Hi, I’m Simon Darnton
In 2003 my life and career were completely thrown off course by illness.
Hitting me out of the blue, I’d gone from being a healthy, active professional in senior management in one of the world’s largest professional services firms and a motorcycle rider and privateer racer outside of work.
Within a matter of months I went from being full of energy, enjoying the opportunities and spice of life, to being completely incapacitated and incapable of doing any of the things I’d loved doing or being with the people I loved being with.
The medical specialists were initially baffled, but as I was to learn later, this wasn’t the fault of me or my illness as had been implied, it was more down to the health system and the systemic norms of medical diagnosis.
As a result, I spent 7 years fighting the system to gain a proper diagnosis and treatment. In the end it transpired that I’d acquired a balance disorder, probably as a result of a virus.
The nature of the balance disorder was devastating for me and the person I’d been. It meant an end to my career and my favourite hobbies.
Out of this devastation, grew something new and rather wonderful. I found a new way thanks to being forced to tread a different path.
Curiously, this path grew out of a new found love of Tai Chi and a deep exploration of psychology through a Master’s degree, which together brought about a new way of seeing the world. This new insight was all based on a timed honoured way of navigating the complexities of life.
This new way is grounded in classical Chinese thought and blended with contemporary approaches to learning, inquiry and knowledge.
I’m Simon Darnton.
In 2003 I lost my way in life when I lost my balance as a result of illness.
Along my journey toward recovery I stumbled across something I call Rhythm that opens the door to high performance in extreme sport.
Then I found a new way thanks to Classical Chinese thought and Tai Chi Chuan.
This new path transpired to be really good at helping me to successfully navigate complex situations and embrace uncertainty in life.
I write about the principles of classical Chinese thought that can practically help anyone to find their way in life as well as providing coaching & consultancy to share how to put it to use.
All this is woven into my teaching of Tai Chi in weekly classes.
To set the scene, my story here begins in 2001 after a surprise crash on my motorbike.
As a keen motorcycle rider with a serious racing hobby I was testing my new race bike on a cold and wet, spring morning.
I was riding comfortably having found good rhythm. Suddenly my shoulder..then head..hit the tarmac hard. I was dazed, tumbling across the tarmac at nearly 100 miles per hour.
I got up and patted myself down to make sure everything was still there. It seemed everything was still there, but my mind had curiously stopped working when I got back to riding.
I’d lost my rhythm and it wouldn’t come back.
At the time I was also working as a riding coach for the California Superbike School.
I found out that losing my rhythm was like losing my ability to ride. I just couldn’t do it properly anymore, at least not at any respectable speed. This made my riding and coaching exhausting work.
As a trained and experienced counsellor, this experience motivated me to dive deeply into the psychology of extreme sports to find my lost rhythm.
The conclusion of the research
It took two years of dedicated psychological research and testing on track to successfully rediscover my rhythm on a motorcycle.
Then came a virus…
Tai Chi Chuan
AAt the beginning of 2004, just after becoming ill and receiving my first incorrect diagnosis, I found a local Tai Chi school as I was told I needed to keep up with some exercise. Tai Chi would be good for me as it was gentle on the body and wouldn’t take too much out of me.
Tai Chi Chuan and the underlying Classical Chinese thought got under my skin. In fact, Tai Chi became so important to me in the treatment and rehabilitation of my balance disorder, I really don’t know what I would have done without it.
Tai Chi Chuan and Classical Chinese thought transformed me. The philosophy on which Tai Chi is built formed the core of my Masters Degree in Psychological Coaching too.
I became immersed in a new world view of correlation, inter-relatedness and systems, but this time it was not the modern world of systems and complexity science, it was one grounded in natural systems and over 2000 years old. The more I studied, the more sophisticated and relevant it showed itself to be to the modern world where we live.
As my training and practise developed, I completed a 3 year Chen-style Tai Chi Chuan teacher training qualification. I founded and run a Tai Chi school.
Embarking on a Master’s programme wove together work and play in a profound way.
When I acquired my balance disorder, I was working at senior management level at Deloitte. Here I held both UK and International responsibilities, mainly in the fields of information and knowledge management within the Tax Practice.
I’d been leading a number of large scale systems changes as well as managing existing ones. I had developed a service line which I was just launching when I was incapacitated by my illness.
The loss of my career hit me hard and together with the loss of motorcycle racing I felt I’d lost my identify. I was no longer the person I had been.
What is profound about a balance disorder is that it changes your entire relationship with the world.
I was lost, and still not knowing what was really wrong with me, living day-to-day in the most fundamental uncertainty as I felt stuck without agency in the world.
The Master’s Degree in Pyschological Coaching required entrants to have demonstrable senior level business experience. Inherent in a psychological coach’s capability is the need to proficiently navigate organisational contexts and systems relevant to each coachee.
My Master’s Research Project:
An Inquiry into the Systematic Correspondences of Five-Phase Theory in Psychological Coaching
A culmination in self-development and the beginning of a new chapter. Two profound outcomes led to a new approach in coaching following formalised research.
The Learning of Five-Phase Theory
Five-Phase Theory is Chinese in origin with a 2400 year history, still in use today. It is a highly sophisticated way to conceptualise the thoughts and feelings of individuals as well as the functions of all parts of any system.
It is designed to develop understanding and knowledge of a system, to guide effective decisions and appropriate action for the benefit of the healthy function of both you and the system.
Five-Phase Theory can be used practically, personally and professionally, to make improvements in your life, just as it is used within Chinese medicine to treat illness and promote health.
