Approach
We create programs and services that cultivate a greater degree of capacity in individuals and in groups for effectiveness, fulfillment, and wholeness in the face of the increasing challenges and opportunities of our time. We facilitate the development of consciousness, capacities and skills needed to bring about a new, more sustainable future aligned with your deepest values and desires.
Our unique approach is based on an ongoing investigation into human and social evolution that is research-based, developmental, integral, essential and practical.
Research-based. For us, Pacific Integral has been above all a set of questions we live in. We integrate informal and formal research practices into our work that deepen our understanding, guide our practice and facilitate our own transformation as consultants, educators and leaders. A core of this research, led by Terri O’Fallon, Ph.D., is the further development of a model of adult human development and its measurement, building upon the work of Jane Loevinger, Susanne Cook-Greuter, and others.
Developmental. An essential question is: what is the nature of consciousness, human expression and organization as it evolves? For many years, we have been investigating, understanding and working with individuals and collectives as they evolve into more integral, complete, healthy and enlightened ways of being. Through this research and the refinements to our practice, we are producing demonstrable results in supporting individuals and collectives to move and mature through developmental stages, to grow beyond current ways of being to greater capacities for perceiving and acting, greater spans of care and awareness, and greater degrees of effectiveness and fulfillment.
Integral. Our approach is also to seek what is more whole, more complete and inclusive. We believe the problems we face today are challenging us to evolve. We are inspired by the work of Ken Wilber, whose integral vision integrates virtually every major system of thought and human endeavor. Starting with this inspiration, we look to bring integral approaches into practice to discover what it might mean to operate with a more complex perspective, a more complete vision, and to deliberately work to synergize disparate systems and initiatives.
Essential. While at times it may seem at odds with working with developmental and integral approaches, our approach also deliberately works to align with what is most essential. By essential, we mean what is of most importance. While our developmental and integral approaches involve improving our capacities to work with complexity and see more parts of the picture, the essential impulse is to simplify, i.e., to ask: what’s this all really about? What are the simple steps we can take today to bring about a more integral future? Being essential also means working with our highest impulses, the ideals or sense of unity that guides and integrates all of us.
Pragmatic. While grounded in theory, we address real-world issues in the context of the realities and current dynamics of the lives of our participants and the organizations we serve. We strive to see the world through our clients' eyes and keep our minds and hearts focused on their concerns. Being pragmatic implies seeing what is real for our clients and using what is present to inspire the greatness that wants to emerge. To us, pragmatic also means embodied, in other words, attending to bringing the essential ideas and values we work with into life.
