There’s a hot new workshop in town. It’s called TCLT (short for “Transformational Coaching and Leadership Training”) and it’s about creating a fundamental and lasting change in your state of being, a shift that increases your ability to be fully present in the world. It’s the brainchild of Guy Sengstock, a veteran in the transformation business having worked with Arete, Authentic Man Program, Landmark (pictured to the right) - as well as a writer, poet, sculptor, and painter. First, you need to know that his clients absolutely rave about him, one on Yelp posted a love letter that exclaimed to the world: “I honestly consider Guy to be a genius in the realm of personal development -  I don't say it lightly.  I've met a lot of other great coaches in my day.  Guy is in an entirely different universe than the other's I've met.  The man is gifted beyond measure.  He eats, drinks, and sleeps personal development.  This is who and what Guy is at his core, and he produces results.”

The concept is that it’s not a weekend workshop, like transformational fast food. It’s a year-long crucible for transformation that requires hard work and commitment… Guy explains, “I would see people have massive shifts in those weekend courses. I would watch them be on a high for the next couple of weeks. Then, usually, within a couple of months, it would wear off in terms of a lasting difference in their day-to-day lives. The change was not sustainable.” Or sometimes,weekend workshoppers would experience the “rubber band effect” and come crashing down from their epiphanies.

Now, having completed three year-long trainings, the process has been refined and participants are experiencing lasting change. JC Nolan, chief operating officer at TCLT, cheerfully adds, “The change our participants are reporting is deep and pervasive. Consider a case of someone whose income doubled after starting the process with Guy. Or maybe the case of a man who learned how to responsibly end a romantic relationship for the first time in his life. Or better yet, consider the guy who, after years of dreaming about writing a movie screenplay, actually got off his ass and did the work… wrote a script and then sold it to a producer. And not only that, was able to do it without no striving… just out of the shift in his world view. The really amazing thing is that all these things happened to the same guy. And all it happened within the time-frame of his doing the program. I joined TCLT because it is revolutionary technology for creating dramatic results in your life.”

Wow, imagine that. The power of devoting a full year of focusing on yourself within a tight community of others and coaches, who are committed to your personal development and helping you achieve what you’ve always wanted. We just had to get the inside scoop from the guy who created such a profound and revolutionary process, so we sat down with Guy. Here’s the interview:

OT:  So tell us about your life before getting into the transformation business…

Guy: After college, I went to Preston college, when I was deciding what to do with my life, I got sick… with the strangest sickness that I’ve ever had—it was bizarre.  I had all the flu symptoms without having the flu. Lasted two weeks. Then out of the blue, I get a call, and my buddy says “hey, I’m going to San Francisco - I’ll cover everything.  Just help me move some stuff.” I was worried about being sick, so I told him that I could do it as soon as I got well, but I hung up the phone, it hit me… I remembered there was an art school in San Francisco that my high school art teacher told me about and I just like that, I knew that I had to go to that art school.

You have to understand that this was not a practical idea for me at the time. And the moment I made that inner decision, I broke into a cold sweat, which broke my fever, and all of a sudden, I was 100% recovered and ready to travel. Well, within a month or two I moved to San Francisco, and I very quickly took my first transformation course.  From that moment until now, about twelve years, I have been absolutely immersed in the art, business, community and process of transformation.

OT:  So, let’s start off with this question… what was the greatest joy in your life so far?  What did it teach you?

We made the marriage work for as long as it did, but what was missing in my relationship with my ex-wife is what I call a “feedback loop”. But now that I’ve opened more, I can feel this… this is hard to explain in words, because it’s a direct experience, but it’s possible with a single touch - all clothes on and nothing sexual – to go deeper and have your partner respond with energetic feedback.

As time went on, I realized OMG this is what my life is about.  When I put my attention on something if I get a feedback loop that is direct and real and tells me everything... it doesn’t even need to be good or positive it just needs to be real.  My attention goes deeper and deeper and that’s been the case recently, with the new love in my life, and this awareness has blossomed into everything.

OT:  And isn’t that pretty much what you’re teaching?

Guy:  Yeah. Yeah!

OT:  What kind of impact does this work have on people?

He stops and retorts “who the hell you think I’m talking to?”

