The Six Domains of Lived Experience
When we explore transformation through a phenomenological lens, we attend to what I refer to as the six interconnected domains of your lived experience. These aren't separate categories or a checklist to work through - they're interwoven dimensions of how you're being in the world right now.
Traditional coaching often focuses on what you're thinking or what actions you should take. But thinking and doing emerge from a deeper place: how you're experiencing being in the world. By attending to these six domains, we create space for awareness that enables transformation to unfold naturally.
Each domain illuminates the others. Attending to one naturally reveals insights about the rest. Together, they offer a rich, holistic way of understanding your lived experience - not to analyse or change it, but to be present with it in a way that opens new possibilities.
Explore each of the six domains, opening each to reveal more detail
How the Domains Work Together
These six domains aren't separate compartments; they're interwoven dimensions of a unified experience. In coaching, attending to one domain naturally illuminates the others, revealing the rich complexity of your being-in-the-world.
Consider someone experiencing burnout and feeling overworked:
We might start by noticing how this lives in their body, perhaps experienced as a weight pressing down on their shoulders (embodiment). As they stay with this sensation, they become aware of a pervasive mood of isolation and loneliness (attunement).
“But I need to prove to my boss I'm ready for promotion”, they say, revealing a driving belief (language). Staying with the weight on their shoulders, another thought emerges: “I'm trying to make my father proud. He always said I could go far if I worked hard”.
Here we see how a formative relationship continues to shape their present way of being (relationality), with the past driving them toward a particular future at the cost of their wellbeing (temporality). The client isn't dwelling in their life, they're constantly performing and delivering for work, never simply present (presence).
Through this exploration, something shifts. The weight on their shoulders eases. Their breathing slows and deepens. With new awareness, they've created new possibilities: opening to more connection and support, questioning whether striving so hard for promotion is what they truly want.
The shift didn't come from adding a technique or solving the problem of overwork. It emerged from seeing clearly what was already there but hidden.
What This Means in Our Coaching
In our work together, I'm attending to all six domains simultaneously - not as a checklist, but as interconnected dimensions of your lived experience. I'll notice what you're saying, as well as how you're saying it. I will track the subtle shifts in your breathing, your posture, and the energy in your voice. I'll invite you to become curious so you can notice for yourself - a skill that you'll retain beyond our coaching sessions.
You'll begin to recognise how moods can colour your experience and the impact of the language you're using to describe yourself.
This isn't about analysing you or diagnosing what's wrong. It's about creating space where you can become more aware of how you're being in the world right now. And in that awareness, new possibilities naturally emerge.
You don't need to understand phenomenology or remember the six domains. That's my work. Your work is to show up with curiosity about your experience, willing to notice what's present rather than rushing to fix it.
The domains are a map, not the territory. They help us attend to your lived experience. But what matters isn't the knowledge of the six domains, it's what emerges in the space between us as we explore how you're being in the world.