Hearts’ Mastermind. This co-created group has supported me to apply my personality knowledge practically. Their loving support and time enabled me to enact my vision and road test it with their feedback. Some of my coaching clients have been part of shaping the program too. Their feedback has been encouraging and invaluable. I am so grateful for all of this support.
Living my personality in my offerings
My way of becoming a personality type coach and developing my offerings has been INTJ in orientation. It reflects my strengths: envisioning, creating, scaffolding and structuring. But I also connect, network and road test, taking on feedback, evolving my learned wisdom. My connections are deeper with increasing insight and self-leadership combined with community learning. My professional journey and the products I create embody my personality learning about myself. Importantly, they involve data and others’ input in the process as well as my vision. They will evolve with further deepening learning and practice.
Sharing my pearls of wisdom is a valuable part of my journey as a type practitioner. The networking with other type professionals is inspiring, supportive and a source of further learning.
I look forward to sharing Personality Stories with women interested in diving further into their personality type. You can find out more about Personality Stories Coaching here. I’d love to be a Personality Type Coach working with you to inspire your wisdom and personal learning. You can sign up into the course directly via the Quiet Writing School here:
You might also enjoy:
Life Coaching – making meaning in times of transition
Shining a quiet light – working the gifts of introversion
Never too old – finding courage and skill to empower your dream
Personality skills including how to be the best you can be as an introvert in recruitment
Being a vessel – or working with introverted intuition