Then I point out his use of “it’s really okay”, and then his eyes open really wide and I knew…  I’ve seen that look enough times to know that they’re finally seeing something that was hidden in plain sight, right in front of them, all the time.  Something that’s been running their whole life.  Boom! And once they see it, change is finally possible, and life can suddenly move in a different direction.  In other words, they took the red pill. 

Anyway, his jaw dropped, literally. Then, I asked him to sit with me, and said what we are gonna do is sit here, you and me, and we are going to maintain eye contact and if we talk, the only thing we’re allowed to talk about is what’s happening right now and it needs to be descriptive. We can only use descriptive language in describing what we are experiencing right now.  No assessments, no analysis, no opinion. 

We sat there for 2 or 3 hours and he started to shake and he’d get like… what the hell is going on with me?  And I simply mirror and use descriptive language.  He was on a rollercoaster, and at one point, he starts crying, and being there, feeling him, I start crying as well… and this odd feeling, it’s like I’m getting nourishment or a vitamin that I didn’t even know was missing. 

This was absolute intimacy and absolute vulnerability, for both of us.  And all we’re doing is talking about what’s happening in the moment – right here, right now.  And what I notice is that he’s slowing down, as we have this experience of genuine authentic connection. This is the thing that is the most nourishing to us emotionally.  If we don’t get enough of this vitamin, we start developing symptoms like – like emotional armor, hardening, fear, shame.  

OT:  Wow, and with our minimum daily requirement of this vitamin of authentic connection…

Guy:  Life becomes really… bright. But there’s more to it. I noticed that these experiences often tend not to “stick”, for two reasons. Usually, the peak experience would dissolve, and these people would get cynical about it because it didn’t translate into their lives. Or alternatively, they would go do more workshops to seek another hit of that experience.  It’s the people that actually get involved in the transformation community - that’s where I did see it stick. The transformation deepens with practice, consistency, reapplication….. accountability. When I say accountability, I mean as in accountable to who you’re being.

OT:  This accountability, it’s also a feedback…

Guy:  Yes absolutely! It’s all one great big continuous feedback loop and the ups and downs of a relationship are articulated and slowly become more and more refined and then something greater than the sum of the two parts gets created… this is what I call the relationship, the true relationship.  This is when the relationship creates the person, instead of the other way around.

When I see patterns like this and start putting language to them, I usually whisper to myself… I bet I could teach this now. So this is what I call TCLT.

OT:  And where is TCLT heading?

Guy:  You know, this last weekend, I had this experience that showed me the distinction between the realization and the development. It was during a break… I was sitting on the stairs watching people mingle - ordinary moments.  I was watching how people were responding to ordinary things like the way someone walked up to them or the reaction when somebody walks away.  I could see the emotional reactions in their body, in their facial expression… completely in a different way that they would have responded at the beginning of the year.  The shifts were profound, yet subtle.

It’s an amazing thing for people to commit to a year to focus on becoming… it takes a remarkable amount of energy, thought, time, money, vulnerability.  But you can see it. You can see it in their bones the value of being truly and genuinely vulnerable.  Of course, this is what’s on the inside. What’s on the outside is people traveling the world and creating new jobs, getting promotions, moving out of relationships that don’t work – movement in life.

I’ll never forget this woman who came into the work as a lawyer, but walked away realizing she wanted so much more… she decided to travel the world.

Guy:  Yeah, but it’s not a movie, it’s making it happen in your real and actual life. The last time I saw that woman she fell on the floor sobbing in joy.  Having had the experience of feeling love coursing through her body.  I remember that moment distinctly, and will never forget it.

OT:  We have a little game we play to wrap up interviews… please spontaneous create a haiku that captures the spirit of your work and who you are…

Kirin:  Wow, don’t think my brain can wrap its mind around that.

OT:  Wanna try?

Guy:  Sure!

seek to discover
that you are the discovery 
YOU are a verb

[Ed. Note: The TCLT management was kind enough to offer a $500 to anyone from OneTantra signing up... and this the ONLY place that any discount is available. Just mention that you're a OneTantra member. There will be two introductory evenings... in San Mateo on 10/5 and in Santa Cruz on 10/6. You can sign up for these events on their Facebook event page.]

For more info on TCLT, go to: www.TCLTnow.com