Accessing what's already there
One of my mentors says, "Giving advice is a neo-colonialism."[1]
My experience facilitating for over 10 years affirms this.
When giving advice, the hidden message is, "you don't have the skills or capacity to do this yourself." It is, ultimately, belittling.
What's more often true is that people have everything they need, it's just stuck behind shame, fear, systemic barriers, or similar.
What we all need, more than advice, is to be seen for what we've experienced, listened to with deep curiosity, and held in our own processes of resourcing. I aim to this standard in everything I do, from coaching and consulting to grief tending and community singing.
This was Peter Block, at the ODN Conference in Spokane, WA, in October of 2025. ↩︎