Today we’d like to introduce you to Art Dickinson.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I suffered sexual abuse at a young age when I was five or six years old. The abuse weighed heavily on me and would shape my experience for years to come. As is often the case with trauma, I failed to remember the incident for a long time, lost in a suffering that lacked context. By middle school, I found myself struggling with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and by late high school, I found myself a prisoner to them. Several years later, in therapy, I remembered my experience, and before long confronted my perpetrator – a step that would begin my path to acceptance and long-awaited peace. In 2017, after much more therapy and various forms of healing work, I answered my calling to help others by enrolling at iPEC (the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching).
Soon into my training as a Certified Professional Coach, it clicked. I quickly saw the potential coaching holds for helping those with similar stories. Though at times similar, coaching differs from therapy, and I realized the benefit coaching would have given me when therapy had left me at a bit of a standstill. Today, my business is in its infancy and strives to connect with those ready to boldly pursue their healing in a unique way. I did not jump from remembering the abuse to starting a business. The space in between contained all kinds of emotion, and much hardship. The aim of Art Dickinson Coaching is to utilize unique life coaching processes while maintaining safety and confidence. The aim is to partner with you as you reclaim your right to live powerfully and purposefully. What could be more important?
Has it been a smooth road?
I’d say the road’s been more like Fountain at rush hour – heavy traffic, cars that don’t stop at stop signs, pedestrians coming out of nowhere, all surrounded by never-ending construction. It’s mostly unfinished healing that has created roadblocks in the past. When I committed to this work and began building the business, pieces of the trauma not yet confronted showed up in full force and demanded my attention before moving forward. I believe people in this boat will always have some work to do, but also now feel confident in my ability to witness others as they make their own progress. Another struggle, to be honest, is connecting with those seeking this service. It’s a sensitive subject, and one people often don’t care to advertise, which of course makes perfect sense. It’s super important to me that clients understand the value I place on confidentiality. “What is said here stays here.” Period.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Art Dickinson Coaching story. Tell us more about the business.
My personal experience helped identify what I see as a gap between therapy and coaching, and Art Dickinson Coaching aims to bridge that gap. I work with all kinds of clients, typically with men who’ve experienced sexual abuse, either as young children or later in life. Clients have typically addressed their trauma in a professional setting (e.g., therapy), but are still “spinning their wheels” so to speak. While therapy is an often necessary and efficient mechanism for healing, coaching provides an opportunity to further explore existing roadblocks and strategies for overcoming them. To perhaps oversimplify, therapy is often the “why?” of the past, while coaching focuses on the “how?” of moving forward. As a coach, my role is to partner with those who are experiencing a disconnect with their Truest selves, and witness clients as they shed old, self-limiting patterns and step into their greatness.
I believe that my personal experience, along with my willingness to address this topic in my coaching, is largely what sets me apart. Working mostly with men is also unique, and in my opinion, extremely important. Sexual abuse knows no gender, and yet men suffer a unique stigma. Men are not exactly encouraged to share an experience like this, let alone explore how it impacts their day to day. Many are still quite unaware that 1 in 6 men have suffered sexual abuse. My aim is to do what I can to take the weight of that stigma off men’s shoulders so that all may benefit, and for that I can say I am proud.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
It’s difficult to have a bird’s eye view of this whole thing. To be honest, I feel like I’m in unchartered territory. Again, my hope is to remove some of the stigma surrounding this issue and to normalize people’s experience. The #MeToo movement is pivotal and feels like traction. Perhaps five years down the line, sexual abuse will be a more comfortable topic for any life coaching session, not because it’s unimportant, but because its better recognized and understood.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artdickinsoncoaching.com
- Email: [email protected]
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