Library

The Canvas

Four layers — Foundations (where they come from), Core (who they are), Energies (what moves in them), Expression (what the world sees) — plus the Regulation spine: the state underneath them all.

Layer

Foundations, Core, Energies, or Expression. The report tracks which layer the session actually worked versus where the client's material lived.

Regulation spine / redlined

Every canvas has a state underneath. A redlined client is in threat state: everything urgent, no recovery. State work — slowing tempo, shrinking scope, lowering threat — is coaching; it comes before story.

Depth Ladder

Four rungs of contract depth: Skill (learn a capability), Performance (apply it against real stakes), Developmental (rework what's underneath — beliefs, identity), Transformational (rework the frame itself).

Kegan gate

Orders of adult development gate the ladder: a socialized-mind client speaks in "should" and can't yet author their own Core; a self-authoring client can. Language tell: "should" = borrowed; "I want / I choose" = theirs. In one line: it isn't about intelligence or skill — it's about how much complexity of mind the client can hold as their own.

Depth inflation

Contracting a rung above the client's capacity or material. Its twin, depth deflation: retreating to tactics when the client offers Core. The diagnostic is the mismatch between offered material and chased depth.

The Client Matrix

Two axes — Steerability (can you steer them? their regulation) × Articulation (can they say what they want? their Core) — giving four types; the report reveals the type after you read it. In one line each: Overloaded — flooded and dysregulated; settle the state before the story. Searching — can reflect but hasn't committed to a goal; help them name what they want first. Scripted — operating from borrowed goals; honour the contract and build their own beside it. Directed — self-authoring; a thought partner at full depth, no scaffolding.

Two doors

Every request opens one of two doors: build the capability (a skills gap) or clear the blocker (a state, belief, or identity fusion that eats every framework). The tell-apart question: "What have you tried, and what happened?"

Presented vs. actual type

The matrix's discipline: contracting only to the presented type is the fifth mismatch diagnostic. The Overloaded client asks for goal tools; the Scripted client presents borrowed goals. The hypothesis step asks you to read beneath the presentation.

Hypothesis step

Before the report generates, you type the client: matrix type, confidence, and the evidence you heard. The Mentor scores the read against the persona's actual type. Typing is the trainable skill; the report is the feedback.

Scope Gate

The boundary that decides whether the conversation is still coaching. Green: coach on, all of it. Amber: pause, assess on the dials, consult, refer — the client decides. Red: stop and route, crisis protocol, never a coaching reply.

The three dials

Duration (how long it's lasted), frequency/intensity (how hard and how often), daily functioning (work, self-care, sleep, relationships — the visible cost). The dials, not diagnosis, separate a redline state from a clinical picture.

Boundary indicators

Pleasure decline, intrusive thoughts, sleep, appetite, despair, hyper-alertness, irritability, risk-taking, withdrawal, death-adjacent language. A cluster trending across the dials opens the gate; one sign alone never routes. Death-adjacent language is always probed.

The standing sentence

One prepared sentence in your own voice — "Earlier you said everyone would manage fine without you; I want to make sure I understood what you meant" — because under pressure you will either use the probe or let the line pass. Asking never makes it worse (Dazzi et al. 2014).

Two-track line

At referral, the client's real fear is being handed over. Hold it explicitly: "This doesn't end our work — the coaching piece is still yours to do, and this runs alongside." The decision is theirs; the door stays open.

Negative boundary

Never mimic clinical restructuring (CBT tools are skill-building, not treatment), never explore trauma origins, never set ambitious goals with a depleted client, never imply coaching replaces treatment.

Blueprint pack

The named blocker a persona carries — Imposter Syndrome, Delegation & Over-functioning, Perfectionism, People-pleasing, and so on — each with a matched intervention arc and signature exercises.

Strength–Stretch

Every report gives exactly one strength and one stretch — each with a transcript quote, the relevant competency anchors, and an integration prompt. Formative, two-way; never a pass/fail grade.

Development Path

Five prescription slots — a concept card, an exercise, a study link, a practice rep, and the next Depth Ladder rung — keyed to your stretch, the type you coached, and the blocker you met.