chessboard metaphor

The chess endgame

One reason I love coaching is you are forced to take a holistic view. Coaches are generalists, who have to obtain a near specialists’ knowledge about a lot of things, for example, from behavioural psychology to political trends. We have to know a little bit about many things and then we must understand how they interact with the methods we are trying to install.

The chessboard metaphor is common throughout therapy to help develop the distinction between an observing self and avoided psychological content. I think that sometimes a well-placed pawn is more powerful than a king.

Knowledge is having the right answers.
Intelligence is asking the right questions.
Wisdom is knowing when to ask the right questions.
— Professor Richard Feynman