I integrated this theory, often likened to a Complexity Theory into an effective model of Psychological Coaching for personal and professional development.
Whole Person Learning with Action Inquiry
In order to learn and use Five-Phase Theory in coaching, I developed a method of learning and inquiry built upon Heron’s co-operative and personal learning/life cycles that envelop the whole person including; conceptual, practical, intuitive, and sensory levels of learning.
Integrated into this learning approach are deep processes of inquiry enabling the illumination of existing knowledge, the formation of new knowledge, creative expression, and innovative thought.
Research Participant Feedback:
Coaching with Simon Darnton is hard work and challenging. The process is fluid and penetrative, producing surprising results.
Tai Chi Chuan
While I was building a coaching practice with a focus on Executive Coaching and Performance in Extreme Sports, I was drawn further and deeper into my practise of Tai Chi Chuan.
I embarked on a 3 year Tai Chi Chuan teacher training programme, finding along the way that Tai Chi is an active embodiment of Chinese Classical Thought. According to old grand masters of Tai Chi, it is one of the only ways to fully gain an understanding of the ancient Chinese body of knowledge.
My experiences during this programme demanded an incubation period driven by long-term embodied learning, which was in part about my own practise of the art, but also in part about how I communicate and share the complex principles of Tai Chi Chuan with students. It has refined my new view of the world born of my Master’s degree research project.
This long period has helped to develop my coaching approach significantly. Something that is subject to continuous refinement as I teach weekly Tai Chi Classes in Bath.
And then there’s The Build…
And another Virus…
Not only did we experienced the wettest winter on record while completely exposed to the elements, we were hit by Covid 19 lockdown no.1 and huge delays in material supply.
We then experience the impact of Brexit on large European imports followed by scarcity of materials as the world opened after after Covid 19.
I am still in the process of finishing the project due to the problems we’ve experienced, mainly as a result of disruption to multiple global systems and the impacts this has had on price inflation.
Building a House
In 2019 I embarked on a journey to build a house.
I decided to do it entirely myself. Having no prior building experience, I would have to learn how to do everything.
I’ve learned about building physics to specifications of nails and screws, carpentry, brockwork, plastering and plumbing. Heating system design and energy efficiency. I even became qualified as a heating engineer.
The whole project was high risk and a great step into uncertainty. But unawares to us then, it was going to be a bad time to make this kind of journey
My experience of building a house and learning everything as I go has taught me a surprising amount about the systems we live and work in today.
I’ve learned how many modern systems are unresilient and dysfunctional, constructed in disjointed ways. I have also learned to view the construction of a healthy efficient house as a dynamic functional system rather than a static object.
But probably one of the most valuable lessons for me has been the realisation about how wonderful it is to be working with my hands to create something new and physical in the world, something very different to my previous world of mainly ‘concept and proposition.’
These realisations I now bring to my model of coaching using Five-Phase Theory and knowledge derived from embodied learning using Tai Chi Chuan.
A TL;DR history
This is a brief overview of my history
Psychology
I’ve been studying psychology for over 30 years. I trained as a counsellor to BACP accreditation level in the early 1990s followed by becoming a licensed NLP trainer and Master Practitioner. I then completed an MA in Psychological Coaching at the Metanoia Institute in London.
I’ve applied my psychological training with individuals and also in small and large-scale change programmes in organisations.
My MA in Psychological Coaching research, which received a distinction, was titled:
An Enquiry into using the Systematic Correspondences of Five-Phase Theory in Psychological Coaching.
Tai Chi Chuan
I have over 20 years experience in learning and practising Tai Chi Chuan. I have trained mostly with the Chinese Internal Arts Association where I also completed a 3 year teacher training programme.
I teach weekly Tai Chi classes in Bath.
The shortness of these paragraphs does not reflect how important Tai Chi Chuan is to me in my life.
Professional Roles
I have worked in many organisations large and small. The more well known organisations include:
- The London Stock Exchange Group
- Deloitte
- Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Foster Wheeler
- Standard Life
I provided pro-bono Executive Coaching for approximately 5 years to startup entrepreneurs on the NEF programme at the Centre for Entrepreneurs.
During Covid 19, I provide pro-bono Coaching as part of Coaching for Covid & Beyond which provided the service for key workers in the NHS and care sectors.
Extreme Sports
I used to race motorcycles up to National Level.
I have coached numerous motorcycle racers to achieve results beyond their desired goals both in riding technique and psychologically.
I have coached athletes psychologically in a variety of other sports such as Downhill Mountain Biking for performance improvement, health and well-being. Including recovery from major injury.
Coaching has been delivered from club racing to Olympic level competition.
Through my workand research in this field,I developed a concept of performance that I call Rhythm.
Balance Disorder
In 2003 I acquired a balance disorder which was initially incapacitating. The effects of this condition required a total re-evaluation and re-organisation of my personal and professional life. It demanded a long period of patient rehabilitation and today requires ongoing and careful management. Losing the ability to do the things I loved and continue with my career meant a loss of my identity too.
The long-term effects of this dysfunction requires a constant level of activity and movement. Long periods of computer use and sitting still in open plan offices or other similar environments cause worsening of my symptoms.
Five-Phase Theory
Five-Phase Theory is a type of complexity theory developed between about 500BC – 200BC. Its original Chinese name is Wu Xing, which more or less means ‘How to proceed.’ It is a construct that helps to conceptualise the current situation as a whole while simultaneously providing guidance on how to proceed by showing a path through the system in question.
I’ve been studying this theory for around 16 years and use it as a central component in my Psychological Coaching model.